“Strategies to Break into the Aussie Job Market” - one of the exclusive networking events held by MARKCubator for international students on the 28th of May, 2022.
MARKCubator invited 3 of their alumni Adam Xie (Reed Exhibitions), Vy Huyen Le, and Karine Lo (GroupM) as the guest speakers for this event. Their distinctive and ground-breaking strategies for the job market as international students impacted many attendees.
Each speaker has a different experience and starting point which leads them to a different journey in their career. Learn how they have landed their full-time coordinator and executive roles in global companies and apply it for yourself.
International Graduates achieve Success in the Aussie Job Market
Being an international student isn’t easy, especially when pursuing higher studies and future career paths in Australia. There are numerous challenges and barriers that encounter when you try to crack the Australian job market including competition with domestic candidates, visa restrictions, English communications, etc. Every cloud has a silver lining and yet there are many ways that can help you pull through these challenges by adding extra efforts with extra support from the pioneers and professionals.
MARKCubator is one of the silver linings, a bridge, a positive prospect that helps many international students find a way in their career direction. It continuously creates opportunities for students to develop themselves from someone with no experience in digital marketing at all to become talented employees in global firms such as Adam Xie, Vy Huyen Le, and Karine Lo.
Let’s find out more about their stories.
Adam Xie: From Domino’s Delivery Driver to Marketing Executive in Global Firm
Adam Xie says goodbye to pizza delivery job and successfully lands his desired goal by integrating 3 strategies:
1. Gain RELEVANT experience
He follows his ideology of gaining relevant experience through participating in volunteering opportunities and actively seeking for practical marketing environment. By having a platform like Markcubator, Adam is being able to improve his soft skills (English, confidence boost) and hard skills (content creation, digital marketing, event management) which directly leads him to develop better skillset, build the foundation for his career paths as well as nail the future interviews
2. Improve English communication skills
Besides, being English fluent in both verbal and written communication is the most crucial element to breaking into the Australian market. The advice from Adam is to practice English as much as you could, talk to everyone you can find, and weave yourself into a diverse environment.
3. Seek out for step-by-step mentorship
Importantly, reaching out for advice and feedback from teachers, or mentors will allow you to map out your next step in the journey of achieving your goals.
Click HERE to Read Adam’s Full Story
Vy Huyen Le: Overcoming international student barriers to get her first Marketing Agency role
Can international students achieve dream jobs?
The answer is YES, definitely!
1. Be active in building portfolio
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door”
Vy strongly believes that if you are willing to learn and give in efforts, you will be much more likely to achieve your dream jobs. She also shared her experience as an international student herself and how she reached out to Dr. Theresa Teo for help and advice. And she has realised that no work is a waste of time, every single work even contracts job, unpaid internship, or temporary role in small businesses or startups is a job as well and those small tasks will help you prepare yourself for future Full-time roles.
2. Improve on interview skills
Interview skill is an essential element for you to connect with the recruiters professionally and personally. Give recruiters a chance to get to know you and see how you express yourself CONFIDENTLY. Moreover, research about the company and narrowing down job requirements would benefit you in aligning your past experiences with it.
3. Review your resume
The resume can be seen as the first impression to the hiring department so make sure you review your resume layout and include all the “gold” achievements from past working experiences.
Karine Lo: How an Insecure Karine successfully joined global firm GroupM
Karine used to be extremely insecure and did not believe in herself regarding her lack of confidence in English speaking but she pulled through it by implementing 3 strategies:
1. Be engaged in university societies /clubs /networking groups
Soft skills are meant to be learned in the most natural ways - communicating and engaging in daily lives. Building your networking, collaboration, and teamwork skills in university along with the support from your peers will be extremely beneficial for you. And don’t hesitate to interact and engage with professional bodies on different platforms because you will only learn when you step out of your comfort zone and be ready to enhance your skill set.
2. Job searching is a mutual thing
Be well-prepared not overprepared when it comes to interviewing process. Because you want a job, and the company wants talent. It is a balanced mutual criterion that is supposed to come from two sides.
3. Proactivity is Productivity
Be active in seeking feedback, advice, and comments from everyone including the hiring department or recruiters that you have spoken to. Because learning from your failure and mistake is the best way to learn as well as the easiest way to improve yourself in the future.
Let’s hear some of our Feedback from the attendees after experiencing this Networking Event:
If you are an international student and would like to explore the Australian job market, we are welcome to book a free consultation with us TODAY!
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MARKCubator - Your Aussie Partner