Finding Jobs
Highlights from the ‘Industry Insights and Migrant Talent’ webinars
Before you start searching for jobs
Before you start searching for jobs, google your name in web, image and video results.
Take care of any privacy settings or content that you need to be presentable and employer-ready.
Review your LinkedIn profile with a checklist for best practice.
Why not all jobs are advertised
There are many situations where an employer has ‘feelers out’ for talent before considering a formal hiring process. This is not a conspiracy against job seekers. It reflects the circumstances and needs of the business.
For example:
- There’s a period of maternity or paternity leave approaching.
- The current occupant of the position doesn’t know that they are being replaced.
- A holiday season.
- Covering long service leave of key employees.
- There is a funding or a project in the pipeline that has not landed yet.
- When a temporary hire is required to cover staff ‘acting up’ whilst they backfill a senior role.
- Key staff need time off for unexpected serious medical or caring responsibilities.
- Anticipating retirement and internal staff movements.
- Work to cope with peak demand, that is not worth the effort and expense of short term external hiring.
- Anticipating internal restructure to align better with strategy.
If you are only marketing your skills to employers with advertised positions, you are missing out.
To find jobs that are not advertised, your contacts need to:
- know and like you,
- know that you’re looking for work, and
- know the skills that you offer
The value of networking is that who your contacts know significantly expands they number of ways that you can find out about jobs.
Remember, all networking is about authentic connections that are reciprocal.
How employers look for talent
From the most preferred to the least preferred, here’s how many employers look for talent:
- From within: promotion of current employee or contractor or temp or former temp employee.
- Using proof: unknown job seeker who brings proof of what they can do.
- Using a colleague: hiring someone who worked a trusted friend has seen.
- Using an agency that they trust: recruiting businesses are built on long term relationships based on successful placements.
- Using an advertisement: it costs money to advertise online or in the paper and creates a lot of work for the employer.
- Using resumes on file: If the resume is unsolicited it may not be relevant, or current as the job seeker may have another job already.
Therefore, to apply for jobs in Tasmania:
- Build you network
- Send specific, targeted messages to the right audiences
- Have a resume that you can adapt for difference audiences
- Apply for jobs that make sense
- Make you sure your LinkedIn profile has an approachable photo, keywords in your headline, and a short engaging summary
About online job boards
Online jobs boards are only one part of your job search.
Examples of jobs boards:
- JobActive – use job search board even if not eligible for their services as it curates across jobs boards
- LinkedIn – set up job alerts
- Seek – set up profile and job alerts
- Ethical Jobs – jobs in social purpose organisations
- Indeed – set up search alerts or explore salary information
- Tasmanian Government Jobs – state job alerts and casual register
- Australian Public Service – federal jobs based in Tasmania
Online positions tend to attract a higher number of applications than jobs found through other means such as networking.
About newspapers
There are still job vacancies within newspapers and industry magazines.
Do not discount these subscriptions as something that is outdated.
For example:
- Mercury classifields
- Examiner classifields
- Trade magazines are often part of your professional association membership
About LinkedIn connection requests
Random connections on LinkedIn add no value to anyone.
Just don’t do it.
Here’s a few angles to customise your LinkedIn request and start a conversation.
- Project angle – highlight a particular project or accomplishment they have listed on their profile and mention how it connects to something you are doing.
- Perspective angle – Seeking their perspective on a topic related to a skill set you both shares.
- Respect angle – when the person you are reaching out to is much further ahead than you in their career.
- The mentor angle – a form of a “thank you”, this angle has you explain how this person’s work has taught you something valuable in your career.
- Interview angle – asking the person for a quote to be included in a blog post you are writing on LinkedIn is a great way to get someone to connect – but only use if you will write something that can benefit others and be shared back with the connection.
- The industry angle – similar to the perspective angle, this approach has you seeking their opinion on an industry-related trend or topic.
Not everyone will respond but a meaningful connection is a start:
“Hi …. We’ve never met, but your profile came up when I was looking for people who are knowledgeable about ……. in Hobart. I’m really impressed with your background and would love to learn more about what drew you to working at …. They are very innovative. Can we connect?”
How you should look for jobs
You are marketing your skills to solve business problems.
To be effective looking for jobs, develop your career for the long term, and to protect your mental health and wellbeing you need to use both:
- Proactive strategies (looking for jobs that are not advertised – you take control and have less competition)
- Reactive strategies (applying for jobs that are advertised – you have less control and more competition)
Proactive strategies also develop your career, and are part of being a professional.
Value the skills you learn as part of your job search. These are career management skills that will serve you well for future transitions.
Finding a job to pay the bills
If you’re looking for a jobs to pay the bills, make sure:
- You have a plan to progress your long term career goals
- You know your rights as an employee
- You know how to check a job is not sham contracting if you’ve been asked to supply an ABN
Jobs don’t have futures, people have futures. Spend time taking tangible steps every week investing in your professional future.
A job is owned by your employer. A career is your life’s work and something you own.
No one will care about your career more than you do, so don’t give up.
Participating in the Migrant Network Tasmania is one way to surround yourself with people who can understand the challenges and who are all at different stages of actively pursuing their career goals.
About recruitment and labour hire agencies
Recruitment and labour hire companies and their staff have different strengths and industry knowledge.
Remember, their client is the hiring business, not you. You’ll need to be proactive to make the most of the relationship.
Polish up your LinkedIn and resume before submitting to a recruiter. Follow up, with an agenda of questions.
Use LinkedIn to find and follow the company and their employees to find the staff most relevant to your industry. Customise your LinkedIn request. Engage with their posts, ask meaningful questions.
It pays to be known and trusted by a recruitment consultant that places people in your industry. Many positions can be filled by known candidates before being posted online, especially when a business is seeking to fill a temporary position.
Recruitment companies in Tasmania include:
- Hays – Most industries are covered
- Nurseline – Nursing and allied health
- Orche Recruitment – Health and medical
- Randstad – Building and construction
- Searson Buck – Most industries are covered
- Your Doctor Jobs – Medical, pharmaceutical
Companies that mostly do labour hire include:
- Agrilabour – Agriculture.
- APG workforce – Agriculture
- Aus Labour and Recruitment – Trades and construction, Manufacturing, transport and warehousing.
- LinxEmployment – Mostly agriculture.
- MC Labour – Construction, security, traffic, civil and industrial.
- Pinnacle People – Hospitality
- Programmed – Varied industries
- Sidekicker – Virtual labour hire platform in partnership with SEEK.
- Toll People – Supply chain recruitment
- WorkforceXS – Agriculture, mining, construction, manufacturing, engineering, transport & logistics, food production.
About freelancing
Freelancing is an opportunity to sell your services to gain further experience in Tasmania while looking for more permanent work.
It can offer flexible hours, job variety and working from anywhere. Usually you are considered self-employed.
Platforms for freelancing include:
- Fiverr – unlike other platforms, with Fiverr, you package your services rather than get billed by the hour. Similar to Airtasker, you make bids on the projects you want.
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Upwork – companies or individuals make job postings and browse candidates.
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Oneflare – this Australian online marketplace connects consumers with experts – specifically within the home improvement and service market.
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Airtasker – is an online peer-to-peer marketplace where users outsource their everyday tasks for a fee.
- PeoplePerHour – Professionals, consultants, freelancers and contractors from a range of diverse fields are invited to sign up for the opportunity to get set fees for hourly jobs and packaged gigs.
- Guru – gives freelancers the opportunity to market in-demand skills on a global level for minimum cost.
- DesignCrowd – Crowdsourcing design platform.
About activating your networks
Having a network is only useful to the degree that people know you, like you, and want to help you.
Activating your networks means:
- Letting people know that you’re looking for opportunities.
- Identifying who in your contacts has knowledge about or hires in the industry you’re interested in.
- Asking your network to consider who they know in the industry you’re interested in.
So make sure your networks know about the contacts and opportunities that you’re looking for.
About cold calling / emailing
Prepare a list of organisations you’re interested in. A starting point is the businesses listed by category and location in the Yellow Pages.
Another approach is to use job search alerts for broadly for your industry to generate a shortlist of employers over time, even if they were not advertising the position you’re seeking at that specific time.
Initiating unsolicited calls and emails to companies and doing this well takes emotional energy. Put some targets and boundaries on it so that you take care of your wellbeing.
Alternatively, focus on participating in local events where you can make connections with people directly. Then follow up swiftly seeking a phone or email conversation. Then seek a LinkedIn connection to stay in touch to learn industry insights from their posts, shares and connections.
Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash
“It is very conversational. I like how everyone was just talking to each other and sharing their stories or knowledge. The host and staff were very friendly which makes us feel very relaxed.” Skilled Migrant, 17 February 2021.
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About MRC Tas
Migrant Resource Centre Tasmania (MRC Tas) is a not-for-profit organisation that has been supporting people from migrant and humanitarian backgrounds to settle successfully in Tasmania since 1979.
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About Migrant network tasmania
Migrant Network Tasmania draws on the goodwill, stories and tips of migrants and the wider community to help fellow migrants to establish lives and careers in Tasmania.