What's your situation? If you share then maybe I can be more helpful.
TY, I am very happy and it feels like 1 in 10 million.
Once you get to the final stages of any interview process, they will surely know everything. Before you get there, it's best to be honest to avoid disappointment later on (if you lie, you'll be fired; if you didn't tell them at first, you might find out that they won't hire you based on this new info).
At the majority of interviews I have had (especially those that were face to face rather than on the phone) I was asked about my residency status. One or two exceptions are when you have to fill in a massive application and they are already well aware of it. Indeed for those companies where I made it past the first couple of rounds, I may have been asked more than once by the same party. Though I have gone through a few interviews now, it still is not an easy question to answer and explain, and I sometimes get stumped in the slightest way, though luckily it hasn't affected me. Getting a phone call bright and early in the morning doesn't help.
This is something that's difficult to hide (my work experiences were all not in Australia - despite this I still sometimes got strange reactions when they heard I was not a local, although there are a lot of 'Malaysians' with Australian passports, basically foreigners who have lived overseas all their life but returned to their place of birth for uni, so you might be surprised). I chose not to hide it, I didn't want to waste my time and be disappointed later. You could argue hiding might give you more interview experience, or let you reach the final stage where you can sell yourself to the higher ups. But I also knew I would be wasting my efforts applying for jobs that almost certainly wouldn't hire me based on this fact alone. I also believed I should work for someone who would accept me.
You need to demonstrate initiative. I have been very aggressive. Turns out I may have tried too hard (the offers I received were all in the same broader sector or industry but in different specialties, though my interviews came from a few different industries). I was so desperate that a lot of jobs I applied for were ones I never wanted anyway. But I was particularly aggressive when it came to the industry or field I was targeting. In the process I realised more and more that it was what I wanted, and what suited me the most. Indeed, I ended up actually feeling more unattached r unattracted to those industries whose interviews I ultimately failed.
So that passion, which didn't exist before, came through for me. I didn't hold back at interviews, or with applications. Speaking to people in the industry also helped a lot, in terms of awareness and some inside knowledge which can impress the interviewers. On the bottom of course I also had top grades, lots of work experience, and decent performance in interviews. Basically I acted like a local, except I wasn't one. Nobody puts their nationality down. I think I might have when sending CVs to Hong Kong but in hindsight it seems silly.
I applied for such a broad range of positions, I have over 15 stock cover letters and even those may need to be edited from time to time. But ultimately for the industry I was targeting it probably only accounted for a third or less than half my applications. A local student, if lucky, might only need to make under 50 or 100 applications. In terms of offers I had a 0.3% success rate. In getting interviews between 1% and 2% (because I rejected some).
Grats bro. Feel so proud that another Malaysian managed to get a job in Australia. So they re sponsoring you a visa?
Jan 1 2014, 01:49 PM
. Fulfilled all above, except I am under 25 yo (far off). Since I am 5 points short, I am trying to acquire state nomination from the NSW government (willing to relocate to Sydney). As they no longer accept applications until July 2014, I was wondering if employers from my desired job are convinced to take me on board while holding a temporary visa. Tough luck indeed.
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