My road to finding a job in Australia

Kai and Luka have settled in really well, our house is filled with all that we need and more, I know my way around the neighborhood. Time for me to broaden my horizon – so I started looking for a job. Number 30 of our 38 things to do in Australia. A bit of a bumpy road.

Fortunately Oliver has a 457 visa through the company he works for, which comes with a partner visa that has no constraints, so I am allowed to work here as well.

I have heard from other people that finding your first job in Australia is not an easy task. In a lot of companies they prefer to hire people through people that know people. It is just hard to know the relevant people if you have not worked in Australia.

First applications

I applied to several jobs that I found online via the job sites seek and indeed. My first applications I sent out in February, but I have fallen into one of three categories: I am over qualified, my experience is not recent enough or I have just been unsuccessful.

That is, if I get a reaction. It is very common not to hear anything. In some of the job descriptions they already warn you beforehand. Due to the large number of expected applicants we only contact the shortlisted candidates.

Working part time

As Oliver travels a lot for his job and with Kai moving to a new school I can not work full time. So I am looking for a part time job, which did not sound like a big deal to me.

I come from a part-time-working-culture. In the Netherlands 26.8% of men and 76.6% of women, so more than half of the working population works part time (less than 36 hours a week). This might be one of the reasons why the Dutch are ranked among the happiest nations in the world. In 2000 a law was passed that gives men and women the right to do their job part time after they worked in a company for one year. Most of the people that I know work part time, men and women.

Here in Australia working part-time is not the norm, it is an exception. People either work full-time, or they do not.

The tourism industry

Since I have been working in tourism for 15 years, that has been the main area of my applications. Since the Australians love to travel I figured it should be possible to find a job in the field.

Until I spoke with someone from a recruitment agency in the tourism industry who told me that it is a very competitive market. Companies mostly look for full time employees and people with recent GDS experience.

A new road?

After several more unsuccessful applications the latest addition to my resume was that I included a volunteer part for my working experience of the last 1 1/2 years, which included a relocation of my family, fund raising at our primary school and my blog experience. Before that my resume just had a gap after 2015.

I have also found a new website that has a job section as well pedestrian. They have more alternative and creative jobs, the companies do not have to pay and I found relatively more part time jobs. Where seek and indeed attract many job seekers, I was hoping that less people would apply to these jobs.

The application

I found a part time job at a company that sells travel products, sent out my cover letter and resume on Sunday night, a day before the closing date. The next day I could not check my e-mail, as we had a power outage. So when I opened my mail on Tuesday I saw that there had been a reply to my application.They had received my application and would like to set up an initial call on Monday at 1 pm. Ouch, that was yesterday…. It can not be true that I missed my first chance of a job interview, because of a power outage!

I sent an e-mail if it would be possible to have a call today. And quickly after I received a phone call. They had already started the interviewing process last week, but after a positive phone call and my experience in the travel industry, they would like to speak to me in person if it would be possible to make it to their office tomorrow.

So after months of trying and starting to think that it would be impossible to even get an invite, I have my first job interview!

Have you applied for jobs in Australia ? What is your experience?