I believe that many immigrants or Chinese people who are considering immigration will definitely have this confusion.
Does immigration mean giving up the network resources accumulated in China and starting from scratch in a new country and becoming a "second-class citizen"? This kind of concern is not unreasonable, and outsiders will definitely feel uncomfortable for several years. Just like in China, most outsiders go to other super cities to study and work, and they are very nervous and unconfident in dealing with locals at the beginning. The same is true when going abroad. If you are thin-skinned, you will be full of embarrassment in handling various affairs.
But in Australia, very few people will neglect you because of the so-called "mismatch" of age, qualifications and location. In a country with a middle class of up to 60%, most people don’t need to make themselves feel good by stepping on you.
What's more, your original experience, knowledge, skills and connections can still be used well after overcoming certain language and cultural differences, and even have differentiated advantages that locals do not have.
The problem is coming. just arrived in Australia. How do you start building connections?
The most direct thing is to help your compatriots. No matter how much you hope to integrate into the "mainstream" society as soon as possible, the help from old compatriots can help you avoid many detours.
However, don't take this help for granted, or even destroy bridges across the river. The circles in various industries in Australia are not big, and many people know each other, so it is difficult to be like in China. At worst, you can change your place and become a new person.
In addition, for basic life and social issues, you must also see how the locals do it and talk about it. can not only live in non-Chinese areas or share with locals, but also use the rich community activities here to meet new friends , such as:
- participate in community library or community center activities;
- through Meetup, Eventbrite and General Platforms such as Assembly participate in offline activities;
- join your favorite sports group or volunteer group;
- participate in regular meetings at nearby Toastmaster;
- finds activities in your industry through Facebook groups or industry associations, etc.
The most important thing in this stage is to find opportunities to have a wide range of people from all aspects of society, understand the living habits and values of local people, practice language expression, and conduct social trial and error. After
, you will know professionals in the same industry or the industry you want to enter. They are very important people who help you open the door to the workplace. Among the professionals who are actively expanding their connections in Australia (the United States and Canada), there is an open secret that effectively uses LinkedIn (LinkedIn, a global professional social networking website) .
Most people in the workplace have LinkedIn accounts. If you are a paid member of LinkedIn, you can send private messages to strangers and takes the initiative to establish direct contact with people .
In Australia, the basic trust between strangers in is much higher than that in domestic . Without intermediaries, it is very common to meet unfamiliar peers or industry-related people in the cafe. This gives us an excellent soil for socializing from scratch by outsiders.
Generally speaking, if you want to make an appointment with someone, you must first improve your personal page and update it in time so that the other party can basically understand your professional background.
Some people like to send short private messages to the other party, just saying that they are, for example, the other party’s alumni, and want to make an appointment with coffee. If you like it more targetedly, private messages generally contain several aspects:
- First of all, it is best to have a reason, for example, when you hear the other party's speech at an event, they are all alumni of a certain school, they have lived in which city, or you are looking for experts in a certain industry, etc.;
- shows the purpose of wanting to know the other party, and wanting to get from the other party. What to know or what advice you get;
- If possible, mention what value you may provide to the other party, such as sharing your industry experience;
- Finally explain how you want to communicate (phone, video, or meet and drink coffee), as well as time (try to be flexible to reduce the cost of meeting the other party), and express your gratitude.
After some attempts, it was found that people with certain characteristics would have higher response rates.
For example, people who work as professional mentors in their spare time - have subjective intentions to help others grow; organizers of industry associations and groups - social experts, often provide help to industry people; people who have been in the company for several years, who lead teams but are not big bosses - have the need to expand a wider network of contacts; people who look like you - everyone likes people who look like you,
In addition, LinkedIn has a gathering effect. When you have more LinkedIn friends in the same industry, the new friends you want to meet will increase your trust in you because you already have multiple common friends. So even if you meet professionals through other channels at the beginning, try to convert them into LinkedIn friends.
Like in China, jobs and business opportunities abroad are like icebergs, and many of them cannot be seen by outsiders. But as long as you have good technical skills, basic expression skills, can actively find information, understand industry rules, and treat everyone you know sincerely, you have the opportunity to stand out from the local competition. You will gradually find that actively building and expanding your network and actively participating in social interactions is a very interesting and fulfilling thing.
