My Nikon 55- 200 mm VR lens has crippled.

The lens was kept a for long time and wasn't being used. About 2 years. I pulled it out the other day just to do some cleaning and testing. Unfortunately, the VR of the lens has stopped working. Focusing still working alright but the VR, which is the main feature of why I'm getting this lens, has died.

Well, guess I have to used pair the lens with a tripod to make a close up shot or else I'm going to get a blurry shot.

Unforgettable experience on getting my driving license in Australia..

I have passed the road knowledge test in August 2012 and I have been longing to get the driving test done. After some push from my wife on getting it scheduled and some determination, today the driving test has come (at Hornsby).

With my wife driving (I'm using her car for the driving test), I got to the center half hour earlier than my booking time and started my exam around 11am. With butterfly in stomach and some diligent, the examiner passed my result. (The secret? Read "The Guide to Driving Test" online pdf book and take 2 hours lesson from an instructor.)

The unforgettable part is not the exam road course but rather getting my license printed process. The visa stated the name in my passport does not reflect firstname and surname (Well, that's how Malaysia passport looks like with only one field for the name). The receptionist said that her supervisor unable to ID me according the name stated in my Australia visa (which I was told later that Aus Immi just copy whatever info in my passport exactly) and she can not issue my driving license. No matter how I and my wife try to reason with her, the receptionist still won't budge.

My wife got her driving license without this issue, plus her Malaysian friend who has just got his license back in December 2012 also does not have this issue. I suddenly couldn't accept the fact that I was so close getting my license and my wife was not happy about it. The receptionist told us to go to Aus Immi to get the visa name fixed or go to "Dead, Marriage and Birth department" for a cert with name that has firstname and surname (a.k.a name change). And I think, "Seriously?"

We went straight home empty handed but not defeated. Calls are made and internet search has been done to find out what we can done to get the situation fix. Name change is not a valid solution because it requires me to stay in Australia for at least 3 years before I'm eligible. Therefore, this lead me the only option is to go for Aus Immi to have my visa name fix.

Fast forward in what happens at Aus immi center. After around 30 minutes of 20km driving to Parramatta, we got there took our waiting number, talk to the staff, show to the staff that we have check VEVO (Aus online Immi Visa info and status check) and the name does not have a firstname, staff heard our story and said the road department is stupid (I agreed), we want the visa sticker replaced, staff said require AUD 70, we agreed and paid and finally, we got out from the Immi building with a fresh new Visa sticker in my passport (around 3.20pm).

Guess what? We still have time to go back to Road Department center (will close at 5pm) and so we did. We got there around 4pm and re-submit everything. My account were block by the earlier receptionist (That Bitch!), who was not there at that moment, and the on duty receptionist was willing to fax all our document back to the HQ and telephone to get my account unblock, get the documents stamp, signed, get my photo taken, laminate my license and finally handed it to me. 

The whole story took almost 6 hours of my life just to get the driving license done.

In summary, if you're going for a driving test, try to avoid the Hornsby branch and go to the other branch instead. It might saves you a lot of time, trouble and money.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

The holiday season is here again. I'm writing this while I was in Brisbane at a friend's house. Travelling from Sydney to Brisbane and back is the first experience for me. 11 hours of driving covered almost 900km and took cost one and half tank of petrol. To be honest, I don't want to do it again because it's just too tiring and boring.

However, the pleasure of visiting a friend and play with their son, meet up with a family member and shopping at factory priced item worth the effort.

Next year Christmas, I will try to persuade my wife to take flight instead. Seriously.

Job hunting in Australia after 3 months

Another update after 3 months of restless job searching. I have been through some interviews and below are my findings:

1. The organization chart is mostly flat for companies in Australia. I applied a Database Analyst role and when I reached to the company for interview, I found out I was meeting with the CIO. Seriously!?!?! I realized that the working culture in Malaysia was mainly go through some level of management before I have the chance to talk with the big shot such as a CIO. Here, in Australia, I have told that I will direct report to CIO, which does not make sense for me the first time. My mindset has to changed to think like a senior manager in Malaysia in order to work with CIO. Lots of leadership, self management, communication and people management. I don't have those behavior yet and no doubt I failed the interview.
2. Same job title in Malaysia does not mean the same responsibility in Australia. Further more from point 1, the job title Analyst in Malaysia might be working as a group but in Australia, this has become a independent role. The job description does not provide the whole picture and I was the victim to get fall into the trap only to realize the title is a different thing in Australia.
3. Multitask is the required. Being called for interview as a Database Analyst, my expectation was to handle mainly on database issue or any application that related to database. However, my expectation was wrong and I was told to cover the DBA, Business Analyst and Support as well. I was shocked and it took me by surprised. There is a term in Malaysia called the "one leg kick" (means do everything by myself and usually applies to small company that has no budget on hiring) and it applies in Australia as well.
4. Job interview process may required a month. This is my experience and may different from someone's else. First the phone interview with recruiter and got confirmed that I have the skills to perform the job. Then it took the recruiter a week to setup the phone interview with hiring personal  A week past and the telephone interview with hiring personal went well. Then it took the recruiter another 2 weeks to get confirmation from the hiring personal for face to face interview. Face to face interview went well, then it took another week to get answer from the hiring personal. In the end (total 4 weeks), I still couldn't get the job because it was taken by internal reference. Anyway, I wish they could finalized things faster or at least get the internal reference sorted out before posting the job online.
5. Finding jobs and interview skills can be learned thru attending courses. I found out that NSW government has created a course for the immigrant to help them to find jobs successfully in Australia. The course required 4 hours a day, 3 day per week and it takes 8 weeks. 8 WEEKS! Just to acquire the skill to find and land a job in Australia.

Am I shocked? Yes. Beaten? No. The job hunting course somehow train me up on how to sell myself and I find it is a valuable skill to survive in Australia. Nevertheless, the job process that took 4 weeks to finalize is really driving me nuts.

P.S.: If you're an immigrant in Australia, attend the skillmax course for free and get your resume reviewed and checked. I have attended the course for 3 days and I learn a lot of stuff and got a lot of resource from it.

Reference

http://www.skillmax.com.au/

A month in Australia

There's been a while I didn't provide any update to my blog mainly because in May and June I was very busy with my work. My department was lacking resources to handle large amount of work and furthermore, I was preparing moving to Australia. Until now, I was able to update what has been going on for the past 1 month.

Anyway, I have been searching for jobs, learn to cook, talk to the local and trying to fit myself in the new environment in Australia. Job searching is slow as mentioned by my wife, who has been living in Australia for 9 months, and it takes longer than usual for what I have experienced in Malaysia. In the end, I got encouragement from all with advise "not to give up" and "keep trying".

Learning to cook for both me and my wife was a challenge at first because when I'm in Malaysia, the cooking was handled most by my mother-in-law and I was living with good life there. Until I moved to Australia and cooking is something that need times to get used to. Starting the simple sandwich and spaghetti, then going towards the more Asian food of fried Mee Hoon and ABC soup. When the food taste bad, mistake are learned and improvement is shown when cooking the next meal.

Staying at home all day (cooking, cleaning, hunting jobs) for the whole month, starts to drive me crazy and I've started to find ways to talk to the local and blend around with the environment. So far having a chat with the local recruiter and sales person wasn't an issue.

However, the environment that I have imagine of Sydney was a little far from I have expected. The roads are narrow, winding and lots of traffic lights for a highway. Slope and dip roads around the neighborhood. 2 floor level traditional shop can be seen everywhere. There are shopping mall but no where as close as the Pavillion, Sunway Pyramid, One Utama and last but not least, the Mid Valley Megamall. Well, I'm not the shopaholic type and I guess these just a little stuff that I missed.

Well, that's about it. Hopefully I could settle down with a job sooner and start focus other area of my life such as getting a house or building a family. Finger crossed.