# Local Experience



## DavidBoon (Jul 6, 2011)

We all know that the most difficult thing when looking for your first job in Australia is Local Experience. Of all the rights and wrongs in this country, this is the funniest.

When a person decides to migrate to other country, he passes through some of very difficult tests. His skill assessment is done on the basis of qualification, experience and language skills based on the country’s parameters where he is migrating. Regarding adaptation of culture, a migrant is most flexible. He knows that he will have to adapt the culture of the country to survive and grow. He is skilled, culturally flexible and a performer & hardworking too. Only hardworking people migrate, laid-back attitude people never migrate unless they are refugees.

Reasons of migration may be any, be it earning money, better lifestyle or work satisfaction, but migrants are best contributors. So, when a country is getting a new migrant, it is getting cream of another country at no cost. 

These days when a company hire a new employee, it wants that the person coming in should have new ideas, energy and zeal. Mostly migrants coming from other countries are the ones who have worked in more than one countries and full of ideas and energy. But in Australia, this is ignored, I don’t know why. Are Newton’s laws of gravitation different here or double entry book keeping is not followed here or Jumbo Jet’s parts are installed in the cars. NO. Then WHY? Some of the fields like Law and sometimes Marketing, I can understand local experience is required but not in all fields. Migrants are forced to think that local experience is supreme and they are downgraded against less skilful local people. I would like to ask employers what is stopping them to hire migrants basis their skills and if they don’t find their performance upto the mark, fire them. What is the guarantee that local guy will be a better performer.

We are in the era of Globalization when companies are spreading their wings out of their home country and need people with international work experience. I have worked in four companies till date, one is headquartered in India, second is in UK, third is in US and fourth in Hong Kong. I have also worked in these geographical locations also and never felt out of the place. My work was appreciated and my social skills were admired. But now I am thinking of migrating to Australia and when I think of that I’ll have to compete with a guy who is half my qualification, half my experience and a frog who never came out of his well, I’ll have to lower my wage by 10-20%. Funny. 

Whatever I have written above is common sense. So my question is why employers of this country lack common sense. We may not get the answer here, but I am giving a food for thought to employers/consultants just in case they passes through here that by repeating local experience they are sacrificing their common sense and an opportunity of hiring a better candidate. Or if there is actually a strong reason, I will be happy to be corrected. But in that case, that message should reach countries like US have attained the no.1 position till 2008 and are growing because of diversification.

This is my first post in this forum, sorry if I am sounding negative, actually I am not negative, but have the guts to call a spade a spade.


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## bharatbansal (Jun 23, 2011)

I agree. Completely.


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## stormgal (Sep 30, 2009)

I was wondering about the local experience question - I can understand why company's would want that, but what I don't understand is why they'd call you in for an interview if your resume would let it be known that you don't have any.

Sometimes I'm led to believe that employers would tell an applicant that they're looking for someone with local experience on one of the following scenarios:

1 - If they saw during the interview that you don't have the "soft people skills", did not communicate well, or are not a "good match" (meaning they can't see you fitting in with the other coworkers)

or

2 - If they are interviewing you just to fill in some type of a Human Resources quota - all the while knowing that they are not going to hire you because they already have the person they want in mind.


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## iffi (Aug 12, 2009)

Agreed with David


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## kaz101 (Nov 29, 2007)

I have an Aussie friend who's very qualified who found exactly the same thing in the UK when she tried to get suitable work there. After a while she gave up and came back here since although she had Sydney and Hong Kong experience she didn't have London experience. 

Unfortunately is happens in several countries....

I wonder if not having local experience is an excuse because they are wondering how well you will like it here and may decide to go back "home"? I know that when my husband got his first job here the boss actually said that to him because in the bosses experiences some migrants will leave in a few years. 

I agree that's daft and frustrating! 

Cheers,
Karen


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## DavidBoon (Jul 6, 2011)

In my view, people without local experience should at-least be called for interview to prove their skills. Not calling for an interview means they are taking local experience supreme and those who haven't are already out.
Local Experience should be desirable rather than mandatory which means if two equals are competing, person with local experience should get the job but this doesn't always happen.


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## _Sarah_ (Jun 27, 2011)

"in Australia, this is ignored, I don’t know why. Are Newton’s laws of gravitation different here or double entry book keeping is not followed here or Jumbo Jet’s parts are installed in the cars"
"this country lack common sense"

This sort of language to me is borderline insulting - though it's hard to tell in a written message without hearing the tone of voice. 

Who can be sure that the employers are telling the truth if they say "you were not chosen for lack of local experience". What if they are using this as an excuse because really they have other reasons? 

It seems that most migrants are aware that they will be disadvantaged because of lack of 'local experience', and so, should it not be taken into account before chosing to migrate to Australia? 

Unfortunately it's hard to say when or if Australian employers will ever change their habits and perceive potential employees on different terms. I find it hard to imagine that a migrant with qualifications from their home country would be refused for EVERY job that they applied for. So if a migrant does settle for a lower paying job, they should take it purely for the EXPERIENCE, and then put it on their CV, look for a better job and this time around they can say "yes, I have worked in the industry in Australia".

People change jobs all the time, so tell me, what's wrong with settling for less to be able to claim 'local experience' and AFTER being able to be hired by a better employer??


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## DavidBoon (Jul 6, 2011)

Hi Sarah
My quote was "employers of this country lack common sense", by ommitting "employers of" the meaning is totally changed in your post. I did not talk about the country here but the employers.
Yes, I agree with you that migrants know before applying the PR that they'll face this difficulty while looking for first job. Still they migrate for whatever reasons. 
They take up jobs at lower wages and when they have enough of local experience to show in their CV, they take up better jobs. But, they are forced to do it. If they get the first job according to what they are worth, will they still do it? The answer is No.
Regarding the written language, sorry if you felt bad. My intention is not to hurt any feelings here but to put my point across that rejecting migrants or not even calling them for interview just for the lack of local experience is not very justified and companies might be loosing some good candidates because of this approach.

Thanks




_Sarah_ said:


> "in Australia, this is ignored, I don’t know why. Are Newton’s laws of gravitation different here or double entry book keeping is not followed here or Jumbo Jet’s parts are installed in the cars"
> "this country lack common sense"
> 
> This sort of language to me is borderline insulting - though it's hard to tell in a written message without hearing the tone of voice.
> ...


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## wannabekangaroo (Jun 17, 2011)

I think that in this case I won't blame the Australian employers too much. This is a natural tendency worldwide. People get rejected for multiple reasons - Not from right school, not the right educational qualifications, too little experience, experience in non relevant areas, no experience in an area desired, bad communication skills etc. This is just one more factor that has been added to the multitude of reasons that already exist with the employers to reject the candidate.
Everyone will prefer a candidate who can be trusted to handle the day to day situations that arise in a workplace and candidates with local experience can be trusted to handle that better than someone coming from a different country. Once a new immigrant gets local experience then he is not discriminated against, for this reason atleast.
My thinking is that if someone can volunteer to work for an Australian firm for free while still awaiting their visa just for getting their reference, then it can stand them in good stead later when they are in Australia. This will signal to other employers that you are serious about settling in Australia which is another risk factor employers face with new immigrants. This is not possible for all the fields but can be done in certain fields by some people.
All the above is from someone who has not set foot in Australia so it might be completely wrong.


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## DavidBoon (Jul 6, 2011)

You are right that I have not set foot in Australia, but what I have written is from first hand experience of many of my close friends and relatives. 
If you think this is just like any other criteria, I respect your view though my point of view is different as mentioned above.
I appreciate your inputs.



wannabekangaroo said:


> I think that in this case I won't blame the Australian employers too much. This is a natural tendency worldwide. People get rejected for multiple reasons - Not from right school, not the right educational qualifications, too little experience, experience in non relevant areas, no experience in an area desired, bad communication skills etc. This is just one more factor that has been added to the multitude of reasons that already exist with the employers to reject the candidate.
> Everyone will prefer a candidate who can be trusted to handle the day to day situations that arise in a workplace and candidates with local experience can be trusted to handle that better than someone coming from a different country. Once a new immigrant gets local experience then he is not discriminated against, for this reason atleast.
> My thinking is that if someone can volunteer to work for an Australian firm for free while still awaiting their visa just for getting their reference, then it can stand them in good stead later when they are in Australia. This will signal to other employers that you are serious about settling in Australia which is another risk factor employers face with new immigrants. This is not possible for all the fields but can be done in certain fields by some people.
> All the above is from someone who has not set foot in Australia so it might be completely wrong.


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## fadydodo2004 (Apr 8, 2011)

WoW ... Perfect Article....I totally Agree with it. great effort. we need to share this article as much as we can and we can even email it to all newspapers & recruiting sites of Australia.


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## inalegion (Nov 23, 2011)

*local experience*



DavidBoon said:


> We all know that the most difficult thing when looking for your first job in Australia is Local Experience. Of all the rights and wrongs in this country, this is the funniest.
> 
> When a person decides to migrate to other country, he passes through some of very difficult tests. His skill assessment is done on the basis of qualification, experience and language skills based on the country’s parameters where he is migrating. Regarding adaptation of culture, a migrant is most flexible. He knows that he will have to adapt the culture of the country to survive and grow. He is skilled, culturally flexible and a performer & hardworking too. Only hardworking people migrate, laid-back attitude people never migrate unless they are refugees.
> 
> ...


Your statement is SOOOO TRUE! I am experiencing it right now here in Australia.I will never get a local experience until an employer will take a chance on me. I even bargained my services for free if they would just give me a chance to show what I am capable of doing. I have been knocking for volunteer work but for 1 volunteer work there are 5 of us in the waiting list. I have worked in 3 different countries but somehow this is the longest time that I was unemployed (3 months). And it seems that I if ever I will be employed it will be far below my previous job assignments ( i was an Audit Manager). I will accept even if it is the lowest job, I am used to challenges and proving myself. I migrated here so that I could bring my family with me. I hope that someone will employ me ASAP or else I would have to feed my children thru Centrelink. Im not used to DOLE outs all I want is a decent job equated to my skills. I have written so many resumes tailored for Australia but still it still ends to, "Do you have a local experience?". 

So what am I to do? JUST PRAY AND HOPE!!! CHEERS!!!


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