Employment

Students who want to gain employment need to prepare and start early. You need to know the purpose of getting a job when you finish school:

  • Do you want an entry-level job, from which you can build your career?
  • Do you want to get paid to learn on the job while also gaining a qualification?
  • You may be interested in an apprenticeship or traineeship.
  • Do you want to take a gap break doing volunteer work, short-term or seasonal jobs? Check out Gap year options.
  • Do you want to get part-time or casual job to support you while you do further education or training? Check out the information on getting a part-time job.

For all of these reasons for getting a job, it is important to know what kind of job you would enjoy. You are likely to enjoy a job that matches your interests, values and abilities and skills. Your life style preferences, preferred working conditions and personal circumstances should be considered too.


Support to discover what jobs to aim for

  1. Your school Career Practitioner can give you some activities to help you:
    • Learn more about yourself – your interests, values, skills and abilities
    • Locate occupations and jobs that match your interests, skills, abilities and values, personal situation and preferences.

  2. The activities on My Career Profile section of myfuture can help you find occupations and jobs you may enjoy.

  3. As a school leaver you can access the School Leaver Information Kit. If you want to jump straight into work, this tool guides you in using the Your Career to explore occupations that fit with:
    • How you view your career interests.
    • Your preferred conditions of work.
    • 15-24 year old people can book a free 45-minute personal career guidance session with a qualified Career Practitioner. To book a career guidance session:

      Text: SLIS2022 to 0429 009 435
      Email: schoolleavers@dese.gov.au
      Call between 9.00 am and 7.00 pm Monday-Friday:
      1800 CAREER or 1800 227 3371800 CAREER (1800 227 337)
    • The Career Practitioner can support you with:
      • Identifying occupations and jobs that fit with your interests and preferences
      • Career planning
      • Looking for work
      • Training and study
  1. Professional career practitioners who are members of the Career Development Association of Australia provide career counselling. Select the Find Career Support link to locate career practitioners in your state or territory.

Job Search Tools

Job search tools are listed below. Select the link to get tips, and information and links to external resources for building these job search tools.

Résumé This page gives tips on how to prepare a good résumé that is tailored to the job you are applying for and links to résumé samples and templates.

Cover Letter This page gives advice on how to write a cover letter and links to cover letter templates and other resources on cover letters.

Job interview skills This page describes different types of job interviews. The links to resources to help you plan, prepare, practise and present yourself for a job interview.

You may also wish to prepare a portfolio.

This page introduces career portfolios, including:

  • What you could include in your career portfolio
  • Links to other resources on career portfolios

The Australian Labour Market and Job Prospects

There are many sources of labour market information. You can use labour market information to discover:

  • Occupations with good future prospects in your region
  • Industries the with good employment prospects
  • The top occupations in industries

This information can help you identify what jobs to target.

Here are some useful sites:

  1. Labour Market Insights

    Discover:

    • Trends in your local labour and jobs market
    • Jobs and skills in demand
    • Employer needs and recruitment trends
    • Future job prospects in industries and occupations.

  2. NERO (Nowcast of Employment by Region and Occupation)

    This website is updated monthly. It provides current information on employment by occupation in each region. It highlights:

    • Occupations - Growth or decline in each occupation over the last year.
    • Regions – Occupations in each region, numbers employed and growth ad decline in each occupation over the last year

How to Find Job Vacancies

There are many ways to find a Job. The Employers’ Insights for Job Seekers report on Labour Market Insights identifies:

  • The main methods that Australian employers use to hire staff
  • The percentage of employers that use each method.

These methods of hiring employees and percentage of employers using each method include:

Formal Job Vacancies

Internet Job Boards – 54%

There are many job boards. Some common job boards include:

An internet search will locate many more.

Jobs Hub is like a jobs board. This website provides:

  1. Links to information about entry-level jobs in various industry sectors, including:
    • Care and support
    • Children’s Education and Care
    • Contact and call centres
    • Construction and traffic control
    • Hospitality and tourism
    • Logistics, warehousing and transport
    • Retail
  2. Employers currently recruiting by industry and region.
  3. Jobs in demand by location (Australian cities and towns).

Social Media – 23%

Many employers advertise jobs on social media websites as:

  • Jobs groups on Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Recruitment Agencies and Workforce Australia Employment Services – 12%

There are many private recruitment agencies. Some examples include, Adecco, Chandler McCloud, Core Staff, Hayes, Hudson, Programmed, Ranstad.

There are many government funded employment programs and services.

Check out the range of services to support job seekers to find employment

Company Websites – 11%

Many businesses advertise job vacancies or apprenticeship/traineeship intakes on their website.

Informal Methods of Finding a Job

Word of Mouth – 32%

Word of Mouth is where an employer may:

  • Ask existing staff if they know of anyone who might be suitable for a current job vacancy.
  • Ask their wider circle of contacts to see if they can recommend anyone to fill the current job vacancy.

This highlights the importance of:

Networking

This means letting people you know that you are looking for work. The people may be able to:

  • Put in a good word for you
  • Refer you to other people who may be able to help you in your search for employment.

Planned happenstance

This refers to activities that you take to put yourself in a good position for employment opportunities.

All it requires is for you to:

  • Know your career goal
  • Identify positive actions you could take that might be helpful beneficial
  • Take these actions and be alert to opportunities
  • After the event, take actions that may help you benefit from the event.

    • Example:

  • Career goal – Hairdressing apprenticeship
  • Positive actions – Get work experience to show interest and get experience
  • Take actions – do work experience and find out if and how the business recruits apprentices
  • After the event:
    • On last work experience day give a thank you card and small gift staff can share (e.g., cake) to the employer and staff.
    • Day after work experience – email brief report on:
      • What I learned about hairdressing
      • Interest in hairdressing apprenticeship or casual work in the salon.

Ideally, your job search strategy should include several of these methods of finding a job.