Welcome back!

Hi folks - MBA Jobs is back after a well deserved break.

Thank you all for your comments and continued support to this blog.

We hope to bring you the latest updates on MBA education and the post-MBA job market in Australia.

Our sole objective is to advance the MBA degree in Australia to the point where employers and recruiters equally begin to realise its importance and change their thinking. A change is always difficult to bring about but not impossible.

Our future blogs will aim to:

- bring you the latest MBA rankings in Australia
- give you perspectives on the job market in Australia both from recruiters and MBA alumni
- review some Australian MBA programs
- bring you the latest thinking on MBA education
- provide you tips on developing your career
- develop MBA packs for employers, recruiters and prospective students

If there are things that you want to learn more about - please drop us a line. We will try and find the answers to your questions.

Are you a recruiter or a head hunter? Then why don't you advertise your job on our blog or our website - www.mbajobs.com.au. MBAs from all over the world are browsing this website and the best part is that it's FREE.

Look forward to talking to you in the near future and wish you all a very happy new year 2014!

How relevant is an MBA in the Australian job market?

In speaking to recruiters, employers and students, one thing is clear - the MBA market in Australia is different to its counterparts in other countries.

What's the difference?

The job market and recruiters in Australia give preference to work experience in a specific sector or industry. If you are a procurement analyst in the education sector, chances are that you will remain in procurement within the education sector for a long time. The reason is that it's very difficult to shift sectors in Australia once you develop experience in a particular sector.

During periods of uncertain financial times such as now, this is even more the case. Recruiters and employers are choosy in their selection process. Direct industry experience is a minimum requirement. You may be the best procurement analyst, but they wouldn't touch your CV because you came from a different sector. This is the reality now in the Australian job market.

Finished your MBA - Now what?

Finishing your MBA is a great achievement. After putting in all those days of hard work, sleepless nights and hours and hours of reading, you have finally reached a milestone that will propel your career towards success.

But an MBA is not the end in itself, it is just the beginning. An MBA gives you options that other degrees may not. Here we look at some of those options:

1. Start your own business - Why work for someone when you can start your own business. An MBA has equipped you well with all the tools and resources, the confidence, the skills and the contacts that you need to start your own business. Put a business plan together, get some seed funding and you are away. But while this option gives you all the freedom in the world, this is also the riskiest option. Investors want a return for their investment, so every dollar counts. This means very hard work from your side. Forget work life balance and be ready to put in crazy hours at least in the initial stages of a new business venture.

Agents who recruit for MBA jobs

Here is a list of recruitment agents in Australia who recruit MBAs for their clients:

Accounting & Finance sector

Robert Walters - http://www.robertwalters.com.au/

Hamilton James and Bruce - http://www.hjb.com.au/

Ambition Recruitment - http://www.ambition.com.au/

Michael Page - http://www.michaelpage.com.au/

Numbers Executive - http://www.numbersexecutive.com.au/

Visa options after completing your MBA in Australia

Most international students who come to Australia tend to stay back in Australia and apply for permanent residency. However after completing an MBA degree, students have very few options to do this. Here we explore some of these options:

The first option is to apply for a 485 visa which allows the MBA graduate to gain some work experience. This is also called the Skilled Graduate visa. This is a temporary visa that has two streams: Graduate work stream and Post-study work stream.