Australia Employers Requirements
What Australian Employers are
looking for When Hiring
Australian Employers’ big 8 According to recent research, the top eight qualities employers in Australia and New Zealand are looking for are:
• Communication skills
• Team skills
• Attention to detail
• Energy
• Initiative
• Ability to handle pressure
• Enthusiasm
• Ability to handle pressure
• Enthusiasm
• Leadership
Communication skills
Nearly all employers look for communication skills in prospective employees. Even if a job advertisement doesn’t specifically mention them, you can assume you will need them to the standard the job requires. The level of communication depends on job type. For example, a sales job would require an easy manner with customers and strangers. Some sales jobs require the ability to make presentations to groups of clients, and some sales jobs are more persuasive than others. In technical environments or doing manual work, being polite might be enough, along with the ability to express yourself clearly and understand instructions. In any role where you are required to manage others, having an awareness of the language you use when responding to other peoples’ suggestions would be important.
Smart move — Demonstrate great communication skills before you have even been interviewed by producing a clear, knockout Australian CV or résumé
Team skills
Working in project teams or groups has become the way of the professional world in recent decades with Australia being no exception to this. Team skills require communication skills. You need to be open and willing to share information with others. That means being flexible, listening to other team members and playing your part to get a task finished even if this means doing a task that is not normally part of your job.
In a job interview, you can demonstrate that you have team skills in several ways. For example, refer to times when you have worked in a successful team. ‘I was a member of the team that developed a new ordering process that resulted in savings of $500,000 for my previous company, and my team completed the job two months before deadline.’ If you could cite a genuine example like that, it would no doubt impress.
In a job interview, you can demonstrate that you have team skills in several ways. If you haven’t in fact worked in teams much before, you might refer to any team sports you have played in with some degree of success. It indicates that you are nonetheless a team player. More experienced employees should not need to refer to their sporting background and should concentrate on their workforce participation.
Attention to detail
Assume that attention to detail—mentioned in many, many job advertisements—is a must in every job. In other words, the ability to be slack and overlook things is not in very high demand at all. The job applicant who boasts attention to detail while presenting a résumé full of spelling mistakes and mistypings is almost an urban myth—but in reality, all too common. It is common sense that people who make false claims about their attention to detail are easily found out.
Here’s a checklist of how to get your perceived attention to detail off to a good start:
• Make sure your résumé is 100 per cent error-free and the layout is clear and easy to read.
• Thoroughly research the job you are applying for.
• Look over all fine print in a contract and ask questions about every point that needs clarification.
• Look smart! Make sure your clothes are clean and pressed, your hair is tidy and your general appearance is impeccable.
• Arrive five minutes early for an interview.
That some people are better organised than others is a fact of life. If you’re one of the others, one of those who find it difficult to be organised, then you are going to have to work hard to improve your organisational abilities. Training can help. A time management course, for example, can guide you through a series of steps towards more efficient management of your time and activities. Becoming well organised is not that difficult and a few tips can make a big difference.
Time management tips
1. Make lists of tasks and label them ‘urgent’, ‘important’ or ‘can wait’.
2. Put your work things away. Set aside a few minutes each day to put things back into files and books back on their shelves, so you can find them the next time you look.
3. Set aside time every three months or so to go through files, throwing out out-of-date material.
4. Take no prisoners with the mail. Keep and file only what is directly and immediately relevant. Fight the tendency to hang on to stuff because it might be interesting one day—that day rarely comes (and you will have forgotten where you put it anyway).
5. Do not leave home without your diary or PDA, and record any commitments in it immediately.
6. If you are struggling for motivation, set goals for tasks to be done in the next hour, and then the next hour and so on.
7. Out of sight is out of your mind. Stuffing something in a drawer is not the same as filing it. You have put it where you really have no chance of retrieving it.
Energy
Energy means you have strong enthusiasm and are prepared to work very hard. Employers look for people who will rise to a challenge. For example, an unexpected order comes in late one afternoon. You take the initiative to work back for a couple of hours to get the order finished, regardless of what plans you have already made. That’s energy.
Initiative
Initiative means you don’t hang around waiting to be told how to complete each segment of your work. You understand the needs of the organisation you work for and can make sensible decisions about how to handle different situations. Note that there is a fine balance between showing initiative and showing too much initiative—making decisions that are not appropriate for you to make.
Be aware of this in a job interview. Give examples from times of study or previous work of how you have initiated ideas and carried them through. Typical examples of initiative might be running a school magazine or improving a work process.
Ability to handle pressure
Handling pressure means not going to pieces when a situation becomes difficult to manage. You don’t take the rest of the day off sick, shout at people or lose your temper, even if you feel like doing some of those things. You know your job requirements include the skills to handle pressure. So instead of giving up or lashing out, you quietly and calmly work through your tasks and get them done as best you can. An organisation’s deadlines can cause pressure to build, or you may feel pressured because you are carrying the responsibility of making important decisions that affect other people. Handling pressure also means that you are able to deal with large volumes of work over a short period of time.
Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm is similar to energy. You feel motivated and interested in the job. You are interested in doing it well. You are excited about the organisation and want to do the best job you can. Enthusiastic employees are willing to engage in areas outside their usual line of work. They volunteer to take on new tasks or find other ways that show commitment to what their supervisor or company is trying to achieve. Enthusiasm is easily demonstrated in a job interview. Be bright and attentive, and show your interest in what the company is doing. Point out situations in the past where you have been involved in tasks outside your usual job. Note that there is a fine balance between showing initiative andshowing too much initiative…
Leadership
Leadership is commonly mentioned in job advertisements, but employershave many different opinions on what makes a great leader. Some people believe leaders need to be charismatic, but, generally speaking, when an ad says ‘good leadership skills’ it doesn’t mean you have to be a Winston Churchill or Mahatma Gandhi.
Leadership means you are able to manage and motivate other people effectively and that you have experience in delegating tasks so they get done successfully. A good leader can quickly respond to change and help others adapt to change also.
In an interview, you can demonstrate your ability in leadership by pointing out examples from past employment where you were given a project to complete. Briefly explain how you divided up the tasks among your work unit and how the team worked to a favourable conclusion. Examples of initiative—
how you introduced a new approach, devised a new product, or led your company through a major change or process—also reflect on leadership.
Self-management Although not usually mentioned specifically in a job ad, more and more employers are recognising the value of employees with good self-management qualities. Self-management means being able to take responsibility for managing and controlling your own behaviour, along with being able to expand on your abilities and think effectively in the interests of initiating and implementing positive change.
A number of mental and emotional factors contribute to self-management, such as our beliefs, values, associations, memories, expectations and assumptions. Often we are not even conscious of these running our lives. Self-awareness involves being consciously aware of our own behaviour, thinking and feelings, and of the consequences these have for us directly and for others around us, and modifying them as is appropriate. In an interview you can demonstrate self-management in various ways. As with demonstrating leadership and attitude, completion of goals and staying positive also demonstrates good self-management skills. As does outlining stress-reduction techniques you have used (useful when answering questions about how you deal with stress) and being able to respond to questions rather than react (shows good impulse control). Being empathetic to another person’s perspective demonstrates that you have some of the skills necessary to handle conflict well.
Adopting the right mindset and taking responsibility for your job-hunting journey by developing good self-management skills will provide you with the building blocks for success.
Excerpted from about Land That Job in Australia: Successful job-hunting for Migrants
by Jim Bright and Karen Bright
Learn more…
©Tribus Lingua 2007 This excerpt may not be copied without the permission of the publishers. Please contact us for permission rights Tribus Lingua www.tribuslingua.com.au
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