Before I migrated to Australia, the general impression that I got is "it is quite easy to get a job in Australia". This is due to the fact that they are lacking of professional talents and that is the reason why they have the immigration policy to attract global talents. Really? Demand is more than supply and it is definitely an employee market, isn't that common sense? Not at all...
If you ask anyone who has already landed here in Australia, I guarantee that 99% of them will tell you that it is very hard to get a job in Australia. Since it is so hard to get a job, 99.9% of them will tell you almost impossible for you get a job remotely in Australia because the chance is very close to 0%. So forget about demand and supply, it is an illusion. I will cover the demand and supply topic in my next post on this which is kind of interesting.
This post is really to share with you my personal experience on how I got an Aussie job offer remotely from Malaysia before I permanently landed here in Australia. However, please do keep in mind that, I still do not recommend what I did because the chances is really very low as most people said. I still consider what happened to me was a "luck". Yes, it was really lucky! What you can do is give a try first. If it doesn't work out, it is still better for you to migrate first, then only look for a job. This increases your chances of getting an interview.
Tips start now...
Resume Writing
I assume you already have a good resume and what I cover here is what I did differently to increase the chance of the recruiters calling me.
- Don't put Malaysia's phone in your resume. What I did is register a Skype phone with Australian number (yes, you need to pay a bit for that) and put your Skype phone in your resume. Your Skype phone should starts with +61 and this basically you can't really tell the difference from normal Australian phone.
- Don't put Malaysia's address in your resume too. Putting address in your resume is not a requirement. You don't really have to do that. I wouldn't recommend to put an Australian address too (e.g. your friend's address in Australia) because technically you're not staying in Australia. That is like a cheating. You may ask isn't that using Skype phone cheating too? Not really, you can explain that the Skype phone is easier for recruiter to call you instead of calling an international phone which incur charges for them!
- Indicate you already have an Australian PR VISA in your resume which proves that you already have rights to work in Australia. Most recruiters won't sponsor you a VISA and assume you already have the working rights.
Making Use of Your Initial Landing
When you receive your PR approval, within a year you need to do your initial landing. Initial landing means you need to touch down in Australia but you are not required to permanently stay in Australia yet. So I made use of this initial landing and got my first interview (which is by luck too).
- Decide a date for your initial landing. The best date in my opinion is Q4 (around the end of November or early of December) or Q1 (around the end of February or early of March). Q1 has the most active recruitment activity but it is also known to everybody. This means you have a lot of competitions too. Q4 is a good timing (in my opinion of course) because of less competition. People usually don't change job in this time frame and some companies already have hiring budget for the following year. So I definitely recommend Q4 but just make sure it is not too close to Christmas. I got my job offer in Q4 but I don't really aim for Q4 because I didn't know all these by that time, it was just purely by coincident.
- Once you have decided the date, start the job hunting when it is close to the date. Maybe around 2 months before your initial landing. Do it aggressively until when you have chance, inform them the date that you will be in Australia for face to face interview. If you still can't get an interview, don't give up because you can still do it during your initial landing. You can contact them (either phone or email) that you're already here and ready for an face to face interview and hopefully you can secure an interview. I was so lucky at that time that I got only one interview. Yes, luck again which I have mentioned many times.
Hope this is helpful! This is the most common question people ask me many times and basically this is how I did it. Yes and I still believe it is luck because I din't get many interviews. I almost lost this chance because they contacted me very late, just 2 days before I flew back to Malaysia.
Hopefully you are as lucky as I am. If not, you can still do the conventional way which most people do, move first and look for a job later. However, I would recommend you to have 1 year of expenses fund (around $60k - see my previous post here) and secure a job first before your entire family move over. Good luck!
