Australian Diaries 11 - The story of International Experience

Over the last few weeks, I have had opportunity to interview prospective Project management firms for some of the projects I handle. Part of the interview involved assessing or rather getting to know the prospective team members the Project Management firms propose to allocate for the projects. During one such interview, I came in contact with team members who were perfectly marketing themselves. Not to forget the fact that these team members were ably supported by the Directors. Nothing bad in this; except for the interesting fact that the team members had been in Australia for only a couple of months, having been transferred internally from UK.

The team members made a small little print out of the presentation, as part of the impression process. One particular slide said we are proud to bring in International experience to Australia and specifically for the projects we were discussing. The irony for me was that all the companies that I was interviewing were the same ones who had rejected my applications in one way or the other for the so called ‘lack of local experience’. But then here I was witnessing an altogether different perspective of the firms to an individual who was from the Queen’s country. It didn’t matter about the experience the individual had, all it took for people to look at was his mere nationality and the ability to add “Pluff” to the constant artificially created conversations, with no REAL content.

Moral of the story was that – In Australia, only ‘UK” experience is being considered as International experience and the remaining of the “International” experience is considered as ZERO experience.

What a feeling indeed! I was broken to the core at this reality.

Post Script: Somebody is gonna hit really hard J

Australian Diaries 10 - Foreword to the 'Reality Check' Series

Five months has elapsed since I permanently migrated to Australia. These five months have been spent getting to know the country and the systems in this country, at a relatively slow pace – like a Chinese proverb – moving inch by inch.

The undeniable greenery and the nature’s landscapes provide an opportunity for melodramatic pictorial impressions of the not so photogenic individuals like me. In this age of digital and virtual world, I sometimes relish posting some of these so called ‘melodramatic’ snapshots in my Social media space. Ironically, the rest of the world always reckons that feeling of ‘the grass is greener on the other side’. Mind you, I take no offence. As I believe every individual believes that the other is having a good time, just by noticing ‘smiles’ on those snapshots and I was no different until some while ago.

Over the past couple of months, I have had friends communicating and enquiring with me about the ‘Australian Life’, all with a view to apply and go through the immigration process as they plans to move to Australia (just like what I did).Practically, my first stint with Australia was in May 2015, when I come in for a first landing to activate my Permanent Residency in Australia. I went back having gained and understood the realities. As it happens, upon return I was flooded with friends and colleagues enquiring about Australia. Probably, I was the only one who was giving a reality check feel in my feedback. People were surprised and shocked to hear stuffs from me, as deep inside all they heard or knew was a “Rosy Picture” about Australia with no thorns at all. How I wish it was true to have no thorns at all?

I believe some of them reckon that I give them false pictures of Australia as if I don’t want people to come into Australia. Well to set the record straight, I have no impact if have my friends migrate down under. On a positive note, I migrated having no friends or relatives here. So it’s a plus if I have friends in Australia and bring back the old memories. The only rationale behind giving a realistic feedback is to ensure people don’t expect Australia to be a bed of roses and are well aware of what to expect.

As a soft spoken, genuine and honest individual, I only express and convey my personal opinions with intent that there are lessons learnt from my experiences that could be useful for others. All my blogs do, is sometimes express my personal opinion on the daily activities in ‘this world’ (Australia) and compare them with ‘my world’ (India and/or some other country).

Stay tuned!

Not to forget ‘Jai Hind’, which echoes more loudly than ever in my ears, with every day I am away from ‘my world’. Looks like this is one long distance relationship that is working wonders J what say?

Australian Diaries 09 - Sydney Diaries 03 - An Overview of my personal opinion on Australia

AUSTRALIA, as a country: The more I am away from INDIA, the more I have been appreciating and valuing my country. Most of things here are marketed very well, but has very little content. In fact, I personally am of the opinion that India is far more developed / ahead than Australia minus the (a) Cleanliness (b) Orderliness. Looks like I am being a good brand ambassador of India, because I keep sharing with people the positive experiences of India in comparision with Australia and let others know how we have developed much beyond the imagination of being a country of snake charmers and Cows J

WORK: Well, been around 3 months now since I have been employed in Sydney. I now work with the State Government in the Department of Education, as part of the PMO team. I have been assigned projects up to $200 million. The value of projects is much less than $1 billion, I was assigned in the Middle East. But, new country, new culture, new people and new ways of dealing with issues/variations. Sometimes I am surprised by the lack of expertise in this department in a so called ‘Developed Country’. But then I guess that’s how these guys been working. In fact I am told the department I work is considered the most efficient department in the Government. Hmmm…J Most of the people here keep self-boasting about their achievements, which is sort of weird for me but I understand is the norm here.

WORK-LIFE: The only thing people take seriously is the Barbeque, Beer and Beach. Work comes last to the majority. People are hell bent on the so called work-life balance. Nobody stays a minute extra to the 7 or 8 hours of work. I have never heard anything as Urgent is my last 3 months here, whereas Urgency was a norm every minute in the Middle East. Another interesting aspect is people don’t like travelling more than 30 minutes to work from their homes. Well, for someone who is used to travelling a lot to go for work this was amusing. Everyone is relaxed here. No shouting, no tensions, stress free for me. The stress handling capability levels are diminished for people here. I sometimes wonder how they would react if those guys were to work in India J

HOUSE CONSTRUCTION: None of the houses (except Apartments) are built with RCC. Bricks are used for external and the entire interior walls (gypsum partitions) including the roof are made of timber (battens and cement tiles-similar to Mangalore tiles). Some of the guys do ask me what is the use of RCC? And are these better than existing mode? J For the expensive prices, doesn’t interest me in buying a house here.