Shavindri’s Job Search in Australia: From a Thousand Rejections to a CFO’s Phone Call

Job search in Australia stories rarely start easy, and Shavindri’s is no exception. She arrived on a skilled migration PR with her husband, with international qualifications and years of experience in business analytics, but no Australian experience.

We sat down with her to hear, in her own words, what her job search in Australia really looked like: how she went from nearly a thousand rejections to landing a role in Melbourne, and the message that changed everything along the way.

Tell us a bit about your background and where your journey started before you came to Australia.

“I have an undergraduate degree in physical science from a local university in Sri Lanka. Compared to some of the big degrees I saw other people talk about, mine felt small, so I was already anxious about how it would be received here. Later on, I also became CIMA qualified, and I have CIM too, which is a marketing qualification. Right before I came here, I completed my Master’s in Business Analytics from IIT.”

What was the biggest challenge in job search in Australia?

“Because I don’t have any Australian qualifications, I was really scared. Even having though I had PR, it was hard, because there’s lower chances for immigrants in the job market here. The tools used here aren’t the same as in Sri Lanka, and they don’t give a lot of priority to technical knowledge alone. Some recruiters told me my CV looked good, but it still didn’t get through the ATS.

On top of that, I struggled to understand the Australian accent in interviews at first, and even things like adjusting to the climate and finding a house added to the pressure. I did have four years of local experience in Sri Lanka, working for a company that was actually UK and US based, so I tried to lean on that and tell interviewers I’d worked for a global firm. It helped a little, but not every recruiter cared.”

Did you ever feel like giving up?

“My husband had already been living in Australia for about 10 years, so settling in wasn’t really the hard part for me, it was the job search.

I actually spent close to a year researching the Australian job market before I even started applying. Once I got my PR in October, I started applying straight away, even using my husband’s Australian mobile number on my CV before I had my own, hoping it would help. It didn’t really go anywhere.

It was very traumatizing, to be honest. I applied for like a thousand jobs while I was still in Sri Lanka, and it didn’t work. The moment I told them I was still in Sri Lanka, I’d quietly get disqualified from the first interview itself.”

What made you reach out to us, and what did that process look like?

“Some recruiters told me my CV looked good, but it still didn’t pass the ATS tracking systems. That’s when I saw DreamShift’s ads and thought of spending money on actually creating my CV properly. I got a few CVs made, tailored for different roles, and had my LinkedIn profile fixed too. That helped a lot. A lot of my first phone call interviews happened because recruiters had gone through my LinkedIn profile first.”

What was it like arriving in Melbourne, and how did things unfold from there?

“I came on February 5th, got my mobile number on February 7th, and for the first one to two weeks I didn’t get any calls at all. Then it just changed. I started getting multiple phone call interviews. In total, across that month and a half, I applied to around 200 jobs, mostly through LinkedIn and Seek, using both Quick Apply and applying directly through company websites, though Quick Apply listings usually had more applicants. I got more than 50 phone calls and around 10 physical interviews, and I even had an interview lined up just a couple of days after I’d already accepted my current offer.”

What was the moment that really changed things for you?

“There was this manufacturing company close to home. I didn’t even know if the person I was messaging was a CFO or a chief marketing officer or something similar. I sent my CV to the recruiter, but I also sent the CFO a message directly on LinkedIn, saying I was very interested in the role. One week later, the CFO himself actually called me for an interview. I think by that point I’d been through so many calls that I’d gotten more confident. I just thought, why not? Worst case, he doesn’t reply. And it did work out!”

Tell us about the role you have now, and why you think it worked out.

“I’m working as a Demand Planning Analyst. It’s close to business analyst work, which is what I know, and I found it on LinkedIn. It didn’t have that many applicants, maybe around 80, probably because the title wasn’t something everyone was searching for. Some of the tools I use in the job now, I actually learned after I started.”

Any final advice for people still struggling with their job search in Australia?

“Be open to learning new skills. Recruiters don’t care where your degree is from. They care about your skill set and your attitude. Just keep applying, because more applications mean more chances.”

Passing It On

Shavindri recently joined a DreamShift session to share her story with others still in the middle of their own job searches in Australia. Her honesty resonated with everyone, and several attendees hunting for analyst roles took her advice on targeting niche, less-searched job titles instead of the usual ones. Not long after, a few of them started seeing real improvements in their own applications too.

Shavindri’s journey is proof that the right groundwork, paired with persistence, can turn even the quietest weeks into a job offer. If you’re in the middle of your own job search in Australia, we are here to help you build that same groundwork.

FAQs on the Job Search in Australia

Did you customize your CV for every job, and did you use AI tools to do it?

I did use AI tools to help customize my CV. But one thing I learned is that recruiters can often tell when a CV has been AI-customized, and they’ll test you on it. If you do use AI to tailor your CV, make sure you actually learn whatever you’ve added well enough to talk about it confidently in the interview.

How did recruiters actually reach out to you, calls, emails, or messages first?

Mostly it was just a random phone call, no message beforehand. If you don’t pick up, sometimes they’ll follow up by email, but you really want to answer the call itself. I missed a few calls early on and tried calling back, and it never worked out.

Can you break down how the STAR method actually works?

It stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. Companies use it to check behavioural answers, and some, especially government roles, are very strict about it. I actually failed an interview once because I didn’t follow it properly. The part people forget most is the Result, so I’d always try to end with a number or an outcome, not just what I did. If you want a step-by-step breakdown, our STAR method interview guide covers it in more detail.

Is there anything you wish you’d known earlier in the process?

Yes, actually. In one interview, I didn’t realise the interviewer asking if I had any questions meant the interview was basically over, so I said nothing, and I think that came across as a lack of interest. After that, I made sure I never left an interview without asking something back.