Recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that despite new migrants' qualification, they are likely to be jobless compare to those Australian-born, due to their ineffective communication skills and lack of local working experience. But experts can help.
Lakshmi Bettadapura Shankar is a skilled migrant who has a decade working experience in project and mechanical design engineer with General Electric in India. He said that he has high expectation that he could land a job in Australia, but it is a totally different story when he came here. He has faced rejection after rejection, and there was no explanation given why job was not offered.
Career coach Ray Pavri from Job Transition Strategy is all too familiar with as he said that people tend to ignore the hidden job market which around 70% of vacancies are not advertised.
Mr. Pavri said that there are roughly 400 to 1400 applicants per job ad and it would be a challenge, but by having local experience will make huge difference.
AMES English language lead teacher Luke Treadwell runs employment workshops for people new to the country suggests volunteering to get to know Australian work place culture, because people working in those places usually happy to share their knowledge and experience with others.
Treadwell said that when applying for a job, adjusting resume according to the requirement of that particular roles is important. As companies mostly focus on the keywords and computer programs will be used to screen instead of recruiters.
Ray Pavri recommends networking is the key to hidden market and you should have strategies to effectively communicate or develop a relation with potential employers.
Therefore, Luke Treadwell said that it is important to know about the country you live, its people, its culture, important events, its economy and labor markets.
“In some cultures, you show respect to the potential employer by appearing very serious; whereas, in Australian work place culture, that would come across as either being somewhat insecure in your abilities, or not being truly interested in the job you apply for. Things like eye contact, smile, having an enthusiastic tone of voice, and all the things that are in our body language are very very important.” Said Luke Treadwell.
Ray Pavri had dealt with these issues for the past 30 years in Australia and has joint Toastmasters to develop some processes like identifying one's strength, improving better communication and negotiation are very important to help job seeker employed.
Once you do get to the job interview stage, Luke Treadwell advises treating the meeting like a sales pitch. Regards your employer as potential buyers and you have to present your products or your ability to them why should they buy or what make it unique that is different from other products or what skills you have that will benefit them. Because if you can show the employer you know what are they doing, what their visions, their missions and their values you are in a very strong position to by hired by them.
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