Hi Gilbert,
A very good morning to you and hope that you’re in the best of health. After going through your website at www.transitioning.org and reading the stories shared by others, my wife and I think that you might be able to help us out of our predicament here in Singapore.
I am a Generation Y Malay, NUS degree holder who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts pass degree.
Recently married last Dec, I have been unemployed since 2009 when I was asked to leave HDB and was not able to find a job since. Previously, I was working with the Central Singapore CDC.
My wife is a teacher in a primary school and she is a diploma holder who is currently doing her part-time degree locally.
As mentioned by a number of contributors to your website, the Malay graduates like myself face a lot of difficulty in getting jobs here and most usually end up as teachers.
In fact, many of my classmates in university became teachers either by choice or by circumstances and many are unhappy due to the high stress, heavy workload nature of the work but are unable to leave as they are unable to find work elsewhere.
As a diploma holder, my wife has been under a lot of stress mentally and emotionally as she is doing roughly or more work compared to her colleagues who are degree holders while earning a fraction of their pay.
As for myself, I have been applying a lot of job openings and been sending resumes over the past 2 years without success.
I have even called up many employment agencies like Adecco, Kelly, etc asking them for job-matching but was unsuccessful.
The reason that they gave was that my degree was too generic and without any skills so it was hard for them to job match. I replied that I am very much willing to learn and start from the bottom and even take up diploma level work at low pay but they said that their clients are afraid of my salary expectations or that I will leave as soon as I get a better offer.
Even temporary jobs like data entry are hard to get.
After discussing with my wife, she encourages me to find work abroad i.e. Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc as it is impossible for me to get work here and with the ever rising cost of living, both of us are living from hand to mouth with her meagre salary as a teacher.
We also believe that with our qualifications, we can earn a better living and enjoy a better life elsewhere. Therefore, with her encouragement, I would like to know from you about job opportunities in Australia as I believe that you are based in Sydney and you would be better able to advise us and link us up with the relevant people who can help us find work there.
I understand from research that the mining industry in big there and are currently looking for people in all sorts of positions and I am very keen to work in the field.
However, I do not have any technical work experience but I’m willing to learn and pick up the skills needed. Apart from that, we are also willing to work in any other industries there and we appreciate if we can link up with any recruitment firms or employers there.
My wife and I plan to go to Australia this coming June to survey the place and hopefully link up with anybody who can help up.
We would love to meet you up for consultation and appreciate any advise that you can give us on working there. We are currently saving up and its not easy but we are determined not to let that stop us from seeking a better live.
Just to share with you, my father was an Indonesian migrant who came to Singapore in the early 70s seeking a better life here in Singapore but after 40 years, he is still a foreigner without a PR despite numerous applications and appeal to the then-PM Goh through the PMO. It sickens me that other migrants without any roots in Singapore can easily obtain PR and citizenship just because of their ‘supposed’ economic worth.
However, he has always told me that if you can’t live in Singapore, then we have to seek a better life elsewhere like what he tried to do 40 years ago. So in way I’m looking to follow his footsteps.
Gilbert, I look forward to hearing from you and see how we can move on from here. Do feel free to contact me with any information regarding my request. All the best to you and God bless!
Best regards,
Adil
Editor’s Note: We have linked the writer to a Singaporean friend staying in Perth for fact finding purpose.
Adil, have a look through the Australian Immigration website carefully. Pre-school, Secondary and Special Needs teachers are under the Skill shortage list and if your wife is qualified in any of these categories, there is good chance she can apply for a work visa to Australia. I think Primary School teachers were once on the list but this was closed quite recently.
There are a lot of hoops to jump through, beginning with getting her qualifications certified firstly and getting all the documents and finance in order before applying. These can take time. So if you are serious, get the ball rolling. The first step is always the hardest.
Hi Adil, maybe you could join in the facebook and look for (singapore club in australia). From there, there are lot of sgaporeans who migrate to oz, and you join in as members, networking yourself there and you find out information about how to find jobs in oz..
Hope that helps and is really sad nowsdays that sg is getting horrible for jobs and livinghood and a lot are leaving…..
Pray for your best of lucks.
Salam Aidil, refering to the first comment from nora, your
wife might have a higher chance of getting her visa. Australian usually need tradeskill workers therefore try and search anything under apprentice or trainee..
Unfortunately, the tide is starting to turn against the Australian economy. Many employers especially in the south eastern seaboard states are shedding staff front, left, right and back, latest being Telstra. House prices are also starting to tank and based on America’s experience this is the precursor to worse times ahead. Add to that, prices of Australia’s mining exports have fallen off a cliff on the back of slumping Chinese demand. In fact, the Mineral Resources Minister has just declared yesterday that the mining boom is now officially over after BHP Billiton cancelled a major expansion of the Olympic Dam mine. If you ask me, I’d say Australia is royally stuffed. They had betted the house on only one horse: mining and now that this is finally losing steam, there isn’t anything else that the country has to offer. Yes, Singapore is shit but soon Australia will also be just as bad.
Hi Adil,
With a BA pass in arts, it will be close to impossible to find a job in Australia as a ‘foreigner’. You do not have 2 years of studies or other specialised skills Australia needed as well.
I am not trying to put you down, but there are currently 11 million Australian who are jobless and Australia have an Australian first policy when it comes to employment.
To get sponsored visa, you will need to find an employer, who is willing to employ you and sponsor you. However, that employer will also need to prove that he is unable to find an Australian for that job, which can prove to be very difficult in your case.
As for your wife, she will need to find out how the education system works in Australia and how to obtain the license before she really attempt to find work here.
Should she manage to find work in Australia and get her PR status, there are policies that allows the PR to bring his/her spouse over. You will need to do more research on it yourself.
Best of luck!
Why do you have to emphasize that you are a Malay? Does it have to do with you being asked to leave HDB and failing to find a job?
The facts are that
- most arts degree graduates find it difficult to find jobs.
- most employers don’t want to hire graduates for low level positions.
- statutory boards are famous for retaining staff, heck, when I was there even my mentally ill colleague was retained.
My advice is not to play the race victim.
Since it is so hard for arts and science graduates to find jobs, why does the govt have arts faculty and science faculty in the first place? Many of such general degree holders feel that they waste their time, efforts and money on a useless degree. Even an ‘O’ level holder can find a job easier than them though the pay is very low.
Employers won’t believe that grads will accept the same pay as an ‘O’ level holder. Employers always think that such grads will job-hop when better opportunities come. The problem is that the situation will worsen with more FTs and better opportunities are all a dream.
Just a word of advice that with your degree and lack of active work experience for the last few years, you will most probably not get a decent job here is Australia. If you are looking at jobs such as cleaner, waiter, dishwasher, factory worker, disability support worker and such, you stand a decent chance to get it. Most probably your wife will be able to get some form of employment as a teacher here. Companies are retrenching left right and centre here, things and services are generally expensive unless you cook at home. Migrating isn’t always a bed of roses my friend. Hope you get a job soon as you let go of two very stable jobs in HDB and central CDC. Good jobs are hard to find nowadays. Do prepare for the IELTS test which requires a band 8 out of 9 and the VET assessment and if you are ok to work in the above lines till you get a better job , do try migrating but if you can’t lower your pride you are better off in Singapore.
Oz mining industry is totally dependent on China. With China collapsing in slow-motion crash and billions in bad chinese capital expenditures, the mining industry in Oz can only suffer like someone with cancer, slow and torturous. There will be a short-term rebound in the coming months as US, China, Europe, Japan go into yet another major round of quantitative easing or money printing. But you cannot escape from economic reality, and the shit will really explode by end-2013.
If you really want to migrate economically to Oz, the best is going thru your wife as one of the specific in-demand teacher-types. And then you must be prepared to work as factory worker, road sweeper, waiter, odd-job labourer etc while you build up contacts and know-how.
The other way is for you to research on Oz immigration website on what jobs are in-demand. Many are blue-collar trades jobs. You can then study the relevant courses in ITE here and go for Oz certification to qualify. Won’t be easy as you also need to build up relevant work experience here. And as you know, blue collar jobs in S’pore means low-pay, odd jobs, odd hours, and shit-respect from people.
Another suspicious story that insinuates that race was the reason for his predicament without addressing the glaring points:
1) NUS Arts & Soci degree – It is well known employment choices are limited for this kind of “talk cock” degree except for economics. This has nothing to do with him being a malay.
2) Pass only degree – Haha, nice try. Pass only degree means bottom 20% of cohot, alumni will know most people will graduate with a min Pass with Merit.
3) Getting fired by HDB – HDB is one of the most civil service stat board ever. They are even more civil service than the ministries, to get fired from HDB he must have done something real bad much worse than slacking / poor attitude.
TO the poster “Sub” you have such narrow and shallow mind. You must be an idiot. Who said HDB cannot retrench people. Pls go and READ!! HDB has RETRENCHED their staffs afew years ago even the staffs were GOOD and have worked there for a LONG time. They are cutting on cost and decreasing the numbers of staffts. YOur head is full of bullshit so go and get your dumb ass and start READING about HDB retrenching staffs. It IS TRUE THAT IN SINGAPORE many EMPLOYERS prefers to take CHINESE!!! DUMBO “sub”.
Well, as a previous commenter has said, the list of ‘greener’ pastures is shrinking fast. Take a look at this article re: Australia, his perceived safe haven.
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article36236.html
You will always be welcome in Malaysia if you are a malay…the same as you are always welcome to singapore if you are yellow….
Why not choose this option ? It is actually not a bad place to go and start a new life.
Remember Aaron Azis…
He had nothing in singapore to be proud of if he’s still there. Look at him now in malaysia.
The malaysian goverment will take care of malays even if you are singaporean malays as they are the one who ousted Singapore out from malaysia.
They owe this to the malay people in singapore…
Come to malaysia and you will never regret…
Salam Aidil, open your option. Nowadays we talk about globalisation whether its malaysia, australia or canada …the most important is you and family must be happy there and have the opportunity to work in the industry that you like most.