In the meetings, career coach Juliana Owen analyzes CVs, prepares LinkedIn profiles and even trains candidates for interviews

Those who want to work in Australia may encounter some obstacles: there's the legality part, which involves documents and visas, and entering the Australian job market, which requires more specific skills and documents.

To help students and professionals in this endeavor, Good Day Education offers the D'Careeris a careers program specially designed to guide and support jobseekers in Australia.

D'Career relies on the guidance of Juliana Owen, founder of New Mind Consulting and international Career Coach, with over 15 years' experience in the Australian recruitment market.

In the program, Juliana meets with students online. They can take place in a single session or in packages with more lessons. The student can choose their combo according to their needs: they can include a complete CV analysis, cover letter and LinkedIn profile building, interview training and more. Check out all the packages here.

"It's important to note that D'Career is a totally humanized program," says Juliana. "We don't just accompany clients during the meetings. After they've finished, we keep in touch. We talk about how the selection processes are going, and I give them all the support and security so that they don't feel like they're going it alone."

We spoke to Juliana to find out more about D'Career and how it can help those who want to work in Australia. Check it out!

Who is D'Career for? Just students or can it also help professionals who already have a career in Brazil and want to work in Australia?

Anyone can join D'Career. It's a program designed for any professional who wants to enter the Australian market or even for those who already work in Australia but are looking to develop in another area.

D'Career offers a complete service. First, the client is assisted by the Good Day team, who guide them through all the legal and bureaucratic aspects, such as the resident visa. Then I guide the client to navigate the job market.

My work is very focused on positioning myself in the Australian market. Because you have to analyze your skills and transfer them to that market.

Are the meetings with you in Portuguese or English? 

It depends - the client or student can choose the language they prefer. Generally, Brazilians prefer Portuguese, but I also work with many foreigners. Some Brazilian clients, however, want to practice their English or prefer me to assess their language level.

The cover letter is often requested by Australian recruiters, but here in Brazil it is not so common. How important is it?

A cover letter is an objective, one-page document that should match the candidate's skills with the job.

In Brazil, in fact, the cover letter is obsolete. In Australia, most vacancies ask for it - this is a sign that recruiters won't read the entire CV, so they give the candidate the opportunity to introduce themselves. That's why it's important to highlight your skills according to what the vacancy is looking for.

At D'Career, we analyze the client's skills and match them with what the job market requires. The candidate receives the cover letter and can modify details of it according to the job they are applying for.

Apart from the cover letter, what are the other differences in the Australian job market? What difficulties can a foreign professional encounter?

One of the difficulties is that some foreigners who don't yet have residency need a "sponsor" to be able to work in Australia. In other words, the employing company must pay a fee to the government to keep the employee for two or three years. 

There are candidates who come here on visas that don't require a sponsor. For example, if they come as a student and do a course at a university, they enter on a graduate visa, which allows them to work for two years. In the meantime, they don't need a sponsor. After this period, the professional will probably need this sponsorship, but then they will already have a career lined up.

But there are ways of not needing a sponsor. Depending on the type of course, industry and job, you can apply for a job through a program called "skilled migration". In this program, the candidate earns points for qualities, qualifications and specializations in their professional field. If they collect the required number of points, they can apply for residency.

And do companies usually provide sponsorship?

It's more common for companies to "sponsor" or invest in younger professionals, aged 20 or 25. For professionals over 50, it's more difficult to get them.

When a company thinks about investing in a professional through sponsorship, it considers that the person needs to be motivated to work for the company for at least two or three years, which is the "sponsor" period. It then thinks about employees with energy, who add value to the company. 

That's why it's best for older professionals to come to Australia with residency, so they don't need a sponsor.

At D'Career, clients can prepare themselves with the classes included in the packages. But you also offer one-off sessions. How do these work?

In single sessions, we work on whatever the client needs. It is important that they send me their CV in advance so that I can analyze it before the meeting.

The client chooses what the session will be like. It can be feedback and a CV review, a talk about how the Australian market works, interview preparation, how to search for vacancies on LinkedIn, guidance on how to contact recruiters, etc.

In the one-off session, there are no documents delivered, such as a CV, cover letter or LinkedIn profile. It's a brainstorming session, on any subject the client wants to work on. If we find that there is a need to change or modify the CV, the client can do it themselves or they can take out a D'Career package.

Some D'Career packages include a mock interview. How does this interview work? 

The mock interview is a preparation for the job interview. There are two ways of working on the mock interview. You can do it with feedback after each question and answer, or you can do the whole interview and the feedback only comes at the end.

As it's a preparation for the job interview in Australia, we already do it in English. But the feedback can be in Portuguese if the client prefers. 

It's a long session, lasting an hour and a half. At the end, the client receives an email with all the feedback from the session, so they can remember everything and work on the notes and exercises I give them.

The mock interview works very well: it has a 93.7% pass rate. In other words, almost everyone enters the job market after training.

What if the client has a more basic level of English? Is it possible to do a mock interview?

Yes, it's possible! I had a client who had recently graduated in mechanical engineering in Brazil. He had never worked in the field and came to Australia. At first, he worked here in jobs common to newcomers, such as cleaners, hospitality... but he wanted to pursue a career in his field. 

Based on skills and his level of English, we aimed for more junior positions. And he ended up getting a job as a junior mechanical engineer in Brisbane, which still has a small market. In other words, it's very possible.

What about someone who has done part-time work in Australia, as a cleaner for example, and decides to look for a job in their field of study? Is it possible to make this transition in the country?

Yes, but the candidate must prepare. Look for qualifications, work on specializations. If it's a Brazilian university degree, it needs to be recognized in Australia. If everything is OK and the person is prepared, they have a great chance of entering the job market in Australia. 

But you have to prepare yourself and not just send out CVs anyway. As the job market in Australia is small, you're already "burning the film" when you do this. 

Want to know more about D'Career? Get in touch with GoodDay Education!