When moving to a new country, very often you need to start from scratch. Sometimes it means you have to start from a lower position than the one you had in your own country: for example, if you were a manager, you might have to go back to a specialist position. Why is that happening?

The reasons might be different. The absence of local work experience might be an important factor. Usually, to manage teams overseas, you need to understand both local and corporate cultures. In the case of internal transfers within the company, at least one of these two criteria is met, however, this does not happen when you move to a new country independently. Sometimes English skills might also be an issue.

But when you start sending your resume with extensive work experience and apply for lower positions, very often employers won’t consider it further. Why aren’t they happy to take on board someone highly skilled and qualified?

Most employers are worried that you will soon become bored with the job that is much easier than your previous one and you will soon become dissatisfied with the salary as well. They also assume you will quit the job as soon as you find something more interesting that suits you better.

So what can you do If this is happening?

• First of all, try to fine-tune your resume a bit and remove senior job titles such as ‘director’ or ‘head of’.
• Emphasize your hard skills rather than managerial skills. You can basically mention all operational tasks that your team was doing.
• Dedicate a lot of attention and effort to your cover letter. Tell the employer upfront why you want this particular job. Perhaps, you are not ready to take an intense managerial job straight after maternity leave and you’d rather concentrate on developing your technical skills while adapting to a new country. This is the case when your cover letter has a crucial role in your job application.

When facing challenges, it is important to keep believing in yourself and if you are unsure what to do, contact us for advice. We specialise in adapting overseas work experience to the Australian job market.