Grass not always greener

Randy_The_Squirrel said:
Another naivete that South Africans have, is that we're so employable overseas... Hahahahaha :D
Even with skills you're a small fish in a big ass pond, it will take you a long while to get a cushy job like you had back in SA.
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Completely disagree. Two job offers in the last 6 months and one in AMS.
 
How do you guys find the work you do there, more difficult or about the same level as SA? We hear how our education is so bad in SA but going with what I see here on the forum we (Saffers) get jobs just as easily as natives. Wouldn't you say our education isn't complete shyte as what it's made out to be?

I assume that the jobs people talk about on the forum require tertiary education, not your average shop assistant.
 
Fro said:
I assume that the jobs people talk about on the forum require tertiary education, not your average shop assistant.
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If you can read and write you shouldn't have a problem getting a job as a shop assistant, you'd need to have to the right to work in your chosen country though as you won't get a work visa to be a shop assistant...
 
Fro said:
How do you guys find the work you do there, more difficult or about the same level as SA? We hear how our education is so bad in SA but going with what I see here on the forum we (Saffers) get jobs just as easily as natives. Wouldn't you say our education isn't complete shyte as what it's made out to be?

I assume that the jobs people talk about on the forum require tertiary education, not your average shop assistant.
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A lot of us that are here are probably in our 30's or older - our educations are still worth something, at least. I never went to university - I just never saw the point of spending 4 or more years in an institution that would give me no practical experience, when I could just go to college for a year or two and start working straight after. I'm an incident manager - not the kind of thing you learn in a classroom, really.

I've noticed in the UK that there is this major drive for every single school leaver to attend university, even if they don't end up studying anything worthwhile (looking at you, Art majors). The problem is the same all over the world though: they leave university, think they know everything (like when they left high school), but are quickly brought down to earth in an interview because the work experience part of their CV's are blank. So even graduates seem to have to start at the very bottom. Everything here seems very niche, too - like someone will only be trained to do a specific task and nothing else. South Africans have a "can do" attitude and will do anything and everything in addition to their primary tasks, something that baffles coworkers but makes employers very happy.

They also have a lot of apprenticeships for pretty much everything, which is awesome because they got on the job training and work experience, and get paid for it.

P.S: artistic people CAN excel here, too - was just having a dig
 
Fro said:
How do you guys find the work you do there, more difficult or about the same level as SA? We hear how our education is so bad in SA but going with what I see here on the forum we (Saffers) get jobs just as easily as natives. Wouldn't you say our education isn't complete shyte as what it's made out to be?

I assume that the jobs people talk about on the forum require tertiary education, not your average shop assistant.
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My industry experience counts a lot more than tertiary education, however, a recognized undergrad is a generally a prerequisite. When you have strong industry experience, there's not that much emphasis on the institution you graduated from. It's much more about your track record, references and the caliber of organizations you've worked for previously.

Regarding the level of work, it's the same for most MNCs and Large enterprises. Of course there are some subtle and not so subtle cultural differences - which are for the most, easily overcome.
 
Fro said:
How do you guys find the work you do there, more difficult or about the same level as SA? We hear how our education is so bad in SA but going with what I see here on the forum we (Saffers) get jobs just as easily as natives. Wouldn't you say our education isn't complete shyte as what it's made out to be?

I assume that the jobs people talk about on the forum require tertiary education, not your average shop assistant.
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Work pretty much found me to get into the US - a good international academic reputation was the driver for this. My work has pretty much always required degrees (and ideally degrees + experience). The quality of education is very high here (US) if you're competing for the better positions - you're also competing against the reset of the world too. I've never had an issue with my SA education, although my degree is from approx. 20 years ago, so things may have well changed (I know the requirements for my undegrad degree are no longer what they used to be).

One thing that I think would have been great is to be able to do masters level coursework. This is big in the US, and covers a lot of advanced topics - in SA the typical Masters by Research tends to build a different set of skills, which certainly has advantages, but is also a little redundant if one gets a PhD too. I had to catch up on a lot of advanced topics from scratch that weren't part of my research by myself - knowledge and skills in these areas was often considered a given in the US, while there were no courses in SA for this at all.

The work here is more difficult than what I did in SA - more competition so harder to get recognized, and the actual day to day work tends to be more advanced (academically), and my work has to be more pedantic (far bigger impact if I screw up, than anything I did in SA).
 
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Fro said:
How do you guys find the work you do there, more difficult or about the same level as SA?
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Difficulty same, but more pleasant work environment wise.

Fro said:
Wouldn't you say our education isn't complete shyte as what it's made out to be?
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Depends on what part. The people leaving aren't exactly average...mostly doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers etc. All of those still have very good standing in SA & beyond.
 
Randhir said:
Word. Meat prices, booze prices, rental prices and house/yard sizes.
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Add to that 65+ million people on an island 250 000 sq km in size.
Compared to SA with 53 million in around 4-5 times that land mass.
Or compared to Australia with 23 million people in around 30 times that size.
 
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DunDarach said:
Add to that 65+ million people on an island 250 000 sq km in size.
Compared to SA with 53 million in around 4-5 times that land mass.
Or compared to Australia with 23 million people in around 30 times that size.
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And even with all those negative factors most of Africa, Europe and the Asian subcontinent choose it as their primary destination when it comes to migration - without even being able to speak the language!
 
The Voice said:
And even with all those negative factors most of Africa, Europe and the Asian subcontinent choose it as their primary destination when it comes to migration - without even being able to speak the language!
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surprised-queen-in-20-pounds-note.jpg
 
DunDarach said:
Add to that 65+ million people on an island 250 000 sq km in size.
Compared to SA with 53 million in around 4-5 times that land mass.
Or compared to Australia with 23 million people in around 30 times that size.
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It's a pretty poor analogy when you look into things like agriculture, water resources, arable land, farm security etc into account. Australia might seem massive, but when so much is completely inhospitable it may as well be Mars...
 
DunDarach said:
Add to that 65+ million people on an island 250 000 sq km in size.
Compared to SA with 53 million in around 4-5 times that land mass.
Or compared to Australia with 23 million people in around 30 times that size.
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It's still approx. 1 acre per person.
 
Dave123 said:
It's a pretty poor analogy when you look into things like agriculture, water resources, arable land, farm security etc into account. Australia might seem massive, but when so much is completely inhospitable it may as well be Mars...
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Most of the UK population is centred around 4-5 major cities and their surrounds - the rest is surprisingly very open. If you've never done it, look at the island on Google maps - it's mostly green. Those ugly grey areas? That's where the majority of the 65mil (and steadily increasing) live.

Australia's population is concentrated along the coast - the rest is pretty much desert, so their cities and surrounding suburbs are quite crowded, too.
 
The Voice said:
Most of the UK population is centred around 4-5 major cities and their surrounds - the rest is surprisingly very open. If you've never done it, look at the island on Google maps - it's mostly green. Those ugly grey areas? That's where the majority of the 65mil (and steadily increasing) live.

Australia's population is concentrated along the coast - the rest is pretty much desert, so their cities and surrounding suburbs are quite crowded, too.
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I know, I've stood in Northumberland and Yorkshire and turning 360° all that was visible was green fields and not a single other person in sight.

There is a Dark Skies Park in Northumberland because it's so open, undeveloped and empty (no buildings or even street lights for miles).

http://www.visitnorthumberland.com/darkskies

http://www.visitkielder.com/visit/kielder-observatory
 
Dave123 said:
I know, I've stood in Northumberland and Yorkshire and turning 360° all that was visible was green fields and not a single other person in sight.

There is a Dark Skies Park in Northumberland because it's so open, undeveloped and empty (no buildings or even street lights for miles).

http://www.visitnorthumberland.com/darkskies

http://www.visitkielder.com/visit/kielder-observatory
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Yeah, but all owned... at least you can walk on some private property to some extent.
 
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