As many of you already know, Neil* and I love a good bit of travelling, be it for the food, culture or new experiences. As such when a potential career opportunity arose in Neil's line of work, we went in heart first and then spent the next few months telling everyone we know (and just met) we wanted to relocate to somewhere exotic, until finally in December it became a reality and he was offered a role in his company's Singapore office.
I don't think it ever really hit me that we were moving 6,806 miles across the globe and leaving a city I had called home for the last 28years, and to be honest, I'm still not sure it has! I said to many of you, this blog acts as a bit of a diary to myself and I suppose it couldn't be any truer in these circumstances. I'm just hoping, that along with jotting down some of my memories and travels, I am also providing some useful information to those who venture down a similar path.
So I guess the real story starts on February 24 when Neil and I, together with our whole lives packed into three suitcases, all four parents and some super special friends are at the airport, drinking a bottle of wine and saying our TTFNs* ready to embark on our big adventure.
Surprisingly saying goodbye to our family and friends wasn't too emotional, until we watched a full fledged film from them saying their farewells, and some serious tears (of laughter) rolled. We clearly have some friends who's talents are wasted in their day jobs!
Feb 25: after a 13 hour overnight flight with Singapore Airlines we land in our new home
Feb 26: Neil (the hero) begins his new role, whereas my main concern is my tanning level, sun kissed or burnt to a crisp.
After a week of chilling, finishing all episodes of OITNB and sensing boredom creeping up on me, I realised the relocation holiday was over and it was time to re-enter the real world.
Finding somewhere to live
For our first month in Singapore we lived in Serviced Apartments, which whilst nice, gave the whole move a massive holiday feel. To make this feel like home, we needed to find somewhere to live.
Singapore is pretty small, and therefore living anything further than 30mins commute from work is considered blasphemous. There are also so many nice areas, my favourites being Bugis (basically the hipster part of Singapore) and Robertson Quay (a chilled out social scene by the river). Finding a location to live in is personal to each individual, I was lucky enough to have some time learning the city before deciding on a perm residence.
Now for the nitty gritty factual bits...
When looking for accommodation in Singapore there are a few things to note:
Most available accommodation can be found on propertyguru.com or 99.co
You as a tenant can find your own accommodation using these sites without hiring an agent
The landlord will have an agent who acts as the middle (wo)man in your negotiation
Leases tend to be a minimum of 2years
If you have an agent you are required to pay commission of one month's rent
We decided to go down the agent route and found someone who we gave our criteria (location, size, monthly rental) to. At first we were impressed with BT (he drove us to each of our viewings, super rare here). He found us a handful of properties that fit into our profile, together with a couple he clearly just wanted to shift. I was warned, and I'll warn you now, that the service agents provide here isn't anything to write home about, unless you fancy penning your rage. After two full days of viewings and nothing we loved, BT started becoming a little pushy and impatient, undoing his earlier good work. A point worth mentioning here is that you should not feel obliged to take on any property you aren't 100% sure on, two years is a long contract and you want to be happy with your final decision. We came close to falling down this trap until we were recommended a different agent.
HT went completely against the grain and was nothing but amazing. She showed us a few places in a day, all of which we loved (clearly having paid attention to our criteria), negotiated the monthly rent with the landlord agent so it was within our budget, paid for all our costs upfront (as we were waiting for the local cashish to start rolling in) and to top it all off brought us all sorts of Singaporean delights to try. I could go on for pages detailing all the little and large things she did to make this process as smooth as possible for us. She was an absolute gem and would come highly recommended.
Finding a job
Side by side with finding somewhere to place our hat, I was looking for a job. The countless people who had told me I would find a job quickly, couldn't all be wrong, surely?!
I am an accountant (what?! I hear you gasp, how can this incredibly witty individual, have such a boring day job?! Why yes it's true, I am aware it's accrual world out there *cringe*).
Now, I will openly admit, I am a stresser. The idea of giving up a job I really enjoyed to move out here and be unemployed for god knows how long, was not a welcome thought. I know some of you would love the idea of being a lady/gent of leisure but I have a pretty short attention span, and it wouldn't take long for me to be bored.
Finance is a big industry out here especially for expats, and there are many recruitment agencies specialising in placing finance individuals. So many in fact, that I spent two days calling around to make appointments. Unfortunately, I was met with many of the same responses "we are only looking for Singaporean or permanent residents" of which I am neither. Or the popular line of "you'll probably be searching for 3-6months before you find a role"... That teamed with my anxiety was a bad combination. I mean, what if I can't remember how to use a calculator in 6 months, let's face it... I can struggle on the best of days.
So it's important I put these comments into context. As an expat in Singapore there are a few things to consider.
You require an employment pass to work here (your employer will be required to sponsor you for this, which is partially why they find hiring expats off-putting)
For each expat a company employs, they are required to employ 8 locals or Permanent Residents (this regularly changes so worth checking out)
Every job post has to be advertised to locals for two weeks before submission of any expat applications
Everyone here has a qualification (more prevalent in the finance industry)
Whilst the agency/direct applications is one route to be taking, expanding your network is worth a lot out here. Now I don't necessarily mean going to an expat professionals event and schmoozing everyone you meet (although that does have high success rates) but more like speaking to people on a day to day basis. This will go hand in hand with making friends (see below) as everyone knows someone who may be able to put you in touch with another someone who could help.
80% of finding a job will be who you know rather than what. By those means I was lucky enough to be put in touch with a recruiter who I spoke to on Thursday of one week, and had got me an interview the Monday of the next. I don't want to mislead you however as this was a rare occurrence. Previously I had met recruiters who advised they had put me forward for a role and I never heard anything back, despite endless chasing. The key thing to get a recruiter to pay attention to you, is by being introduced by someone they already know.
The recruitment game in Singapore can be frustrating, there were days I felt like I had sent a million applications only to get rejection emails streaming in. But then there were days where you'd get a snippet of positivity and pin all your hopes onto it. The key thing to remember is, if you want it enough, and fight hard, you will find something. Now I'm not going to pretend the role you find is absolutely perfect, some sacrifices will need to be made (namely salary expectations as they differ largely to the UK, although hopefully lower tax rates leaves you better off) but the advice of many has been to get your foot in the door and move around from there.
Landing an interview is probably harder than the interview itself, in my experience. But be prepared as interviews here are nothing like I've known before. Being politically correct is thrown out the window, and don't be too shocked if an expat stigma is attached to you during the interview. I found myself defending all female expat kind in my interview, and I know of others who have been asked personal questions such as when they would look to be starting a family. Questions we're thinking internally are asked boldly without the bat of an eyelid. It's refreshing but also shocking in an interview context, so be prepared!
Following two rounds of interviews, I was offered the role, and will be starting mid-April. All in all I found a job within a month of being here, so despite what some recruiters may tell you, it is possible. You just need to have the determination!
The People
Everyone is ridiculously friendly here. There is such a large expat community and everyone has experienced what you will when you first move here. You will meet that friend of your dad's friend's daughter's husband and you'll have stuff in common!
It'll make you an insanely nicer person. How many times have you brushed off meeting that person you're distantly related to, who's only in London for 2 nights? Well you'll probably be planning them an itinerary here instead.
You will make new friends, from all over the world. Without tarnishing everyone with the same brush, I haven't actually made new friends since my first job (and not just work friends, I mean "I love you, come on my hen, and drink 3 bottles of wine with me" friends) - so moving out here has forced me out of my comfort zone and personal space issues and into the Singapore social scene.
Transportation
The MRT (the SG version of the tube) and the bus systems are pretty sweet, and travel can cost as little as $0.40! Reminds me of the golden olden days when a child bus fare was £0.40... (Although, that didn't stop pupils crushing themselves into the bus to avoid paying... HatchEnders, you know who you are)
But just imagine this, taking an air conditioned MRT or Bus to work and back everyday for less than $2 (that's £1) and it always being on time, with no announcement of "signal failure" - ok living in London you probably can't imagine that, but honestly it's like living the dream.
Let's round this up...
So there's a snippet of what moving to Singapore for me has been like. There's probably plenty I've missed, and other things I've gone OTT on the detail for, but if anyone wants more information- you know where I am!
Neil and I get to spend a lot more quality time together and therefore the intellect of our conversations have taken a drastic hit. For these next set of blogs, I thought it would be interesting to put to you all questions we spend our time pondering over...
Would you rather:
Be able to speak every human language in the world?
OR
Be able to speak to animals?
Post your answers, it'll be interesting to see where we land!
*Neil is my husband and official travel buddy, so you will hear a lot(ish) about him through these posts!
*TTFN = ta ta for now
