Job · Steps 6 · 7 · 8 · Your band score follows you here

The degree gets you in.The band gets you hired.

Employers in skilled industries check your English before your grades. This is where Step 1 pays off, and where seven in ten stall: survival work that never became a field job.

Band 5.5
Minimum-wage roles
No skilled status
Residency blocked
Band 6.5+
Skilled entry; local salary band for the field
Employer can back the file
Residency in reach within a few years
Don't have 6.5 yet? Start here →
Step 6 · First income

Your first
paycheck abroad.

Not glamorous. Absolutely necessary. Financial independence starts here. Do not wait for the role you came for; get income first, within the hours your visa allows.

01The destination resume is different
  • One page. No photo. No date of birth, no marital status, no father's name.
  • Achievements, not duties: "cut checkout time by a third" beats "responsible for checkout".
  • Local phone number, local address, the job title the posting used.
  • A short summary at the top: who you are, what you do, what you want. Three lines.
02Where to look
  • Campus job board and the careers office first; on-campus roles are the safest for visa hours.
  • Indeed, LinkedIn, the big job boards for the country; set alerts, apply the day a post appears.
  • Walk-ins still work in hospitality and retail. Go at quiet hours with the resume in hand.
  • Referrals: one coffee chat a week with anyone already working. Most first jobs come through a person.
03What to say in interviews
  • Situation, task, action, result. Every answer. Always.
  • Sixty seconds per answer; then stop. Silence is not a fail.
  • Ask two questions at the end: what a good first month looks like, and when you will hear back.
  • Follow up in writing the same day.
Video
Awaiting transmission · destination resume walkthrough
Step 7 · Co-op · This is where careers are made

A four-month
job interview.

Co-op is not work experience. It is a four-month interview at a company that might hire you full time. Treat it like that.

Get placed wellPitch over gradesResearch the company before the placement fair. Dress like you already work there. Your pitch matters more than your average.
Convert to full timeDeliver, be seen, askDeliver more than asked. Make yourself visible to the hiring manager. Ask directly: is there a path to full time here?
Network on campusOne coffee a weekAlumni, professors who consult, the people two years ahead. One conversation a week, minimum, from semester one.
No co-op in your programme? That is the gap the matcher flags. Placement offices still list internships; professional associations run mentoring; volunteering in the field counts as local experience. Start in semester one, not after graduation.
Step 8 · The field job

Skilled.
Employer-backed. Yours.

This is what Step 1 was always for. Band 6.5, co-op experience, a local network: you are hireable now. Employer backing opens the residency routes that hourly work never will.

Tech
Software · data · cyber
Engineering
Civil · mechanical · electrical
Health
Nursing · allied health
Finance
Accounting · analysis
Trades
Electrical · plumbing · HVAC
Logistics
Supply chain · planning
Employer sponsorship, simply
In Canada an employer can support a work permit and your residency file; in Australia an approved employer can sponsor a listed occupation; in the UK a licensed sponsor can hire you on a skilled-worker visa above a salary threshold; in the US the employer enters you in a lottery. In every case it is for skilled roles. Band 6.5 makes you eligible to be in that room. Band 5.5 does not.
Pattern, not promise
The odds board below reads public labour-market patterns: which fields are open, which are crowded, what a first skilled role pays in that city. It is a read, labeled per country, so the choice at Step 2 is made with eyes open.
Instrument · Odds board

Field × city.
The read.

Instrument · Two realities · scrub the years

Agent path.
Informed path.

Same student. Two decisions at Step 1 and Step 2. Five threads, forty years. Move the scrubber.

The job starts with the band score

The course is free.
Band 6.5+ is the output.

$0.00
Start the course — free →Next · Settle