kaungchiau

As per title above, does anyone had any problem with recruitment agencies in Perth?

I am due to arrive in Perth on 6 September but feel like getting the cold shoulder and had the impression that they could not be bothered to talk to anybody.

Is job had to come by in Perth and WA?

Dorothy

They can't be bothered to talk to you because you are in another country and not available for interviews or work.

pompeyblonde

Hi there, casn't speak about Perth, but attitudes over here are very laid back, nobody is very dynamic! probably be a good thing to turn up in person when you get here, and send your CV out to whoever you can think of Good Luck!

RenShen

I stopped applying for jobs that were advertised via an agency ages ago. Just my opinion but they are absolutely useless. I am IN Australia and most of the time didn't get any acknowledgment of my application, let alone a thorough reply.

Broad Shoulders

agreed.

I applied for the same job through two different agencies without realising. One of the agencies got back to me and I went through the usual rigmorole, anyway I got the job. The other agency got back to me about 2 weeks after I got offered the job (which was about 2.5 months after initial application) telling me that my skills were not suitable for the position.
I replied to them and told them that I was actually the successful applicant and that maybe if they had bothered to review my CV and submitted it to the employer that they would have earned some commission off me.

pompeyblonde

w*****rs!!!

twizzle

That's friggin priceless!!!
yet somehow, not very surprising

big_matt

I have never used recruitment firms in the UK so can't make a comparison but they are dreadful over here.

Unless you can very quickly make them money they have no interest in spending any time with you. I recently did interviews at my work and of the 20 CV's we received from agencies, about 7 of the cover sheets attached to CV's (written by the agencies) had spelling mistakes and bad formatting etc.

Basically they spoiled CV's that the applicants had put effort into.

Don't use them unless you have to. Apply to firms direct.

kaungchiau

Thanks for letting me know. In the UK, companies use recruitment agencies as a gatekeeper for any vacancy that they have. In other words, any vacancy is advertised through agencies.

Is that the case in Australia? It sounds like a good suggestion to apply direct, but I have never been to Australia.

Oh, can people tell me about list of things to do during the first month, apart from looking for accommodation, job, tax file number?

RenShen

If you look on websites such as seek.com.au you will see that although some vacancies are advertised by agencies, there are still a fair few companies who advertise the vacancies themselves. They are the ones I would start with. Failing that, look in the White Pages for the type of company you want to work for and contact them direct.

Mamma Minty

what type of work are you after, cos I can definitely recommend a good IT one

mecheng

If there are positions available at the prospective companies you are targeting then apply direct. If not then agencies are useful but the difficulty is finding a good one. My only advice is to contact agencies that are actually advertising positions as some could be simply phishing for CV's. I wouldn't send your CV through without giving an agency a call first and finding out more about the position/s on offer.

CDM

I'm also an IT contractor and just about to make my way to Melbourne (literally in a couple of days). I've had a few e-mail exchanges with some agencies but I'm curious as to whether it works the same way in Oz as it does here in the UK.

I'd definitely be interested in any useful IT agency information you might have.

- CDM

framac67

Nice Guy

Completely useless, try applying direct to companies.