vineetbahl

Hi All,

I don't want to sound racist but this is what feedback some of my friends in Australia have given me.

I have recently moved to Australia as a permanent resident and looking for jobs in my field i.e Pre-sales, account management for IT/Technology accounts.

Now as I am searching for jobs for last two months and at least two people have advised me to look for more technical back end jobs involving least interactions with customer as most of the organizations would prefer a more local (read Caucasian) as face for the organization instead of an Indian one.

I am quite OK to accept this fact if its true, cos I understand all organizations have to comply by local cultural norms.

The help I want from you all is to help me identify roles to which I should move my carrier towards so that I may not suffer any problems later.

Regards,
Vineet Bahl

livinginreality

Hi can't help with the job front,just wanted to wish you luck in finding a suitable job.You're as good as anyone else,if I were you I'd be going for ANY job you think would suit you.Best of luck and I hope you have a fantastic new life.

ozzieeagle

Providing your English skills cover most spectrums...... How are you with colloquialisms, that would be the main problem I reckon ?

It's a very interesting question you ask actually, because the style and type of job you do equates to how much you need to know what makes the local people tick. If your job involves mostly overseas clients, then you may get by with a limited knowledge of Colloquialisms or the way people in this country think.... whereas if the people your are dealing with are mostly Australians then surely it would be very necessary, infact vital..... I would think.

A specific example of the GP problem could be... an older fellow approaching the doctor, with say a headache problem... the doctor probes and picks up that the patient is saying things not fully consistent with a real headache.... IE: the patient is there for other reasons and doesnt want to say.... Aus/Local Doctors would be right onto this, happens a lot actually.... whereas I doubt if an overseas doctor could pick up on something like that until he has been in a particular country for a long while

This is definitely the area where overseas GP's are sadly lacking..... however they have enough country people from their own origins generally to make a worthwhile contribution..... also they can get by on bread and butter clients.



Be interesting to see what others think on this subject..... I dont think there is anything racial in this... just factual.

Petals

I personally think you or anyone else should be able to get any job but it does seem to go along ethnic lines in a lot of businesses here. For instance,my Mum' s heart specialist who is Indian uses Indian medicos to do Echo Cardiograms etc. My family have had a doctor from Sri Lanka for many many years and he always refers us to Indian specialists. So you see it works all ways. We do wonder why there is no Australians employed though. Same with the travel agents.

Its how Australia has evolved. I think its probably just looking after ones own and its a thing everyone does.

If you are trained to be front of house go for it there will be knock backs but everyone gets them wherever they come from. There is always one shoe that will fit.

If you join in with local Australians they accept people from wherever they come from, its when people stick to their own that they get stigmatised, only my view though.

Vash the Stampede

Did they say "local" or "caucasian"? If they said "local", why would you read "caucasian"? There are plenty of non-caucasian locals around here.

BadgeIsBack

It depends on how perfect the English needs to be. In some professions, there can be no grey area.

copa

Of course they can.... examples are everywhere in the cities I've lived in.

I suspect your friends may be making (possibly racist?) excuses for their own lack of suitability..

competitive profit making companies like the best person for the job regardless of skin colour.

asprilla

Vineet, I honestly believe that the vast majority of people who conduct interviews, 95% or higher, really aren't interested in skin colour or the country that a person is from...they are interested in whether a person is right for the job.

Sometimes, there will be people who are racist, sexist etc. I would suggest that there aren't really many of those people alive any more, they are dying out and are in the minority.

As has already been said, the one big stumbling block for many immigrants who do not have english as a first language, is their ability to communicate. Accents are not a problem...American, Indian, Irish, Italian, it really doesn't matter. Being 100% correct all the time is not a problem either... You don't need to be able to speak the queen's english all day long. What is important, is being able to communicate. Talking and other people understanding you.... also, listening to others and understanding them.

I can see from your post that your written English is pretty much perfect, and I would guess that you can also speak, listen and understand English just as well. If you have a very strong accent, simply speak clearly and a little bit more slowly than you normally might (not too slow, you don't want to come across as a dunce!) and you'll be fine.

good luck !

Caligulove

I shouldn't think it would be a trouble! If it ever was, I wouldn't want to be working there anyway. I am jobless, and a Caucasian Australian!!! I shouldn't think you'd have any trouble, best of luck

lionheart

From my experience over in Dubai, it's the non-whites who often speaker better English, especially Indians whose children are generally more conscientious and hard working at school.

Kalenge

And from my experience of Dubai it's the exact opposite of what you said.

capetosydney

A bit of a pointless, sweeping statement, but than again you knew that.

Pomster

I work for a big company in IT. I would say my colleagues are a real mixed bunch- lots of people of Asian origin (either 2/3/4 generation, or recent migrants), women (!!!), some Brits, even the occasional white Australian.

I could not say the exact composition as I had not really thought about it til I saw this thread.

Most companies have a real mix. I have yet to see someone being turned down for race - if anything for many companies it helps them fill their criteria for diversity....