lonelysin

Hi

I'm in the process of applying for jobs in OZ. I need advise whether to apply directly to the specific company or go through a recruitment agent. Are there any pro's and cons?

Secondly, I'm still currrently in my country. I plan to apply and secure a job before moving over to OZ. Is this viable? How about the chances of securing a job before landing in OZ.


Cheers,
LS

Swerv-o

I would say probably not. I spent nearly a whole year doing that, and I may as well have just shoved my CVs down a drain for all the response I got.

The key question is "Do you have a visa yet?"

I wasted a lot of time applying for jobs when I should have been applying for my visa instead. During that time, they increased the points score for a permanent visa, which made thigs very sticky for me. I just scraped through and got a visa in 2003. I have tried applying for jobs from the UK as a visa holder, and it's still very difficult. I've had slightly more success this time, but not a great deal. To coin a phrase, I think that "you need to be in it to win it"

Unless you have a skill that is in desperate shortage, I really think that you need to be in Australia to stand any real chance of getting a job. When you think of the logistics of actually attending a job interview on the other side of the world, you can understand why many employers take this view.

My advice: 1.Sort out a visa 2. Save a lot of cash 3. Go there and start looking.

That's what I'm doing...

S

cranni

You dont say where you are going. We are in WA my husband and i looked up www.yellowpages.com.au , we then rang or emailed all companies to do with plumbing/gas. Guess we where lucky he had a job to come to and we got PR. What have you got to lose, we got up in early hours of morning ringing round so they new how keen we was. GOOD LUCK . Densie

lilstewie

Hiya,
I still have two years before i can emmigrate, however, i am in the process of setting up a resume on www.seek.com.au
Try registering and setting up an account, it's free and can get you in touch with employers (and they can contact you), getting a feel for what is available. I also sent e-mails to two companies i believed i would "fit the bill" with, and received favourable replies so yes it probably is a viable option. Best of luck with your job hunting.

meelie

Depends whether you want PR or sonsorship on a 457 visa. My hubby was sponsored so had a job to go to. Also depends on the job you want to do.

NIGENABBY

Hi

I would agree with "swerv-o". You will find alot of agencies will not even speak with you until you have at least had your visa issued - generally seen as a waste of time on their part, reason being you may not get the visa etc. Some other agencies will however, not even take your resume if you are non resident.

However if you are in a skills shortage area (trades being one - hence the plumber walking into a job) sending your CV out might just be a good idea, as they may be prepared to wait for you.

I would say get your visa, then get onto finding a job. Seek is a good site (covers loads of agencies).

Good Luck

lonelysin

Hi all,

Thanks for all your feedback. By the way, I'm an Australian PR currently working in my country. I plan to find a secure a job before going over as I do not want to take the risk by quitting my current job.

Is it possible if I apply for Australian jobs back here in my country? Will the prospective employer call me up for interview or etc? Once I can secure a job, I will quit my current job and go over to OZ immediately.

Are there any disadvantage going through a job recruitment agent rather than contacting the company personally?

FYI, my expertise are in process and equipment engineering. I'm currently working in an electronics manufacturing facility.

Hope to hear from you guys soon. Thank you.



Cheers,
LS

Geordie George

My husband works as a process/product engineer at a medical manufacturing company in Sydney (I'm not sure where in Aus you're hoping to head?). He tried searching for work prior to our arrival in Australia in March. The feedback he had from both companies and recruitment agents was that his CV looked interesting and there would be opportunities for him, but he'd have to wait until he arrived in Sydney before they'd be prepared to take things further.

Another word of caution (at least as it applies to Sydney). Patrick found that there appeared to be lots and lots of positions vacant within his field through searches on-line (via websites like Seek) and by looking at recruitment agent's sites. Upon arrival, it became apparent that there were actually very few vacancies; the same vacancy was being advertised time and again, under slightly different headings, with slightly different job descriptions, by lots of different recruitment consultants on lots of different sites. It made the job market seem much more buoyant than it actually is.

Where you're going may make a difference, but I'd not be too hopeful about securing something prior to arriving.

Good luck.

GG

CornishPasty

Hi,

I set up a international section on this subject for people from here.

I am a pommie who works in recruitment in Brisbane by the way

http://www.ccg.com.au/international-section.htm

I try to be honest and give advice and have spoken to quite few people on here over my time. As always contructive comments welcome.

BLC

Are they still doing this in Sydney (Australia)?

I worked in recruitment (Pharmaceutical & Commercial) and this was rife and not professional!

B

Geordie George

Hi B,

This was definitely Patrick's experience, but he's in a fairly specialised role in a very specialised industry. From my job-hunting, there was the occasional duplication (where it seemed one vacancy had been provided to two recruitment consultants to advertise) but it was a lot less frequent.

Patrick registered with about four (? from memory) recruitment consultants and they all suggested going for the same role at the same company - a complete waste of everyone's time! And most of the vacancies that he called other agents to enquire about were for the same role again! I would hazard that of all the adverts on the web, 90% of them were for the same position at the same place. But, like I said, it's a specialised field and Sydney is not known for it's manufacturing industry.

But I'd still advise caution and taking things with a pinch of salt! Like you say, rife and unprofessional.

GG

BLC

I know for office support work, many ad's that we placed in the SMH for a particular role, that role has literally just been filled but as it was a fab one, we advertised anyway to swell our numbers on the temp register! Not ethical.

Bad show eh!

B

steve99

Not sure if its the same across other sectors but the agency I work for (IT Recruitment) are members of ITCRA (www.itcra) its a sort of code of conduct, ethics type thing aimed at raising the perception of recruitment agents & agencies.
One of the main things is that you are not supposed to advertise a role that doesnt exist. I think you can be reported for non compliance and kicked out of the club so to speak.
Steve

BLC

Looks like in GG's case there was a role but as a number of agencies were handling, each one tried a "different" approach to advertise and get the better candidates.

For secretarial recruitment, especially temp the turnaround has to be quick, so a job comes in, inbetween time you have placed the ad in the SMH just after that you have someone placed but too late to cancel the ad, that type of thing went on. Still told candidates the job was available.

Agencies are not supposed to solicite candidates details without their permission, this went on. Resumes/CV's out there to companies without authority to do so.

I am going through the whole process of being a candidate here in the UK as I am looking for work and understand the under hand things that can happen and feel a little unhappy about this.

Recruitment, after working in 3 countries I now believe is up there with Real Estate for sharl like practices.

B

Geordie George

Now this is something that I do have personal experience of in Aus! I registered with one agency, who thought I'd be 'perfect' for a particular role. They forwarded details of the job to me, I looked them over and decided that the position in question was too junior for me. I let the agent know that I wasn't interested by phone and followed up by emailing them. I then got a call from said agent to say that they'd passed my details over to the company in any case and they wanted to interview me the next day. To say I was livid is an understatement! Needless to say, I didn't go to the interview. I rather expect that the agent had passed my details over to the company without first showing me the JD and asking for my yay/nay. Either way, they looked ridiculous to the client and lost me.

Job-hunting's all good fun, init?!

GG