University Nightmares

Its first day of second semester and all students meet once again. We all started talking, there were few more students who had failed. I am already feeling devastated about this outcome and fees to be paid.

Initially when I joined university I met some of the senior students in the same course who were ahead of me by 1 or 2 semesters. They used to speak indirectly that this university is not good. They also told me that universities in Australia can only make money if they have constant flow of international students. This is so because, locals don’t normally study till university level and international students also pay higher fees. As I mentioned in my earlier posts Universities make most of their income from international students and this industry is one of the biggest for Australia too. All of this information didn’t make much sense to me in earlier days.

One of the fellow students also told me that sometimes universities fail students intentionally so that students keep paying the fees and their revenue stream continues. I never believed this until this situation came to me. I thought this may be case with me too.

Here I am facing this situation and discussing with seniors and other fellow students. One of them tells me now you know what we all have been through. As it uncovers almost every one of them had failed in one or the other subject in past. Now it could be they are bunch of idiots or it is actually university doing this, I still don’t know. I have totally lost interest in studies and start to doubt this university. I am just feeling depressed thinking where have I come, people are saying university isn’t good, there are money issues and now even bigger worry about what if they fail me in second semester. It will be disaster in my life.

With lots of doubts about university, I asked my seniors what if we want to change university; we can just go to any university isn’t it. This uncovers another hurdle. There is a visa clause on student visa that we can’t change university in first 12 months of study. This means we are totally in hands of university and vulnerable to their tactics. So I thought, we can change university after 12 months without any restrictions, yes? To this they said as long as my progress is at-least 60% and my attendance is at-least 80%. This was also my visa requirement which I didn’t know initially. I did some research with immigration and found out everything is true. I am gradually inclined to change university after constantly listening to some horrible experiences of other students.

With lots of worries and financial stress, second semester is about to end soon. Its exam time and because of all the worries about university failing intentionally, I am feeling there is no point studying if they are going to fail me. Anyway with these thoughts I appeared in exams and didn’t really prepare well. With no preparation and expectations of failure I have appeared in exams and waiting to see what happens next. Another semester is over; I am carrying on with my routine of work and saving money for fees.

This time I have managed to save most of my fees, but I still will be short by little bit. I have asked once again my parents if they could help with anything they can. They are already struggling with finances and getting worried about my expenses day by day.

Results are out for second semester, surprise; I have passed all the subjects. I am now even more surprised because I didn’t study well and knew that I didn’t do well in the exams but still passed. Anyway passing is still good news but I have now lost interest in this university and their studies.

I have started discussing options of changing university with some senior students. They told me don’t ever speak to university official that you want to change university. They get really upset and start doing nasty things like failing you in every assignment and exam so overall result will fall below 60% and also fudge attendance records below 80%. This would mean I can’t change university and possibly be sent home by immigration because of poor progress. As soon as I heard this I felt this is all evil and holding someone to ransom. They cannot play with someone’s life and career here all for money. Although this university was accredited by government and other bodies, it was just unbelievable to see these internal tactics. Overseas students couldn’t do anything to stop this because of financial constraints and legal issues that come along with it. Also people who come here want to build a life not get in trouble which they can’t afford. I am now feeling that this university is controlling my life and I don’t know when I will be free from this financial burden. I am feeling miserable and vulnerable. This is unbelievable how a university can control overseas student life.

On a separate note, the money that was stuck in second job has now started coming back as other colleagues and I kept on threatening the company of legal action. Every penny will help me in paying university fees.

I am now even more determined to get out of this university by any means I can. I am sick of their tactics and nasty games they play holding students career and money on ransom. I have discussed with some senior students and I am making a full proof plan of getting out of this university without informing them. There are few more students who are planning like me…

University Exams and Fees

I took some time off from work to prepare for exams. This was the first time I am appearing in exams overseas. It’s still the same exam, similar class rooms, it just another location. They also offer multiple supplementary or notepads, students keep writing as much as they feel. Exams went well. I am quickly back to work to earn and save money for fees.

There is break of 3 weeks before next semester starts. This is the only time when I can work full time, earn as much as I can and save for university fees.

With previous three months of lost income and debts, I am already behind in my saving targets. Even if I work full time, I probably won’t be able to save enough money. I still have to put my best efforts in and requested manager to give me as many shifts as he can. I have started working long hours and 7 days a week to collect money. Fees payment due date is approaching fast and so are results.

I have already given heads up to parents that I might need some money to cover short fall I may have in fees.

First and the biggest shock comes, in an utterly unbelievable outcome, I have failed in one of the subjects.  The subject I have failed in is Accountancy. This is the first time in my life I have failed. Although I have been an average student, but I always managed to pass and never thought about failure. This is so unbelievable and unthinkable that I request university to show me my result and meet the lecturer who did scoring. I am in total state of shock; still thinking how can I fail when I studied in commerce and accounting for last 4 years. I actually taught my fellow students who were from arts and science background. They passed well and I was the only one failing in this subject.

I am just thinking lecturer made an error and wait for his appointment to meet and see my marks.

After 2 weeks, I rushed from work to meet lecturer and see my results. As I met the lecturer, he didn’t remember me by name but by face and quickly reacted oh it’s you and how come you failed. I said well that’s what I need to see.

He pulled out my exam results and tells me I have only scored 5 marks in exam. This is just unbelievable and I start to challenge him on the solutions to questions. I said they don’t show solutions, to this I asked how do I know my answers are incorrect then. He then tells me, well we can just show you your result but outcome won’t change. As I was discussing and challenging everything, I felt little fishy in lecturers reactions to too many things. I just didn’t believe things were right. I kept arguing for 2 hours and lecturer said, outcome is you have failed and you will have to repeat this subject again. This means I have to pay fees for this once again.

I am now completely shattered walking out of university, thinking what have I done wrong I still can’t understand. I am already in so much stress of making a living and saving for fees, I just didn’t need another blow in my gut. This failure meant, I have to earn more for fees of this subject. With so many worries, I broke down in tears for the first time in Australia. I was just totally lost and started questioning whether I made the right decision to come to Australia.

With total disbelief and sad moods, I am back to work. I still can’t believe I failed.

It’s time to pay fees; I could only manage to save for 1 subject and had to request fees for other 3 subjects from parents. To this parents are already stressed out thinking this wasn’t as per the plans. I haven’t told them about my results. Parents are now more worried about finances and asking me whether I will be able to manage my living and my next semester. They definitely cannot afford and have no money to fund next semester. I just don’t have any way out any more.

I am feeling even more worried about money and still in disbelief about my results.

Work life continues and I am now back to University attending second semester.

As soon as I told my result to other fellow students another shock comes out…

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Life of Petrol Station Operator

200510 shell optimax (Photo credit: iambents)

Although I worked at few different places before I got this job; I was most interested in this one because I was getting paid for my work.

Unlike India, where you just drive into a petrol station, give money to the guy and ask him to fill up petrol, petrol stations here in Australia are very different.

Firstly, fuel prices change every day. It’s based on competition around the area and governments have deregulated pricing. This meant price could fluctuate anytime of the day depending on various factors from US Oil prices to local weekend or holiday activities.

 

200510 petrol pumps (Photo credit: iambents)

Secondly, there is no one to fill up petrol in your vehicle. You have to fill up yourself. On the fuel pump console you can see the price, type of fuel and as you fill you see dollars rolling to help you stop based on your budget.

Finally, once you have filled up fuel, you take a look at the pump number around the fuel pump and walk into a small convenience store. This store sells range of items from soft drinks to basic necessities of milk, bread, eggs, butter and other ad hoc essentials for people to buy on the go. Once you finish shopping, you go to service counter and pay for fuel and groceries.

In Australia, petrol stations are managed and maintained by one person. This person during the time of work is responsible to maintain in store and out store activities. This ranges from restocking items sold in the store, authorising fuel access as soon as people pick up the fuel bowser, remembering which vehicle filled up fuel and still shopping in store and maintaining total cleanliness. During peak business hours in morning and evening, things get very busy and it tests persons switched on attitude and multitasking capabilities.

World Youth Day – Part IV – Going Home (Photo credit: yewenyi)

 

As compared to India, this is a laborious job. Unlike India, labour cost is most expensive here and regulated by government in terms of minimum pay requirements to maintain living standards. Because of this petrol stations can’t afford employing multiple people to maintain profit margins. The benefits of employing 1 person is the person gets decent pay and can afford reasonable living. Owners of the business can still earn profit.

The issues this sort of system faces is people often driving off after filling fuel. Most petrol stations operate 24 x 7 and people driving off without paying is one of the largest problems service stations owners face. As employees, that’s why we are trained to keep an eye on car registration numbers and may be note it down as they start filling fuel and scratch the number once paid. This is basic practice people are trained on. If someone does drive off, employees are supposed to call police and give them registration number and other details to recover this money. Lot of times people come with stolen cars or number plates and drive off. Businesses tend to lose some money this way. But this problem is not limited to people driving off, there are times when robberies happen and mostly its late nights when it’s very quiet and there is only person working at petrol station.

I have heard about people being robbed at petrol station at gun points or by knife wielding thieves. I was fortunate enough to not face this situation in my time of working at petrol stations, although I worked at petrol stations for a good period of 2 years along with my full time studies. There were times when police used to come in the middle of the night and warn me that there have been several robberies around the area, give me description of people and the vehicle they might be driving and I need to lock the doors if see any suspicious activity. The important aspect of working in such a place was that employees and business are insured. If something like this happens people are trained to just let the thing happen and not react in any way that may harm or endanger their life. This way worker is safe and business can recoup some loss from insurance.

This is how I spent my first year working at this place and earning my living. The manager was certainly very friendly and did look after me. This place was a huge stepping stone for me in terms of earning my living, repaying debts and saving fees for next semester.

With plenty of things to manage, earning money was my top priority in first few months although my main reason to come here was studies, it just didn’t come in my priority list until exams approached.

First semester just flew; I just couldn’t believe it was time for exams. Exams are on my head now, now I need to manage work and exam preparations and also fees that will be due in few weeks. First semester was still a refresher of under graduate and class 12 studies and I could take it little easily. I was doing well in my assignments and other presentations so exams shouldn’t be big issue.

Exam results and fees for next semester were another major memorable events…

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Life and Issues of Sharing Accommodation

With big sigh of relief and hope of earning money and eventually repaying my debts and saving some fees, I returned home.

There was this accommodation issue which kept popping up every now and then. I was getting conflicting responses from different flat mates, one was telling me to stay and other was telling me to go and so on.

There were occasional complaints to one another about not doing enough in household chores, preparing dinner at dinner time and keeping overall cleanliness.

Behind all this, there was something else which I was totally unaware of was the politics and dis-agreements that other flat mates had against the guy who picked me up at airport and another guy who used to never contribute in household activities. As it turns out as soon as I returned home, one of the flat mates tell me to stay for however long I want to stay with them. He also assures me that there are no issues with me staying with them as long as I contribute my fair share of work with them. I have lived similar life during my bachelors and I am very well used to this and managing people’s expectations and thoughts.

The next morning as it turns out, the guy who picked me up at airport and another flat mate are kicked out and told to make other arrangements to stay. Flat mates still want them to leave on good terms with each other and politely tell them they can’t stay with them with the way they lead their lifestyle and it’s better to part ways rather than ruin relations. They agreed mutually and decide to move on the same day.

Here I am in the middle of all this having no clue to these issues and was repeatedly asked by my friend to leave and now he is being kicked out. Being my friend was kicked out, I was thinking whether I should leave with him to support him or shall I stay with other guys as agreed. Either way, I would hurt one or the other person. Luckily to make my situation easier, one of the flat mates announced that they need someone else to share the expenses as they are leaving and they decided to let me stay here. Finally I have a place to stay after 3 months and a paid job. This situation is no different to life I have lived during my studies of bachelors. I guess this just happens when you have few different people from different back grounds living together, some will get along well and some are never meant to be together.

As it happens, we are now 4 people staying in a 2 bedroom accommodation, 1 of us needs a private bedroom, other 2 are sharing a bedroom and I am settled in living room. With me being in living room, I don’t have leisure of keeping things as you keep in bedroom, I don’t have a bed or a wardrobe and certainly can’t afford one for next few months. I sleep on couch or carpet every day. Sometimes it’s too cold sometimes too noisy with people walking on wooden floor boards. I am just getting used to this life style. All other flat mates are older than me in age and have lot of experience of life and work in Australia. They are also permanent residents and citizens of Australia and have better paid jobs. I have lot more to learn from them and develop myself into a successful person. I have made good friends in my first few months and certainly they were the first people to help me when I ran out of money. I was lucky to have these people around me in my times of struggle.

Things have settled little bit, we all carry on our routines of work, come back home, cook dinner turn by turn during the week and clean entire place once on weekends. We also play cricket in back yard parking space. Our neighbours are also guys like us from Korea and are good friends of ours. We drink beer together and have fun every now then. One of the flat mates has a car and takes us on sightseeing on weekends if he is available. There is 1 computer owned by this flat mate, he lets us use every now and then. I use his computer to send emails to my parents and call them once a fortnight or a month.

Calling overseas was a new thing to me too. We used calling cards in those days and still use these days but it was lot different. I used to buy a calling card worth $10, which gives $10 credit; there are local telephone numbers behind it to call and a pin number to be entered which is on the card and set prices for different countries. Depending on duration of call, charges will be deducted from the credit once the call is finished. It was a new thing to me as I never used such a thing in India. Back in those days of 2004 a $10 card would cost $10 and these days $10 card will cost $6.50. Times have changed a lot. I didn’t speak to parents that often and preferred to send emails otherwise they would know what I am going through here and be more worried. I used to keep telling them that everything is fine here and I am managing things.

In first few months of my stay I have learnt lots of lessons of life in Australia. I also felt that people also behave differently as compared to India. Everyone just cares about himself and manages own affairs of things. I guess everyone comes here to make money and don’t want to bother in other social affairs and expenses like people do in India. Everything little thing costs you money, nothing is for free and nothing is cheap. Hence people like me come from India and other countries to make the best of this culture.

My work at this petrol station is also lot different as compared to India. I never imagined before, that petrol station or petrol pumps (as we say in India) can be like this…

Finally A Paid Job

It’s been 3 months in Australia; I am totally broke mentally, emotionally and most importantly financially and running in debts. I am almost at breaking point, even more worried about the debt that dad had taken for me to support my studies, and the debt that now I have due to no job/income, very real possibility of not saving fees for next semester, studies as first semester is about to end soon and occasional problems at my place re-accommodation and household chores.

With all these worries day in and day out, I once again started walking with few hundred resumes in my bag. It was sunny day and I was starving and depressed. Gradually I was losing hopes. Still with aim to succeed, I put up a brave face into every place I walked in and tried to sell myself and my talent to get a job.

I met lots of different personalities along the way, some refused straightaway and some said we’ll keep information on file and may contact when need arises. With similar responses, I came to a car mechanic shop and petrol station. With no hopes and a brave and delightful face, I decide to walk in and give it a shot.

As I walk-in, I noticed Indian looking guy sitting inside. He greeted me like if I was a customer. I started my conversation as usual and asked if there was a job available there. Being an Indian, he interacted very well with me. I was delighted to see this but still very careful due to recent bitter experience. I was trying to convince him that I have suitable skills and local experience, without understanding whether he is in position to give me the job or not. This Indian guy was very polite and respectful in his conversation. He told me that petrol station was owned by an Italian guy and the mechanic next door. There is a petrol station manager who is on leave and he was just filling in his absence and wasn’t really able to take a decision.

While talking he looks at my resume and looks at the last job experience and quickly refers to the Indian lady and asks me how my experience was working with her. Initially I was reluctant to tell him about the terrible experience I had, but gradually he opened up and told apparently she has treated all overseas and miserable students like this before. Overseas students are vulnerable due to finance and work restrictions. While in this conversation, he looks at my address and takes name of one of my flat mates. I am totally shocked and start to think how does he know my flat mate? At this stage I tell him how I know that flat mate and my flat mate and other guy is a friend of mine and so on. Now he introduces himself and tells me he is one of my flat mates best friend and they used to study in University here together. He knew his address and hence picked it up quickly on my resume. Now, from total strangers, we have turned into acquaintance and possibly friends in future.  Apart from all this I am more interested in getting a job. After a short while, I plead to him if he comes across any job and let me know and any help he can offer is much appreciated. He assures me he’ll put a good word for me when the manager returns and tells me to expect a call from manager.

With such a good conversation and positive response I am highly optimistic about getting a job at this petrol station. I am now eagerly waiting to get a call from this place. A week is gone in waiting and as I was starting to lose hopes from here, I got a call from manager to come in for an interview. As I was desperate for the job, I told manager I can come in 1 hour and he agreed. I quickly dressed up and went for an interview with manager.

Manager is an Indonesian guy. He was well behaved and respectful. He told me that other guy gave a good reference of mine and that’s why he called me in. He also told me that other Indian guy who I met is a very close friend of him and they have had a good on the job and off the job relations. Manager told me that he blindly trusts that Indian guy and believes in him. It’s amazing to see two different nationalities and cultures have become so good friends. Without much hassle, he tells me I have got the job and if possible I can start work straightaway. He also offers me a very decent hourly pay and higher rate than minimum wage requirements and regulations.

I am just so delighted to see this happening. He also asked me for how long I didn’t have a job and I told him I have been looking since almost 3 months. On hearing this, he then tells me how did I manage my living and I said, I had some funds from parents but already ran out of money and now I am in debt owing money to my flat mates. On listening to this, he tells me not to worry and he is going to give me plenty of shifts in next few weeks as long as I am available and prepared to do and he will help me get out of this debt. I was amazed to see such a nice gesture from totally unknown person, who is lot older than me and belongs to totally different culture. I told him that I am fully prepared to work, my only limitation is my university timings and work restrictions. On this he responded studies are important and I need to manage that and with work restrictions I should leave it to him to look after me. This was very nice to know that he is working in my best interests. I just can’t thank enough or express the feelings of gratitude to this guy who helped in my troubled time.

The wheel of fortune has turned and good times may be just around the corner…but as it happens paths to success and happiness are never easy and straight… at-least in my life…

Overseas Indian Mentality

Along with job related tensions, there was another worry brewing for some time at home with my flat mates. As it happens, the guy who picked me up at airport agreed to let me stay at their place for a week. I was already searching for another accommodation while attending university. All of a sudden this guy told me that I need to move pretty urgently and that is within couple of days. I agreed to his request and packed up everything, was making few calls to see if I can move at some other acquaintances place. At this stage one of the other flat mates came and asked about the worry and told me I can stay for few more weeks until I find something. I still needed to make other accommodation arrangements while looking for work.

With lots of disappointments, unpaid money and debts I started searching jobs again. This time I learnt a lesson and started looking for blue collar jobs. With one of my flat mate’s recommendation, I got a trainee job at a convenience store that was owned by an Indian. I thought finally Indian’s have helped another Indian. As it uncovers this thought became totally opposite.

Firstly to start with I was placed as a trainee. This Indian woman told me, I need to be trained for at least 2 weeks and this will be unpaid. First blow, for this training I have to take train travel and walk 3 kilometres one way to get to this store, another expense and no income. Although disappointed, with hopes of getting a job, I decided to continue. I thought she is Indian she’ll look after me.

Secondly, she asked me to do only night shifts for 2 weeks. I had never done night shifts before but learnt another lesson of hard work. Working hours were from 11pm to 7am. All night I was working with 1 another guy who was another student like me from India. His face and condition looked miserable. I was asked to replenish stock on shelves, fill and clean cool room and mop entire store, pick up rubbish from inside and outside and clean toilets. This experience was totally new and I was feeling devastated to do this. In India our maids do all the cleaning, here I am in that position. This Indian owner used to come in the morning before I finish my training and used to take feedback from guy who used to train me.

Few night shifts went fine. As it progressed this Indian owner’s nasty and greedy behaviour started to come out as I was approaching my 2 weeks training period. I was already feeling the stress of attending University in day time and doing night shifts every day. Some days went without sleep. As it turns out, this Indian owner started yelling at me in the mornings before I finish my training and said lot of things were not done properly. To get her work done for free, she used to put me in cold storage for couple of hours to clean 10-15 fridge doors from inside out, remove all stock and clean all shelves. She also asked me to mop entire store few times until she was satisfied. All this used to happen after 7am, my supposedly finish time. I started to stay back to get her work done to her satisfaction. Sometimes I used to do 12 hours work and finish in next day afternoon. All this was with lot of patience and hope to get a paid job at her place.

After 2 weeks, she tells me she is not convinced with my training and that I need 2 more weeks of training and she assured I will get 1 night shift a week after this. Once again with high hopes I continue to slog like a donkey for this owner. I started to feel the stress and disappointment. Also that 1 night shift she assured me was no way enough to cover my living expenses. I felt as if I have become a servant for this person and that too unpaid.

Finally and this was a deal breaker for me, one day as I was as usual slogging like a donkey to her tantrums, feeling tired after night shift and frustrated once again to work till afternoon, she asked another guys to check if muffins have reached their expiry dates. What she said next was never expected and totally disgusting coming from another fellow Indian. She told this guy that if muffin is past expiry date, then give expired one to me to eat for free. I had learnt from training that we can’t sell expired muffins to customers due to risk of being sued for contamination or infection. We would normally throw these in rubbish and now she offered this rubbish to me to eat and that too for free as if it was a huge favour to me.

As I heard these words, I was shattered and felt like crying and going back home. Instead of doing good favour she is screwing with my situation and condition. But there is no way back because there are bigger dreams to be achieved. I put myself together, threw that muffin in rubbish and ploughed through another 2 weeks of unpaid training.

Now the stress levels were at its peak, with search for accommodation, work, University studies and the debt that built up during this time due to no income. I was terribly worried about worst outcomes of me going back home as a failure as I couldn’t afford to pay for my living expenses, couldn’t find a job, how am I going to manage saving university fees for next semester as per my initial plan. My parents couldn’t support me any further due to financial constraints. With this overwhelming stress and tiredness of night shifts, I fell sick.

Getting sick was last and worst thing I would have imagined. I had no money to see the doctor, though my dad had given me some medication to carry along. I just tried to recover with that medication. I was down with high fever, body cramps and severe weakness for almost 1 week. There was no one to take care as all flat mates are working and everyone has to look after themselves. We used to normally eat only 1 meal a day at night, rest of the day we would eat or drink whatever cheapest option available. This caused more weakness in my body as I was not used to this kind of starvation.

Due to sickness, I didn’t attend last few days of my training. I had almost recovered from my sickness and this Indian owner called up checking upon me whether I have found another job or not. I told her I was sick and still recovering. To this she tells me, that she has paid me a token of $11 for 1 month’s free training and she would like to offer me 1 night shift as promised but on even worse pay. By this time I had already spent more than $150 in a month in just travelling and didn’t get a penny but an expired muffin to eat and token of $11 which doesn’t even cover a day’s travel.

I was totally sick and tired of her attitude, behaviour and taking unfair advantage to miserable overseas students like us. But still I was the needy here, so I told her, I will let her know when I recover from sickness.

As backup plan and I also did a 10 kilometre walk in both directions of my place on nearby shops and service stations on highways and dropped my resumes at every place I can possibly think of. This time I added this training on my resume too.

As the wheel of fortune turns, I met another Indian guy…

The Second Job

I added this experience to my resume and started looking for another job with hourly pay. With some leads from friends at university managed to find a fundraising job for a charity company. I went through similar process, this time I was more confident, careful and less nervous. Before I did anything, I checked whether this has a fixed pay. Lucky, it had but there was fixed targets to be achieved every day and if you can’t achieve this target you will be sacked soon. I tried my luck, went well first couple of months.

Then the problem came, I wasn’t being paid and team leader kept on telling us all sales team that payroll department is in Melbourne and they had some problems and we’ll be paid next week. This kept on going for good 2 months. Meanwhile, I ran out of my funds that dad gave me and I was going in debt. My motivation and interest level started dropping. Luckily there were more people involved with this pay issue; I vented my frustration on team leader. I told him on his face, I can’t perform without being paid. As it turned out, I was sacked that night for not meeting sales targets.

Now I am out of job, not paid my salary for 2 months and I have no idea what I should be doing. I discussed this issue with my flat mates and they were aware of this issue initially too. They suggested I follow up with company’s accounts department and threaten them with legal action. Apparently everything is legalised here and employees are better protected in lot of matters.

This was waiting game until I get paid from these people, not sure when. But my living expenses won’t stop.

I continued my job search once again…

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My First Job in Sydney

Back in early 2004, job market was lot different as compared to these days.

As suggested by my flat mates, I did apply for some jobs online and expected to receive calls for interview. I was trying my luck to see what people told me is true or not. To my delight, I got a call next day for an interview. I thought probably I am the lucky one to get decent job here. As I did short spell of sales and marketing job in India during my visa process, I used that experience to market myself here and probably get another sales and marketing job. I am super excited and all prepared for interview.

As I walked into reception area, there were few candidates like me waiting for interview. Sales manager came took each one of us in for a short interview and shortly all of us were taken into a huge conference room with loud music playing as if some sort of disco party was happening. I was totally shocked and confused. I started to think as if am I at the right place for interview or not. Soon came to know that this is sales pitch to show case what it takes to be good sales person and what you get once you perform well. We go through few presentations and some star performers and whole heap of motivational and heart pumping speeches so that as you walk out of office you are fully pumped to start selling. This went along for first half of the day. As this finished, I thought the manager will then tell me whether I am selected or not. To my surprise, he tells me you are already in the job now. I was totally perplexed; I was like what about money, working hours and so on. We haven’t discussed anything. Being the first day of interview and being told that I am selected, I was too shy to ask these questions to manager and decided to follow the flow of things.

After a short while, we were broken up into groups and team leader was assigned to work with me. Team leader had piece of paper which looked like a map and some marketing material. Until now, I still don’t know what we are selling. In a while, we are asked to walk out with team leader, and we are seated in a car. I had no clue what was happening. I was nervous, scared and thought what is all this happening is this all good or am I being kidnapped or something weird. All people along with me are foreigners and I am the only Indian looking guy with them. With strange thought and nervousness I decided to just be seated and see what next is happening. In a short while, team leader starts driving. While driving he starts talking about different things. I couldn’t understand much firstly because I couldn’t pick the English accent and secondly I had no local knowledge to understand things he is talking about. I tried to make sense of whatever I could understand. After a drive of nearly 1 hour, we arrived in some place which had huge houses and looked like a hill station.

We all stepped out of the car and team leader did a very quick presentation on what we are selling today. Now I understand I am supposed to sell electricity supplies and make people switch their service providers. In few minutes, all the sales people are given copies of the map and nominated to door knock few different streets. As I am new to this, team leader tells me he will door knock few doors with me to show the sales pitch and then I will do few others.

I am still nervous and have no idea how to talk with totally unknown people. Although I have done this in India, this is totally different for me as it’s in a foreign land. We start to walk and entered first house, before we knock on the door, I hear barking dogs and they are running from somewhere. I got shit scared, I felt like forget about the job what if these dogs come from nowhere and bite me; I will be totally screwed with no money and lots of medical expenses. I asked team leader to leave but he said that dogs are inside the house and owner won’t let them loose on us. Amongst all these nervous tensions we knocked few doors; he sold few and also asked me to do a sales pitch in front of him before I knock on doors. The houses and entrances are massive here and streets are all quiet.

With some confidence I did door knock and did a broken sales pitch. With poor communication, the person shut the door on my face. Team leader supported me and we did few more door knocks, as I knocked more doors, my sales pitch improved along with my communication. Being first day, I couldn’t sell anything and it was almost evening and getting dark. Team leader called everyone up took a quick check on sales and we drove back to office. It was at this stage I came to know this is commission only job and it just depends on how much you sell. There is no fixed pay.

A day wasted and total disappointment with money, but developed my communication and some local knowledge. I decided I cannot waste time like this and earn no money.

The job hunt continues…

Related articles

• How To Create An Effective Sales Pitch (forbes.com)
• Sales team leader behavioral interview questions (salesteamleaderinterviewquestions.wordpress.com)
• How To Craft An Effective Sales Pitch (forbes.com)

Seeking Job in Sydney

The Harsh reality that people or immigration consultants don’t tell you is about the job.

Firstly Australia is full of migrant and tourist population; hence visa checking is a norm when you apply for job. Every employer or recruitment consultant will start with first question whether you have a valid visa and if so, give me a copy of it. I learnt this reality in first week.

Secondly, anyone who is not a permanent resident; is considered on a temporary visa regardless of what work permit you may have on your visa. Because of this, employers only want people who are either citizens or permanent residents. Even if you have suitable qualifications, relevant work experience if you don’t have valid visa then doors are closed for decent office jobs. If you are lucky you may find a good job.

Finally, people like me who are on student visas are restricted to work part time only during university studies. This makes matter worse, because most of the jobs require full time commitment. So what’s full time and part time in working terms here; full time working is 40 hours per week or 8 hours per day and 5 days in a week. Any one doing less than 40 hours is considered part time. People on student visa are restricted to do only 20 hours per week.

With above issues, what I learnt in first week is getting a job is going to be a tough task.

After discussing with my fellow university students and flat mates, I learnt that jobs are of mainly in 2 types, blue collar and white collar jobs. As the colour suggests, white collar is office jobs with decent pay and normally on salary. Blue collar are odd jobs ranging from any trade based job or working in retail super markets, car wash, picking and packing, etc. Blue collar jobs can be part time or casual (on call basis job) and these jobs are paid on hourly basis. The more you work the more you get paid. White collar jobs normally you apply online and go through interview process and so on and blue collar jobs, you can apply online and wait for a call or if you are desperate like me to get a job then you have to walk in to any business, shop, petrol station or supermarket and ask “do you have a vacancy”, “here is my resume`”.

So given the above facts, I fell in the worst categories and my flat mates suggested, I print few hundred copies of my resume, put it in a bag and map out an area to start walk in and drop my resume at every place I can think of. Apparently this is what they did too and it’s probably the quickest way to find a job rather than waiting for a call from online applications. This desperation is only because, there is no family here to support you, you need income to support living expenses unless you are super rich and have source of funding from your family. Without family support there are bills to pay like rent, travel, phone, electricity, food and grocery, internet and list goes on. Every day lost without earning money is increasing the debt on your head.

Things are little more difficult for new comers because, you don’t know the local culture, the English accent, slang people speak and because of all this inability to connect with people. In the beginning all you need is persistence and a break to get into the job market. Once you get the break, you start building your local experience and become easily marketable.

It’s very important for me to get a job otherwise all my plans will fail. With desperation and determination I start my job hunt and uncover some more harsh realities…

Overseas Study

Studies are semester based, where you study 3-4 subjects in each semester and progress is based on assignments, in class activities and exams. As opposed to Indian studies, results aren’t fully dependent on exams. It depends on overall performance during semester and exams can only form sometimes 50% part of your total performance. So here unlike India, you can’t be a book worm, study last minute and perform well in exams. Each semester lasts for around 3-4 months with a 2-4 week midyear break and 2 months Christmas break around December-January. These breaks are really good to earn more money and save for fees.

Also apparently, copying someone’s work in studies without giving them credit is a huge issue. It’s so big that if you are caught using someone’s work and don’t provide reference to them, you could fail in the exam and you could be expelled from University too in the name of plagiarism. This is good in a way to protect someone’s research and hard work in writing useful information for public. In India there is no such thing and people copy lots and lots of things and no one really cares. Something I need to be very careful of in my studies here.

Also studies are split between lecture and tutorial system, which is around 1-2 hour each for each subject. You must attend lecture first and tutorial after that. Depending on subject enrolments, if timing and availability matches well, I could be attending university only 1-2 days a week and work the rest of the days. Now I learnt how it is possible to earn while you learn. This is full time study for international students and permitted to work part time. Locals who work full time opt for part time studies too and sometimes study only on weekends. There is one thing for sure, studies are very flexible here.

Exams are also different type as compared to India. As I said earlier, overall results are not fully dependent on final exams. If you do really well during semester, then you may score only few marks and still pass the subject or score well everywhere and get Higher Distinction. Some exams are open book exams, but you are expected to write more precisely and accurate answers. Some exams are multiple choice and short answer exams.

I guess studies here prepare you to be practical and ready to enter work force, unlike India they make you book worms regardless of you understand or not and you have to write long essays to score well.

Fees are based on each subject, normally the same amount. There is no bribery, bias, caste based seats and so on. Although there is one thing, international students pay lot higher fees as compared to local students. I guess universities treat overseas students as their cash cows because locals hardly study up to University level. Locals normally drop out of schools and if lucky get up to Bachelors. Government also runs low interest or no interest fee help scheme to encourage studies.

This is how I learnt that education for overseas students in Australia is $15 Billion dollars industry and Australia’s largest service export.

Dressing in college, people in India dress up well to attend college, but here I noticed it’s totally different. People attend university in shorts and singlets, track pants or whatever they feel like wearing. No one really cares in getting dressed for university. Its lot more relaxed and casual in dressing and there is no issue with university too. Exceptions are if you have any presentations or some other activity than you dress appropriately for the right occasion. Lecturers are dressed well and in business attire but they don’t care if you enter late in the class or leave early or how you get dressed.

Overall feel in first few weeks is studies are fairly easy as compared to India, only burden being working; studying and managing household chores all by yourself can sometimes be stressful and frustrating. As I have lived this sort of life in my bachelors except working, I am half comfortable in managing things. I’ll get to see the stress level as soon as I find work.