Outstanding Job Search Strategy

Last week, we indicated that we would feature specific and real-life examples on successful job search strategies. This week, we feature Sam, a civil engineer with six years experience, who has provided us with one of the most outstanding accounts of job search success. Whilst Sam only moved to Australia some six months ago, anyone can take pointers from his approach to plan their next career move.

Sam emigrated from Iran, arriving in Sydney in late May. He started his job search within a few weeks of arriving and despite having applied for more than 400 jobs without success, could have become disheartened by the consistent rejection.

Consider too, the isolation of not knowing anyone and the additional challenges associated with getting to know a new home, understanding the job market and sourcing job search assistance. As Sam said, “For a newly arrived skilled migrant, it is like solving a puzzle. You migrate from your country and suddenly lose ALL of your links, and land in a country where you have NO links. I used to have a very good career life in Iran and had worked on some multi-million dollar projects as site engineer, site supervisor and site manager.” In Australia, he was forced to start at ground zero.

Sam chose Sydney because his research indicated it would provide many opportunities on construction projects. He started applying for project manager, site manager and project engineer positions in Sydney - none of them resulted in a job. He recognised that he needed to also apply for positions that may be below his considerable experience level – such as site engineer, site supervisor and estimator.

He started to create a new network, expanding his links in Australia, attending community events and functions, going to clubs and most importantly, attending a project management course in TAFE NSW where he could meet people with his expertise background and in his location.

Sam attended the AMES Skillmax course that is held for skilled migrants to understand the conditions of Australian job market (including how to write a good resume, cover letter, telephoning skills and interview tips), leading to construction project management master course work at the University of New South Wales. (Sam had applied for the course in case he couldn’t find a job in the period).

Impressively, Sam followed up on every job he applied for and talked to consultants for tips and advice. He started gathering a database of building and construction companies and wherever he went and saw a project, would look for the company name on tower cranes, boards etc to add to his database. The list was completed by searching the "companies" section of LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com [1]).

Sam started applying for jobs - writing speculation letters directly to companies. He told us that in 80% of cases, he did receive a reply to his job enquiry. The major problem he encountered – and which many do when trying to transition from one industry or location to another – was lack of local experience.

Not deterred, Sam registered at Sydney Community College for a volunteer job, leading to a volunteer position with a major construction company. This provided Sam with invaluable experience – working with Australian tendering processes, technology and systems. This Company then became Sam’s referee and he was able to add the local experience to his resume.

From here, Sam started winning interviews. He also added his Australian experience to his LinkedIn profile and changed his online status to "Sam is looking for an estimator position".
One of his network contacts (which he had found through applying directly to companies) subsequently contacted Sam about a vacant position in his company and invited him to an interview, leading to the job he now has...a full-time permanent estimator position. He was offered the position in late October, nearly five months after arriving in Australia and starting his search.

Some key learnings from Sam’s experience:

• Finding your next role can take time. On average it takes about 3-5 months to secure a new position.
• Identify your entry point role and work this angle. Sam specifically aligned himself to estimating roles as he knew that estimation would be the base for acquiring the appropriate knowledge for the Australian construction industry.
• Finding a job is all about finding new links and expanding your network. We’ve said many times before that job search is not an arm chair activity. Note that Sam’s success changed once he moved away from just applying to positions.
• As you conduct your job search, companies are watching and assessing how you behave. Clearly, Sam had impressed through volunteer work, study and through expanding his network. By the time his new employer interviewed him, they obviously knew all they needed to as he was offered a role almost immediately into their meeting.
• Have a ‘can do’ attitude and take responsibility for your job search. Expect that it will take time and hard work. Plan for an element of risk too – you may need to move location as Sam did, change roles, enter at a point lower than you would like, do work you don’t necessarily enjoy at first – all to get that first start.
• Sam’s advice is to try everything that might lead to securing a job. Going to networking and other public events, attending courses and obtaining Australian qualifications, becoming a member of professional organisations (in Sam’s case, Engineers Australia), looking for jobs on websites, cold calling, registering for job mails, establishing good contacts in recruitment agencies, registering in recruitment agencies and trying to find a volunteer job are some of the methods that Sam employed.