GradSolutions have provided me with great professional as well as personal services and gave me back confidence in my job-seeking process every step of the way. Struggling with rejections and bad luck from previous applications, I had a strong feeling that GradSolutions was exactly what I needed to help me get motivated and boost up my confidence. I had regular talks with a very friendly senior consultant who had a good understanding of my goals and what I want to achieve. She provided me with valuable insights and tips for being successful in the interview process. They helped build my confidence in the way I present myself and how I answered each of the interview questions. I finally found a full time position in a well known international company to kick-start my accounting career. I would like give a big thanks to GradSolutions for all their hard work, persistence and friendly support in helping me achieve my goals. I highly recommend GradSolutions as they provide such beneficial services and provide quality assistance for anyone who seeks a solution to their job-seeking process!

Some of the economic indications looked good. The last unemployment figures actually fell from 5.5 to 5.2 per cent. But look closer. In actual fact, during the same reporting period less people were looking for work and 5000 jobs were lost. The state government plans to slash 3600 public service jobs and Toyota’s Altona North plant will have 350 forced redundancies. They may seem to be just numbers but these job losses alone equate to 10% of staff in the public service’s major departments and more than 10% of all staff at the Altona North plant¹.

In light of the Toyota announcement, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union’s Charlie Marmara issued the dire prediction that ‘Another 3000 workers in Victoria’s car component industry are immediately at risk of the sack’².

And it continues. Recently around 70 people faced redundancy when O-I Australia, one of Australia’s leading glass bottle manufacturers closes a Melbourne plant. Don KRC, a smallgoods producer in Castlemaine, Victoria has announced a cut of 31 jobs in the area of logistics. 131 ANZ workers in Victoria have recently lost their jobs and there appears that hundreds more are to follow over the next six months.  Westpac has also announced job cuts in the range of 300-400, although the Financial Sector Union (FSU) claims the number may be as high as 560, and the entire banking sector has the prediction from UBS of around 7000 job losses over the next two years. It is yet to be determined how many of those losses will be felt in Victoria alone³.

While Victoria is not the only state to suffer recent job losses, they do appear to be bearing the brunt. According to Neville Andrews, Victorian General Manager of recruitment agency Hudson, the state is now the country’s ‘least confident state’. In fact, of the 4300 employers involved in their recent study 12.4 per cent expect to let staff go before March 2012.

Job advertisements throughout the state dived by about 24% in the 12 months to December 2011, job vacancies fell by about 17% in the 12 months to November 2011. Those figures are bad enough but then compared to the national figures it is very scary indeed. Nationally job advertisements fell by around 6% and job vacancies by around 3%.

Unfortunately it looks like the pain will get a lot worse in Victoria before it gets better.

Where are the pressures on our economy and our employment coming from? It seems to be from all angles.

The consistently high Australian dollar has placed enormous strain on many industries like manufacturing, agriculture, exporting, tourism, and in turn the industries they support. The Australian dollar has now had 12 months of trading at near or above parity against the greenback and looks set to rise toward $1.09. ‘The high Australian dollar had hurt Holden exports, forcing the company to trim production cost’, says Holden’s Managing Director, Mike Devereux. And Holden are not alone, Toyota and Ford have also recently announced job losses due to the exchange rate².

Continuing economic concerns in the US and Eurozone summed up by the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) estimation that it will need $500 billion to remain the world’s lender of last resort and that countries around the world will be seeking loans of approximately $1 trillion over the coming years. These concerns are causing employers worldwide to put off employing new staff and to trim costs across the board. International concerns are affecting Australia at a local level. Citigroup when sacking 5000 staff worldwide indicated that losses would be felt in Australia and 170 staff from the Royal Bank of Scotland seemed to be gone after another worldwide round of slashes³.

And add to that the trend of offshoring within industries such as banking and aviation engineering. When Westpac announced the loss of approximately 500 Australian jobs came the insult to injury that around 150 of the jobs would simply move offshore.

So the signs are that the Australian unemployment rate will climb from 5.3 per cent to 6 per cent in 2012. Acting Treasurer, Bill Shorten recently summarised the looming year ‘It is true that 2011 was a difficult year and disappointing year for the economy and the outlook for 2012 looks even more challenging’.

Australia is by no means the only country to be suffering the effects of the current economic climate, but we need to be aware that the storm clouds are brewing and we may be in for a really big storm.

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¹The Daily Telegraph – Gripped by recession fears as jobs decline
²The Sydney Morning Herald – Strong dollar claims jobs at Holden
³ABC News – ANZ confirms first round of job cuts

GradSolutions provided an excellent professional service from the first point of contact with regular sessions planned out for each week. The Career Consultants worked to enhance my existing skills and helped improve my interpersonal skills over time. The sessions, training and the useful material provided by GradSolutions assisted greatly in building up my confidence for the interview process. The guidance I received in relation to my résumé contributed to channelling my job-seeking efforts in the right direction, therefore making it more relevant and effective. I currently work at Super Partners as a Superannuation Consultant. I would definitely recommend GradSolutions to my peers in the hope that it would benefit them in the same way that it benefited me in my job search.

Coming from Egypt as an immigrant with little knowledge about how life and work are in Melbourne, I tried to get myself up and running with the knowledge I already have from my previous experiences. Armed with my resume and cover letter, my original strategy was to send them out to as many jobs online as I could. I quickly found that was not helpful as the rate of agents, recruiters and companies getting back to me was too little. After a while, I realised that a lot of the recruiters don’t even go through the whole length of my resume and they didn’t grasp my skills and experiences. Of course my resume was a great one from my perspective back in Egypt, but things here are different! That’s when I began searching for professional help in changing my resume into one that is in line with the Australian standards and tailored to my needs, skills and experiences. By that, GradSolutions stood out from the crowd with their broad presence in different recruiting events, their website and blog and even the number of people recommending their services. So I registered online and it didn’t take long for them to contact me for a free assessment session, and that’s when I found that their resume and interview services was the right fit for me and my needs. GradSolutions professionally handled my resume and cover letter re-writing, which was really a great one that helped me get more market penetration and more interview chances. With GradSolutions’ help and a recommendation from a friend, I finally got my current job as software engineer in Premier Technologies. I am confident that with Gradsolutions’ professional help and advice, along with a positive attitude and great dedication, many will also find success. That’s why I heartily recommend GradSolutions to be your partner in your job hunting success.

I recently graduated from Deakin University with a Bachelor of Commerce. I had been busy since then and went overseas to get some experience. When I came back to Australia, I had a hard time in getting a job. I sent out hundreds of applications but hardly got any response. Then one of my friends introduced me to GradSolutions, I decided to try it out. GradSolutions polished my resume into the correct format, as well as equipped me with a competitive cover letter. They also gave me constructive interview training and built up my confidence even more. Furthermore, the consultants trained me, provided me with useful advice and constructive feedback, which I believe were very crucial in helping me overcome the challenges in the interview process. Today, I work at an insurance company as an operation support officer, and I am very satisfied with the position. It was a long process and full of hard work; however, with patience and a positive attitude, your time will come. With all the help you receive from GradSolutions, I believe you will be able to face the challenge.
For you, job-seekers, do not waste anymore of your time since it is precious! It is now time for you take a step forward and ask for help from the professional, which is GradSolutions. Believe me, it was worth it.

I recently graduated from Deakin University with a Master’s degree in Professional Accounting. I began to send out job applications soon after my graduation, but I got a lot of rejections, and after a while I started to worry about the quality of my resume. I was sad and anxious. My confidence was sinking and my hope was quickly fading. But then I found out about GradSolutions and decided to come in for a free initial appointment with one of their Career Consultants. My Senior Consultant helped me map out the direction of my career and boosted my confidence through their well-structured programs. I began as a shy girl who was feeling insecure about my professional skills, yet my Senior Consultant guided me through the whole process and made me believe in myself again. Soon after I completed the program, my applications started getting positive responses, and finally I succeeded in landing a job! I would like to thank GradSolutions for the immense amount of help I received in reaching my success. I would also like to specifically address my helpful, professional, and skilled Senior Consultant for her thorough assistance and countless advice. I wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t because of GradSolutions. Thank you so much!

I had previously worked in Western Australia as a Manufacturing Engineer for two years and thought of returning to Melbourne with the hope that my work experience would help me obtain a new job easily. I started applying for jobs with more confidence and was even more disappointed as I did not receive any response from employers or recruitment agencies. Soon I began to look for engineering jobs more proactively, since I was getting tired of applying online and not getting any response. I met with a Career Consultant at GradSolutions and had my resume and cover letter refined according to the specific needs of the Australian employment market. As soon as I started applying for jobs with my revised resume and cover letter, I started receiving calls from employers, but I didn’t pass any interviews so I went on to attend their professional programs. It was the turning point for my career. During the program, I learned to perceive the interview process from the point of view of employers. I had a couple of interviews soon after, and my Senior Consultant helped me to practice and prepare for those interviews. I was career focused so I applied for jobs in QLD and NSW as well as VIC. After a few unsuccessful attempts, I finally managed to obtain a job in one of Australia’s booming industries! I can’t even begin to express my gratitude towards GradSolutions. I had the skills and education as well as relevant work experiences, but it was GradSolutions who showed me the way, to get through the selection process and achieve success! Every time I felt discouraged and frustrated with my job search, I went to GradSolutions. They gave out a very positive vibe, and my Senior Consultant as well as Career Consultant gave me lot of confidence and enthusiasm. Thank you GradSolutions!

I began to look for jobs straight after completing my Diploma of Financial Services. I studied very hard to obtain good grades, but after my graduation, I faced a lot of difficult challenges in trying to look for and secure a job in Australia. The Australian employment market was as competitive as ever, and I wasn’t quite ready for it. GradSolutions worked hard beside me every step of the way, and in the end I finally managed to land my first full-time job as a Customer Service Officer at AMES. I’m very delighted with the quality of GradSolutions’ services, and their useful career advice has assisted me in reaching my goal and obtaining this exciting job.

I graduated from Monash University a year ago. After I completed my Master’s Degree in Multimedia Design, it was hard for me to find a related job since I did not have enough working experiences. Although I worked in a small company for a year, I decided to find another job because the work became more and more irrelevant to my interested field. That’s when I started job-hunting again. I was actually going through recruitment agencies but they were unresponsive. One day, my friend recommended me to GradSolutions. With my wife’s full support, I decided to give it a shot! I would like to thank my consultant for her patience and for always being considerate. Just after 3 weeks, I became more confident. The team then further helped me polish my resume and amazingly, I no longer get rejection letters from companies like I used to earlier, but interview calls instead! I would definitely recommend GradSolutions to you because GradSolutions is different. The consultant is really considerate and patient. You don’t need to be ashamed or worried about your English. Just be confident!