Nikki

Hi Everyone

When applying for such jobs, do Australian Employers like to see certificates of training?

I have been fortunate to work for my employer for 15 years, but as it is a small company we were never sent on courses for training and therefore I have no certificates to prove I can work excel, word, powerpoint packages etc....all I will have is a reference from my boss along with my CV (only ever had 2 jobs so it will be short in terms of employers).

Having little interview experience in the UK, I wondered if someone could tell me how it works in Australia concerning proof of training. I was thinking about taking a few short courses now to gain certifcates to prove I can use different packages, would this help my case when job hunting or would it be better to do a few Australian courses? Would it make any difference?

I am lucky that my Husband will have a job to go to, so the urgency for me to find a job would not be immediate, I would rather see the children settled first anyway. But eventually I would like to work part-time if possible, from research, I feel it would get me out of the house and help me meet new people. Have any stay at home wives experienced a feeling of lonliness, I imagine with husabands and children meeting new people/friends, the woman can become isolated. I suppose it is how busy you keep yourself, hence my original question (started to go off on one there)!

All this is of course assuming our application is a success, but at the same time it would keep me busy and less obsessed with this forum and the whole Ausralia thing.

Look forward to hearing you experiences.

Regards

Nikki

ABCDiamond

Hi Nikki
What about stay at home Dad's ?

What's this comment about being obsessed with this forum, it keeps me busy

Hmmm... maybe if I did something else, maybe I could cut done on this forum......

Sorry, I can't help with your main question.

mlbonner

Hi Nikki,

I would imagine it would probably depend on who you went to work for / exactly what type of Admin job you were after. If you go through an agency, a lot of them will ask you to typing tests etc anyway.
I've never had to show my degree certificate, though I do know my references were checked out, seems that was good enough for them.

Depending on what you do, you may also want to consider doing a course in something new, for example MYOB is a very widely used accounting/business software programme here. Possibly the easiest way to determine this would be to have do a search on something like Seek for the type of work you're after, and see what the requirements are.

FWIW, the first time I came here it took me a couple of months to get a job, the second time just over a month but I had a few weeks to wait before I started - both times the 'sitting all day by the pool' novelty began to wear off quite quick!

mlbonner

\

Hows that p/t job consideration going

bridiej

Nikki

I dont know how long it is until you hope to be in Oz but if it's a few months why not contact Learn Direct (they've got a website) and see if there are any courses you can undertake that will give you a certificate?

I know there are some that are home-based learning as well as on-site ones.

Hope this helps

Nikki

Thanks you guys for the advice. Have taken note.

No offence to stay at home dad's intended(oops!) Actually, maybe I should get the full time job and have husband waiting with his pinnie on by the barbie! Now theres a thought............

Thanks again

Nikki

sunny side up

hi nikki,

same boat as you - have plenty of skills but no certificates or anything to back it up - but its not a problem here!
haven't been asked by anyone to see anything (the only thing i could have shown 'em was my highschool diploma's anyway), but have been skills-tested at all the agencies.

pretty basic stuff really - the word, excel and powerpoint tests are tests to determine your knowledge-level of those programs (basic, intermediate or advanced); you get questions like 'change the font', 'cut and paste', 'insert a chart', 'change the chart to 3D' and more of that, then you might get a typing-test (to determine your words per minute and accuracy), a numeric and alpha-numeric data-entry test (for your keystrokes per hour and, again, accuracy) and a spelling test (pick out the words that are spelt incorrectly).
Depending on the job you're after you might get a 'customer-service-test' - sort of a role-play i believe and i had a 'prioritise-test' yesterday - you get a list of tasks, supposedly what your inbox looks like when you get into the office, and you have to make a list of the order you would do them in.
Oh, and i've had a sort of personality test too, you get a load of questions (140 i believe) and you have to answer them 'totally agree, agree, neutral etc.).

Didn't do very well on the first afternoon of testing, never done anything like it before so had to get used to it, but as i had plenty of time, i didn't tell any of the other agencies that i'd done the testing before, thereby improving my scores each time i went. You usually get given a certificate or a report on how you scored, so now i've got a few and take the best ones with me to interviews...

But it really depends on the agency and the job you're applying/looking for, i think.

Its all pretty basic stuff - if you've been working with MSOffice for a while, i think you can pretty much ace all the tests...

Anyway...this has become quite a long-winded answer, sorry for that, but i hope it is of some help!

Good luck, tanja

bridiej

Just out of interest, do Australians use English or American spellings? I assume it's English but just wanted to make sure...

chatty34

Thanks for this post, you have answered one of my questions. In the UK I work in accounts and have serached the seek page and noticed that most of the jobs I would apply for ask for MYOB and I wondered what it was.
Oh well, another software package to learn

worzel

They have a Labor party rather than a Labour Party. Not sure about other Americanisms though

mrs_sparky12

Just wanted to say that I was a stay at home mum for 2.5 years in Sydney then Brissy and I absolutely loved it. I've got 2 wee ones (now aged 3 and 2) and I found it very easy to meet people through them, either through Mother's groups (only in Sydney, didn't seem to be ones in Brissy) or playgroup/gymboree type things. I also made some really good friends through my hubby's work. I think if you're willing to make the effort to get out and meet people you shouldn't have a problem. Having said that, I was in the city, I don't know if that would be the same in a more rural area.

DagBoy

I think they mostly use Australian spellings


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Oh OK - seriously. I have not found anything that they spell differently to English (except, as already said, the Labor party). They do, however, use US keyboard layout so the @ is above the 2, there is no £ symbol (#is above 3), the " is above the ', and the |\ are over on the right past the P (which I am pretty sure is different to UK). I still have a UK keyboard on one of my PCs but after 4 years I have stopped sending mail with " instead of @ and now cope.

The other thing to note is that a lot of words are pronounced differently (American pronunciations?), so:
Data - I say Dayta, they say Darta
Router - I say rooter, they laugh ... then say row (rhymes with cow) ter
Project - I say proj (rhymes with dodge) ect, they say proh-ject
Yogurt - I say Yog (rhymes with dog) ert, they say Yo (as in Yo, my man, wassup) gert.

I am sure there are more, but that is enough - let's call the whole thing off

Cheers,

DagBoy

ozzieeagle

Aussies generally prefer english spellings. However one can get away with American ones.

Nikki, you will be fine, cream always rises to the top, and you can tell by your opening post, that any letter of application, will be well written, and a great testimony of yourself. Just go to a reputable employment agency, and you should have a job within a week.

Simone

Yep, when I was applying for receptionist/admin jobs(well, the one I got!) I did these to.S
So Word, as mentioned, including a bit with macro's, but it was the most basic stuff (I was going for a simple job though, mostly telephone and mail etc)
Excel

And I had typing.

And I did a Work attitude test, one of those ones where 'no answer is wrong' (like how you work in teams, if you like to hear if you're doing the job well, etc etc etc).

It was all very simple, but as I said, it's actually a junior receptionist position. And I've been using the computer since 95/when I was 13, so all through high school and uni.

I got this job through www.chandlermacleod.com.au and am now permanent, after a few months casual.
Pay is quite low ($14 an hour + super, 20 days annual leave, 10 sick days), but at least it's Aussie experience, and I'm learning all about Accounts receivable, and we're getting a new accounting system soon, which will all be good for my resume.

Ok, enough blabbing on, can't even remember what your question was

Good luck


Simone

bridiej

Thanks Dagboy, guess I'll have to get a spare keyboard before I come out then!!!