brissydeb

Have read alot on immigrants arriving and it taking six months to get a job. Also read that the recruitment agencies are not very helpful?! Can anyone let us know of their experiences.

Wendy

It took hubby 18 weeks, but only because he had to get his electricians licence. Once he had it he contacted a recruitment agency and they had him a job within 48 hours, so not all agencies are rubbish

themerlin

I.T agencies are !

Wendy

brissydeb

work in finance so IT agencies don't matter.

sid_s

i'm in IT. It only took a few weeks to get a job and i actually got the first one i applied for, but they did 3 interviews so can still take a while.

I found out that the way the agencies work is that when a company wants to fill a position they give it to several agencies and each one is allowed to submit 2 candidates to the company (this is why you see the same job advertised so many times on websites like seek). My experience was when you contact the agency, if they think you are the right person to be one of their 2 candidates they might call you right away - literally I got one call within 5 minutes of sending an email.
If they don't think you're right, or they already have 2 people they think more likely to land the job than you, you probably won't even get a response!

I think it's the same everywhere. As it happens, all of the 3 agents I dealt with were British.

themerlin

The trick is to ring the agency find out what company the job is at, then say "Sorry already applied for that".
Then contact the company directly (via website or whatever).

I think if you go directly you have more of a chance becuase the agencies charge a large fee.

Deadmeat

Second all of that. I hate agencies, especially the ones that advertise non-existent jobs.

I think personal contact is more important here than the UK. If you can get a circle of friends who are 'in the business' and are prepared to take a position lower than you normally would then it'll probably stand you in good stead.

My first interview was (eventually) my first job, my second was conducted by a guy who clearly just interviewed me to Pom-bait and explain in a patronising tone how big Queensland is.

When all else fails you can always get a job as a taxi driver, they appear to let anyone do that ...

chels

You know why they charge a large fee? Because someone has had to do all the hard work of getting a company to recruit through them. Companies don't just call up and say, we want to use you.

Any decent recruitment consultant shouldn't tell you over the phone who the company is, they should keep that information confidential until they meet you.

Some companies prefer to use recruitment agencies so they don't have to be bothered by people contacting them directly, someone else sifts through all the rubbish CVs and shortlists suitable candidates. That why they use the services of a recruitment agency rather than recruiting directly via advertising etc.

To everyone else, slagging off the whole recruitment industry is like slagging off the whole of Australia. There are good bits, there are bad bits. If the whole industry was bad, no one would ever get a job through an agency, and the agencies would make no money ergo no recruitment industry.

walaj

9mths in contacts we made through known sources before we moved & meeting up with them upon arrival has been more sucessful than any attempts with agencies who have failed even to come up with an interview.

Through the contacts, a job was offered in Melbourne (we are in Syd so was declined) after 2wks, contract job accepted (and is now perm) there after 3wks (there was no work there 3mths earlier), job offered last week from one of the meetings in March.

If you can at all, work on contacts, even if it is someone who knows someone, who knows....., then work on them ASAP as they may not have a job now but could in the future and hopefully your name will come to mind.

All the best

Swerv-o

Took me 3 weeks, exclusively using Agents. Some agents are excellent, and really put a lot of work in for you - getting feedback, hints and tips etc.

Others are shite, never answer phones or reply to messages left.

The agent I got my job through was excellent though - He kept me in the loop all the time, with virtually daily updates and he got me far more money than I was asking for, so all good...

S

hoots nan

Hi Deb
not sure about agencies but sure that someone else can help! With regards to Mark (hubby) he just rang a chap out of the Courier Mail job section, went down to have a chat with him that arvo and was given a start the next day! That happened within 2 weeks of us being here, would've been sooner but he wanted a bit of time off and i wanted him to give me a hand sorting things out.

Rach xx

silver

Which agent??

themerlin

Then why do all the agencies have all the same jobs ?

Dorothy

1 day after we landed I sent an application for a job to a recruitment agency. Next day I got a phone call, could I come to interview and do some testing; typing, spelling, etc. (it was for a medical typist at a hospital). As I was walking out to the car after the interview my mobile rang. It was the agent telling me she was not going to send me to that particular job as she thought it was beneath my abilities and if I was interested I could temp at the agency as their receptionist/resourcer until the perfect position came up. 2 weeks later I went to work at another hospital as a temp in the renal transplant unit but left when the recruitment agency called me up to say they would like me to come back to work for them in their training department as the learning and development coordinator.
So, long story short, started working after 8 days here. Totally new line of work now and it's a great place to be. And if your recruiter is doing nothing for you, then you need to find one who will. If you are in Adelaide, then give me a ring and I'll let you know who the right agency is for your particular type of work. Certain agencies do particular types of recruiting. The one I work for does mainly call centre and government. No IT or trades, but we are part of a network that includes agencies that do place those people.