The Job Hunting Journey of Past Present and Future: for anyone who's graduating or looking for a job.

Hi Guys! 

Sorry about being away for so long! I've been busy with work, end of semester assignments and just plain slacking around (my rekindled love with DS games). So this entry isn't going to be my usual beauty based post but more so a personal "life" one. I've been wanting to write something like this for a long time now but never got around to it. I hope you enjoy the read and may it be of some help if you're currently in a situation like mine.

If a lot of text scares you, feel free to scroll down to TL;DR and just read that section :)

I think the question I get asked the most is "How did you get your current job?" - Now this might not seem like a difficult thing for some but you have to understand: International students who have no past experience in Australia have a very hard time finding even the simplest jobs. Employers generally want someone who have a long term working visa or a permanent resident/citizenship. They definitely don't want international students who may or may not be deported once they hire you. 

Some freebies or discounted goods I got during my time as a beauty consultant.

So what you're left with is the option of sponsorship which only occurs (based on what I've seen) if A) You have awesome grades (HD for everything) or B) You possess a skill/or the experience that is hard to come by. Also, in order to be sponsored you will need to study a certain "required" degree (google: SOL Australia) and your company will need to prove to the government that they've looked nation wide but could not find someone like you. 

Opportunities differ greatly depending on what field you're in and I'm basing my experience in Australia -  but one thing is for sure: getting your first official job is HARD. Unless you're studying Accounting - in that case you have a million opportunities everywhere and I hate you. >______<;;;

Before now, there was a then

My work experience is a little messy and by a little I mean I've dabbled in a quite a few things. My parents owned a little shop when I was younger and I always watched over it during the summer holidays - which I hated at the time and just like many of us Asian kids, we were forced into it. In any case, it taught me a little about retailing: sell something to make more money. Yes, it’s a simple concept but I don't suppose all 11 year old kids at the time understood this. From then on out, I sold many things of my own, such as my Nintendo DS, Pokemon cards, teddy bears... you name it. But my ROI was marginal and I barely broke even(for all you accountants out there- I did study a little accounting myself :p ).

My CV as it evolved through the years

So after my experimental selling phase, during school's winter break in 2008 I was hired for my first official non-family related job. A waitress. Yes, after all the retail experience, I was a waitress. I was 16 at the time and a job was a job, plus the thrill of earning my own money made it worth while. It was hard, I hated the chef, tips were split between the number of wait staff and I was paid only ZAR8 (roughly $0.8) per hour. I learned to have patience with horrible customers and tolerance of my boss who refused to help me when I stood helplessly being yelled at by the Chef. School started again and as a result I quit after two months even though I had the option of working weekends.. I felt unhappy and broken. 

I guess that was my first experience of the real world. I was later hired to do sales and promotional work for different companies and got to travel all over the place in South Africa – which I immensely enjoyed. It gave me my first taste of freedom and independence. Unfortunately these jobs were seasonal or event based which meant I didn't always have the chance to earn some extra income.

So… I went back to waiting tables, this time, without an hourly pay. My entire wage was dependant on customers and tips. South Africa has a 10% tip rate of the final bill but it’s only a courtesy, not a must.  At times I would worked 8 hours straight with only ZAR20 ($2) as a result. Yes that’s right, only ZAR20 for an entire day – Australia would probably call the FWO on them but sadly that did not exist in South Africa. 

Working for Asus at rAge - promotional work 

UPCON - anime stall

rAge third year in a row :)

The best and MOST CHALLENGING job I’d ever gotten was having the privilege of working in the 2010 FIFA world cup. I was criticized for being “young” by some of the guests and they doubted my professional abilities as they felt I needed more “life experiences” to be able to lead a bunch of people or to stay organised. At one point, I was threatened and nearly got beaten by an angry guest who felt like I had not communicated his needs well enough to my managers. Luckily my managers were lovely and understanding people who knew of his character way before any commotions started. Let’s just say the angry guest was later fired by his boss~ and as much as things got messy during that job, I loved the experience! I made many new friends and the bragging rights of being at the world cup for life.

Working for the FIFA world cup 2010 <3

This was my hotel room... all to myself. THAT WAS NICE and comforting after being verbally abused.

A time for new adventures

I didn’t realize it then but my high school jobs were filled with experiences that are now precious and useful tools. It built me as a person and led to what I am now. I left South Africa in 2011, freshly graduated from high school and ready for a new adventure in Australia.

Jobs always came easy in South Africa because there weren’t too many Asians and if you were well connected in the community, there would always be something. Australia was a dark place for someone like me. I left my entire life behind and only had one friend to rely on when I started out. But thanks to that one friend, I got my first job in Australia as a Pharmacy Assistant.

Fast forward 6 months. The pharmacy was going through renovations and no longer needed the extra staff. Thus the search began for a new job and this time it would be entirely up to me to get one. “How hard could it be?” I thought...

It took me over 3 months to find one. Initially I was desperate and went back to bar-tending but that failed miserably because I could barely reach the cups and my knowledge of Australian drinks was very limited. Oh, did I mention I had almost no money at this point because I had moved out and started paying rent? 

I also couldn't be picky about the jobs – I applied everywhere. Sent out over 50 applications and only scored 3 interviews. Unlike most uni students, I arranged my timetable around my work schedule instead of the other way around. I still don’t know how I managed to pass all my subjects working 20 hours a week and only attending about 5-8 hours of class.

Working as a Make-up artist for BobbiBrown

The Chanel Team at Myer Brisbane City

For 3 years, I managed to keep up the part time work and finally at the end of last year; I graduated with a Bachelor in Business Management. 

Did my degree help me find employment after? Not in any way. No one wanted to hire an international student who had a degree in something so common. I also had no internships lined up because in my final year I decided to go aboard, I felt so lost and confused … where do I go now? What if I’m a failure?
----Then after, my new visa application was denied – and my world was flipped upside down.

I had two choices: go back to South Africa or stay and continue my studies. I chose the latter… the harder choice. Racking up more debt than you can imagine, I went straight back to studying right after I just graduated. Oh boy...

I thought I graduated. But nope.

Things that led up to now

I moved straight to Melbourne after I graduated and starting December of 2013 to the end of March 2014 my total count of applications sent out is roughly 300+. It’s not a joke when I say that finding a job was a job in itself. I would roughly send out 5 applications a day and rest up a bit on the weekends. I was writing a different cover letter for each application, trying to customize and improve my chances any way I could. My result was 7 or 8 interviews and eventually settled at Myer Doncaster as Lancôme’s new beauty advisor.

Sneaky selfie in the beauty room

After going back to studying the second time around, I knew I had to get my foot in the door early. I applied to as much internship as early as I could and always kept my eye on a look out for a graduate corporate role. I browsed Seek more than I browsed Facebook. When an opportunity opened up, I would be the first to jump at it even if they said they needed a graduate and not someone who’s still studying.

My take on it is at least they know me now. I’ve spoken to a person and not just submitted my resume to a computer.

ThoughtWorks phone interview :D

I got an offer for my current job only 3 days after my initial interview and at the time still worked at Lancôme. Not wanting to leave on a bad note, I made the choice of working two jobs for a month. By that I mean working Monday-Friday at the office and Saturday-Sunday at a retail store… It was an entire month of torture until I got to fly back to Brisbane to visit my friends T__T''

It was SO good to be back in Brisbane... just for a short while.

At least I got the mornings off! I could sleep in till 11 am and then skip off to work. 

Drawing out the schedule on paper....

My future aim: I'm a little undecided at the moment. I just want to graduate, earn a little more experience at what I'm currently doing and hopefully become a permanent resident within the next 2 years. Ever since I was a kid my dream was becoming a lawyer which now seems really unrealistic and unsuitable for someone like me. So I'm taking this next 6 months as a time to learn and truly get to know what I want to do before jumping onto a new adventure like I had always done in the past.

"Life catches up with you a lot quicker than you anticipate. And it scares me."

I'll end off with a really posey selfie.
Getting a decent camera is also on my future list somewhere. 

TL;DR?

The bottom line is… how hard are you working towards what you want? Are you nit picking about the job you want without even the slightest experience? They say beggars can’t be choosers. So the following is just my advice to anyone who’s currently looking for a part-time or full time graduate job:

• Apply to as many places as you
• Make it your mission to send out at least 1 application a day
• Make a LinkedIn page and have it professionally laid out - Feel free to add me: LinkedIn
• Fine tune your resume (have a friend look at it)
• Don’t be afraid of change
• Work as hard as you can, but rest when you know you need it
• Be open to volunteer work
• If English is not your native language – don’t work at a place that is NOT English speaking. This is especially important to those international students who want to stay in Australia. If you’re financially dependent on the job then it’s a different story.

Phew... That was long and intensive writing! I tried to make it as interesting as possible and dug up a lot of old photos for reference. Hope you you enjoyed the read and feel free to ask me questions here or contact me via e-mail: cathiehu27@gmail.com 

-Cathie<3