如何通过中介找工作

NT

Background Introduction
In Australia, lots of well paid jobs are controlled by those recruitment agencies. The local governments, federal government, research orgnizations and big companies always have long term relationship with their certain agencies. Once they want to find a new contractor, they sign a contract with an agency, transfer the salary to the agency, then the agency start to find a suitable person for them. That means once you are hired, you get your money from the agency instead of from your employer directly. So you can see there's a difference between these two amounts which goes to the agency's benifit, and that's the motivity for agencies to look for really good people for their clients. The employer have the right to stop the contract anytime if they find the employee is not good enough, so the agency is very choosy when they select the candidates, otherwise they won't keep their benefit for a long time. And of course, there's a negotiation about rate between the agency and the candidate even before the candidate can meet the client.

Start From Here
Step 1 Working on your CV for at least 10 hrs.
The resume is very very important because it's the first impression those people get from you. It should be brief(no one  will be happy to go through a CV of 20 pages), expert and rich in content. Don't try to cover everything you have done, but cover every keyword you have touched in your experiences, because once you send it to an agency, it will be stored in their database, and most of time they use those keywords provided by their clients to search for the candidates in their database. Don't describe all of your experiences in one way, try to highlight those most important ones, and only give details for them.  
Step 2 Looking for a position
Usually the agencies put a lot of advertisement for availible jobs on web sites and newspapers. (I'm not so lucky in this case because by the time I arrived, the Christmas was approaching and there's few technical job around. So the best time for looking for a job is Feb, beginning of a year, and July, beginning of a financial year.) If you find something you're interested, firstly adjust your resume, highlight those skills and experiences which are required on the job description. DON'T TRY TO CHEAT! Because it will be a record in the database, if you are catched, you will have a black mark in your whole life with this agency, and you can imagine how easy to exchange data between agencies. Secondly prepare your cover letter, some jobs, especially government jobs require a cover letter addressing every selection criteria, I personally found it's the hardest part, have to match all the criterias with your own experiences, just think of it would make me dizzy. Prepare and send your resume and cover letter ASAP because for one position they can receive hundreds of applications in one day. Preparing a list for possibly receiving a phone call from the agency, including your brief background, special skills, availibility(always tell them you are availible immediately), and the most important thing--the rate you want. Then wait. In the meantime apply for as many jobs as you can.
Step 3 Deal with the agency
If you are lucky, you will receive a call from the agency the next day you apply for a job. Answer the questions very clearly and briefly, ask for the name and contact details of the person who calls you, TRY to make an appointment IN PERSON with this agent. If you are lucky again, you will meet this person in next few days, at that time you can try your best to persuade him(or her) to recommend you to his(or her) client who's the real employer. Make an impression to him(or her) that you are very good at what you do, be confident, polite and friendly, remember you are talking with a humanbeing. Being awared that they don't have the obligation to recommend you to their client. Although these agents are usually not as professional as you ,don't try to fool them, that's dangerous. Only tell them what they want to know, don't play the peacock, that's stupid. As you will talk about the pay, I personal suggestion is don't emphasize too much on this at the first time.
Step 4 Interview
If you are very lucky, you will meet the employer. There are many ways to give an interview, a formal one could be at least 3 people on the panel, one technical person, one manager, and one from human resource. It's very likely that you will be given 15 - 30 mins to warm up with a paper sheet with 5 - 20 questions. When it starts you will be asked to introduce yourself and your relevant experiences, then answer the questions one by one. At this time, you are facing a real test to your capability, you need to answer some technical questions, it's good to do some preparation before interview, but the most important is your knowledge and skills, which is an accumulation from your past education and experiences. If you are good, no need to be afraid. Be confident, clear in mind, fast in response and don't pretend to know everything, conquer them with your personality.  
Step 5 After Interview
The only thing you can do is waiting. If you passed, congratulations. You'd better write an email to your employer to thank him/her and tell him/her you will treasure the opportunity and do your job well. Then here comes the negotiation with the agency according to your contract, basically about rate, working hours, Public Liability, Professional Indemnity, Super and so on. Don't be shy to talk about money. It's your right to strive for your own interest. Try to get as much as you can.

End at here?
Working hard to keep your job, if you are good, after sometime you might be offered a permanent position, or there will be some more attractive jobs around and now with your local experience, it's a piece of cake! Look, a bright future is awaiting you.

[ Last edited by horseanddragon on 2005-8-7 at 05:49 PM ]

NT

抛一块砖，引AS那篇找工观止

zhj2003716

好文

happysee

good artical

短腿小鳄鱼

写的真好！谢谢啦！