How to find a job in Australia - if you’re new here, you need to read this
You’ve filled out the forms, jumped through the migration hoops and arrived in Australia with your skill in demand. Now come the job offers – or not? You may hear from employers and recruitment consultants, that the only experience that matters is “local experience.” While some professionals need an understanding of local practice and law, the obvious question for anyone else is – where do you gain local experience if you can’t get your first break?
“No local experience” can mean that you don’t have knowledge of local laws and regulations, but it also can mean that an employer or recruiter has no idea about how the work you have done, or the organisations you’ve worked in, have any relevance to them. They may make judgments about you and your experience, based on what they think they know about your country, good or bad.
Make it easy for employers to understand your resume
The first thing to do is to make it easy for employers. Any sort of stereotyping comes out of ignorance. Put context on your resume. In a paragraph above where you list each job, include succinct lines about the places you’ve worked, the markets you’ve worked in, or the competitiveness and demands of the working environment. Make some comparisons to well known Australian companies. Depending on what you do, it may help if you start your job search with organisations that are similar to places where you’ve worked previously.
On all your applications make sure your spelling, grammar, phrasing and expression are more than perfect. Potential employers will see your name, country of origin and can make assumptions about your communication skills. Adopt local expressions. Even if your English is text book, often an employer can hear someone’s accent by the way they write and the expression they use. So if you have any doubts about your English, ask someone who was born here (and whom you trust) to review your resume.
Find a professional to review your resume
An even better idea is to hunt through the websites of professional resume writers. You’ll see that many offer a free 20 minute review of your resume. I do this also. If there’s no obligation attached to use the professional writer’s services, then take advantage of this. It’s also one way to test that the resume writer knows their stuff.
Be persistent in your job search
In searching for a job online, you will need to be more persistent and curious than you may think is necessary. Don’t just email an application and hope for the best. By doing that you are allowing assumptions about you to go unchallenged, when what you really want to be doing is picking the brains of your recruitment consultant or potential employer. Build a relationship. If you find someone helpful at the end of the phone you can refine your knowledge of re-training you may need or experience you may need to gain.
If you do not feel confident over the phone, call someone you trust to practice. Ask them whether they can understand you and want to have a conversation with you. The way you ask questions and the tone that you use in asking questions is important. Australians are often less direct in their questioning style than other cultures. Also slow down. Body language contributes to a great deal of meaning in communication. All you have over the phone is your tone and your words.
Be creative in the way you find your job
Be more creative in your job search. If you are not finding the ideal role then you will need to be pragmatic. Find a job that lets you socialise with the “locals.” I’ve been helping one person from Korea. He worked casually at a gym, made friends with one of the patrons and told him about his experience. It turned out this person needed help in his accounting firm. Opportunities pop up if you are looking for them but put yourself out there.
Register with agencies for temp work. Often consultants are less fussy with finding someone with the perfect background if it’s just for short term assignments. These can lead to longer assignments, particularly if you’re reliable. This is a great way to build up your networks. Again you’ll need to be pleasantly persistent with the agency and keep in regular contact. Often speed is the essence in filling temp assignments and if the consultant knows you are easily available, you’ll be the first person they think of when they’re trying to fill an assignment. They’ll love you more and want to help you if take on the harder to fill jobs.
Meet the locals
Create some networks through volunteering, sport or hobbies. First make some friends, then ask around for who may know of a job. Many jobs are found this way, where someone hasn’t been a perfect match on paper, yet the employer has gone on the recommendation someone. It saves them money on recruitment and advertising. Be warned with this approach, though. Asking people for a job immediately when you meet them can be off-putting. The friendship is the most important thing. An offer to help you will often come afterwards.
Do some quality research. Find some people in your profession whom you can ask for advice on how your overseas experience translates, and where you should start your search. In my experience few people do this. Yet explaining how your skills translate is a great way to overcome the objection “no local experience.” By doing this you’re showing some great research and networking skills that even many locals don’t have. There are plenty of professional networking sites and forums out there that make it easy to contact people.
Finally be patient. You’re not alone in your experience and taking it personally will impact your self confidence. And that’s a success killer in any job search.
For more information on resumes, read this:
Why a career objective on your resume is important
Watch out for these resume red flags
How long should a resume be?
Seven things you don’t know I know from reading your resume
Don’t make these top 10 resume mistakes
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{ 12 comments }
Thank you, that is a very good and informative article, but I still have some questions, as my case is really tough and I just don’t know who to ask. What can one do in the most severe case of being unemployed? I’ve been in Australia (Brisbane) for almost 2,5 years, and havent’got any chance to get any employment, even in fast food chains or cleaning. The reason for this is lack of Australian experience. I have done several Certs in IT and business administration, but that was just waste of time and money, as no one was interested in my skills, and they already got worse cos I didn’t work for those industries.
I’m with Centrelink and JSP now, I honestly follow all the requirements and attend all the appointments. I know I’m not the only one, and there are heaps of cases like mine in the employment hubs, but I’m turning 25 this year, and half of life’s already gone, that’s why I really don’t know what to do, cos I’ll be 30 soon, and the employment chances are just floating away..Maybe I need to return to Europe?
I’m pretty sure my resumes and cover letters are good, as I have good linguistic background and have done deep research on Australian documents standards. But still the last interview was in July 2010..
To meet the locals is probably the hardest thing fo me, cos I’ve had 2-3 unpleasant experiences when I was told my English accent is non-Australian, and I spoke badly, though I speak pretty good and fluent English..That’s why I’m now mostly afraid to talk to new people and sometimes ashamed of my european descent, when I’m talking to an employer on the phone that thought comes again and I start stuttering etc.
Hi there Mathieu, I am sorry to hear this hasn’t gone well for you. If you email me your resume – I’ll look over it for you and give you some feedback.
Don’t let the ignorant comments of a few people put you off. Australia has all sorts of accents. Somehow it all works.
I have exactly the same problem. Since I came to Australia I haven’t had any chance to find any job, I don’t have any local experience and all my referees are not professionals. The employers won’t accept TAFE teachers somehow and that becomes a big problem as well. Guys from Campbell Page can’t do anything either as they just can’t make an employer give a stream 4 job seeker a position. No one wants a person with irrelevant skills or with skills but no experience and this is extremely logical, I would do that myself being an employer. I ended up going to a pshychologist as my self-esteem has never been so low as it is now.
Hi Dimmie, I know your experience is pretty common that’s why I wrote this piece. Email me your resume and I will see if I can give you some ideas. Karalyn
Thank you Karalyn, but I decided to come back to Europe and start from scratch, unfortunately it didn’t work for me. Anyway I liked Australia very much!
Australia has become a really racist place when it comes to employment.
Unfortunately they will say a lot of unpleasant things when someone who does not look and does not sound Aussie apply for jobs at their place.
The comments from employers can be anything ranging from languages, not enough experience, too much studies, poor communication skills, etc. The real reason which they cannot tell job applicants by law is they just don’t want them.
Australian employers should realise that everyone who is Australian citizen/resident deserves the rights to get an employment no matter what backgrounds they come from.
I didn’t find Australia a racist place, but the job situation for newcomers and residents with no local experience in QLD is really not that good, I got my Australian citizenship one year ago, but I work and live in Lithuania now, my home country which I left for Australia 6 years ago. Now I have a really good job with a stable income and working home, though officially being a foreigner:) In Australia I was unemployed..
Algirdas,
Are you Matthew (the person who replied this entry earliest)?
Well it’s not just you with the story of “coming back to the previous country and got a job”. Many people got jobs once they have returned to their countries.
The reason is when you are in your country of origin (and you are one of the people in majority), getting a job is much easier because you apply jobs to your own people and your own people want to hire you because you are one of them.
Australia is a more racist place when it comes to employment compared to the US, the UK, and Canada.
In both the 3 countries mentioned above, people don’t even have to speak English to get jobs. Of course it is hard to get jobs in those countries too because they are in recession. But before recession, it was easy (I witnessed those who did not speak English gained jobs in those countries).
In Australia, the ability of speaking English alone may not get them a job.
Hi Stanley,
No, I’m Algirdas from Lithuania, Mathieu posting above seems to be French, though I’m not sure:))
Yeah, maybe so, to some extent, but I saw a lot of people working in Australia who spoke English with terrible accent or spoke really bad English but that didn’t prevent them from getting a job (that includes simple jobs like in fast food chains or jobs like sales consultants in stores), well maybe they were a bit more lucky than I am, I don’t know:)) My English is pretty good and almost lack of any really evident accent but I still don’t think it’s the first thing the employer looks at))
Any success stories with Canada? I’ve always wanted to stay for some time in Montreal, any good chance to get some summer/temporary employment for an Australian citizen?
Algirdas,
I personally know a few people who got jobs in Canada a few years ago. They got minimum-wage jobs (which was at 9.50 CAD an hour) and they worked more than 40 hours a week earning around 2,000 CAD a month.
They did not speak English at all (or maybe little).
The positions were housekeeping positions, cleaning positions, factory laborer positions.
I do not know how easy it is to get a job in Canada now because I think it is in recession.
But you must know someone to get a job there. Have you got friends and relatives in Canada? In fact, it would be easier if people had a social network (family, friends) to get a job in *any country*.
Okay, refreshing my French then and looking for some friends in Quebec asap:)
Thank you for info, Stanley
“Local experience” in this global world, what an irony. If that by itself is not racist, what is? The fact that most people in Australia put their nationality and ethnicity in resume is enough evidence that Australians are racist. Knowing local laws and regulations – why then would you allow an European or American to get a driver license without a test? Do they have the same rules and regulations? But, then you would not hire them here, why? Simple as it is – Australians are racists and they still have many years to accept that they have been in denial. For anyone planning to move to Australia, here is my suggestion – unless you plan to live off welfare for the rest of your life, specially if you are someone who wants to work hard to achieve your dream – look somewhere else because Australia wont offer you a chance.