How I Landed Two Job Offers In Australia Within Two Weeks Without Applying Online

Start where you are, use what you have and do what you can

There are a million and one reasons why a job application may fall through the cracks. In the face of new competition in society, job applicants have to think creatively to get their foot in the door.

Gone are when jobs were easily come by and, employers would woo entry-level applicants with lots of benefits to lure them. Do not get me wrong, this is still happening, but it's not as common as before.

I will share my personal story of how I was able to land two job offers within two weeks in Australia without applying online

#1. Preparation Stage

Your future starts now

I arrived in Australia in 2016 for my postgraduate program in Public health at the University of Queensland. Like many other international students, I was filled with hope to complete my graduate degree and possibly gain some international work experience before returning to my home country.

I heard stories of how jobs were hard to come by, especially for international students, due to a lack of local work experience; however, I was prepared for success and did not consider this an obstacle. I knew I needed to do something different to stand out.

When I arrived in Australia, I noticed a trend; it's the usual trend — most people were only focused on school without necessarily thinking about life after school. I decided I needed to get more value for my tuition fees, rather than just attending classes and doing the regular school routine.

I realised the system was quite different from what I was used to. I knew I would have to do more to get ahead in my career. I knew I needed to put a few things in place to get as prepared as possible to achieve my career goals.

As an international student, I realised several odds were against me, and I would need to do much more to get noticed by employers.

i. Research

Knowing what is available in the market is crucial

First, I conducted an environmental scan to check out my options and realised there were few traditional jobs and career opportunities in my field. I noticed many of my peers decided to change career paths, which meant I would need to do a bit more work to land my dream role.

Immediately, I started thinking of ways or things I could do differently to put me in the top 5% that employers would love to hire.

I researched and highlighted the skills I needed for specific roles of interest. I knew gaining these skills would increase my chances of success.

ii. Your Identity

You want the employers to go straight into the main business of helping you get ahead instead of making them feel inadequate due to their inability to pronounce your name correctly

It's essential to make it easy to make the employers and anyone refer to you with ease, and it starts with your name. If you particularly have a long and complex name, I recommend breaking it down or using a preferred name.

My full name is "Olabanji", and while this might be easy for some people, I opted to have my preferred name, "Banji", on my resume on application credentials. While my name might look easy to pronounce, I have seen a lot more complex names that can be challenging to pronounce. Can you think of any?

International students can have complex names depending on their background and culture. While this is fine in your home country, it might not particularly work well in other countries or cultures.

After a recruiter finally gives you some audience and looks at your resume or your email, the last thing you want is to have difficulties pronouncing your name. I got this fact after I read Udi Ura's post and some psychology books.

You want the recruiter or hiring manager to have an easy time with your credentials and not be distracted. You want them to go straight into the main business of helping you get ahead instead of making them feel inadequate due to their inability to pronounce your name correctly.

Therefore, I encourage you to use a preferred name if you have a name that might be complex and challenging for recruiters to pronounce. They like to feel comfortable right from the onset, including when looking through your application.

iii. Get Creative

Creativity is essential for finding success in today’s job market.

You need to be creative to stand out amongst a pool of other applicants to get noticed by the recruiters. Here are a few ideas that helped my creativity.

• Personal Website

A resume has become customary in society. It is the first credential you submit to a job posting; it is usually the first thing an employer sees after applying to a job application.

With the advent of technology, many professionals are moving online. They want to be seen or heard before a job shows up or before a hiring manager requests their resume, and one way to do that is by having a personal website. Asides from your social presence and a polished LinkedIn profile, your professional resume or blog can be online as well.

Besides being a repository for potential employers, your website or blog can also be an online repository for your work, achievements and key events in your personal or professional life.

Indeed, your creativity can set you apart from competitions and position you for tremendous career success.

You can look at my WordPress blog to get an idea of what a personal blog looks like. You can also get your hosting account via Bluehost for as low as $3/month.

• Custom Email Address

An email address is not something far fetched anymore. Request anyone's email address, and you will have it within a split second.

Indeed, emailing has revolutionalised how individuals communicate all around the globe for personal and professional reasons.

Emailing will be many employers' preferred mode of communication; however, having an unprofessional email address may count against you. Emails with a username like "showme4u2002" and the like may hurt your chances of landing a job.

A typical professional email address with your name as the username (e.g. banji.alo@…) is a great way to start; however, you can do better by having a more personalised email address. An example would be [email protected], instead of the standard free Google, Yahoo or Hotmail, or Outlook email address?

Yes, while this might look a bit insignificant, it does show something unique about you, your personality and your overall profile. The additional benefit is its ability to beat the email filters set by specific organisations. Some email rules will automatically flag emails from free email providers as spam and end up in the junk folder. I once sent one of your such applications in the early stages using my Gmail account, expecting feedback only to realise it never reached the recruiter's inbox after I followed up!

While this idea might be familiar with young professionals in a specific field, say Information Technology, employers in other areas would appreciate that you stand out with your emailing system. Guess what? You can get this service for almost nothing if you have an account with your hosting provider. Yes, zero! However, if you fancy a friendlier look with a robust email management system, you should consider hosting your email with Google, Microsoft and the like.

• Portfolio

“Show Your Work” — Austin Kleon

It is essential to have samples of your work or projects on your resume. It is one of the main attributes that will help you stand out by showcasing samples of your work.

First, decide what portfolio is most helpful in your sector. Portfolios can be digital or physical, but they must contain examples of your best work. For example, if you're looking for a job as an animator, including some samples of animation that demonstrate your skills might be helpful. Similarly, if you are a developer or in the Information Technology space, having examples of your work on Github would be beneficial.

Most employers generally consider hiring a risky business, so the more work samples or projects you can show, the less risk you are to them.

iv. Continuous Learning

You need a growth mindset to succeed

I understand it is customary to attend classes when you are a student; however, grades alone will not help you land a job. Unfortunately, most skills you need to succeed in the real world and not taught in the classroom.

Aside from going for coursework in the class, I ensured I searched for specific training programs to improve my hard and soft skills. These training sessions were helpful as they helped me develop the skills suited to the roles I desired.

v. Understand The Limitations

Knowing what can limit you can improve your chances of career success

Why it's easy to focus on what you need to achieve a goal, it's often uncommon for individuals to consider factors that can derail them from achieving that goal. Below are some limitations I noted and how I overcame them:

• Lack of local work experience

Since I knew having a local experience was gold, I decided to opt for an internship during my graduate program, particularly to understand the Australian work culture.

This internship helped me understand my strengths and weaknesses and provided me with the professional exposure I needed locally. Of course, it was also nice to have Australian work experience on my resume.

• Lack of Soft and Hard Skills

I understood lack of soft and technical skills could set me back as employers love those that can perform on the job without much supervision. I was interested in data science, and since I was studying public health, I researched the nice-to-have skills and gained these skills through online courses and other training programs outside the classroom.

• Visa restrictions

I had heard stories from different professionals on how they couldn't secure a job they loved because of visa restrictions.

A friend shared a story about how he almost landed a job in an organisation, only to be denied last minute because he didn't have the proper work rights on his visa. Therefore, I knew it was crucial to have appropriate work rights to be considered for a role.

Understanding this fact got me thinking and preparing to secure the proper visas that would enable me to work after my graduate studies.

• Competition from other qualified candidates

Imagine you had to choose between 5–10 different meals at a buffet party. You are more likely to look at all available options before selecting the best. This happens with jobs too!

Nothing beats you faster than competition from other qualified candidates. Even if you are suitable for the job, the employers would still choose from a pool of other qualified candidates, ultimately decreasing your chances of landing the job.

My goal, therefore, was to reduce or eliminate competition as much as possible, given I was an underdog seeking career opportunities.

#2. Application Stage

Preparing quality applications will improve your chances of success

I started applying for positions once I was confident I had put in enough time to prepare for my next job. The essential element was my resume and cover letter, and my LinkedIn profile.

It is a no brainer that you need to have a professional resume to get shortlisted. A clean, nicely formatted resume and cover letter can put you in the spotlight of an employer, while a poorly written and formatted resume and cover letter will instantly end up in the trash.

A resume is the first credential you are asked to submit, and I doubt this requirement will fade away any time soon. Your ability to know the proper resume format, based on your country of application or sector, can save you hundreds or thousands of time wasted sending applications that do not suit an employer.

At the initial stages, I was applying to jobs using the resume format employed in my home country; however, I quickly realised it had to change to the right format after not hearing back after a series of applications.

Once I used the proper resume format, I started gaining more visibility.

#3. Interview Stage

This stage was relatively short for me, as I believe the bulk of the work was done in the preparation stage.

i. The First Offer

Harness the Power of LinkedIn

I had been a casual user of LinkedIn; however, I knew it was powerful and could offer much more, so I started engaging more on the platform.

After a few weeks, I found professionals in my companies of interest and reached out to them via LinkedIn. I was concise with what I wanted and introduced myself as well.

The response rate wasn't particularly remarkable; however, I was not discouraged, as I only focused on the positive part of the process. I knew I only needed one YES to land the job I wanted.

Finally, I found a connection in my field who was happy to introduce me to a hiring manager. I emailed my resume to the team and visited in person the following day with a hard copy of my application. It was easy to scale through the usual questioning process at the reception, as I already had staff names I wanted to see.

I met one of the hiring managers, introduced myself and stated my mission and was told to wait to hear back from them. This only lasted about three minutes.

I finally got an email a week later requesting an interview. I was given the option of either online or face to face but decided to opt for the face to face option.

I attended the interview well prepared. It wasn't too challenging as I already followed the company on social media and researched them thoroughly. The interview process lasted about an hour, and I got an offer a week later!

ii.. The Second Offer

Start where you are

Use what you have

Do what you can

The second offer was quite interesting as I started working with the organisation three months prior, although in a less-desirable casual role.

Although I was interviewed for a different role at the start of my job, I had an excellent chat with the panel during the interview as I understood the sector. During the interview, I mentioned the many other transferable skills that could benefit the organisation.

Three months after I commenced the casual role, I went back to HR with some exciting ideas based on what I read from the website. I thought I could spend a couple of hours working part-time implementing these ideas within the department, in addition to my casual role.

The HR was pleased with my proposal and given we had chatted extensively during the interview, she mentioned me to the hiring manager, who was keen to bring me on.

I was invited for an interview a few weeks later. Of course, I was the only candidate, and I secured the job! Easy!

Final Thoughts

Actually, there are jobs but…

Preparation is key to achieving career success. As you can see, I only interviewed twice. There was no competition at all, as I hoped it would be. I favoured this approach, as I did not want any limitations to deter me from landing the jobs I wanted. I preferred this approach to applying via job boards and competing with numerous candidates who might kick me out of the pool.

You have probably heard that there are no jobs. I'm pleased to inform you that there are jobs available for you. The problem is there are not many skilled applicants available, and employers are not willing to take risks or go over-budget training new hires. Alternatively, you might have to create your own job as I did with the second offer!

You need to go knock on the employer's door. I have since learnt that many employers need someone to fill a role. They are too busy to post the job publicly and follow the usual shortlisting and interviewing process.

This process is lengthy, time-consuming and stressful. I have seen this play out in real life. The HR and hiring manager have to work closely to develop a job description to find the right talent. This process is time-consuming.

Almost every employer needs someone, so the earlier you knock on their door, the better. They might decide to hire you on the spot if you turn out to be the perfect match. Do not waste their time if you aren't skilled in a role you want, as they probably won't hire you. This will not only rule you out but might jeopardise the chances of skilled applicants who later show up, so best not to waste their time.

Job hunting is not as complex as many think it is. You don't have to do exactly what others are doing and end up with the same results. Get creative in your job search and explore new approaches.

Although you may not get immediate results, you will eventually win if you don't give up.

Good luck!

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About me:

Banji is a career advisor who enjoys sharing his learnings with young professionals to assist them to land their dream jobs and become the best they can be in the industry. He also publishes premium career content on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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