Abstract
More than 12,000 migrant engineers have migrated to Australia in the past four years – the majority NESB professionals of prime workforce age selected under the skilled immigration program.
These engineers are currently experiencing extreme levels of unemployment – in part due to Australia’s recession, but in part due to disproportionate labour market rejection.
This paper examines the critical ‘gatekeeping’ role of the employment interview. It explores the cultural attitudes a range of East European engineers bring to Australian engineering job interview questions – in particular ‘process’ questions (requiring detailed description of knowledge of engineering processes), and ‘self-promotion’ questions (inviting positive presentation of demonstrated professional skills).
The paper then analyses the videotaped job interview performance of two East European engineers, who answer such questions poorly in interviews conducted by the Institution of Engineers, Australia. The paper suggests that disparities between country of origin interview strategies and those used in Australia might usefully be targeted as areas for further research. Such research could lead to more effective cross-cultural interview training, while lessening the risk of interview failure.