Do you want to program upside down?

Good evening / day / morning, to whom that is closer at the moment. I have been reading this resource for a long time and have always been especially fond of articles that one way or another motivated me, made me think and pushed something to change in my life. Therefore, I decided to try to inspire, or so to speak, mentally help those who want something, but, like all normal people, doubt it. And specifically tell about my immigration to the country of Ozzy. Immediately make a reservation, for those who like to write something like: "multi-letters", "neosilil" ... I apologize in advance, because I like "multi-letters" myself, and when I don't like, I go on Twitter, and I advise you.

A little bit about yourself

My name is Alex, I was born and raised in western Siberia, and more specifically in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. By the will of fate, I became an IT programmer in particular, a C # / ASP.NET programmer, and after 5 years of hard work, I wanted a lot of money and great prospects, for which I actually went to one “black” company, where SAP products are being actively introduced and used. So I became an SAP BW / BI developer and later a team lead. Everything was great, but the soul from the last year of university was eager to live at sea. I understand that this is trite, but I was very fed up with the cold. Fortunately, my spouse’s thoughts looked in the same direction. I did not care where, most importantly the sea. And she dreamed of land on which people walk upside down. On that and decided.

Preparing for the move

I began to actively collect a bag of money, and my spouse with all the documents. Unfortunately, my English left much to be desired, so the main visa applicants were a wife (a linguist by education). Preparation and obtaining a visa took 4 months. Then we packed our Labrador and our suitcases, May, and flew in the hope of a better future. You can find out more about how to get a visa by following the links at the end of the article.
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Before leaving, I read a lot of articles and podcasts that forced me to reconsider my attitude to the move and to what a cool developer / architect I am and how they would take me everywhere with my hands and feet. As a result, we determined a period of 6 months for ourselves, during which work should appear (we didn’t want to work as a dishwasher and waiter), and until that time expired, there should be no panic and nervousness of speech. I ask you to pay attention to future immigrants, it is really important to sit on the ground and take off the general's pegs. It really helps and Ponte Tipo: “Yes, for $ 3000 / month, I won’t hit a finger on my finger,” absolutely nothing. If it is difficult to overcome oneself, then it seems to me better and not to try to leave my native country, where you are a god and a king. I want to note that these are not only my observations, but also some of our compatriots on this continent.

Work searches

Freelancers like those who go to Thailand, it seems to me it will be difficult and terribly unprofitable. Therefore, it is necessary to go here for permanent or contractual work with the obligatory sitting in the office and other related things. On this basis, the speed of the Internet is absolutely not an important value. Let me just say that for video chat with family and friends is enough.

Actually, the first thing I did was start looking for a job, and only on the specialization of SAP (I didn’t really like to go back to writing the code, and I had forgotten a lot). Unfortunately, not everything is as simple as I thought. To respond to job sites, I used a translated resume, which, I must say, worked very well for Moscow recruiters and potential employers, but it was completely indifferent to Australian HR. It turned out that I was completely mistaken and I had to redo the resume.

Good or bad, but local hunters do not want to think seeing your resume, they use a program that searches for job keywords in your resume and if the required percentage is not collected, then in the trash. Sometimes it came to the point of absurdity, in CV there are 4.5 years of experience -> it takes 5 => result - “We have carefully reviewed your resume; unfortunately, Accenture's current needs ”. One thanks, I learned the meaning of the word "unfortunately". It turns out that the resume has passed the first screening, you need to take to create a CV for each job with the necessary set of keywords, and simply copy-paste and not be shy to exaggerate, the main thing is not to be trapped in the interview.

A couple of real examples of qualitative lies exaggeration.

• Comrade has 9 years of experience in the construction industry. Trying to get a job as a carpet expert, he creates a new resume in which he, of course, has been working with carpets for 9 years. The result is obvious - they took it!
• The other guy is trying to get a job in a big company and naturally has no local experience, and unfortunately, some big companies prefer to hire employees with local experience and local references. The guy writes the reference, they say he worked in Australia in the same company, gives the phone to the former employer (his girlfriend). The employer called the number, was satisfied with the answer and in the end, the work in your pocket.
  

There is only one conclusion: you can and should lie, but not to dig in and in any case not to get caught!

Job

Exactly 2 months later the work was received. At that time I had two resumes: one for SAP jobs, another for C #. I had to memorize them, because I had done enough there. As a result, I became Software Developer in a single Australian-American startup. Three months of probation during which I work under a contract, for which I needed to get ABN, aka SP. That in turn took about 10 minutes to fill out the form on the website of the tax department and wait for a letter with a number within 10 days (up to 28 officially). Before that, we, too, received TFN via the Internet, it’s an TIN, without it, except for a waiter with a decent salary in envelopes, they would not take it.

This is my first startup experience and I must say I did not expect the office to be in the center of Brisbane, with leather chairs, huge desks, and powerful computers. If only because in the “black” company I never dreamed of such a thing.
It's nice to work, the schedule is from 9am to 5pm. Many do not stay too long, but if you really want something please, but no one will pay you for this, with which you naturally got acquainted by signing a contract.



Australians are punctual people, moderately lazy and moderately hardworking, by and large there is no particular difference, except that in Russia we plow after hours for “thanks” and the most funny thing is that we love to do it, but the Australian will not do it because his family and his health are more important for him 300 times. And it is perfectly normal not to go to work if you have some kind of event in your family that your daughter’s concert is in the local choir, telling only the phone manager that you will not come because the family is first.

I receive the salary in my bank account, having previously billed the company to pay for my services. At the end of the year (in June) you need to pay taxes, before writing off some sums of money for the funds necessary for work, such as buying a car, gasoline, cellular communication, office and everything that comes to mind, what you supposedly need to run your business .

Some numbers:

• Salary Waitresses - from $ 18 to $ 24 per hour;
• salary junior C # developer - from $ 60k / year minus taxes, it turns out about $ 4000 per month;
• s / s SAP BW developer - from 90k / year net of taxes of about $ 5700 per month;
• salary Senior SAP developer - from 120k / year at the hands of about $ 7,300 per month;

Taxation here is different from the Russian and has a complex step structure. The tax percentage is curled right from your salary.

Taxable amount	Tax
0 - $ 18,200	Nothing
$ 18,201 - $ 37,000	19c for each $ 1 over $ 18,200
$ 37.001 - $ 80,000	$ 3,572 plus 32.5c for every $ 1 over $ 37,000
$ 80,001 - $ 180,000	$ 17,547 plus 37c for every $ 1 over $ 80,000
$ 180,001 and up	$ 54,547 plus 45c for every $ 1 over $ 180,000

Real Estate.Food.Transport.Education

Real estate in Australia is expensive, both buying and renting, we rent student-type apartments with a common kitchen 8km from the center where only one bus goes once an hour for $ 1,050 per month, including utilities, TV and the Internet 20 Mbit. If you want to live in the center in a two-bedroom apartment, you need to cook from $ 500 per week. And this is only Brisbane, which is even smaller than Peter. In Sydney, the price is about 2 times more. But, of course, you can go closer to the sea about 40 km from the center and rent a house of 120 squares with a garage and unfurnished for $ 350 per week.

As for food, it is also more expensive than in Russia, for example: bread from $ 1 to $ 4, milk from $ 1 to $ 3. Tomatoes are still a luxury for us, because $ 10 per kilo is not raised. But meat, such as beef and lamb 3-4 dollars per kilo. But the products are always fresh, because Australian grown, so you will not find frozen food other than pizza, ice cream and shrimp.



Smoking here, apparently only the rich, $ 20 per pack, not everyone can afford.
The cost of alcohol is the same as in Russia, except that beer is $ 3.5 per bottle of 0.375, but if you take a package of 24 bottles, it will be $ 1.45 per piece.

Public transport, specifically in our city, is very developed and is considered to be the best system throughout Australia. Yes, indeed, buses, electric trains and boats run like a clock. Payment in them by special cards (go cards) for which you first need to throw money in any newsstand. Cash, of course, you can pay, but it is 40% more expensive than a card. On the roads for buses separate lines. At the stops, the minute schedule of each route. But it’s worth not driving one fare, for example, from home to the center $ 3.70, but since my wife is a student, we bought a student ticket for me, which gives a 50% discount on travel. And also, after 10 trips all the rest are free, the counter is reset every Monday. Thus, the transport takes about $ 40 per month.
Taxi entirely Toyota Camry and Prius, equipped with meters, GPS and cashless payment terminals. From the center to the house ~ $ 20.

Mobile communication in Russia is just a gift, because in Australia it is expensive, but the quality is the same. In particular, choosing a post-paid tariff for $ 30 per month you get 450 credits that can be spent on calls and SMS, as well as 400MB of traffic and, of course, conversations within the network for free. Cost per minute ~ 98s + 40s per connection, 1 sms ~ 30s. If you want a mobile Internet, it will cost $ 40 for 12GB and a modem as a gift.

And a little about education. Education in Australia is cool, fun, modern, technological, just like in Harvard movies, but terribly expensive. We pay $ 12k per semester for a master's degree in marketing.

Cars

The car here is a necessary means of transportation, and no matter what year and what mileage, the main thing is to go. When buying a new car, all accompanying bureaucratic papers are issued by the dealer for you. You are only required to give him a briefcase with plastic bills. However, the purchase of a used / used car is very quick and not troublesome. It took us 5 minutes to register, the seller passed the inspection, the insurance was included in the registration. One thing surprised us when, when filling out a regular form, they asked me about eye color, hair color and skin color, apparently the state wants to know everything about drivers.

The used cars themselves are a bit cheaper than in particular in Surgut, but they have huge runs, for example, 150 000 km for Honda Fit 2006, this is normal.
Everything would be great if it were not for the fines, the cost of gasoline and parking. Liter 91 ~ $ 1.40, parking hour in the center $ 4.20 or $ 20 per day.



It is certainly possible to park in the wrong place, but expensive ($ 150 fine + $ 200 per tow truck; exceeding 17 km will cost you $ 220) and hopes that it will not be carried by, specially trained people walk in the center, who photograph violations and write out the fine, but also, if necessary, call a tow truck. By the way, you yourself can knock on another driver if you notice a violation, with the help of a nearby parking payment terminal.
The only thing that was difficult for the first couple of days was to drive on the left side with the right rudder on the mechanics.

Socium

In my deepest conviction, we, modern Europeans, are fairly easy to assimilate in this country. Of course, it will be difficult to make reliable faithful friends of Australians, yet our mentality is a bit different, and in general I think to make real friends at 30 is problematic, but possible. People here are always smiling and wanting each other good, and not because you have a bag of money, but because the benevolent nation as a whole, even though they are former “convicts.” The first person I greet and find out “how are you?” Every morning is the bus driver. And if I suddenly run out of money for a go card, then there is a big chance that I will go to work for free. Leaving the bus, I will definitely say “thank you” and in return will receive “thank you, mate”.
One day, I was standing at the bus stop and couldn't understand everything on which bus I could leave, this disturbed a woman passing by and she hurried to help me.
In a word, what country, such and people. No one is trying to fool you or have something to fuck, on the contrary, very gullible.
This certainly does not apply to Asian immigrants, of which there are a lot of well here. So they absolutely do not want to assimilate and do everything as they used to in their dirty and poor countries.
There is one big problem for Australia, they like to drink and a lot, and after they get drunk, they really like to walk the streets and shout something. From the side they look like our usual hooligans, but they will never touch you, because, as the law is above all, you can get 5 years in prison for a broken jaw.

Entertainment

To begin with, there is a sea, and therefore surfing, for me personally, this is enough.
But seriously, as probably in any large developed city, there is always something to occupy yourself with. We have the whole weekend painted. Nearby are many islands with emerald lagoons. For children and adults Australia Zoo, Warner Bros Movie World, Sea World, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and more.
And if you want to drink a beer in a good company, then there are a lot of different pubs with live music.
The city administration regularly holds various festivals. The facebook calendar is just full of events.

Total

Australia is not a place to go to work on the beach and cheap life. It really is more expensive here, if we compare in absolute numbers, well, can it be otherwise in a country that has been in the 3-ke standard of living for many years ?! Of course, in Moscow you can quite easily receive $ 60k a year, but at the same time live in a huge, full of mayhem and danger of the city.

In Australia, I like that I can dine sitting on a green lawn, see the sun all year round and feel the heat, if my legs are tired to sit down on clean, clean asphalt at night. I am here because I can’t worry if something happens to my wife or future children on the street in the evening, or that some drunk official or his relatives will harm me. There are no traffic jams because of the collision of cars on the road, the system is designed so that people just exchange contacts with insurance agents and go home. It's funny, but you will be fined if you did not go to the polls, because it is the holy duty of a citizen of a democratic country.

If you are not satisfied with something, write about it to the government, and if this is not enough, then go to the square and hold a rally, but you will go home on foot, and not in a paddy wagon. And the police here are respected, not afraid.


Here, people do not understand their new Audi or BMW or a large salary, they can safely sit and drink beer with you and if it were not for the business card, you would not have known that you are the executive director of IBM Global Services. And even more so, no one is important, talking on the iPhone 5, even though they call themselves “apple persons”, but not for ponte, but because they are fans of this company, as Petersburgers are fans of Zenith.

It is very funny to watch Ferrari standing at the traffic lights, which instantly starts and gaining 60 km / h continues to go at this speed, the law is the same for everyone.
Of course this is not heaven and the first time will not be easy, but it's worth it!
If you want to learn more, please contact. With pleasure, help than I can.

References:

www.gday.ru - forum about immigration
www.immi.gov.au - Australian Immigration Department
www.seek.com.au - job search
www.ato.gov.au - tax department
www.translink.com.au - transport system
www.gumtree.com.au - the most popular resource of private announcements