Leaving the UK - it's a HUGE move
Mar 29th 2011, 9:31 am
#1
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Apr 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 33
Leaving the UK - it's a HUGE move
I have copied the following post from another forum and I thought it might be good to share. It's written for people from the UK considering moving to the South Australia Police (SAPol) but it could equally apply to any country.
--------------------
For nearly 6 years now, I have had one underlying message. It may not have been seen in the past as it has been buried in other topics, but as this is possibly the last SAPol recruitment drive for the foreseeable future, so I want to make sure that it is fully understood.
OK, the point I want to make........ This is a HUGE move!
You need to take off the rose coloured spectacles, get the image of Summer Bay out of your heads, lose the "I'm off save SAPol" mentality (believe it or not, many have come over with that and had a VERY rude awakening) and accept that you will be a bum on a seat in a patrol car, regardless of your skills base.
In the past 6 years, I have seen three types of recruit:
The first is the one who has come over and got on with the job, embraced the differences, made a real go of things and is living the life and enjoying themselves. They have accepted the status quo and have, in turn, been accepted by their Aussie peers. They are the ones who have have found it easiest to assimilate, whose families have been supportive and realistic and are in turn finding it easy to settle.
The second is the one who thinks they have been recruited as some kind of Super-Cop; here to save SAPol from themselves;to fill a much needed gap with the Great British Police Training and all it brings. Even after all the recruitment drives and all the adivce given from the many who have gone before, there are still those who are under the illusion that they are all omnipotent, cape-wearing saviours.
All this has achieved is a natural resentment from their Australian colleagues, and an exasperation from the other UK cops who fall into the first group. Whilst the members of this second group are few and far between, they do still exist. The upshot is, that they have either ended up very unhappy or out of a job, or, on a couple of occasions, both. The knock-on effect this has had is the families become unsettled, because the Cop is frustrated. The failure and return to the UK rate is second highest amongst this group.
The third group is one that can, to a certain extent, be avoided. The third group is the one where the Cop is happy at work, is happy with their life and generally content, but the family is miserable. If the wife is not happy, or the husband can not find work, that then has a knock on effect on the children and the likelihood of returning to the UK is the highest of all three groups.
There are of course exceptions to this rule - family circumstances in the UK have sometimes dictated returns, but the number one reason for families returning to the UK is the other half can not settle.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My point is this. It is not only you that has to be 150% sure that this is what you want. This is not a career move - you will be taking a pay cut and returning to the lowest rank - this is, for want of a better expression, a lifestyle change.
Don't get me wrong - SAPol will offer you exactly the same opportunities it offers all its officers, but you have to earn the stripes first. Do not expect to walk straight back into either your UK rank or specialty, because it just simply does not work that way. Your contract states you will be a patrol officer - not CID, dog, traffic, mounted, intel, Sergeant, Inspector, DCI, Supt. or any other group or rank - you are being employed as a Constable - a bum on a seat in a patrol car. Nothing more, nothing less.
Your wife/husband/partner must also realise that, at least for a while, any support network they are used to will disappear over night. Ringing up Granny to babysit next Saturday is simply no longer an option. Until you both make new friends they will find it all very daunting. They will be looking to YOU for support, which you may not realise because you will be too wrapped up in what you are doing - the studying you will need to do and the general preoccupation of all that your time at the academy offers.
You will also need to realise that you must give this at the very least 2 years. There have been instances of people going back to the UK after only 3 days!!! This is far too expensive an exercise to enter into lightly.
There are those who love it here and those who hate it. Personally, I fall into the former - I love it here. However, as a "WAG", I have to look at other things - such as if anything happened to Mr M? What would I do?
Realistically, although we are now citizens, I would try my hardest to carry on here, but more than likely I would end up having to sell up and move back to the UK - not because I want to, but I have 3 young children and I would want- no, need - the family support - at least in the interim. You must ask yourselves these questions, take all this into consideration.
I love living in Australia. I love the life I now have, the freedom my children have, the practical, albeit sometimes frustrating examples of governance, the cleanliness, the friendliness - the list goes on. I have said this before and I will say it again now - I can't thank SAPol enough for giving us this opportunity. Whilst they could not afford to walk into CopsRus & buy the experience they have brought over from the UK; and yes, sometimes their procedures/equipment are more than a little frustrating, at the end of the day, we would not be here without them. To that end, they have my loyalty and respect.
If you and your partner can both give it 150%, both accept that what you are used to is about to disappear, that life will be tough with little income for at least 6 months, and that any savings you have at present will be flying out the window at Warp Factor 5, then you might - just might- be half way there to making a success of this.
Remember - the biggest reason for this move failing is the dissatisfaction of partners. This is the point you will both have to address. To a certain extent, the job takes care of itself, - its what happens in day to day life - that is important here. You will also have a barrage of opinions from other family members. We had both full support from some, complete disgust from others. If you have children, you will be removing them from grandparents; much loved elderly relatives will probably never be seen again; you will not be there for births, funerals or marriages. You are geographically isolated from your family and loved ones.
My father-in-Law died about 18 months after we arrived and 6 weeks after they had visited us. He had a massive heart attack one morning and died shortly after. Whereas we would have both been in the car and headed up the M1 the moment we got the call and arrived 5 hours later, it actually took 8 hours of phone calls, internet searches etc and in the end, it eventually took 4 days to get Mr M back to his family.
Whilst not pleasant, you HAVE to think about these realities. This is the reality of living so far away. Can you do it?
This is not written to put you off, but to make sure you can cope and to hopefully help you make well thought out, reasoned decisions.
Think long, hard and honestly. If you can do that and still come out the other side totally committed, then you will more than likely make a success of it.
Good luck to you all.
--------------------
For nearly 6 years now, I have had one underlying message. It may not have been seen in the past as it has been buried in other topics, but as this is possibly the last SAPol recruitment drive for the foreseeable future, so I want to make sure that it is fully understood.
OK, the point I want to make........ This is a HUGE move!
You need to take off the rose coloured spectacles, get the image of Summer Bay out of your heads, lose the "I'm off save SAPol" mentality (believe it or not, many have come over with that and had a VERY rude awakening) and accept that you will be a bum on a seat in a patrol car, regardless of your skills base.
In the past 6 years, I have seen three types of recruit:
The first is the one who has come over and got on with the job, embraced the differences, made a real go of things and is living the life and enjoying themselves. They have accepted the status quo and have, in turn, been accepted by their Aussie peers. They are the ones who have have found it easiest to assimilate, whose families have been supportive and realistic and are in turn finding it easy to settle.
The second is the one who thinks they have been recruited as some kind of Super-Cop; here to save SAPol from themselves;to fill a much needed gap with the Great British Police Training and all it brings. Even after all the recruitment drives and all the adivce given from the many who have gone before, there are still those who are under the illusion that they are all omnipotent, cape-wearing saviours.
All this has achieved is a natural resentment from their Australian colleagues, and an exasperation from the other UK cops who fall into the first group. Whilst the members of this second group are few and far between, they do still exist. The upshot is, that they have either ended up very unhappy or out of a job, or, on a couple of occasions, both. The knock-on effect this has had is the families become unsettled, because the Cop is frustrated. The failure and return to the UK rate is second highest amongst this group.
The third group is one that can, to a certain extent, be avoided. The third group is the one where the Cop is happy at work, is happy with their life and generally content, but the family is miserable. If the wife is not happy, or the husband can not find work, that then has a knock on effect on the children and the likelihood of returning to the UK is the highest of all three groups.
There are of course exceptions to this rule - family circumstances in the UK have sometimes dictated returns, but the number one reason for families returning to the UK is the other half can not settle.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My point is this. It is not only you that has to be 150% sure that this is what you want. This is not a career move - you will be taking a pay cut and returning to the lowest rank - this is, for want of a better expression, a lifestyle change.
Don't get me wrong - SAPol will offer you exactly the same opportunities it offers all its officers, but you have to earn the stripes first. Do not expect to walk straight back into either your UK rank or specialty, because it just simply does not work that way. Your contract states you will be a patrol officer - not CID, dog, traffic, mounted, intel, Sergeant, Inspector, DCI, Supt. or any other group or rank - you are being employed as a Constable - a bum on a seat in a patrol car. Nothing more, nothing less.
Your wife/husband/partner must also realise that, at least for a while, any support network they are used to will disappear over night. Ringing up Granny to babysit next Saturday is simply no longer an option. Until you both make new friends they will find it all very daunting. They will be looking to YOU for support, which you may not realise because you will be too wrapped up in what you are doing - the studying you will need to do and the general preoccupation of all that your time at the academy offers.
You will also need to realise that you must give this at the very least 2 years. There have been instances of people going back to the UK after only 3 days!!! This is far too expensive an exercise to enter into lightly.
There are those who love it here and those who hate it. Personally, I fall into the former - I love it here. However, as a "WAG", I have to look at other things - such as if anything happened to Mr M? What would I do?
Realistically, although we are now citizens, I would try my hardest to carry on here, but more than likely I would end up having to sell up and move back to the UK - not because I want to, but I have 3 young children and I would want- no, need - the family support - at least in the interim. You must ask yourselves these questions, take all this into consideration.
I love living in Australia. I love the life I now have, the freedom my children have, the practical, albeit sometimes frustrating examples of governance, the cleanliness, the friendliness - the list goes on. I have said this before and I will say it again now - I can't thank SAPol enough for giving us this opportunity. Whilst they could not afford to walk into CopsRus & buy the experience they have brought over from the UK; and yes, sometimes their procedures/equipment are more than a little frustrating, at the end of the day, we would not be here without them. To that end, they have my loyalty and respect.
If you and your partner can both give it 150%, both accept that what you are used to is about to disappear, that life will be tough with little income for at least 6 months, and that any savings you have at present will be flying out the window at Warp Factor 5, then you might - just might- be half way there to making a success of this.
Remember - the biggest reason for this move failing is the dissatisfaction of partners. This is the point you will both have to address. To a certain extent, the job takes care of itself, - its what happens in day to day life - that is important here. You will also have a barrage of opinions from other family members. We had both full support from some, complete disgust from others. If you have children, you will be removing them from grandparents; much loved elderly relatives will probably never be seen again; you will not be there for births, funerals or marriages. You are geographically isolated from your family and loved ones.
My father-in-Law died about 18 months after we arrived and 6 weeks after they had visited us. He had a massive heart attack one morning and died shortly after. Whereas we would have both been in the car and headed up the M1 the moment we got the call and arrived 5 hours later, it actually took 8 hours of phone calls, internet searches etc and in the end, it eventually took 4 days to get Mr M back to his family.
Whilst not pleasant, you HAVE to think about these realities. This is the reality of living so far away. Can you do it?
This is not written to put you off, but to make sure you can cope and to hopefully help you make well thought out, reasoned decisions.
Think long, hard and honestly. If you can do that and still come out the other side totally committed, then you will more than likely make a success of it.
Good luck to you all.
