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What are Employers Looking For?
OQP Victoria has industry links with many Australian employers. Two of OQP Victoria's host employers have given advice about preparing for Host Employerss and job seeking.
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Paul Cooper, Manager
Desktop Operations, VicRoads
I’d like to offer some important advice to those about to start an industry placement:
- Review your transport and route to work
- Be honest and not afraid about advising if a task is beyond you, or more importantly perhaps, letting us know if you don’t understand something
- Make sure the host employer provides a safety induction
- Ask for a role statement describing the role you would be doing if you were a full-time employee and maybe ask for other similar role statements in the group to get a feel for how things work across the different groups in that organisation. I don’t know if this will help in other organisations as we all seem to use different formats and content, but it’s a starting point and organisational awareness is crucial.
Some advice regarding finding employment in this profession:
- Have strong, actual examples of work skills. Be able to describe examples in detail, or at a high level in terms of benefit to the business. In fact, being able to talk about benefits to the business is better than detailing how a particular process works.
- Be able to provide examples of how you learn, what makes you a quick learner, why are you interested in learning new things. How have you helped your previous employers improve their business?
- Be able to demonstrate how you organise yourself, time management if you like. What are you skills in managing projects or tasks?
- Are you aware of how a behavioural interview is conducted because this seems to be the ‘in thing’?
- Be able to demonstrate some knowledge of the organisation, in your own words, rather than getting a copy of the annual report and reciting words from it.
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Peter Cooney, Managing Director
Capix Software Pty Ltd
The benefits of the OQP program for you, the participant, are numerous. The four-week placement offers experience in an Australian industry workplace, an introduction to Australian business culture, networking opportunities in the industry, peer review of work performance and potential referees.
Some important advice before you start your industry placement:
- Keep an open mind
- The placement is an excellent way to gain insight into the Australian IT industry
- Intangibles such as networking and referees can take a while to establish, so be patient.
Some important advice regarding finding employment in IT:
- Job prospects in the industry are good, but be patient and be prepared to be flexible
- The industry is constantly changing and there is often the need to adapt existing skills to fit in with contemporary demand
- Obtaining Australian training and credentials is important, as overseas qualifications are often not well understood
- Good communication skills are not optional. Practise local English skills and think of English as your first language. A manual job may not require good communication skills, but a professional job certainly does.
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