In an attempt to take your money, VisaFirst lured us in by saying that on average, it takes working holiday visa holders 3 weeks to get a job. What most people don’t realize is that working holiday visa holders are often tourists arriving in Australia looking for casual employment to supplement their ongoing travels. Dave and I are a different case. We’re here to jump-start our career. The problem for us is that we’re doing this the hardest way you can – blindly sending our resumes to company websites, Seek.com.au (Australia’s largest job bank) and Gumtree.com.au (Australia’s largest classifieds website much like craigslist.com. It’s a numbers game for us. We send out as many resumes and cover letters in hopes for a phone call, an interview, or better yet, a short listing. Thankfully, we arrived with over $10,000 each, but even that much is dwindling each day as we are unemployed. After all, we are budgeting for $280/week on rent, various bills (mobiles, electricity and Internet), food, transportation, and a bit on miscellaneous entertainment (movie tickets, beer etc). Despite the money worries, each week is a new week where we find many more jobs to apply for and get the occasional call back.
I’ve applied to 100 jobs at least ranging from casual admin to PR coordinator - what I really want. I’ve only had 3 interviews. For this particular job, I applied to their headline PR Graduate. Hoping for sponsorship, but realistically just wanting Australia PR experience, I took whatever they could give me. Thankfully, we made a deal that I would work as a paid casual employee for a month to gain more exposure and get a reference for other jobs that could sponsor me.
I’ve been working there for over a week now and have learned so much. I’ve had many other communications internships, but this is very different. At the other places, I worked in-house where we were primarily re-active with media where no comment was acceptable. Working here at an agency, we are quite pro-active constantly pitching ideas. I’ve gotten to know more about Australian media outlets and corporations that are big players in the ASX. I’ve seen how we take in prospective clients, develop their PR, and finally invoice our work never realizing how much PR exposure really costs or how much PR professionals are really paid! I’m excited about the campaigns I’m working on and really look forward to the day where I am in an interview and can tell them all about my PR experience in Sydney.
I have about 2 weeks left at this job. I’m already sad to leave because I feel like I’ve grown so much professionally in such a short time. I do have to face the music though and swallow the fact that I’ll be back to the drawing board again.
Some things I didn’t know about the Australian job market:
l The 1-page resume is not enough. Most have 3-5 pages easily
l ‘Graduate’ positions exist somewhere between interning and entry-level
l You probably won’t get a call back or an email unless you’ve been short-listed
l Most full-time positions require permanent residency or citizenship, thus excluding working holiday visa owners
l Sponsorship is nearly impossible unless your trade is something really needed such as doctors and nurses
l Unemployment rate is 5.0% compared to the U.S. 9.5%
l Over 170,000 foreigners are granted work-ready visas each year
l Australia is growing at 1.9% compared to U.S. 1.0% and the world average at 1.2%
1 comment:
Oh my God~ this is so helpful and enlightening! tnx shadiyah^^ Hope everything's working out great there~
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