'No Experience No Job'
When I graduated as an international student in Australia, back in 2009, it was damn hard to get a job in your field! There were no 18 months graduate visa (luckily getting a PR was way quicker), no companies wanted to hire international students, leave alone the big four firms and graduating post GFC with a business major reduced your chances of getting a job even further.
I remember when the big companies came for campus career fairs (do they still have this post pandemic??) they never hired anyone on the spot as one might like to think (in some countries they do this, India, Nepal where companies actually recruit you on the spot in the college, esp in reputed colleges). Anyways, as an international student you had to fulfil your visa requirement first even to be eligible to go past the stage 1 of the selection process. You’d often apply to 100s of jobs before a handful of them replied along the lines “We were impressed by your background, unfortunately…..” Paradoxical that puts ‘impressed’ and ‘unfortunate’ together which is of ‘no use’, doesn’t tell me what I need to improve and then you land up spending hours and hours applying. And from some, you never back!
Applying for a job is a job in itself. Wake up- look out for jobs, customise your CV and cover letter and keep applying and this pretty much takes all your day.
Turns out, many of our graduates still face similar issues. While many companies are opening up to international students esp post COVID (which is a great sign), many of graduates still fall short because of ‘no experience no job cycle’. While for some, just the university degree may be enough to land up a job. More and more companies are looking beyond the degree- capability/skills to carry out the tasks as well as the right mindset.
No longer it is about finishing the degree and getting a job. It is now about collecting experiences, acquiring skills and network whilst still studying.
As international students, let’s face it- we’re working part time, full time study load, being there for family overseas (which can be financial or emotional or both) which leaves us with few hour to network, build contacts and get work experience.
We get you! hence, we launched Illume Foundation, born out of frustrations of many young graduates and students. Platform that provides you the work experience to break the ‘no job no experience cycle’ and mentorship to accelerate your career journey and community to meet like minded people.
Career journey is a long path and having supporters along the way makes it much easier!
Don’t forget to check out our upcoming opportunities to be part of Illume Foundation.
Share this newsletter with others for more career related tips and resources!
Until next time!
Laxmi,
Founder, Illume Foundation
Career Hacks:
University clubs are a great way to connect and network with likeminded students who often land up becoming life long friends.
Find a cause or a not for profit organisation to volunteer- ‘giving back’ is a great way to ‘receive’ and you also land up meeting bunch of passionate people and gaining practical work experience.
Connect with your university alumni via Campus Mentoring service at your university or linkedIn. Your university alumni are most likely to be open for connection and mentorship.
Be part of community groups beyond your university to meet people from all walks of like. Join a local meetup group, toastmasters group or Illume Foundation’s Community group.
Look for work experience opportunities, often advertised on your university career page, or platforms like Illume where there are vetted opportunities. Optimise for learning opportunity more than the brand name (a topic for our next newsletter).
Share these tips with others!
What’s happening at Illume?
Women In Startup Program:
We just completed our 3 part series Program Women In Startup program supported by leading organisations in the startup and the venture capital world such as LaunchVic, Breakthrough Victoria, Airtree, OneVentures, Possible Ventures, Guida Health and our Mentor in residence-Willian.
Next date to be announced soon.
Illume Fellowship Program
This week we completed our 8 weeks Fellowship Program. Congrats to all our fellows.
Upcoming opportunities:
Paid/Unpaid/Volunteer roles available through our Illume Fellowship Regional Activation Program: Opportunity to work with startups in Regional Victoria or in Melbourne. Learn about the program here: Regional Activation Program.
Full time Job opportunities for Developers (Front, back and DevOps) and Data Science roles for EnergyTech startup to start immediately.
Also hiring, Tech support full time role (no experience needed).
For all roles apply via Fellowship link- www.illumefoundation.org
Congratulations to Illume Fellows, Yogesh and Koushik for securing their first full time role in Australia through Illume.
Ok that’s all for now.
Before we go: Startup term what does VP stand for? Vice President? Valuable Player? Nope- it stands for Value Proposition. Learn about Value Proposition here .
Follow us on instagram and linkedIn to stay up to date!!!
Cheers
Laxmi & Illume team.