My journey from student to Permanent Resident of Australia

There are many myths about student life in Australia more negative and less positive.

I want to bring my story and explain how I succeeded as a student:

I came from a middle class family, born and brought up in a small village in one of the southern parts of India. All my education was sponsored by my grandparents until my Graduation.

Even though I have studied in English medium schools, I was not good at writing and speaking except reading. All my education was based on memorizing the topic and writing the exams. I was introvert and sensitive and an average student with 65% to 70% percentage of marks.

However, I was good at learning new things and always used to read successful stories of great people as a student. I had the ability to learn; that’s where I have started speaking in English with my friends in my post-graduation. I used to practice mock interviews with my post grad friends. I read books on how to face the interview.

Soon after my graduation, I have attended a walk-in interview with Bank of America in Hyderabad.  They have conducted general, analytical and language tests throughout the day for about 150 candidates and selected only 5. Luckily, I was one of them.  This gave some confidence that hard work and planning helps to succeed and achieve the goal.

I got job as an Accounts officer, company car used to come and pick me up and the life was going smoothly (I thought so). After working for 11 months and the pay I was getting was able to accommodate only family expenses, interest on education loan (post-graduation) and rent and no scope for savings. I became the bread winner of the family since I got job.

I was not happy with the position I was in. I was praying God to open the doors for me for better life. I was looking for various opportunities and thought I should study further and improve my life and the family.

There I have decided to migrate to Australia as a student. One of my uncles lent me the fees required for my first semester and some living expenses to survive myself for the first 6 months. This increased my loan to a big amount.

After clearing IELTS and got admission into University of Ballarat (now called Federation University), I landed in Sydney on July 31^st 2006. I was new to the place and did not know anyone. One of my cousins arranged an accommodation temporarily with one family for a month. I started making friends in Uni while keeping an eye for accommodation.

Meanwhile, I started looking for jobs as I knew I have to pay my own fee from second semester and no support from family. I was rejected for student jobs in Oporto and similar places because I was not attractive to be on the front desk. I did not know anyone who can refer me to a student job. This hurt me but opened the door for good job; the only way I knew was applying through seek.com.

I got some good suggestions from the family I was staying with. They have given me tips on writing resume and applying for job. Luckily, they could not speak my mother tongue, I used to converse with them in English which helped me to correct myself.

Job search: I used to go to library in the morning when they open and stay until the doors were closed; I used to apply for jobs (computers were not available at my host’s place), read books for understanding the Australian terminology and interview conversations.

The memory is still fresh I used to get scolding from my host for skipping my lunches. I really owe them a lot; they looked after me very well. However, I was very persistent with my routine, after 2 weeks I started getting calls for interviews but was hard to understand the accent and the caller used to disconnect my call. I had some discouragement at the time, but never gave up; kept on applying for the jobs.

After 5-10 calls, I started understanding the accent and was bit confident for face to face interview.

One day I got a call from Robert Half International, I was called for a face to face interview, I went to attend the interview with Priya Anand ( I still remember her name). She was friendly and helpful. After all the interview formalities were finished, she interviewed me and I took leave from the office. As soon as I reached home, I got a call that I was selected for the job. My first job was for $18ph as an Accounts Payable Officer (Part time) with NSW Health at Macquarie Park.

This gave more confidence to plan my future carefully. Slowly I started to understand the work culture and improve myself at workplace while concentrating on my studies.

I used to work more than 8 hours a day to prove my manager that I am capable of doing full time work in part time hours. I built the confidence within the team as hard worker and this opened a door to request my manager to work full time during my course break. She agreed and went ok for 3 months.

Then I heard the company was going to merge with another hospital and may not have contract positions. This made me to look for other jobs again, luckily, I have got job in another hospital for more pay of $23 ph. I have continued with this company until I finished my studies. I was managing both studies and job to ensure that I was not lacking behind in either of it.

I finished my studies in October 2008.  Then I realized I have to get 7 points in each module of IELTS or can apply through my work experience or undertake professional year. I took off professional year from the list as I was unable to afford the fee. I had two options 1) getting job closely related to my occupation or IELTS.

So started looking for job as an Assistant Accountant (I have got full working rights on a temporary visa (485)) and had a talk with my recruitment consultant to show me the openings as an assistant accountant. He was reluctant to show me. Then I started searching by myself and after some attempts, I have got a role as an Assistant Accountant with a Tourism company.

Meanwhile, I have written IELTS 3 times and was not successful. I was persistent again and re-applied for the exam by learning from the past mistakes in the exam. My plan was to apply through work experience if I do not get the relevant score by the 5^th time. Fortunately, I scored 7 in each on my 4^th attempt and applied for PR by myself.

It came in just 3 months after my continuous follow up. Soon after graduation, I have started repaying all my financial loans. Forgot to tell you, my brother joined me in Australia after my 1^st year in Australia. I advised him to update his skills before coming to Australia. He did the way I told him, he secured professional job in 3 months of his arrival. He paid his fees off too. My brother and I bought a house for our mom back home and have been supporting grandparents since then.

I met my better half in 2011 and married the same year. We both are blessed with two girls (1 and 5 years). Now am working as an Auditor for one of the public health organisations. I always believe hard work always pay off good returns.

My journey had many sacrifices;  Sleeping only for 4 hours (busy with assignments and exams), working 12 – 15 hour a day, no entertainment, frugal living, no eating out and no trips and many more. However, these sacrifices are worth now. I strongly believe, all these made me a better and strong person.

If I could achieve this, everyone can achieve it. There are many of my friends who had tougher life than me, but, they never gave up and achieved their goal at the end.

So never get disappointed, be firm on your goal, focus on studies, work smart and achieve what you wanted to achieve. The world is getting better every day with more opportunities. Everyone has their own space under the sun, so put your sincere efforts and leave the rest to God.