npkz

Thanks for your feedback. I have not been able to get a meeting with either permanent or temp agencies, pitching as manager and as labourer. Your idea to set up as a contractor is interesting, although I thought most companies went to temp agencies for short term labour. What is the approach and pitch when contacting a company as a contractor?

The last time I had to contend with the job market, I walked into temp agency offices, told my story, and got sent out on assignments. From there I made permanent, got promoted and sailed on for many years. Having moved to Melbourne recently, I find that none of the agencies (temp or permanent) will see me for an initial assessment meeting. Every one said to submit a CV for a specific position and then wait for them to contact me. My background does not fit into the square box to be ticked format, so I anticipate and have had no contacts via that route. In fact, my plan is to start over at the bottom in logistics again and work my way up. Does anyone have experience with getting access to temp recruitment agents? Are there any agencies that still talk to walkins? Is going directly to private employers my best approach now? In my experience, temp/casual workers always come from agencies. Thanks in advance Phillip

What a great thread, plenty of good info in here. I would like to ask a question about hiring periods. "jobs tend to pick up just after the holiday season and we learnt quickly that Feb is when things pick up in Aus. Then, for my line of work, hiring picks up again just before the financial year end and then a month into the new financial year when budgets are in hand to hire resources... I do want to point out that we have been lucky with the timing of our move and experience, if we arrived in Sept 2016, we would have to spend 3 months job hunting so keep a time frame of up to 6 months to get the right role" For private sector jobs in management, is the hiring market primarily in two bursts - mid-Jan through Feb and then July-August? That is what I have heard, and we were thinking about arriving at the first of September, but I'm concerned about that two month hiring slowdown in Dec/Jan (holiday break). If we don't land jobs right away, I would hate to burn savings in Dec/Jan waiting for the second crack at the employment market, but my OH really wants to get to OZ asap. Is September not a good time to turn up looking for work? Thanks, Phillip