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What are the must-dos for someone looking
for new opportunities?
How do you see Australian businesses
embracing foreign job candidates?
I think in this day and age, especially with the
tools available to people, you need to be really
proactive. I think personal networks are really
powerful, but knowing — and I know this is
easier said than done, because a lot of people
don’t know what they want to do, even though
they may have a degree or whatever — but
having a sense of what specific company you
might want to work for, and being able to reach
out to those companies directly, I think is a
really good way to go. Obviously, I’m going
to say regarding recruitment agencies, it’s
harder when you’re young and you have no
experience to work with a recruiter, because
we generally work with people who have the
experience. But personal networks are really
powerful I think. I always advise people too,
if they see a company that they relate to for
whatever reason, for goodness sake, get on
the website, make that phone call yourself or,
you know, there are all sorts of ways you can
have career portals all sorts of things.
I think that’s a really interesting question, and
funnily enough, we have, she’s not in the office
at the moment, but we have an Indian MBA
student who works for us. So I’d like to say
that we embrace it. But I think companies have
no choice these days. There are a few things
that come into play there. Firstly, a student’s
ability to work in Australia, visa restrictions,
you know. But working on the basis that
someone is a permanent resident here, I think
companies are very open to it, especially, now
in a global business world. I will not say that
every business is open to it. You still get small
Australian privately owned businesses who are
very conservative in their views and that will
probably always be the case. But if you look
at the likes of your big four, your KPMGs, your
banks, it’s a melting pot.
What does Qube Recruitment Consultancy
do that no one else does? What is the U.S.P.
of Qube?
This is always a tricky one. A lot of our work
in terms of clients and candidates are referred
to us personally through their experience with
us. I think it’s hard work looking for a job and
it can be very discouraging. And we often see
people at their most vulnerable or their worst,
they may have lost a job, you know all sorts of
situations, so whilst we can’t help everybody
who comes in, because that’s impossible,
in terms of finding an actual job. (I wish we
could.) I think that as long as everybody walks
out of here feeling that they’ve got something
out of it, they’ve been treated respectfully,
their expectations met one way or the other,
that pays off further down the track and I think
evidence of that is the fact that a lot of our
business is referred to us by our candidates,
some of whom we have have not ever found
jobs for. I just took a call from a client while
you were waiting for me from a client who was
referred to us by a candidate.
You mentioned earlier that without the
AGSM you wouldn’t have started your own
business. Has it influenced you in other
ways?
Probably every week I pull something out of the
MBA and spruik it to my team. In fact, the other
day I was talking about the life cycle of a new
team: Forming Storming Norming Performing.
I still refer to my blue books. We had big
whopping folders that were couriered to us.
Yeah, and I still have them, it’s real foundation
stuff. And it’s so powerful.
You know, especially the accounting, the
financial side (although I didn’t do Corporate
Finance), but the the accounting fundamentals,
I mean that, to me, was life-changing:
understanding the difference trying to cash
flow and profit. Oh my God. I’d be in all sorts of
trouble if I hadn’t done that.
I took what I needed from the AGSM and there’s
no way I’d have done what I’ve done without it.
It’s very practical.
E · [email protected].
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