dangargoyle Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 Landed in Sydney on 20th May, 2015 with a family of 4. Been Touring the place for the last few days, from Chatswood all the way to Penrith and Liverpool. I've met and interacted with dozens of people already and am very happy with my first impressions of Sydney and the way me and my family have been received. Everyone seems very friendly and approachable. No trouble at all getting directions from strangers. I'm staying in Strathfield for a couple of weeks as I look for a more permanent area to move to within NSW. In General, everyone seems busy rushing somewhere. On the roads, drivers are very courteous and seem very composed. Everyone follows traffic rules. I got a reasonably priced Toyota Rav4 for under $3000 to help me and the kids move around.. The place is extremely organized with an effective transport network and endless beautiful suburbs.... Lovely. But extremely expensive. I need to start working. So Problem Number 1 is solved. My next challenge is to find a decent job within my first month here. I am making at least 25 well targeted job applications daily via seek and linkedin but haven't received any responses 8 days later. Strange! hmmmm. 25 seems like a very large number of applications to NOT have received any replies in 8 days? Or - Is it still too early to judge? I'm in IT and we seem to be getting over 500 new jobs being advertised within Sydney daily... Now, I consider myself to be a very strong candidate for my area of expertise (IT Management and Systems Development), but i'm really getting scared by this delay in getting job responses because Im applying for jobs at all levels including Contracts and Junior Positions and customizing my CV for each application. For now, I'm keeping an optimistic mind hoping that I will to start work within my first month here...... But I need advise and encouragement.... Am I doing this the right way? Or am I being OverZealous? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 They reckon you should have enough of a buffer for 6 months unemployment when you first arrive, hope for 3 months and be happy if it's less than that. You've only been there a week - recruitment is a slow process. Responding to selection criteria is vital so maybe you are overdoing it. Be aware, too, that many advertised positions aren't real vacancies, there's often someone sitting in them. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
susanbro Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 Having worked in recruitment myself you will find that a lot of the adverts are for candidate attraction and are not for real vacancies. Not sure of the rules of this in Aus but I bet its the same as the UK. Apply to company adverts only and go visit some of the agencies in person and get registered for work rather than responding to their job ads. Good luck!! xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dangargoyle Posted May 27, 2015 Author Share Posted May 27, 2015 They reckon you should have enough of a buffer for 6 months unemployment when you first arrive, hope for 3 months and be happy if it's less than that. You've only been there a week - recruitment is a slow process. Responding to selection criteria is vital so maybe you are overdoing it. Be aware, too, that many advertised positions aren't real vacancies, there's often someone sitting in them. Good luck Man! That's discouraging. 6 Months is a long time.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bungo Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 I think you need to make some recruiter connections, meet up with an agent, get someone on your side so that they think of you when a job comes up. The other thing I would recommend, especially considering you have been there for only one week, is to actually target the type and level of role that you would like and is commensurate with your background. Scatter gunning across the board rarely works well. It is early days, I wouldn't be too concerned at not having any luck just yet, but I do think you need to change the approach of applying for everything going on seek.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mungbean Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 I am making at least 25 well targeted job applications daily via seek and linkedin but haven't received any responses 8 days later. Strange! As you're in IT presumably you're also checking for responses going into your spam folder? Definitely registered with the email address you're checking? Any chance of phoning some of them to follow up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bristolman Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 Man! That's discouraging. 6 Months is a long time.... Apparently according to the OECD the average length of unemployment in Australia is around 9 months, of course that is across the board. With unemployment having increased in recent times the competition for every job increases. I happen to think that 9 months is exaggerated and is made to look worse by high youth and long term unemployed. I would certainly be looking at potentially months rather than weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frozen Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 Remember that it's end of financial year at this time in Australia. We have just left Australia but I worked in IT and managed and recruited software developers and the market is what it is... That being said I'd suggest you network, network and network again. LinkedIn isn't used as much as in the US for example but it's still far more reliable than Seek as that seems mainly to be used for CV harvesting nowadays. I'd also agree with the person above who said only apply to roles directly with the employer. Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 I wouldn't say don't apply to agency advertised roles but follow each one up with a call, agents are lazy (or efficient? ) and sometimes you need to tell them exactly why ytou are the candidate they should but forward. One of the challenges you will face is not having experience with local employers, i know when I'm recruiting I look at where people have worked before a) because it gives me an idea of their working practices and b) because I may know someone who can give me the inside info without a formal reference request. Obviously you can't lie but if you have worked for companies that have sister companies in Australia which may be better known, highlight that or provide a bit of info about the company so that at least the size/importance of where you've worked is clear. Who you know is even more important in Australia than the UK so networking is the answer - try ACS events, Engineers Australia, OWASP, Meetup (& if there isn't one that fits - start one!), go to conferences. Buy in messages on linked in and directly message peers and managers, suggest a beer or a coffee for a chat - look for other migrants who may empathise and give you a leg up. In the meantime take any job (& I mean any!) so your money lasts a while longer - even after an offer it could be a couple of months before you start and a month before you get paid - welcome to laid back Australia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bungo Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 I wouldn't say don't apply to agency advertised roles but follow each one up with a call, agents are lazy (or efficient? ) and sometimes you need to tell them exactly why ytou are the candidate they should but forward. Me neither. Would be seriously limiting the options by not applying to any roles through agencies. Many companies use agents for filtering candidates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinkla Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 Agree with others - banging out many applications is unlikely to be the best approach, although it is tempting to do as it makes you feel you are doing something (been there, done that). Many jobs in Australia go to people who are known to the recruiter and the process is more for show than anything else. Obviously there are exceptions - and my first job was obtained that way. But where an advert offers a contact number, you are expected to call it and treat the conversation as a mini-interview. You should try to fix meetings with IT agencies to see how you can get on their books - suggest going out for a cup of coffee - and keep following up. Try to get meetings with IT managers in major companies too - so your name will be in the thinking when they do issue job adverts. Many IT managers will try to brush you off at this stage, but some will take you up - these are the ones you are most likely to end up working for. If you do get to have a cup of coffee, make sure you keep the conversation on how you have just moved to Australia, explain your skill set, and say that you are keen to get a role that will let you put your skills to good use. Don't sound entitled; don't sound frustrated; and don't even think of saying that you find the recruitment process mystifying - but do ask for advice on how you should approach applications and if they are not recruiting themselves, do ask for contact names of anyone they might know who could be recruiting - then use the name of the person who gave you the contact when following it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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