Setting Up a Job In Australia whilst living in UK before migrating

[reutmark]

How easy is it to do this? I assume very tricky? I work in the field of university careers advice and would be looking to work in an educational establishment in Perth say a school or a university? I assume I would have to accept arriving in Perth with no job and look from there? Also I am middle aged so a lot of ageism in Aus/Perth in employment terms?

 

Thanks

[SeadogSal]

I reckon quite tough - we spent a year applying (probably 150 applications) and finally nailed it. But don't even think of applying for anything on SEEK as it would just be a standard rejection. Get a linked in account and target named people with your CV - that is my top advice - ignore agencies they are useless.

[Rupert]

How easy is it to do this? I assume very tricky? I work in the field of university careers advice and would be looking to work in an educational establishment in Perth say a school or a university? I assume I would have to accept arriving in Perth with no job and look from there? Also I am middle aged so a lot of ageism in Aus/Perth in employment terms?

 

Thanks

 

Do you have a visa or not? What age do you mean by middle aged? Do you want to move temporarily or just do something different for a couple of years?

[CrozierFamily]

Hi

 

I have recently managed to find a job in Australia and get sponsorship from the UK. I can tell you what I did, but there are no guarantees. I think the first thing I would say is that you have to be willing to be patient. When I set out to find a job I told myself that I would give it two years of trying and in the end it took just under a year to get an offer. Typically I got two offers in one week, jobs are like buses!

 

My background is in financial services, mainly in product management and marketing. I knew I had no option to apply straight off for a permanent visa as my skills are not on the list. I identified my only chance to get to Australia was a 457 visa. I recognised this was not a guarantee of permanent residency by any means but accepted the risk that it was worth a shot, with the aim of going permanent if things work out with my employer. So advice part 1: Work out what your visa options are and accept the risks they pose.

 

What you do for a living will guide your options to some extend, for example with me, most of the work I do would be found in either Melbourne or Sydney. I wouldnt really have the option of working in a rural area, so I narrowed my search for jobs to the two biggest cities. Advice number two: Identify the areas of the country you can realistically target to find a job.

 

Once I had worked out the visa and the areas I could search I took a few routes to try and find out the appetite for my skills in Australia and to find out what I should expect from a salary perspective. I asked a few questions on forums and searched the web. I got a bit of info, but nothing majorly helpful. This is advice number 3: Work out whether you are in demand and find out whether what you will be getting paid is in line with your expectations.

 

Having failed to answer the above questions I decided to do two things. Firstly I decided to identify people in my network who knew someone in Australia who might be able to help me. Secondly I tried to find the specialist recruitment agencies that recruit people with my skills. This is advice number 4: Work your network. Everyone knows someone in Australia who can help you if you look hard enough. I managed to find someone through a friend of my Mums who I last saw when I was a kid, who just so happened to have married someone who used to work for a bank, he gave me a name of someone in a bank who worked in HR. I contacted the HR guy and he helped me out a bit. Most importantly he gave me details of recruitment agencies to speak to and promised to keep me in mind for jobs.

 

In addition to the above I searched the web for specialist agencies to register with and contact. My strategy here was to search on Seek and Linkedin and find the agencies that were advertising roles in my general profession. My thinking is that they may not be advertising the exact role for you, but they will be most likely to have some interest in your skills.

 

After emailing quite a few agencies I got a fair number of responses and spoke to a brave few consultants on the phone. Many of whom talk tripe, some of whom are quite useful. However, I had managed to build a small network in Australia of some people who might be able to help me in the future. I set a reminder in my calender and mailed each of them every 4 weeks, just to remind them that I was still here and looking for the right opportunity. Some of them replied every month, some I never heard from after the first telephone chat. I sent these emails every 4 weeks for a year. They were probably sick of me at the end. Advice number 5: Never give up, don't let them forget you.

 

Having built up a network, I decided I would also try and apply to roles directly. I thought this was more of a long shot, but I gave it a go. I checked Seek every day, and Linkedin jobs, and the job sites of the main employers I had identified. When I saw a direct role I applied for it. Or if one of the people I knew in my network had mentioned they had links to this employer I contacted them and asked them if they would see if they would consider me. Furthermore if I saw someone I had been in touch with was advertising something and hadnt emailed me about it, I emailed them and asked them whether they would consider an international applicant. Any new contacts I picked up were added to the 4 weekly email!

 

So in the end I repeated the above process for a year. I checked Seek and Linkedin every day and I found new people to contact all the time. I got a few bites from people, even had a couple of interviews over Skype, but for various reasons they did not work out. I even got offered a good role, but it didnt feel right to me so I passed it up.

 

I kept on searching and emailing, knowing that sooner or later something would happen. By the time I did find a job I had sent over 3000 emails, had a network of over 100 people in Australia who might be able to help and applied for I dont know how many jobs (a few a day at least, some with very boring application forms). I did all of my interviews via Skype, which made things easier even than an interview in the UK!

 

Funnily enough the recruitment agent who found me the job was the person that my mums, friends, husbands. contact in HR gave me details of!

 

The other job I was offered I applied to directly by calling the recruiting manager on their mobile (which I found on google) about 4 hours after my second child was born and I was in a hospital still awake in the middle of the night!

 

So to be honest it was a total pain in the neck, it took ages and it was soul destroying at times. But in the end I found a job. Totally worth every email and late night interview when I should have been sleeping.

 

I think in summary my advice is to plan well, know your market, work and build your network, dont just accept the first thing you get and never give up.

 

Hope this helps.

[Freesia]

wow that's impressive! & good advice - got a good strategy for winning the lotto?:wink:

[Xenon4017]

Yep, that's the way to do it. You have to treat looking for a job as a job in itself.

[mattybe]

I have just done it and it wasnt that bad. Had no joy with seek though.

 

Make sure you have a quality aussie style resume.

 

State clearly your visa type etc

 

Give a timeframe for when you can commence employment.

 

I got the above advice from here off Freckleface.

 

I lined up an interview during my reccie and got the job, they are even paying for relocation so really happy.

 

So it is achievable. There was no way I was turning up jobless when I had a good career/pension in uk.

 

Just make sure you put accross you are ready to start... Employing people from abroad who may be just dipping their toe in the water and cant start for 6 months doesnt cut the mustard. If people are advertising its cos they want to fill the vacancy now.

 

Good luck, If I can be anymore help let me know

 

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[Xenon4017]

 

I lined up an interview during my reccie and got the job, they are even paying for relocation so really happy.

 

 

 

Well done too. Interesting that in your timeline the skills assessment took longer than the visa process. I think the EOI system followed by a quick decision is much better than a few years ago where everyone goes into a big pool and waits and waits.

 

And I think doing a reccie is a good idea. It might seem a bit expensive, but when you consider what you're risking if you don't, it's maybe worth it.

 

I hope potential migrants read through the posts above. Nowadays you can do so much research online. You're a fool if you don't utilise it to the fullest extent.

[CrozierFamily]

wow that's impressive! & good advice - got a good strategy for winning the lotto?:wink:

 

I have a sure fire way to win the lottery. Buy a ticket for every possible number combination.

 

It will probably cost you more than you will win, but still, you won the lotto.

[reutmark]

Hi

 

By middle aged I men 50! I am not looking to apply right now as am looking at this possibly for a couple of years time and if I do look to do this I would have a visa sorted in advance of applying yes.

[VERYSTORMY]

Hi

 

By middle aged I men 50! I am not looking to apply right now as am looking at this possibly for a couple of years time and if I do look to do this I would have a visa sorted in advance of applying yes.

 

You will not be able to apply for visa for permanent residence as the cut off is 50 i am afraid.

 

As for a sponsored 457 visa, this is a temp visa, valid for 4 years. In order to be eligible, your occupation needs to be on either the SOL or CSOL. However, as people have pointed out, it is hard to get the job that carries the visa

[reutmark]

I would be going over on a prospective marriage visa which is not age limited --sorry should have explained this!

[Tamilope]

Hi Mattybe,

 

Good to hear your story. Can you send Aussie resume template as i am looking forward to start applying for jobs before i relocate.

 

Thanks

 

Tamilope

[Rupert]

Hi Mattybe,

 

Good to hear your story. Can you send Aussie resume template as i am looking forward to start applying for jobs before i relocate.

 

Thanks

 

Tamilope

 

There is no such thing as an Aussie CV template. A good CV is a good CV.

[Tamilope]

Hi Rupert,

 

I quite agree with you. But i also believe a structure of a resume slighty defers from country to country not the content.

That's what i am looking for. You can throw more light.

 

Tamilope

[Rupert]

Hi Rupert,

 

I quite agree with you. But i also believe a structure of a resume slighty defers from country to country not the content.

That's what i am looking for. You can throw more light.

 

Tamilope

 

You can do a search and you will find that many people will comment that their UK and Australian CVs are identical. Mine are.

[Tamilope]

You can do a search and you will find that many people will comment that their UK and Australian CVs are identical. Mine are.

 

Thanks. I will do the search.

[Joebloggs]

Hi Rupert,

 

I quite agree with you. But i also believe a structure of a resume slighty defers from country to country not the content.

That's what i am looking for. You can throw more light.

 

Tamilope

 

Sorry it's the opposite.

 

It's not the way the Resume is structured, it's the content that's important. You could have a Resume full of rubbish and no matter what way it's structured (even professionally) it will still be full of rubbish.

 

Australian Employers are looking for keywords, well known company names within the industry, recognisable qualifications, "Australian Experience" is another keyword.

 

Where many people fall down is their grammar and spelling, my old boss used to go through CVs and he would bin any that looked as if it was written by someone who spoke broken English.

[Kenny Mclachlan]

Hi Rupert,

 

I quite agree with you. But i also believe a structure of a resume slighty defers from country to country not the content.

That's what i am looking for. You can throw more light.

 

Tamilope

 

A few people have made the observation that the UK /Aussie Resume/CV are pretty much the same. This is true to a large degree but with just a few minor differences in what would be considered 'acceptable'. As others have also pointed out, a good CV is a good CV - that is quite right but first you need to actually create a 'good' CV and in a format that sells you the best way possible. This latter aspect is where many people fail, therefore missing out on potential interviews. The CV is a sales pitch, pure and simple and recuiters/hiring managers tend to know a good (and bad) sales pitch when the see it.

 

Going back to the original question of how difficult is it to get a job prior to arrival - I think that depends a lot on where you are moving to as some areas are more tricky than others. Overall though - my feeling is that it's tricky regardless. You need a good plan, a better Resume and a determined attitude!

 

Worth it in the end though - Oz is a great place in my opinion!