Employment Services for international students and interns
  
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Even though most of the international students come to Australia with enough savings for their university fees and living expenses, many prefer to work while they are studying.

Working while you are enrolled in a university course as an international student can be for many reasons. Most likely of them is to give the students extra pocket money which is handy if you wish to go out on weekends or even travel within Australia while you are there. However, many students also look for jobs for non-financial reasons, such as looking to network and make friends, and an opportunity to learn about a work culture that is probably different to their own country. 

Whatever your reason may be to work, we are here to help you prepare to look for a job in Australia.

As an international student in Australia, you will have certain work hours restrictions while your course is in session. The current working limit is 20 hours per week. That means that while the course is on, international students are not allowed to work more than 20 hours per week. Therefore, the kind of work you look for is dependent on whether the company hires part-time employees or not. Though there is no limit on hours you can work while your university is on holidays, it only helps you work indefinite hours for few months in a year.

Most common type of work for international students is in retail, hospitality and customer service/call centre industry.  It is comparatively easy for students to get a job as a shop assistant or a shop sales person in Australia. Moreover, since most of the shopping is done over the weekend, students can easily accommodate this job with their university time table. Training is usually provided in the form of working with another shop assistant for couple of days. Job in retail mostly pays a fixed salary but there are certain exceptions where the shop owners are happy to pay a commission based on the sales figures achieved by employee.

There are big supermarket chains in Australia that are also looking for students to fill in various roles such as at the check-out section or to fill in the shelfs with various products. Jobs in one of these supermarkets can provide you valuable experience and a decent salary. Moreover, these supermarkets are there in every second or third suburb which would give you the option of working in a nearby suburb and save on travelling time.   

Australia is a food loving country and offers variety of cuisines to suit everyone’s needs. Therefore, there is abundance of restaurants in Australia. These restaurants are always looking for reliable staff to fill in roles of kitchen hand, waiters or assistant to the chef. As an international student, you can look for a job at such places.

Hospitality jobs also include working at hotels. There are various part-time positions available at many hotels which are usually grabbed by international students and travellers. Most of the jobs in hospitality industry pay fixed base salary per hour but some allow you to share in the tips that are received. Like retail jobs, training in hospitality jobs are provided by making you work under an employee who has been working in such a role for long. 

Most of the jobs in retail and hospitality are not advertised online or in the newspapers but through word-of-mouth promotion. Therefore, it is handy to know people who work at such places. Best source of these jobs are your fellow students who are working in such jobs and can get you in for an interview if there is a vacancy.

Call centre jobs are of two kinds. One has a customer service focus where you receive calls from customers who have issues with a product or simply need to ask certain questions regarding the product they bought or are planning to buy. Second kinds of jobs have a sales focus where you are required to sell a product or service over the phone.

Customer service jobs are easier to handle as they don’t have a sales target. Whereas in the sales job, you can easily stress out if your job depends on achieving a certain number of sales per day or per week.

Customer service jobs usually pay a fixed salary but jobs in sales have a variable component too. This variable component is either called a bonus or commission and is mostly dependent on the number of sales you achieve. Many sales jobs provide uncapped commissions to encourage staff to make as many sales as possible. Therefore, if you are good at sales, you can make good money working in these jobs. Although it can also have a disadvantage of non-uniform earnings as your sales are likely to change every week.

Training for these jobs is usually provided by a trainer in a formal manner. The trainer spends a day or two with new recruits and explains the features and benefits of the products the company deals in. Most of these jobs are listed through online recruitment websites but as usual, networking helps in finding out about such jobs before they become public.

If you are doing a marketing course and have a requirement of practical work experience as part of your course, most of the sales jobs can be counted towards this requirement. Whether you are involved in sales through a retail shop, door-to-door, kiosk or a call centre, you can present it as a part of your work experience to the university. The lecturer in charge of the course would be able to guide you in this matter as well.

Thus, there are numerous opportunities for international students who are looking for jobs to complement their stay in Australia.