Sponsorship Woes

I’ve met with many recruiters, travellers and expats and they all agree. “Don’t get your hopes up. Sponsorship is nearly impossible.”

Today is my 2 month anniversary of moving to Sydney and starting the next chapter in my life. Today is also the day that I sign my contract with Taurus Marketing as an Account Executive. Most importantly, today is the day that I receive sponsorship by Taurus Marketing to not only work in Australia for longer than 6 months as my Working Holiday Visa outlines, but live here for up to 4 years until I renew.

I can and can’t believe I’ve gotten this opportunity. I can believe it because I have always been a hardworking person. Getting the job wasn’t the hard part. I could have settled to work at a call centre, temp office work or even manage a hostel. I decided to get back into PR; what I studied in Uni and what my work experience highlights. It was a tough road when I first got here. There were days where I marched to Visa First or the public library laptop in hand and head held high ready to blast my resume through Seek.com.au. There were also days where I cried thinking this move was a big mistake. Hearing from the people listed above that sponsorship hardly ever happens didn’t help my cause. The more I investigated the legalities of sponsorship, the more exasperating clauses I would find. True or false, my heart would sink knowing that these ideas floated around the Australian marketplace.

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  If sponsored, the employer has to give the government a reason why he or she couldn’t find an Australian to fulfill the role
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  You need to make a certain salary amount to be considered for sponsorship
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  Because of the GFC - Global Financial Crisis as Australian media as dubbed it – companies were reluctant to sponsor at all

Despite the rumours, I had to get realistic and start looking for jobs that would fit the Working Holiday Visa criteria i.e. work with 1 employer for up to 6 months before the visa expires.

Since I’ve arrived I’ve had 6 interviews, all with PR. Some were first round, some were second round, and some were ready for me to start- but wanted to ‘try before they buy’ by getting me to come in for a couple days unpaid. One was successful.

Because Taurus Marketing was impressed with my first and second round interviews, they were ready to hire me, but weren’t sure if they could sponsor me because they are a small firm of about a dozen already sponsoring two others. They were lacking staff due to holiday, so they opted for the ‘try before you buy’ option. In return, they would get my foot in the door of the Australian market complete with references. I worked for 3 and a half weeks doing anything from answering the phone to creating media and marketing campaigns. During the entire process, I was still interviewing with others getting more attention now that my resume reflected Australian work experience. At the end of my time at Taurus, their staff had returned from holiday and they found out from their lawyers and immigration that they could sponsor me even though they were already sponsoring a French guy and a British girl.

Although this is the first place that offered me sponsorship, this wasn’t a hasty decision. I know the people and I know the work. More importantly, I enjoy the people and I enjoy the work. This is going to be a great learning experience which will lead to ‘greater things’ as my Mom put it.

I might miss out on some other really great jobs with some really great companies or some really bad ones, but I’m now done with the job searching and it can’t be any sweeter. I can’t always think about the grass being greener on the other side. This is a leap of faith I’m ready to take. I want to say that I’m lucky, but I should really insert some mystical quote about luck and hard work producing success.

Thank you everyone for your support. You know who you are.

*I will begin writing in British English as it is used here in Australia or at least I will try to.