Change Makers

Why we must listen to and share migrant women’s career success stories

My family celebrated a significant milestone of 30 years in Australia in 2022. We marked the occasion with a family dinner where we shared our happiness and wished for another 100 years of success.

In these past few weeks, I’ve reflected on my journey to Australia and my career path as a migrant woman.

I was 18 when my family and I moved to Australia from the former Soviet Union. We spoke very little English and we didn’t have money. Like many migrants, we faced many challenges during our first years, including language barriers and stereotypes (a “Russian mail-order bride” was cited a lot). I was bullied at my first casual job because of my heavy accent and limited English.

Yet, like many migrants, I persevered. I worked hard and built my career and am proud of my journey.

Nelli Zinder

However, I’ve noticed how many migrant professional women don’t share their success stories. They often feel that talking about their achievements is unnecessary and may come across as boasting. It’s almost as if they are ashamed of their success and contribution to Australia, and don’t want to draw attention to themselves.

If you are a migrant woman – I encourage you to share your own journey and career story to your communities and social groups, to inspire and help others who might be in the very beginning of their own migrant journey in Australia and looking for support and reassurance. It is vitally important.

Demonstrating what we can do as migrant women, we can do so much to help new migrants.

We can create informal learning communities and groups to connect migrant women with experience in a particular industry. Such learning networks are easy to start in the community of women from the same former country. These communities can share not only job vacancies and the latest industry updates but also help each other with preparing resumes, polishing interview skills, career pathways, and social eminence tips. These communities, virtual or face-to-face, are equally valuable.

As a member of my local community of women in IT, I’ve seen the benefits of such groups firsthand. Our community is made up of women from diverse cultural backgrounds from my former country. We have members who are just starting out in IT, re-skilling in a different field of IT, trying to secure their first job as new migrants, as well as seasoned professionals. Within the group, we discuss various career paths and specifics of roles such as testing, data science, technical sales, consulting, full stack development, and more, as well as technical topics.

Through these discussions, we also share tips on how to navigate the Australian job market as migrant women. We provide support and reassurance to those who are struggling and celebrate the achievements of those who have succeeded.

I strongly encourage all migrant women to seek out or create such communities within their respective fields. These communities can provide a sense of belonging, which can be especially important for those who may feel isolated or unsupported in their new home country.

The first few years are typically very tough for migrants: learning a new language, adjusting to a new climate, understanding the culture, and finding the first job in Australia. And often, the latter is the hardest, because migrants don’t have local work experience, and this is especially difficult for migrant women.

While many organisations promote gender diversity and inclusion, I feel we are missing out on talent by not bringing recent migrant women into organisations.

The statistics published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that around 60 per cent of recent migrants are female, but they are less likely to be considered for employment compared to male counterparts. They are also less likely to be employed than Australian-born women.

The national strategy plan to achieve gender diversity by 2025 recognizes that lack of work experience, the unfamiliarity of qualifications and achievements, and English as a second language are key factors that prevent migrant women from being considered for employment. Consequently, many migrant women work in low-paid jobs despite being highly skilled.

If you are a recruiter or hiring manager and you come across a recent migrant woman who meets all the job requirements except for local experience, I encourage you to take a chance and listen to their story. Consider the skills, accomplishments from their previous country of residence, ambition, and drive to integrate into the Australian workforce, rather than just focusing purely on language gaps and lack of local experience.

I’ve been calling Australia home for 30 years. I have kept my promise to make proud this country that took me and allowed me to become successful, and to give back to the community. I encourage successful migrants to celebrate their success and show how Australia can be the place for migrants to succeed.




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