Manchester to Melbourne
Imagine being given the opportunity to work in one of the greatest cities in the world, Melbourne… with an incredible climate, gorgeous scenery and almost 2,000 kilometres of beaches! Well for me, Purple made it happen. I was a Technical Solutions Specialist working at Purple HQ in Manchester and was given the opportunity to take my girlfriend and my life down under!
The process was pretty straightforward, Purple managed the whole Visa process which they covered for both me and Amy.
I joined Purple as a Cisco Specialist to assist with integration and location analytics in the Cisco environment. I also worked in support for a while as White Label dedicated support before moving into pre-sales.
My role at Purple is tech pre-sales – basically I’m the one who knows how it works in the sales cycle. I was doing this in HQ for UK plus (plus being everywhere). As we expanded we needed a counterpart for me in Australia. Somebody who was in the right timezone to help with sales. This is where I stepped in.
I made the suggestion that it would be easier for me to move out there and perform the role, freeing up my UK position for a new candidate. Being in HQ would make it easier for a new member of staff to get up to speed in the position. Gavin agreed and the ball was set in motion.
If I’m honest, it took a while to finally decide on where to move to, but I guess this wasn’t a decision that should be rushed either. Originally it was Singapore then Melbourne, but when the final decision was made, things moved very fast. I actually moved out here on a 1 year backpacker visa and applied for my 4 year business one when my feet were on the ground. Again all outsourced and I just had to fill out a bunch of forms.
I was given a couple of weeks of extra leave to tie up loose ends with my apartment, sell my car, see my family etc before I shipped out to my new life! I took a couple days holiday in Singapore on the way over and although it was a short stay, it was an incredible time – we visited Universal Studios, explored and enjoyed the local cuisine. I decided to book an Airbnb when landing in Oz which gave me 4 weeks to search for an apartment of my own.
Settling in
The main difference day to day for me was becoming disciplined with working from home, managing my own time and the new sense of independence which comes from not working in an office environment. It is very rewarding allowing me to be flexible with my start times. But the nature of having a HQ on the other side of the world does mean that there are a few very late nights.
Working with the international team has been good, I get a lot of opportunity to travel and see Asia. I’ve been to Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Jakarta, Brisbane and Sydney this year on business.
Outside of work, life is great. Melbourne has so much going on. The nightlife is amazing, lots of fantastic places to eat and explore and a beach 10 mins on the tram from my front door. With snowboarding a 3 hours drive away – what more could I want?