THREE THINGS INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS NEED TO FOCUS ON TO GET A JOB

You must have the right to live and work in this location to apply for this job. No visa sponsorships will be considered.

If you are an international student looking for jobs in Australia, you must be familiar with the sinking feeling you get every time you come across these lines in a job posting.

The job market in Australia is tough and it’s getting tougher – there’s no running away from that.

And it is a fact, that it’s not a level playing field when you compare an international student seeking full time employment to a domestic Australian graduate.

But it is not hopeless.

There are 3 specific things that employers are concerned about when hiring international students and all of them can be managed using various strategies.

If you prepare and use every step of the application process to demonstrate that these 3 concerns aren’t concerns when hiring you, then you can skip ahead to the front of the queue.

1. Communication Skills

Communication is one of the most critical soft skill employers are looking at, especially for STEM graduates.

When they see that the application is of an international student with a first language different from English, they get concerned about whether this applicant will be able to communicate with local teams and deliver results.

While many international students have excellent command over the English language, it doesn’t matter unless it can be proved to the employers. And if you don’t get an opportunity to talk to them how will they ever find that out, right?

There are a number of ways to tackle this head on. Starting with your job application, the communication with an employer must be confident and flawless at every stage to mitigate this risk employers associate with hiring you.

2. Local Knowledge

An understanding of the industry and market scenario within the Australian context is crucial for not only a successful job application but also for a successful career.

Staying up to date with news, trends and innovations in your chosen discipline and the specific industry you are applying to can help you in overcoming the reservation employers have regarding international students not being able to understand the context within the Australian work environment.

As a member of Professionals Australia, you have access to industry reports that can help you with this.

3. Intention to stay 

While Australia as a nation has been built on migration, the unfortunate reality is that today when applying for a job the first preference is always a local Australian citizen.

Despite having fairly welcoming migration policies and a number of companies sponsoring employees for work visas, at the outset when an international student applies for a full-time job, they often face a lot of resistance due to their visa status.

This stems from the belief employers hold regarding the instability of an international student. An employer doesn’t want to invest their resources in recruiting and training you when there is a risk attached to your interest in staying in Australia long term.

There are a number of ways international students can assuage these fears. If you’d like to have a detailed discussion about how you can take care of this in your job applications, please click here to set up a discussion with a Professionals Australia expert now.