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【Career】Study and Work in Austria Online Information session

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Austria is considered one of the best countries in Europe to live in, due to its rich culture and mesmerizing natural beauty. In order to make students aware of the available opportunities in Austria, the Office of Career Development, College of Management, organized a Virtual Information session on May 20th, 2022, for students to learn more about studying and working in Austria. The key speakers of the session were Roland Rudorfer, Director, Austria Office Taipei; Daniel Aschauer, an alumnus of IBMBA currently working as a Deputy General Manager, Anton Paar Taiwan and Sarah Chiang, IBMBA alumna who is working in Austria as a Project Manager at Re-Teck Asset Management GmbH.

Giving a brief introduction about Austria, Mr. Roland, shared some facts and figures about the country. Austria lies in the heart of Europe with a population of around 9 million people and the language most spoken in the country being German. It has a similar government structure to Taiwan and has a rich history of kings and queens. It is one of the 14 richest countries in the world and therefore has a very high standard of living. Austria is also home to some world-famous companies like Porsche, Swarovski, and Red Bull.

Working in Austria, as explained by Mr. Roland, includes excellent social welfare practices like Competitive wage systems, participation in Workers unions, and various types of insurance. The monthly salary is paid 14 times a year, and the highest paid jobs are in the Chemical and Oil processing industry, IT and Internet, banking, and so on. Project Managers, Lawyers, and controllers generally have the highest wages in Austria. Living cost, on the other hand, is comparatively more affordable than in countries like Hong Kong, Tokyo, or Singapore. Mr. Roland also shared some informative websites which can be accessed by everyone to look for suitable job opportunities in Austria.

Regarding studying in Austria, there are 22 public universities, 16 private universities, and 21 Universities of Applied Science offering courses in a broad spectrum of academic subjects as well as professional disciples. To encourage international students, there are also multiple grants and scholarships available.

Apart from job, internship, and academic exchange opportunities, if you would like to learn more about Austria, or even experience life in Austria, you could also consider taking up the working holiday program.

Mr. Roland concluded his sharing through a short video with a hidden mistake for students to guess, and Frank Lin from GHRM MBA 1st year guessed correctly and won a copy of a book about Austria.

Mr. Daniel Aschauer shared his experience of being part of the Global ACT (Austria-Canada-Taiwan) Master Program which enabled him to study in Austria and Taiwan. The Program provided him with the exposure to studying and living in different countries and gave him an opportunity to meet people from diverse backgrounds. After going through several internships, including one in Beijing, China, he strongly encourages students to participate in events that offer the chance to network with industry professionals, as such connections may sometime lead to an internship or job opportunity. When going into detail about how he landed those overseas internships, he mentioned that LinkedIn is a good platform to utilize for students who wish to follow in his footstep. On top of that, joining job fairs is also a good way to expand your options.

Before he ends off his sharing, he mentioned that having a career goal in mind is essential to finding jobs that fit your goals and he expressed how one should experience working in different fields to narrow what one likes or dislikes.

For a foreigner looking for work in Austria, it can be quite difficult but not impossible as shared by Ms. Sarah Chiang. To guide the students, she shared some valuable tips for students hoping to work in Austria. She shared that one should identify their strengths and weaknesses before applying for jobs and if possible have their peers review and edit the resumes to make them more full proof. She also highlighted the importance of networking and being up to date with visas and other official information to apply for jobs effectively. Sharing her own personal experience, the interview process in Austria can take up to a month and is very comprehensive. As a general rule of thumb during an interview, the key is to portray your best personality and be confident in yourself. You should also aim to highlight your strengths (technical competencies, certifications, etc) and what you could bring to the table, making you different from other job applicants.

As for the platforms that Sarah used to look for job opportunities in Austria, apart from LinkedIn as mentioned by Daniel, you may also consider the job recruitment platforms in Austria or common job-hunting platforms like Glassdoor.

The session was concluded after a quick Q&A session that helped clear students remaining doubts about living and studying in Austria. Some of the questions include:

1. Is it hard for foreigners to find a job in Austria?

Roland shared that apart from the usual administrative matters such as visa applications that a foreigner would face regardless of which country they are intending to work, you can find plenty of job opportunities in Austria just by doing a quick search on Google. The key is whether you have the key attributes that the companies are looking for.

2. Are there any language requirements to be met in order to work in Austria?
Sharing her experience, Sarah mentioned that knowing the German language would be highly beneficial in your job search in Austria. Although many of your colleagues or companies in Austria can converse in English, however, knowing German would greatly widen your opportunities.

3. How can I prepare myself if I wish to join the ACT program?

Daniel mentioned that similar to a job interview, you can prepare yourself by looking through your CV/application and ensuring there are no grammatical or spelling mistakes, thinking about what makes your unique as compared to other applicants, and preparing answers to standard mock interviews questions.

We would like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt thanks to Roland, Daniel, and Sarah, for taking the time out to join us in the sharing.

(Written by Andy Teo, proofread by College of Management)

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