October 15th, 2007 » Australia Skilled Migrant Success Stories
Philippines to Australia Job Story
Grace Alvarez – Shares her Australian Job story
In Grace Alvarez’s Australian job experience, most Australian employers approach recruitment as though they are looking for no more than “another set of hands”.
Grace, 35, came to Australia from the Philippines in late 2004. As creative director at a major advertising agency, she had dealt with the accounts of major blue-chip companies and travelled extensively. She had also worked in Dubai.
She describes her migrant status as “reluctant relative”. Her mother and brother were already living in Australia, and her mother became ill and needed care.
“My mindset when I arrived in Sydney was willing and open-new life, new Australian job, start from scratch,” she says. “I had been to Australia several times and have always thought of it as a ‘kind’ society. There is welfare, the dole, care for the handicapped and so on, and things work-trains running 10 or 20 minutes late don’t seem so bad to me.”
She soon found that getting into advertising required Australian local experience and knowledge. “You have to know what ‘fully sick’ means, and all about footy and cricket,” she says. “It was telling when my company in Manila wrote to the agency in Australia that belongs to the same global group, informing them that I was coming, and they didn’t even bother to reply.”
No matter. Grace was ready for a change and she thought she had built up the skills and experience to be competitive in many other fields. She has directed 80% of her effort at pursuing jobs advertised on the internet. “I saw an ad for ‘panel beater’ and thought, hmmm, can I do that?”
More wisely, perhaps, she decided to look for a job as a coordinator or events manager. “You see ‘coordinator’ Australian jobs everywhere. I thought I had a pretty good cache of skills, but all people really wanted to know about was basic practical skills such as typing and using computer programs. I soon learnt from interviews-I’ve had 20 or 30-that what they wanted was just another set of hands. It was a no-brainer.
“Finding myself without work for a few months was very hard, having worked in advertising where it’s 24/7 [non-stop]. It was a reality check when I applied for a position as an events management assistant with [a medical research council]. I know the work well, so I filled out the selection form as lucidly and professionally as I could. But I never heard from them. It makes you feel rotten when even the ‘good guys’ are not very considerate.”
Grace’s English skills are excellent-in Combined Universities Language Tests, she proved that her fluency was the equal of, or even better than, most local speakers. But people have picked up on the Americanness in her speech and she has sometimes sensed a reaction against it.
“…all people really wanted to know about was basic practical
skills such as typing and using computer programs.”
“I believe that heaven’s mercies are new every morning, but there are days when you lose all optimism, days that catch you in a bad way,” she says.
Noticing that many Australian job ads required occupational health and safety (OHS) and first aid certificates, she did a first aid course to build her skills and make her more employable.
She has also taken up voluntary work. She maintains a community group’s website and acts as adult literacy tutor. Her ambition now is to combine her skills in communication with her new training in education.
Australian Job success stories are written by Steve Packer and published by Tribus Lingua
©Tribus Lingua 2007
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