Kickstart

have notched up 12 months of relevant local work experience.

BY SANAM SHARMA

An increasing number of migrants from India have called Australia home in recent years. A majority of these migrants are tertiary qualified, skilled professionals seeking to advance their careers within the Australian job market. Landing the dream job in a new country can often be a daunting task, and a lack of relevant local work experience in the Australian market is a major hurdle for migrant job seekers.

I ended up with 273 rejections when I started applying for jobs after finishing my tertiary qualifications in Australia. The most prominent feedback I got from most of the employers was my lack of Australian work experience, and ironically (without any Australian work experience) at times the way I had drafted my resume made me over-qualified for certain jobs.

So how do you overcome these hurdles and secure an interview and subsequently, a job? If you have been unsuccessful in obtaining a role at your desired level, be prepared to start from a lower level and work your way up. This way you will start getting exposed to the local workplace culture and practices and on the way you may end up with some credible local professional referees. Be flexible around the nature of employment as often, short stints in casual/project based roles are easy to secure and before you know you would

As a job seeker, there are three main parts to the entire process: applying for a role, preparing for an interview, and attending an interview.

Applying for a role

The idea behind applying for a role is to sell yourself as a professional so that the potential employer picks you over the rest of the applicants. It is crucial to structure your resume in a way that best describes your skills and achievements. The most common resume pitfalls are:

* A long-winded, lengthy resume spanning several pages (most employers will struggle to read through pages and pages of information)

* A resume that reads like a position description (it should highlight your professional and academic achievements, not every single task in your previous roles)

* Unclear, too big or too small fonts making it hard to read the resume

* Spelling mistakes and formatting errors within the resume

While shortlisting for roles, employers usually like to browse through resumes in a swift manner so the key is to have a resume that highlights your key achievements (starting from the most recent ones) and is easy to read. Use adjectives such as ‘managed’, ‘delivered’, ‘implemented’ to demonstrate your professional achievements. Try and list any cost-savings, profits or other efficiencies that you may