Is it difficult to get job in Australia for Indians - Best advice for job seekers from India who have recently migrated to Australia

In general new migrants specially from non-native English speaking countries find it difficult to get a job. This is because the local employers are averse to risk and tend to look for people whom they understand and know culturally well if given a choice. This is generally true across the world as people inherently tend to have a sub-conscious bias. For jobs which are highly competitive (or say generic skills), employers have a choice and they will mostly choose local or native English speakers. However, there are exceptions on either side of the spectrum - with racists on the far right who discriminate on purpose and idealists on the far left who might be very objective and be open to multi-cultural work places. But one thing to remember is that they will always be a minority and so do not worry too much about either of these two cases.

However,for technical jobs like IT, Engineering, or biotech, employers are looking for people to come and solve a problem or do some specialist work for them. So they generally want the best people to do it and  they more often go by merit than cultural biases. So getting a job in IT, engineering, analytics, digital marketing and specialist finance jobs is relatively easier compared to .

Sales, marketing, administration, project management (except in some cases), IT consulting etc tend to be generic in nature or say its difficult to evaluate a person objectively of their capabilities. So it is a bit more difficult to get a job as compared to your friend who works in IT as a developer. Having said that, its not impossible to get a job in these fields and many employers in the recent years are more open to diverse backgrounds and respect quality work experience irrespective of where it has been done. If your sales is in specialist sales  which involves technical expertise like medical equipment, pharmacy, automobile, engineering equipment, construction, hi-tech products then you will most probably fall in the technical job seeker category and you might get a job easily. Again someone who has a world class brand will definitely have a better shot at getting a job. F

Most of the migrants I have interacted with have managed to find a job even though it was difficult in the beginning. Here are some things you can do to improve your chances and get a job quickly.

Resume first: Prepare a kick-ass resume which will grab recruiters attention. It takes time and you should be looking to spend at least a month by revising everyday till you find it to be satisfying to yourself. Then show it to your friends or colleagues to seek feedback. Unless it amazes them you should keep working on improving it. Do not fall for some resume mentors who pop-up in LinkedIn feeds. They are frauds or scammers who provide false promises and take advantage of gullible migrants. THERE IS NO AUSSIE FORMAT for a resume. Whatever looks good and is impressive everywhere works in Australia as well. Just concentrate on your skills and achievements, and try to highlight them. Remember this only you or someone from your field can only make a resume for the jobs you are looking for. So try and connect with people in Australia who are in your field and ask their help if you are able to. There is a popular online community Indianz.org - Career advice and jobs where you can contact Indians already living in Australia who can share their experience or help you with your resume. Do not hesitate to ask even members for help as in most cases its the strangers who will be the most helpful.

Interview Prep: In Australia, the job interviews are more behavioural oriented and they spend considerable time in recruiting. Unlike in India, and US, the recruitment process can be 3 month long before you get your offer letter. Once you apply, on average it takes 2 weeks for the recruiter to reach you even if you are the best candidate in the pipeline. Further it is not uncommon to have more than 3 rounds of interviews and each atleast an hour long. So have patience and be well prepared for each step of the selection process. The biggest googly you will encounter is the behavioural interviews as its very uncommon in India. Most of the candidates prepare well for technical interview however they are faced with questions like 'tell me a situation where you have worked against odds and achieved something'. or 'tell me how you have taken your team success with an example from your recent work situation'

Many Indians or migrants, in general, get many calls but are unable to convert them. So the most important of all, once you have a great resume is to prepare well for interviews. Again remember to reach out to Indians already living in Australia to get their insights and to learn lessons from their experience. I have used Indianz.org forum very well to get my first job so I highly recommend to join it as soon as you arrive

Discipline and Lifestyle: It common knowledge that most of the Australian cities are very expensive to live. So when you arrive your saving perish very quickly and that can leave you in distress. So being able to sustain for atl east 6 to 8 months is really important. Many migrants quickly look for a part time job to pay for their expenses and to extend their savings for few more months. While that is not entirely wrong, some people get carried away in their part time job and lose focus in job search. For example a software engineer I met started to drive for Uber to make ends meet. However working odd hours and on weekends have distracted his focus and he was neither able to apply for jobs or answer recruiter call. So remember to have a suitable job, that you leaves you with 4 hours on all weekdays to apply and prepare is important. 

Networking: You might have already known where to look for jobs as the most common advice you would receive from people is to start applying on Seek , Linkedin, apply direct, indeed, Jora and dozen more job portals. But the most important source of job openings is through your own network. However, its not easy to network unless you have something to offer to the other person. In other words, why would anyone be interested in you if you are of no imporanct to the other person? So online groups, meetups are the best places to find people who can help. Then you can catch up over a coffee and ask them for help with jobs. I cant stress the importance of joining online forums like indianz.org, meetup and other online interest groups. Especially on indianz.org we have a job feed where users and recruiters post relevant job posts and referrals to find candidates. This is even more important for people in IT, finance and hospitality fields.

Enjoy your life: Jobs will come and go but your time in your life moves on. So remember to enjoy your life in the beautiful cities in  Australia. Relax on weekends, take time out, go to the beach, have a family outing or just make your favourite dish at home. It gives you strength to fight your biggest battles in life. Do not stress too much as you will definitely make a good life here, though in some cases it may take some time. You will almost in all cases will fail a do or die interview. If you desperately need a job and you are stressed about it, interviewers cant see who you actually are and what you are capable of. So go with a free mind and make up your mind that you may not get the job at the end of the interview but its still not the end of the world. It takes 10 to 15 interviews on average to get a job offer. You may get it on your first or you may get on your 31st but you will get it at some point. 

Wish you all the best