{"id":614851,"date":"2025-10-23T10:59:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T08:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=614851"},"modified":"2025-10-23T11:00:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T09:00:15","slug":"a-day-in-the-life-of-a-south-african-techie-living-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/software\/614851-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-south-african-techie-living-in-australia.html","title":{"rendered":"A day in the life of a South African techie living in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Senior business analyst Robert Clayton relocated to Melbourne, Australia, to assist in leading a team for an Entelect client based in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He joined thousands of South Africans, including many IT professionals working in Australia. The country is a popular destination for South Africans for several reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the latest statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, approximately 214,790 South African-born people resided in Australia as of June 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia’s Department of Home Affairs said the figure was almost 25% higher<\/a> than on the same date 10 years prior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This figure positions the South African-born population as the seventh largest migrant community in the country, accounting for 2.6% of Australia’s overseas-born population and 0.8% of the total population,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia also provides clear pathways for visa-holders to achieve permanent residency, making long-term settlement possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nation is also known for its high standard of living and its high-quality healthcare and education system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A critical aspect of the high standard of living is Australia’s low crime rates, which many South Africans likely desire, given their home country’s high crime rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia also has a warm climate and landscapes similar to those found in some parts of South Africa, making it easier for many expats to adjust to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clayton holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Information Systems and Economics and a Bachelor of Commerce Honours in Information Systems, both from Rhodes University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His time at Entelect began in August 2022, after a three-and-a-half-year stint as a programmer and analyst at Singular Systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He joined Entelect as an intermediate business analyst, a position he held until July 2024. He was then promoted to senior business analyst \u2014 his current title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clayton moved to Melbourne because of an opportunity within the Entelect group, for which he had been working in Cape Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There was an opportunity within the Entelect Group that I thought would be a long shot,” he told MyBroadband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that he applied for the position as a “shot in the dark” and, to his surprise, he secured the position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life in Australia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband asked Clayton various questions about his experience living in Melbourne, Australia, including the aspects he likes, what he dislikes, and what he finds better than living in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the feeling of safety is one of his favourite aspects of living in Melbourne. He recalled narrowly escaping a mugging attempt after a night out in Cape Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The feeling of safety, being able to walk at night without worry, is unreal,” Clayton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He’s also had to transition from driving his own car to commute around Cape Town to using an efficient public transport system in the Southeastern Australian city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Access to affordable and convenient public transport is another incredible benefit of living here,” he said. Clayton also highlighted the efficiency of service in restaurants, describing it as a pleasant surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“One thing you rarely hear about is how quickly food is served. I’ve sat down, placed my order, and received my meal within 10 minutes at a restaurant,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“On average, it seems to take about 20 minutes. It was a pleasant surprise.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an avid gamer, Clayton also appreciates that many online games have servers hosted in Australia, resulting in significantly lower latency than he experienced in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the opposite is also true. When gaming with his friends in South Africa and the UK, finding a suitable server where everyone has a playable latency is challenging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those interested, Clayton runs a built-tower PC with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, 10GB of video memory, two sticks of 16GB DDR5 RAM, and an AMD Ryzen 5 9600x processor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked about what’s worse, living in Australia or living in South Africa, Clayton said the people he’s engaged with in Australia have been friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he said he misses the “Ubuntu” aspect that South Africa is famous for. He also highlighted the price of beer as a shock, being significantly more expensive than in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clayton said he has a lot to explore in Australia, which is exciting, as each city has its own identity and unique attractions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It always feels like there’s more to explore and experience. I’ve barely scratched the surface of Melbourne, let alone Sydney, the Gold Coast, Perth, and beyond,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked if he’d consider moving back to South Africa, Clayton said he would do so for his friends, family, and loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But I feel I’ve yet to truly begin my life in Australia, having only been here a short while,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MyBroadband interviewed Melbourne-based Entelect senior business analyst, Robert Clayton, about his experience after moving to the Australian city from Cape Town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":614891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2798,98632,13635,88096,101894,101895],"class_list":["post-614851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software","tag-australia","tag-business-analyst","tag-entelect","tag-melbourne","tag-robert-clayton","tag-senior-business-analyst"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614851"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614851"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":614999,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614851\/revisions\/614999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}