Nib

Myself and my boyfriend have been living in Sydney for five months. I'm Irish and came over on a working holiday visa and luckily managed to secure a job in an IT marketing agency within a week. My boyfriend on the other hand has not been so fortunate. He's Brazilian and a production engineer. He's got a great education and 10 years of solid work experience (and also worked in the UK) but he's had virtually no interest in his CV after 5 months of looking. He's applied for every job there is and roles well below his ability and he's had nothing but rejection. Are Aussie's racist towards none English speakers? Can he utilise his skills to another field of engineering where he might have more success? I'm getting sponsored so I will be able to put him on my visa but on my low salary of $55k (I have 6 years of experience) I can't support him much longer. Is there anything we can do or any website we can check? I have to start with my sponsorship application but have to give the company a two year comittment but am worried that we won't be able to survive over here!

Wendy

I'm sorry, I'm not sure what a production engineer actually does

Has he been in touch with an employment agency, that's what my OH did and they got him work pretty quickly. Don't just submit his CV though, get him to actually take it in and ask them if they have anything or even if they'll look over his CV to see if there is anything he could do with it to help. All worth a try.

I do think it can be very hard to get a job in the engineering field with only a WHV temporary visa as they can only employ him for 6 months, by the time they train him to do it their way he'd have to leave and I think that may be the problem. IT is a whole different ball game so that's probably why you didn't have too much difficulty.

I hope he gets something soon, it can be very demoralising not being able to find work

Nib

He's actually going on my sponsored visa so can work in any place for up to four years with no time limit. He's sent CV's to heaps of agencies but hardly ever hears anything back and he keeps calling them and the recruiters never seem to be available. It's getting pretty serious as he's been out of work over a year and the longer he leaves it the harder it gets. Production engineering is basically manufacturing. I thought it might be because of a lack of jobs but there seems to be loads on seek.com. He applies for jobs that he's done before,exactly the same but gets a response that his skill set doesn't match which is total nonsence. There is no problem with his CV either as I have had a recruiter check over it so we really don't know what to do. I'm just wondering if it's because he's not a native English speaker. Has anybody else had the same problems?

Wendy

Does his CV state his nationality at all? If it does, take it out and see if that makes any difference. If he then starts getting calls you'll know that is a factor. Also on the bottom of his CV put something like:

Other Info: Full work rights in Australia.

My hubby works in Manufacturing, but he's a maintanence electrician so apart from having to be licenced first he didn't have any trouble at all, but then we are in South Australia so can't really compare the job market I guess.

Swerv-o

Have sent you a PM.

S

bridie

Dont just apply for advertised jobs or use agencies - get him to phone round the companies direct and ask if they have vacancies or opportunities.

Maybe he could take just any old job in the meantime to gain some Aussie work experience - wouldnt hurt and at least it would be another wage coming in.

Good luck, hope he finds something soon

Geordie George

Mr GG is a Senior Production Engineer (NPI) with a very good employer in Sydney. The company he works for resembles the UN (I think there were more than 50 nationalities working there, at last count). While he's not responsible for hiring, he could certainly provide contact details for someone in their HR department. Perhaps you and your OH would like to come along to one of our CBD after work drink meet ups and I could introduce you to Mr GG? Link to thread here: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...401034&page=48

ETA: Just remembered, when Mr GG was looking for work (more than two years ago now, but ...), there seemed to be lots available. But one employer approaches multiple recruitment agencies, who all post the same position. It makes the job market look much more bouyant than it actually is. There are really very few production engineering positions available - reflecting that more manufacturing is is Melbourne rather than Sydney, perhaps?

Mipik

I have been in a similar situation: production/plant engineer, over 10 years experience, coming from non English background with a name that they find impossible to pronounce.

I have been following the job situation in my field for a long time before coming here (Adelaide) and I was expecting over 6 months to find work in my field.

Got a job within 3 weeks of arriving, first interview, same industry, in the same position as I have been working overseas.

In fact I know that they got rid of the Ozzi that I have replaced when I have agreed to take their offer (which was more than he was being paid).

So I am a living example that some companies value non English speakers.


In your bf situation I would look for positions outside the city even if this means a bit of traveling to work as a lot of industry out of the cities is having problems finding people.

Look also for direct ads from companies.