Top 9 tips on how to get a professional job after graduation in Australia
Finding a job as an international student in Australia is never an easy task.
Whether it’s your first part-time job or a job after your graduation.
So in this article, we are going to give you top 9 tips on how to get a professional job after graduation in Australia.
1. Prepare your Resume and Cover Letter
It goes without saying that Resume and Cover Letter are the most important documents in your job applications.
And obviously your resume and cover letter has to be top notch in order to have any chance of scoring a job in Australia.
There are some key things you need to keep in mind when writing your Resume or Cover Letter.
If you don’t know how to write your resume or cover letter, we’ve got plenty of information regarding that on our website.
We also got a free resume and cover letter template as well. You can download and customise it as per your needs.
2. Be ready to fail
Now you might be wondering why are we talking about failing.
Well it’s very important for you to be psychologically prepared when applying for jobs and be rejected. It is quite certain that you might not be able to score your professional job straight away after graduation.
So here to illustrate this better, here is an example of a friend of mine. He finished his Bachelor’s Degree in IT and although he applied for many jobs he was getting tons of rejections in most of them.
It wasn’t until year and a half after completing his graduation he managed to score a job. While in this year and a half he did his best to make sure that he was learning, updating and being mentally ready and prepared to go out every single time and look for job.
Once he scored his first professional job, his career really had a great boost and now he’s earning six figure salary and very successful in his career.
So this tip is a very critical for you that you must be able to persist these rejections and failures.
It can be a frustrating journey but you have to continue to persevere.
3. Work on your soft skills
So you already have completed your graduation and have got some skills and knowledge for your industry. But, it’s equally important for you to have these soft skills which includes things like:
- communication
- teamwork
- leadership
- critical thinking
- decision making
- and many more
The company’s recruiters understand that you may not have that much knowledge or work experience as a fresh graduate but they surely want to see that if you have some soft skills that you can bring to the table when you applying for the very first professional job.
There are plenty of free courses available that you can take in order to improve your communication skills and other soft skills.
It will be even better if you can improve these soft skills while you are still studying.
So when choosing a university, make sure to ask if they have any programs for students that can be helpful for the employment in Australia.
4. Grow your Network
It is a fact that many jobs in Australia don’t even get advertised and as many of them come through the referrals or through the network of existing employees.
Basically if you know someone in the company, you have a very good chance to score a job in that business as long as you meet the criteria and you have the skills and knowledge to do it.
So, it’s important for you to start looking at how you can grow your network. You can certainly attend some networking events that are organised by your university or institute.
We highly recommend you that you should print out your own business cards especially after your graduation and go and attend these networking events and try to build a relationship with the people coming to those events.
It certainly take a while to get used to these networking events but once you get used to it, it can help you to grow your network.
5. Polish up your social accounts
Apart from the networking sessions, it’s important that you have a strong online presence as well.
Majority of the the recruiters these days look up to your social media accounts. One of the most popular social media network when it comes to professionals is Linkedin and having a Linkedin account for any graduate is a must.
If you already have a LinkedIn account, then you should definitely look at polishing it up. Many students have ended up getting jobs through LinkedIn.
Apart from LInkedIn, other social media accounts which includes facebook and instagram or other accounts, you need to be very careful in what you are putting on those accounts as well.
As recruiters might end up finding you through those social media accounts and if you got some personal content that you think you shouldn’t be there then we highly recommend you to tidy it up.
6. Be a volunteer
It’s always good idea to help people. We don’t suggest you to do volunteering only for the sake of getting a job.
But if you can get some volunteer experience that can be a great thing for your career. There are specific platforms available for finding volunteering positions in Australia and most of the charity organisations (like Salvation Army, Vinnies, Red Cross) look for some volunteers all year round.
So you should try to reach out to these organisations or you can check a platform like Go volunteer or Seek volunteer.
7. Find an internship
Internships can be paid or sometimes unpaid as well.
Before completing your degree, you should try to reach out to your university to see if they have any internship opportunities available for the graduates.
Sometimes there are opportunities available for graduates in companies that have partnership with your universities. So the first step is to find those opportunities if they are available.
If not, then many businesses in Australia post their internship opportunities on their websites. You need to keep an eye out on any internship opportunities available in your industry. Check on Seek and company websites for these opportunities.
If you like some specific organisation, then reach out to them to see if they have any internship opportunities. There is no harm in trying.
Once you do end up getting an internship opportunity, try to make the best use out of it. So that you might end up getting you a full-time position.
As there are chances that some of these organisations will actually hire their own interns after their completion of internship.
8. Contact recruitment agencies
There is a reason why the recruitment agency services exist.
Sometimes you have to reach out to these agencies in order to help you score a professional job. They can certainly help you to touch up your resume, your cover letter and get you ready for these job interviews as well.
Usually these are paid services and you may have to invest some money in this. There are plenty of recruitment agencies in Australia in order to get you a professional job like:
- Michael Page
- Hudson
- Addeco
You might not need these recruitment agency services if you already scored the job before that but it’s something to consider as well.
9. Be innovative and creative
You will be competing against thousands of other graduates for the same job you’re applying for.
So it’s important to standout from the crowd and be innovative and creative when you’re applying for the jobs.
So let’s take an example here, let’s say you are working in a restaurant and you have just completed your Master’s degree in marketing.
You can actually help out the restaurant you work in by setting up their digital marketing, social media accounts, marketing campaigns etc. This can help you and your career in long run.
Remember, it’s not only about taking but giving as well.
Think from other person’s perspective who’s probably going to hire you. So you might have to go out of your way in order to help some businesses and that can certainly boost up your career.
The mantra here is “Think out of the box”
If you can provide some value to some other businesses or individuals or may be sending your resume in a different way than most of the other candidates might do.
So these were some tips we wanted to discuss with you in regards to finding a job after your graduation in Australia. Let us know in the comments if you find any specific tip useful or you might have some other tips to share.
