Why We Moved From Singapore To Sydney?
The Move From Singapore To Sydney
Our Biggest Challenge In Sydney
Do we Plan on Coming Back to Singapore?
Ever had a day in your life which you would never ever have expected to happen?
For me it was 14 August 2023 when we moved from Singapore to Sydney as a family of 3. Since a Tik Tok video I made on this topic went viral a few months ago, I thought I will write a full length blog article on my move too.
In this blog article, I share how it all started, why we moved, some crazy challenges we faced, pros and cons of living in Sydney over Singapore and much more.
How It All Started
My wife had been looking to get back into software engineering after less than half a year at Meta Singapore as a business engineer. She felt the business engineering role wasn’t a good fit for her and wanted to switch back into a role that was more aligned with her interests and field of study.
While at first she was interviewing at companies like Google Singapore, eventually she had to put her “top tech companies to get into” list aside especially when the tech layoffs started happening. When my wife approached her boss at her previous company, PayPal Singapore, she was shocked to find out that he and most of the team she used to work with got laid off too. The competition was getting really intense in Singapore with more and more talented engineers who lost their jobs hunting for new opportunities.
My wife then started applying for a lot more companies including rapidly growing startups, banks, government agencies like GovTech and even airlines like SIA that were recovering from the Covid19 crash. This was all while she was going through the final stages of her pregnancy and early in her first phases of welcoming our newborn into this world.
Unfortunately, while she made it to the final rounds of interviews for many companies, she just did not get hired. I am not sure if it was the
Fierce competition from the layoffs
Unforgiving nature of Singapore companies of her 2 career missteps
Or the fact that she was a new mum
But getting hired in Singapore as a software engineer again in a company where she could grow seemed almost impossible even though she was willing to take a paycut. That was when she stumbled upon an open role as a software engineer at Canva Australia on LinkedIn careers.
Having done business with me and often designing on Canva in the past, she was excited by the opportunity and sent in her application. Little did she expect that they would call her for an interview considering that they were one of Australia’s largest tech startups.
The Move From Singapore To Sydney
Once my wife spoke to the recruiter of Canva before her first interview round, she realised that if she got into Canva, we had no choice but to move to Australia. I told her to give it a shot and follow her dreams. I too was excited about her joining Canva because I use their product almost every day and I knew that they were under valued for what they could become. That day, she wrote on a diary of hers “I will get a software engineering role at Canva” and started her intense interview preparation works.
And within the next 3 months, Canva had offered her a role as a senior software engineer. It felt as if the law of attraction and power of manifestation actually works.
As I had an art studio business called Streaks n Strokes that I was running in Singapore, I was scrambling to find a buyer for my business. While that didn’t materialise, I found a partner who could run all the operations, corporate events and logistics for me. So all I had to do on my end was to handle the marketing and sales which I could do online.
Whew!
With my art studio business in Singapore taken care of, I decided to work on my long time passion around helping service based business owners with Search Engine Optimisation so that they could generate traffic and more sales for their business.
I decided to register and officially start SEO With Senthil when I landed in Sydney.
On 14 August 2023, we landed in Sydney and by middle of September, I registered my SEO business in Sydney. By end of September, I had also created this free SEO starter guide to help founders master SEO fundamentals and learn the 5 step SEO framework which generated me over $1 million in revenue for my businesses.
Our Biggest Challenge In Sydney
We knew our move was not going to be easy considering the fact that we were getting the help and support of my wife’s mum and even a foreign domestic worker back in Singapore. Considering that we just had our first baby, it was all the more essential for us to get all the support that we could afford.
Our first struggle when we came to Australia was taking good care of our son. He was needing a lot of attention and care, on top of us needing to balance household chores along with a demanding career and business.
As my wife decided to work at her office a few days a week, I had to take care of my son at home alone. Besides, we had yet to enrol our son into a childcare centre given the high competition for the best childcare centres and exorbitant childcare centre costs. This was in fact the hardest phase of our lives.
After about 1 month, we enrolled my son into a childcare centre for 3 days a week. As he was already adapting to our move from Singapore to Sydney, this came as another shock to him. He was very upset and did not even have his meals properly.
Because of all the changes and his temporary loss of appetite, he lost weight significantly too. We got very worried and even had to spend “office hours” attending to his increased nutritional needs and taste preferences for all the meals he was having at home. Eventually, his weight improved again.
Thankfully, my wife also got her mum over this year to help us out with caring for him as he approaches 2.
Pros of Moving to Sydney
1. Career Opportunities
Considering Canva was the only company that interviewed my wife from Australia and they are actively hiring 100s of talented software engineers every year, I do believe there are abundant career opportunities in tech sectors here. Unlike the USA, I also believe the competition in Australia in the tech sector is less. There are also other high in demand sectors like nursing, medicine, healthcare and early childhood education in Australia, where career opportunities are abundant and minimum wages are higher.
2. Slower Pace of Life
I still remember visiting a cake shop in Sydney for my son’s first birthday. The cake shop manager clearly told us that they do not share their phone contact information with customers and do not respond to messages after office hours, weekends and publc holidays.
Compare this with Singapore where customers contact and expect to get replies regardless of when and office workers and staff work round the clock for a never ending list of jobs.
Here, even restaurants are strict with their opening hours and hours for staff to rest. Empoyees across different sectors are given more time for themselves and for their families.
3. Smiley & Friendly People
While we do live in a more affluent suburb closer to the city centre which may have had an effect on the people we more often meet, we often meet strangers who are more smiley and friendly than in Singapore. We have had more encounters of people smiling at our baby boy, commenting that he is beautiful, asking us questions about him or commenting on something he does while we are outside.
I also got to make like minded friends from different backgrounds here in Syndey. For example, I met Goti here who runs NestInsider and helps people looking to move from abroad to Australia. Goti has a free 7 Easy Steps To Check Your Visa Options to Australia guide here.
4. Work Life Balance
While this is not as evident in my wife’s sector where there are project targets to meet rather than fixed timings to work, it is often the case for other sectors here. I remember my friend who is a doctor in Australia telling me the hours he needs to work in the hospital here is significantly less than what he would need to work if he practiced medicine in Singapore.
5. Cheap Private Transport Options
Cars are cheap in Australia. While we never planned to own a car in Singapore at least for the next decade or more, we immediately bought a second hand car within a month after landing in Australia. We spent about $17,500 AUD ($15,000 SGD) for a second hand Hyundai i30 car. That is all!
Parking can get expensive but only if you do not stick to free parking limits in malls that are usually 2 to 3 hours. If you stick to limits, you rarely pay extra.
6. Fresher & Healthier Options
Another thing I love about Australia is how I can get locally grown fresh fruits and veggies from grocery stores. Not just that, unlike Singapore, you can find fresh cold pressed vegetable and fruit juices in Australian grocery stores. I even found freshly made guacamole, free from any unnatural ingredients and preservatives, in a grocery store here. We also regularly get cruelty free, ethically sourced milk here which is almost impossible to find in most parts of the world including Singapore.
7. Beautiful Beaches
Australia has huge, beautiful beaches that you can spend hours at to take a much needed break off work or chill with your family. The beaches are clean, massive and bring so much peace and joy if you have the time for them.
8. Open & Inclusive Culture
Whatever your gender orientation, race or background, Australia welcomes you with open arms. We have met so many people who are open about who they are without fear of being judged. Australia also does not look down on failure giving you more opportunities to explore or try new things. We are all humans, aren’t we?
9. Eco-Friendly Practices
Almost all stores here take plastic bags as a serious cause of environmental destruction. All plastic bags are charged and it forces you to be extra careful with plastic usage. I wholeheartedly support this idea as it makes you think twice and only use plastic when you really need to.
Cons of Moving to Sydney
1. Lack of Family Support & Low Cost Domestic Help
People underestimate the burden that maids, helpers and foreign domestic helpers take off their shoulders. This is a huge con of living in Australia and it affects you significantly more if you have children to care for while managing a demanding job and household chores.
That said, I got to build stronger bonds with my son since we moved here as me and my wife split the baby care duties.
2. High Income Taxes Based On Income Brackets
Me and my wife were joking that you are punished for working on skills favouring the rich in Australia. While a demanding job in the software engineering field pays a lot more than other sectors, almost half my wife’s income is taxed, bringing her take home income level down. And unfortunately, this income tax is regardless of my income. Even investors are taxed heavily when they make significant money in their investments while they need to absorb the risk and losses fully.
3. High Cost of Eating Out
While hawker centres and food courts make eating out reasonably priced without having to resort to fast food in Singapore, this is close to impossible in Australia. You can only eat out at restaurants and cafes which are close to double the cost. And not forgetting. many cafes and smaller shops close early, so you cannot even eat out conveniently after a certain time.
4. High Cost of Online Shopping
With the popularity of online shopping, proximity to China and platforms like Shopee in Singapore, the cost of online shopping in Singapore can be significantly cheap be it for casual clothing, kitchenware, accessories or even electronics. This is not the case in Australia where you need to resort to Amazon for online shopping.
5. Internet Speed & Technology
The internet speed is significantly slower in Australia as compared to Singapore. For people with jobs where they need to do a lot of their work online, this may be frustrating. People do not embrace technology as much here and there isn’t even something as convenient and widely accepted as PayNow in Singapore to pay at shops.
6. Weak Currency
The Australian currency (AUD) is even weaker than that of Singapore. And considering that Australia is far away from many travel destinations, it can get really expensive if you want to travel out of Australia.
3 Tips for Moving to Sydney
1. Move before you have a baby.
If you are planning to have kids and you want to have an easier and smoother move, it is best to move before you have a baby. The stress of moving abroad and adapting to change and a new career, along with meeting the rising demands and needs of a child are not for the faint hearted.
2. Save up for unexpected costs
The rental market is extremely competitive and you may end up having to pay more than you budgeted for to secure a unit you like. Bonds lock up your cash flow too. Considering you may also need to spend unexpectedly in areas ranging from food to healthcare., it is crucial to always have backup savings that you can quickly access in times of need early during your move.
3. Travel light
While it may be tempting to binge shop on Shopee and bring all the cheap merchandise you can to Australia, it is much easier to travel light. Only bring your essentials and even if you have to pay a little bit extra, it is better to buy it here unless you are bringing something that is not at all bulky and significantly cheaper.
Do we plan on coming back to Singapore?
One of our biggest benefits of moving abroad from Singapore to Australia for us was learning to be independent - from childcare to running a household, we learnt to do everything on our own and also grew to be closer to each other.
While we do love the perks that Australia offers, we will likely want to come back to Singapore at some point.
Whether it is 5 years or 10, our career won’t keep us here forever. We do plan to come back to Singapore when we feel it is the right time. Until then, we will keep growing and smiling!
Feel free to add me on social media and ask away if you have any questions or concerns related to your move. I will try my best to get back to you as soon as I can or respond to you with another viral Tik Tok video.
