Mate, just wanna share my view:
First, it is true that Asian experience is not well recognised in Aus - It doesn't only affect Asian who are keen to look a job in Aus, Aussies who spent years working in Asian markets such as HK or SG also suffer similar predicament because Aussie business are pretty parochial with the exception of international companies or professionals service firms. This issue was reported in a newspaper article in fact.
In terms of recruitment, what you know and how good you are are secondary - yes technical knowledge is important but it is a given, what they look for are generally 2 things - whether they are going to like you as a person and if you fit into their culture, and if they think you are going to stay long. Generally it becomes a subjective exercise. Subconscious bias happens because you are from overseas and you do not speak in the way they do - Just imagine someone from for example, Bangladesh or Brazil applying for a job from you and you are interviewing them, as much as we want to be objective, we might ask ourselves if we can get someone locally first before we offer them a job because we are afraid that we have hard time working with them because they will need time to adapt to our own environment, although they might be willing to work harder. I think only companies in Sydney or maybe Melbourne are more open about recruiting internationally because people are so used to a multi-cultural environment, still they need to "feel good" about you.
Unfortunately I do not have a solution for you other than keep trying. I myself tried looking for a job for almost a year offshore but then again I was applying for Big 4s (and in Sydney), which they are more receptive about international candidates. Honestly, it took me almost 2 years to really understand the culture and finally communicate effectively with the local counterparts. I think what is important is the need to present yourself confidently and speak loud, even with broken english. Local Aussies focus a lot on perception and they tend to view confident people highly - I might be biased but that is why Indians have an advantage over Chinese in general because they are confident when they speak and they tend to be very chatty as well.
In terms of discrimination, I have yet to encounter critical discrimination but I know it happens. Then again, that is mainly because my company is a global company and my team in Sydney is very global minded and they worked with an international team. In fact, local Aussies in my team acknowledge discrimination happens and they detest it too. You will realise people in Sydney are very different from people in Brisbane or Perth and generally based on my short working experience in Brisbane, smaller town Aussies (like Brisbane) do not like Aussies from Sydney or Melbourne because they tend to be pushy (A competitive environment shapes the character) and they think differently too. So as you can see, even Aussies see each other differently depending on where you are from as they are very parochial. So racism do happen because if they never encounter an Asian before, they do not know how to communicate with them,there is nothing much you can do about it really.
Just FYI, I worked in SG before and there are discrimination as well in SG - where SG people will prefer SG and secondly, Msian candidates over candidates from other nations like China or India. It just happens everywhere mate, nothing personal.
Wish you all the best
regarding jobs i can say finance is a challenging, but accounting should be easier. To be honest I have yet to meet any Malaysian more then 6 months jobless. If you are extremely picky in position then tough luck.
Aug 12 2016, 06:41 AM
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