Untold – The migrant’s job-seeking pain in Sydney

50 people

6 nationalities

7 months

550+ interviews

1,500+ job applications submitted

AND

ZERO job offers

All applying for roles several levels below their most senior professional experience

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It’s been a while since my last post. Truth is, I’ve been immersed in job applications. One might think – that’s a bit rich Jason, how much time does it take to apply for a job? Just a few minutes to brush up on your CV, maybe 30 minutes tops to write the cover lever and, BAM! Less than one hour innit?

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I’ll tell you more about myself later but for now, I want to unpack these numbers above. They represent migrants in Sydney, mostly people originating from Southeast Asia - who like me, had chosen Sydney to start their new lives. Whilst the minimum time on the job market stands at approximately 6.5 months, some like me have been searching for jobs no less than 9 months. During this time, everyone submitted a minimum of 30 job applications and attended an average of 11 interviews (mostly phone screenings). Some like me have gone on to 2nd and 3rd round interviews. But, we all share some commonalities:

1.????? Outcome – we were still jobless after all this time and efforts poured in to get a job

2.????? Minority – whilst we are all proficient in English (no less than 8.0 for IELTS), we are still seen as people who speak the language with a funny accent

3.????? Experience – some of us have senior experience with large and multinational companies, however, hiring managers still prefer local people with less experience (or those from UK, US, or NZ are given more preference). Just as common is that preference was given to people who possess same industry experience.

4.????? High performers – before moving to Australia, we were seen as leaders in our industries and areas of profession; we have won awards with our previous organisations or some even hold individual industry awards. In other words, we have a lot to offer wherever we would work.

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But alas, by mid February 2024, we were all still jobless and not valued enough to land a role so far. That is a hard truth.

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Of course, there’s some context to the entire situation. This is my 8th year in Sydney. During this time, I held 8 jobs with 8 organisations, with 7 of them contract roles. In this time frame, there were times when I got a role quickly. But there were also times when it took me from 3 to 8 months to get a role. The first when I arrived in Sydney – that was hard because I was deemed to not have local Aussie experience. These days, I don’t hear that anymore, but I do get feedback that the preferred candidate had more industry experience than me.

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Some here are some hypotheses from this mini research that I’ve run with my network:

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ONE - Hiring managers value experience, not capability

When a migrant applies for a job, it is likely that some of the jobs here are structured differently from other parts of the world. Therefore, when we apply for a job, we base the application on our capabilities/ competencies picked up from various experiences through our careers and if say we think we have the skills to do it, we proceed to apply for the role.

But a migrant can never claim that we worked in roles that had the same job description because that just doesn’t exist. And it is painful to get feedback that the organisation went with someone else who had that exact experience (and surprise, surprise – gain it all in Australia!).

Can we do the job? We think we can, but hiring managers (and to a certain extent, recruiters) don't because processes project a one dimensional view of role fit mainly deriving from assessing experience, not capability.

TWO – Hiring managers value similarity, not diversity of thought

Another thing that we have been told is that they went with people who possess more experience from the industry that the organisation is from (e.g. banking or retail).

Financial and retail organisations are often the biggest culprits here; you simply don’t get shortlisted because they prefer people who already know how their industry works and better if they have worked for the company (or direct competitor) previously. But they are not alone, I have also once been told by a non-for-profit that they went with someone much less OD experience than me simply because that person worked their whole career in NFP whereas I had a broad mix of industry experience. Out of over 150 interviews that I have attended since arriving in Sydney, only three hiring managers have said that they appreciated the breadth of industry and cross functional HR experience that I bring to the role, with the rest saying the opposite - "we've progressed with candidates who have more of the experience from the same industry (or HR function)".

That really boggles my mind – I’d think, wouldn’t it be great to have someone who has different experience (work or loved) to bring new insights, challenge ideas and help improve the way things work? Well, 147 people probably didn't think so.

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THREE – Hiring easy, fast and safe

Before moving to Australia, I helped put in place a competency based framework that was used from recruitment to development to succession; it’s a comprehensive approach from the moment we hire a person all the way until the person moves into leadership roles.

Whilst many organisations in Australia use competency based questions, it’s not the same as using a framework where we benchmark candidates with aggregated ratings across several assessment techniques including interviews, personality tools and case study or role play. All this enable diverse candidates to compete in a fair an equitable way where they hire the most competent (e.g. the one whose competencies best match the requirements, adheres to assessment governance, and potential is considered). But all of these take time, sometimes up to 2 hours per candidate.

From my personal experience, out of more than 100 recruitment processes thatityI've gone through here in Australia, only TWO have done this. Most take the fastest way, and use experience, not competence as a measure. They probably don't see the need or value to spend so much time and money into a proper competency based recruitment.

Look, I get it – Australia value people who does a good elevator speech. But not all who excel in making elevator speeches are the best people for the role. And this practice also leaves a lot of room for bias to permeate through your recruitment decisions. Therefore, if your process is centred around that, it is certainly not fair nor is it equitable.

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FOUR – Diversity is a compliance exercise

From our personal observations and networking insights gained, some of us discovered that we were the only diverse candidate being considered for the roles in which we were interviewed for. Of course, that might be purely coincidence but I can’t help but think if we were the token ‘diverse’ candidate for these roles?

Not convinced? Thinking that I am probably biased? From our experience, these interviews often appear rushed. Yes, the panel ask the questions but it's obvious that it was out of formality and they don’t probe the answers. Some interviewers often don’t appear to be taking notes or to pay attention to what the candidates say. Most of these so-called interviews end in less than 30 minutes. That is hardly enough time for someone to share their experience, let alone show their capabilities. And that’s not even considering that these people come from a different background, ways of working and thinking. How do you properly align perspectives and assess a person fairly under these circumstances?

If an organisation is serious about hiring someone who is diverse, then you need to change the way you enable people to show their true capabilities beyond story telling. Otherwise, you are merely ticking the box to help your organisation comply with its' diversity processes. but bear in mind, that doesn't in any way make your organisation inclusive!

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FIVE – Inclusion is too hard

Whilst I have observed exclusive hiring practices in HR, exclusion happens everywhere, even in companies that strive to be inclusive. And I cannot imagine how challenging things are in organisations where inclusion isn’t prioritised or emphasised.

But do not be surprised; if an organisation and its’ leaders aren’t sold on the business case for diversity and the benefits for diversity of thought, we shouldn’t expect them to go the extra mile to create inclusion – it’d be hard work. It ties in with hiring managers seeking candidates who bring similarity rather than difference to their teams.

The reality in these organisations is - we don't want new ideas, we don't want people who challenge the status quo, we don't want people who think differently from the bosses and we don't have any appetite for change.

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SIX – When the going gets tough, migrants suffer first

I have experienced three waves of economic uncertainty in Sydney – the first was post GFC, then the pandemic and now economic slowdown. During these times, either HR roles I general or more recently, learning and talent development roles become limited in the Sydney job market. And because a lot of people in and out of Australia choose to move here, it is a very competitive market. And even more during a downturn.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not asking for a free ride or privilege of some form. My point is, due to the biases inherent in recruitment for man organisations, the people who suffer most are people from diverse backgrounds. Not those who are privileged to be educated and start their careers in Australia. More bias experienced than those who are from countries like US, UK, Canada, or NZ.

Instead of being proud of who we are and the diversity that we bring to the table, we often need to ‘repackage’ ourselves in ways that don't accentuate our strengths. I get the argument that we need to market ourselves differently, but it shouldn’t have to be this way, it’s not inclusive and it’s not enabling Australia to truly tap into the capabilities that migrants have to offer.

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SEVEN – Intersectionality cuts deeper

I spent a big part of my career living two lives – one as the competent learning, talent development, DEI, and OD person that everyone sees and the other as a neuro-diverse, with disability and racial minority person (Malaysian of Chinese descent) with shame and discrimination.

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But I am not alone, according to the ABS, an estimated 30 to 40% of the population are neurodivergent, and 34% of Australia's neurodivergent community are unemployed.

I recently applied for a role which required me to complete a pre-screening video recording. For many, this might be trivial but not for some neurodivergent people; needing to record ourselves trigger anxiety and because neurodiversity is a spectrum, the degree of effects from video recording can vary. For example, I’m unsure of what people can see, what they think, and because I can’t control the environment, it unnerves me. It’s not the same as running a virtual meeting or training. And it didn’t help that the organisation only limited the recording to THREE takes.

Yes, this use of technology is probably aimed at improving efficiency for recruiters but it isn’t neurodiverse friendly and it accentuates the difference of a neurodiverse person.

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But of course, there’s more to intersectionality than neurodivergence; there are unique challenges for difference dimensions of identity that compound discrimination for job-seeking migrants.

We are already viewed differently by others, is it even safe to reveal more dimensions of identity that may further detriment our chances of landing that role? Unfortunately again, the underprivileged have no say in this matter and would be safer to hide their true selves in shame.

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Epilogue

I’m pleased to update that I managed to secure a short term contract with SSI as a Project Coordinator from Mar to June 2024. It’s a relief to be able to put food on the table for a couple of months before I hit the job market again.

I am extremely grateful to Christine O'Donnell from Meritos - Executive Search | Board Advisory for helping me with this role. I first connected with Christine for another role back in Sep 2023 and she has since proactively shared my profile with her clients. Bless you Christine!