Migrating to Australia with a job in hand (Guest post by Arvind )

A Precap:
---------------
      Our migration experience is extensively documented in this blog. Landing in 2015 in Canberra with a job as a satellite engineer at one of Australia's foremost space research team in hand wasn't just mere luck. The efforts we had put in to making it happen are worth sharing.

      Australia is just awesome – but one thorn in the sole that pricks most new migrants is the fear of a job search. Local experience, hidden job market, resume, selection criteria and a million other terms hover in your minds to confuse and intimidate any first time job seeker. It is understandable as job search is not the only thing that you are dealing with at the moment – migration itself is huge and adjusting to a new country is a whole massive mental game.  When you are busy with all this, it is easy to lose track and not apply practical ways of job search but instead get lost in a spiralling mess. We, at Ohm Innovations receive numerous queries and requests for suggestions from new migrants and other first time job seekers every day. This post is nothing but a reflection of the strategies that worked out personally for us during our job search phase. This is not a how-to guide, but rather an account of our experiences. 

1 ) Get your resume right 
---------------------------------

      There is no need to stress the importance of a good resume – “crap in is crap out”, the outcome of your job search to a large extent depends on how good your resume is. You may be an awesome candidate, but without a selling resume it is virtually impossible to expect calls. Recruiters are a hard batch to convince. Be prepared to spend days working on your resume and be prepared to put in lots of hard work on this key document. From personal experience, there is no such thing as an “ Australian format “ – if there is one it is nothing but a good resume with relevant facts and no bullshit. There are a number of key factors to consider – not all can be covered in a single post – just stating a few

• Avoid ambiguous statements – “Designed a very good user interface” – How exactly do you quantify “very good” ? What are the performance metrics that you used to arrive at your conclusion?  What was the result of the interface being good ? 

• Avoid reproducing your job requirements on your resume . For example if you were a programmer , stating “ Program software based on design document” – is an obvious task and it is a job description rather than your resume. 

•  Avoid personal information and achievements – though job specific, no one requires your date of birth or your 100 bungee jumping experience -unless of course it is an adventure island care taker job or something along those lines.  Let your life experiences talk during interviews if required. 

2) Talk / Network / Mingle 
------------------------------------

      You believe you have a good resume – what next? It would be tempting to jump straight in to start flooding Seek, Indeed and other job search sites with your resume, but it would be wiser to take a step back and breathe first. Do not start applying straightaway – start networking with the relevant people who could potentially help you land in a job – could be a recruitment agent, could be your mate in Australia with contacts, could be your hiring manager, could be a HR person etc.

      How do you get to know relevant people. Just keep your eyes and ears open. There are tonnes of contacts you can get via LinkedIN, Facebook and other networking sites. Many recruiters even post their contact details in the job ads. There is a fine line between stalking and being smart on social media to use it to your advantage. Try to be smart. Talk to as much people as possible and arrange meetings with recruiters. It may not work out for this job but they would always keep you in their database for future references. Try to also establish contacts with people from your industry. You will be surprised one day when you get a call from one of them for a job referral and even more useful would be to actually develop a list of companies in the city you are looking for work. Having a good LinkedIN profile and making wise use of everything LinkedIn has to offer is a whole separate topic and it needs a separate post. Making wise use of LinkedIN and other social media platforms not only helps in job search but also with career progression. 

3) Spend time and work smart for each application
-----------------------------------------------------------------

      Each job ad is unique and recruiters/hiring managers put their effort in to make them sound appealing. Its obvious that as an applicant, we should put an equal effort if not more to make our application stand out. Spend some time and treat every application that you enter as your dream ob. Brute force application strategies may work in some cases but it can never guarantee a success.

• Address the selection criteria smartly – again avoid ambiguities, don’t contradict yourselves, do not over exaggerate and above all – please get your grammar right. SC , again is a whole separate topic – will post a dedicated write up from our experience.

• Read the ad carefully – if the job asks for references specifically – add it, if it says Citizenship Required and you are not – please don’t apply , if it requires a 200 word response to the selection criteria – do not write pages of responses , etc.

•  If you have a doubt – do not make assumptions. Please contact the advertiser. It is not silly – only those who ask for answers , get answered. 

4) Read and research
------------------------------

      Reading and researching the market goes a long way. Read about your city, read about how the industry operates in Australia, read about the market trends and make sure you are also aware of the government policies that affect the industry in which you pursue your job search. This research not only improves your awareness, but also would be useful during interviews. 

      One other important thing you will have to do is to Keep Your Eyes Open. Always be on the vigil for looking out for company names. They could be everywhere. You will be surprised if your potential employer turns out to be a company that you came across in an ad that you casually glanced in a supermarket or a bus trip or maybe even overheard during a backyard barbeque. There are numerous start ups and small companies that are always hiring. So its not just the big player you must be targeting at. These start up jobs are equally satisfying and they also tend to add to the ever elusive “local experience”. 

Disclaimer :
------------------

At our venture Ohm Innovations, we work with a number of clients on resume design, LinkedIn profile design and assisting with Selection Criteria responses. The venture started out from our personal experiences and strategies that worked for us during our job search period. We started it out helping friends and close acquaintances and looking at the success stories of our clients we decided to expand our service as a small business. This post is after the numerous requests we received from new migrants on social media to share our personal experiences and not an  advertisement for our paid services. 

--

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
--------------------------------

This is a guest post from my super cool husband aka The Satellite Engineer- Arvind Ramana.
Arvind did his masters in Embedded Systems(2009) At NTU, Singapore. He has worked for various companies like Siemens, Xilinx at Electronics Engg roles. He was one of the hardware designer of Singapore's First Commercial Earth Observation Satellite- TELEOS 1, when he worked at ST Electronics Satellite Systems. He is currently an Embedded Systems Professional at the UNSW@ADFA, Space Engineering Team who are the forefront of Australia's space industry.

He did manage to get this job at Canberra from Singapore. So after landing here, he started helping out new migrants with their resume and in few months he started a small venture - Ohm Innovations.
Ohm Innovations, his latest venture focuses on two verticals -  Career Services and  STEM / Robotics. He is also very passionate about Robotics and has conducted Robotics workshops for kids funded by the National Science Week ACT as a part of National Science Week.

Please read our other parts of migration experiences here.