# Job Dilemma for Engineer. Any help and advice



## vineet (Nov 29, 2009)

I got a Bachelor Degree in Mechanical Engineer graduating in 2006 outside Australia. I just worked for 1 years in my field and have difficulty getting a job in Australia for the past 6 months. Now most recruitors for graduate jobs say I graduated too long ago and the rest say my experience is too little. So I am in a quandary as to what to do. 

I am thinking of joing the 2 year Mechanical Engineering Diploma program at TAFE to get back in the game as a graduate but not sure if it would go down well with my Bachelors. I have even thought of some short term courses as well like Project Management and NDT. 

So bascially I am completely stumped as to what to do. My interest is to move into the mining or manufacturing sector in a maintenance or management role. 

Please help me out and give me some advice. I dont know anyone in Australia who can guide me.


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## Dexter (May 5, 2010)

I suggest you start from conversation with TAFE if this is what the recruiters advised you. It may help you get back to your field and should not be extremely expensive thing to do. In terms of education they will be able to advise what to do. If later on your Resume you point out that you have a degree from overseas and then finished a TAFE course in Australia it will not be considered inappropriate. This is actually how I have done for over 7 years (had physics and IT teaching degree from overseas and diploma in E-business management from Australia) and has always worked well.


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## valsecchi.mrc (Nov 11, 2010)

how many interviews did you do in 6 months?


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## Dexter (May 5, 2010)

In the first 6 months of my stay in Australia in 2004? I sent close to 100 applications and did more than 10 interviews. Beginning is always hard. During the reminder of my stay (since July 2004 until now) I did less than 10 interviews.  This is about gaining local experience, getting local referees and finding the right job.


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## Wanderer (Jun 16, 2007)

As Dexter indicates Vineet, being employed in Australia can be a lot about local experience and whilst doing some additional training can help in that regard, if there is the opportunity for you to take employment in any field associated with engineering, even on the fringe, it could be appropriate to do that and even study part-time rather than rely on fulltime study.

But at the end of the day, any employment in Australia is usually a competitive scene and there are many fresh Australian and international graduates every year all looking for employment that might not always be there in their field.
A lot of graduates may be looking to get into mining for they hear of exceptionally good salaries and so the competition may be even higher and yet opportunities possibly limited as many major resource projects often involve international companies and a wide use of contractors/consultants etc. that may even source some people from within their existing staff, even from abroad.
For mining, rather than general recruitment companies you ought to have a look for companies that specialise in servicing the resources sector and be prepared to go to outback work sites, though a lot theses days are of a fly in/fly out operation from regional cities, so it could be necessary to forego a capital city life.
Also research on what the major resource projects are and who the companies are that are involved and contact them direct re what openings there may be, what companies may already have contracts etc. and find out as much as you can of their programs and get your resume direct into the appropriate companies.
You may also want to research on local government and services authorities for quite often there may be additional staffing sought by such organisations and the further away from main cities they are, the harder it may be to attract employees.

At the end of the day though, it may still be that you cannot find work and there was a post recently by someone on the problems being faced by immigrants in finding work and it is a real one for though Australia did not officially enter recession with the GFC, Australian manufacturing industry has been on a steady decline for many decades, the cheaper labour rates of many asian region countries abroad seeing companies move operations abroad and that is only likely to continue.

I have posted a couple of times to people asking about employment that they need fallback plans to immigration.
1. Have sufficient funds to get them by for six months or so.
2. Be prepared to take what work they can get initially
3. Have funds in reserve so if employment does not come they can consider returning.


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