A pattern to search your job in Australia

At my recent event, where I introduced seven people who have been there, seen it and done that. I am talking about people who immigrated to Australia and got their first jobs. People from different countries (India, Turkey, Colombia), different industries (Media, Finance, Banking, IT, Retail) and with different levels of experience (Between 5 – 16 years) and all relate to same things again and again during the conversations.

Based on my recent experience in helping people find jobs and the interviews that I had on Wednesday, I have identified four important things which are repeated again and again, when it comes to looking for a job in Australia.

Searching the right job matching with your skills (not title)

This is the first one. Many people are so attached to the title that they forget what their skills are and the first important thing is to understand what skills you have, what skills are required for the kind of jobs that you want to do. If one does not have all the skills, then have a plan to acquire them, but end of the day look for jobs matching the skills and not the title!

I was having a conversation with one of my friend yesterday. She is looking for a marketing assistant job, having done her MBA in international business recently. However, in 5 minutes of conversation, we realized that she should be learning a lot about digital marketing as that is one of the important skill set to have for the kind of job that she has to do. She has a plan now to acquire the skills and steer in the right direction.

Having the right resume

Once the required skills are identified, the next step is to write a resume to match with the skills. As I have mentioned in many posts before, resume is like a marketing brochure and it is not about what you have done but what you want to do.

A common thing that came up in the discussion is to have a one page summary of your entire career on the first page. This is the key to attracting attention of the person who is reading the resume. Apparently, for common jobs, the average time that a resume is looked at is 6 seconds and the only way to attract attention is to make a very good snapshot of your profile.

Preparing for the interview

The theme that was consistently repeated during all the interviews, was the importance of answering behavioral questions. While the importance is given to the skills, it is more important that you “gel well” with the team. People want to see if they can work with you and you will be able to identify yourself with the team.

Offline and online networking

Networking, networking and more networking is the key. Having the right connections on your social media, and participating in the right networking events (meetups, industry association events, social events) is the key in getting the job. Meet as many new people as you can and you never know where you will land your next job from.

So, you see, if you can do all the four things above properly, it is a good chance that you will land with your job successfully. The only thing remains now is to tailor your approach as per your personality, industry, experience and skill set.

I wanted to have a quick snapshot presented about the pattern that I see as it is repeated again and again and present it. Of course, we are heading into holidays, so for those who are reading this, wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

If you want to connect with me, this is my LinkedIn profile.

Until next time in the next year!

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2 Comments

  1. Hi Gaurav,

    Any pointers for someone in Real Estate or Infrastructure Consulting sector having worked with KPMG, Deloitte, PWC and CBRE in India?

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/apurvdutt

    Looking to apply for PR to Australia, wanted to assess the right steps to do it..any help would be great!!

    • Gaurav

      Hi Apurv

      I would suggest you search for relevant skills and roles (focus on keywords associated with skills and work you do rather than roles) on Australian Job portals like http://www.seek.com.au, http://www.indeed.com.au, so on and so forth.

      Real Estate is a huge sector here and I am sure there would be ample opportunities.

      All the best!
      Regards
      Gaurav

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