Job openings in sydney by networking

The best option to find job in australia is Networking. Indeed It takes time and effort to get a strong professional network around yourself like a spider who works hard to build the web. With the same analogy, Professional network is as effective and efficient as spider web. Once spider finish assiduous work of building web, It can relax and opportunity comes with ease. Exactly the same principle apply to good professional networking.

With my network i came to know of few positions which i would like to share.
One is full time programmer position in Sydney. Its C/C++ programmer with good debugging skills. The work is quite challenging hence only with deep understanding of C/C++ should consider. Another is a position ideal for university student. I know of a good multinational embedded company who is looking for part-time employee. The company gets lots of order for software/hardware and this person should handle the inquiring/bookings and manage invoices etc.

Both the above positions are not advertised by head hunters as company is not keen in going with headhunters and pay huge commissions.This is a big problem which immigrants face during their first job. Unless they are exceptionally qualified, companies are reluctant to take them for senior positions. Junior positions are not that urgent/critical for company hence they dont hire head hunters and try to fill through references. These kinds of openings are ideal fit for starters to gain valuable local experience.

When i was looking for job, I didnt had good network which diminished my chances. The irony is after getting job ,now I realized the importance of networking and get frequently contacts for openings when i am not looking.

How to get work visa for australia

Moving to Australia or any developed country can be a great experience and asset to your career graph. I know from my personal experience, a person who has international experience is usually preferred for senior managerial position in large multinationals. Sometime back i wrote a small article of finding first job here in australia and got tremendous response and queries on how to move and find job in Au. Highly skilled professionals from all over the world are looking au as their preferred destination. I got lot of queries on how to get work visa and that inspired me to share my experience on possible options available for skilled migrant moving to au.

First let me share few important and interesting facts related to au visas. 

It's easier then you think: Getting work visa for australia is far easier then other developed countries. Anyone who has applied or is in process of applying may be surprised to read it but believe me "Au work visas are easiest of all developed countries". When i was looking for migration, i considered option of US and UK apart from Australia and the complication and restriction coming with them were mind blowing. The biggest advantage of Au work visa compared to US H1B is au visa is for family rather then individual. If husband gets H1B the wife can enter US but cant work. With Au 175 visa the complete family(spouse and children) can move in Au and work. Infact for me this was the single most important reason to chose Au work visa on top of US visa.

Its damm expensive but worth it: Au PR for highly skilled immigrants (visa - 175) is quite expensive. Just the govt fee is around 2500$. Add to this the medical and Immigration consultant fee(if you hire), you are easily looking for 4000$. One has to plan finances properly. One should remember i am talking about permanent resident visa which gives visa holder and family authority to stay and work permanently in Au.


Visas Options: The most popular visa for skilled immigrant is called Visa -175. It is permanent resident visa with full authority for study and work for the whole family. Its point based system so chances of confusion is limited. Point calculator is provided on immigration website to help applicants.
    Key requirement for this visas are:

1. Four plus years of relevant experience
2. Age between 18 and 45
3. Proven english ( IELTS)
4. For people who are not sponsored by an employer

If one can find job in au and company is ready to sponsor, the visa option to choose is 176 and its requirements are easier to met

Temporary long term stay visa- 457: The big problem with 175 is it takes long time to arrive. Company cant wait for a year to get its employee on board. This visa is processed quickly and gives authority to work for the employer for a period of 4 years. While working, one usually file PR and gets his permanent visa.
   Key requirement for this visa are:

1. Require sponsor
2. Valid for 4 years
3. File new visa if one switches job 

The problem with this visa is that it is linked with the employer and one can only switch job by searching a new visa sponsoring company. 

Another trap with this visa is if the company relieves a employee then employee has only 28 days to find another sponsor for his visa else leave the country.

457 is clearly a risky option to be completely relied upon. The difficulty is the company who sponsored 457 will probably not be interested in sponsoring the PR for candidate since PR gives power to leave company :)

457 can be treated as a short term option to enter and find one good reliable company. After finding the right company who is willing to sponsor PR, you are in safe land.

State sponsor visa: Many states of au are lacking few perticular skillsets and are interested in skilled immigrants with exact match of the skills. The best part is the application of state sponsorship is usually free or affordable. Once you can secure state sponsorship, road ahead is relative easy. The only catch is the immigrant has to stay in the sponsor state for next two years.

Student Visas: Students in au have limited hours of work authority. The work limit is 14 hours for graduate program. The dependent of Phd program can work without any restriction. The conversion from student visa to PR has been quite common in the past. Students usually apply for PR after their education and get bridging visa. This visa has full authority to work and can stay till decision on PR application do not arrive.

The immigration webpage is great place to look for all the visa options available.

The rules of Visa approval is undergoing tremendous changes in recent past. The favourable immigration laws in Au is simply bcos many skillsets vital for economy are in shortage. Law makers realized that the favourable immigration policy is sometimes getting misused which has resulted in higher scrutiny and tightening of visa requirements. According to the resent rules amendment proposed by govt, it seems the students who are planning for PR are going to have a hard time ahead. The immigration law is quickly changing its rules to give priority to immigrants with skillset critical to economy.

The economic recession has a great impact on visa rules as well. The skills which were critical before are no longer in priority list since many with the same skill are looking for job. The purpose of encouraging immigration is to boost au economy and so such skills not critical in current economic times are moved to less priority processing by depatment of immigration. The dynamic and rampent changes in visa rules and priority list is a clear indication that immigration dept is very serious with the quality and authenticity of immigrants. The way ahead, it seems the rules are only going to get tighter and bar is only going to rise.

I believe it makes a lot of sense to apply for visas, at the earliest for those who are aspiring to move. Nobody knows the future but it seems the way ahead can only be a uphill.

For those who are seriously looking for Au as their destination, I would recomment visit immigration website and understand all key requirements before deciding on which visa to apply to. 

Stay tuned for more info on immigration and job search tactics to this lovely land down under. I would recomment joining the group to follow updates on my blog.

How to find job in Australia

I immigrated to Australia few months back. I was armed with an IIT degree with 4 year exp in world class company in India. Looked on-line for various tactics to get job quickly and implemented most of what I found logical. With substantial effort and hard work i finally managed to get a job. This page is an extract of my experience during my struggle which I found the hard way so that others would streamline their efforts and get job quickly. I am getting huge numbers of mail everyday and its very difficult to reply in person to all queries. In order to address these queries I plan to write more articles covering the following points in detail  For serious job seekers, I strongly recommend to follow the discussion by joining as follower.

How Long is too long: My first week resulted in 2 interview and the requirement was so close i believed i was too unlucky to not get in one of them. I was on high and thought it would be cakewalk. Soon reality strikes and i entered in dry period with nothing happening for next 3 weeks. I talked to many seasoned people and they helped me to calm down. I was told if someone migrating to au gets first job in 2 month, his lucky star is shinning very very bright. Typicall time is from 2 month to 6 month. You would be very unlucky not to find anything even struggling for six months.

One Lingering Curiosity: First lets clear one curiosity which comes to all of our minds. Can one find job sitting back in home country ?When I tried searching sitting back in india I must admit the response was poor. Few bothered to reply back with standard regret mail. Very few recruiters do reply back that they would consider if i were in Au. After i arrived, i had opportunity to talk to many recruiters face to face and asked if its possible to consider for position sitting back in home country. Unless the requirement is really unique the company would easily find the skill set in the present market and would not consider going for visa delays and hassles. With global financial crisis , the chances of securing job sitting in homeland is virtually impossible in my view.

Job Market Dynamics: Let me first give you a brief insight how things work here. Here in Au most of the jobs are advertised by recruiting agencies who are hired by companies to find suitable candidates. These agencies post job ads to various sites and in response gets tons of resumes. The recruiters put email filters so that only resume with most matching keywords pass their mailbox. Then recruiters scan all resumes in mailbox and most of the time submit just 1-2 resumes to company for considerations. Usually one company give request to 3-4 recruiting agency hence these agencies are competing for the commission for this one job. Now understand the dynamics here. The recruiter has only 1-2 resume which he can submit from the whole lot and he can maximize his chance of securing the commission only if he presents the very best talents to company. Hence the first and the biggest hurdle in securing job is convincing the recruiting agency that you are the best talent available for this position and if he gets any doubt on your credentials then your resume is heading to his bin.

Contact Recruiting Agency: If the resume is a great match to the opening its highly recommended to call the recruiter after submitting resume. The recruiter would honestly convey why he feel you are not the best option for this role and you have a chance to clarify anything if the resume is not highlighting it properly. If he buys your explanation then its better to ask for the exact requirement and resend another tailor made resume highlighting in CV the exp and achievement in-line with the requirements. Recruiters prefer to meet the candidate to ensure whom they are presenting to the hiring manager. If he asks to meet, you should gladly agree and try to fix appointment at earliest. If recruiter do not follow you for this opening in future, its better not to worry bcos the job has already slipped out of your hand so fetch another rather than going for wild goose chase. Tailored resume highlighting requirements is very important. Since most of the openings are contract based companies dont hire anyone who has learning curve. Even if the recruiter dont budge after you call, its wise to politely exit the call and try to bridge good relation with the recruiter so that you are considered for future prospects. Out of 100 applicants he rejects 98 so Always remember he may be your biggest hurdle but he can be your stepping stone if he believes you and short list you.

Local Experience: One thing I heard quite frequently is called 'local experience'. This one word will hurt your prospects more often then not. There are many reasons for giving significance to local experience. Few recruiters says its easy to check references if one has local experience. Candidates under sheer desperation to get any job go in length to tailor resume which they cant defend in interview and waste everyone time. Remember tailoring is highlighting your skills relevant to requirement and would certainly help but fake resume wont. With local exp one can be sure to be able to work with the team in au and has adopted to the aussie work culture. I personally believe the arguments for local exp are weak and unfair but who says life is always fair.

Finance Matters: The most important thing to consider before landing is finance. Its the most important thing bcos Sydney/Melbourne are quite expensive. I was told by many that you should have finance to servive in Au for atleast 6 months. Me and my wife were spending wisely still the expenses were huge . Few tactics I believe one should adopt initially:

1. If possible dont come with family. If you come alone the cost of living can be reduced by sharing apartment etc.
2. Visit few sites to get idea of how and where to find accommodation
3. Staying initially with friend/relative is wise before you know how things work
4. Internet and telephone is required for finding job so account for a laptop and USB internet connection
5. Public transport is reasonable but dont even dare to walk into cabs . They leave a big hole in pocket.

Voluntary and honorary options: Try to find if someone can give you honorary job which gives you experience rather then sitting at home. One should be intellegent to fish at the right place. A software programmer with 5 year of exp will not be gaining anything by working as unpaid sales man for garments shop but would be helped if he is selling some software. Find hard and convince your employer(very difficult) you would not run as soon as you find something :)

Communication: There is great importance given to communication. The candidate should be filled with confidence. The hand shake should be firm and confident contact to eye is required. I personally believe there is little place for politeness and humbleness when you come for interview. Dont get me wrong. Aussies are one of the most polite and courtiers people but hiring manager want to see confidence on the face of candidate( dont mix with arrogance). I would highly recommend practising commonly asked questions to avoid any pitfalls.

Resume Building: Your resume is the biggest weapon in your bag. Use it wisely. For first job its highly recommended the resume is detailed. The details are required so that there are less queries during interview. Being the first job, one may not know the best way to answer so the lesser questions are preferred so put as much detail as you can. Here is a catch. Put all details but nothing which wastes readers time as time is very highly regarded here.

Applying for Job: When you land in oz, everyone would give you their own idea on how to apply and search for job. Few people told me to apply for each and every job you see on-line even if you dont have any relevant experience. It may sound crazy but it makes sense. The resume may reach the recruiting agency (if passed email filter) and he may consider it for future. But there again is a catch. If you overdo it it may irritate recruiter, he may think you dont understand the stuff you are talking and worst he may block your incoming mails. Remember you are wasting his time and for him time is directly proportional to money. I myself overdid it and got the response from one " I read your resume carefully and found NONE of the requirement matching. " Finally I decided to put all my efforts to the few for which I am good.


Networking Sites: I believe networking through linkedin, facebook, orkut etc is the best way to get first job in oz. Recruiters obviously prefer those with local experience and they usually have openings which are for senior positions. Companies usually consider immigrants for junior positions and once the ability of person is proven he moves up the ladder. Unfortunately junior positions are not advertized since the company prefer not to spent money for junior positions and to fill it internally through reference. Thats where networking is so important. It takes a while to build a working network in foreign land so one should have patience and dedication for networking.

Above are the gist of experience I earned during my job search. I dont claim they are the best but i believe they work :). If someone needs more information on any point, i didnt covered in detail, they are welcome to leave a comment. All the best to all aspiring minds for their future endeavours.

Linux Vs Windows: Will they be friends?

I guess we all started our journey with windows. A lovely OS which gives us great flexibility and we are only limited with our own imagination. The learning curve is so smooth that we get use to Windows without even realizing it. No wonder windows is darling of the masses.

Later we may encounter Linux. I personally heard so much scary stuff about Linux before experiencing it for first time that it really took lot of courage to try Linux for first time. With some initial hickup and struggle i sat on top of this wild horse. Reading few books on unix/linux helped me appreciate the beauty of Linux.

During my industry experience I had opportunity to work on Linux and Windows kernel development. It greatly helped me in understanding of internal architecture and hidden stuffs. Honestly i become great fan for Linux. It is a great example of what a marvel gets created when great minds work. The open source of Linux is a killing advantage of Linux on Windows. I believe its OS developed by programmers for programmers. It gives editor, compiler and everything a programmer wants from OS. Other then cost, Linux heavily scores on stability and performance.

When i was developing linux device driver, I use to crash my OS 20 times a day still the poor chap never asked me to reinstall. Try this on windows and compare stability :)

Windows score heavily on simplicity and usability. Windows is a OS for the masses. Nine out of ten would prefer simplicity over performance. Thats the key to success of windows. MS gave world a clean interface which will hide the scary world of hardware. Linux is trying to improve on usability and on the other hand windows is improving on performance and stability. Seeing is believing so have a look at the new fedora or Suse GUI for usability. Even today lot of software /embedded development happens on Windows as it has great customer base. Linux popularity is improving but its still a minority compared to windows mass appeal.

A programmer may find Linux enviorment great while his parents and wife may throw the computer to trash if they are asked to use linux. Both Os have a great value in our life. They compliment each other nicely and serve different section of pyramid. My laptop has linux for my programming and windows for my wife/parents. For me linux and windows are not competitors but friends.

Above are my personal views and i request readers to kindly post their comments.