This year hasn't been easy. It has challenged all of us. But resilience is a key feature of an immigrant. The next year offers us a new beginning, full of possibilities. Keep believing.

Our company was founded on the belief that everyone deserves a fair chance. Australia is a multicultural country and many people come from all over the world to settle here.

Along with their dreams, they also bring relevant experience and skills that can be extremely relevant to the Australian market. That said, many professionals find it difficult to enter the local market; in 2020, especially.

At VS Strategy we have been working hard to improve our services, particularly in these challenging times, to professionals looking to progress their careers in Australia.

I would like to share with you a few highlights from this year as well as the steps we are taking to keep providing better solutions to you.

In 2019, we enhanced our two main services, the Career Strategy Program and the Better Job. Besides, we improved our introductory meeting, the Action Session, an affordable option to help people to quick-start their careers.

In the same year, we rebranded our service of professional image development, hence we launched the Better Job 2020 which has been expanded into 2021.

The Better Job 2020 was a great success and we helped thousands of professionals to improve their images by having a superior resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile.

In regards to the Career Strategy Program, there is nothing like it in the market. This program was developed exclusively for international students and skilled professionals based on research and data from the Australian Government about immigrants.

It is a robust program while at the same time simple and straight-forward to execute, and most important, it produces results. Clients in this program have three strategic sessions with us. In these sessions, we talk about their professional background and goals in Australia, with that, we create a new resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile, provide insights on what companies are looking for, and create a strategy to secure a job as soon as possible.

Besides, we develop a customised Career Strategy file for each client featuring key information about their industries, job position recommendations, job prospects based on official data from the government, recruitment agencies, and the steps to start their job applications.

The Career Strategy program was enhanced this year. We added a section regarding the COVID disruption and its effects on the job market. Also, we improved our data gathering techniques for the industry research session and developed new features for the strategy session, such as the performance report and the performance dashboard, where clients can have a clear vision of their job application's performance. In regards to the career strategy file, next year we will introduce a more visual and immersive document.

Data analytics and its impact on the future

Data analytics is an important part of the future, in this line, we have been investing a lot of resources to gather relevant information and data in regards to job prospects and employability as well as making improvements to our resume blueprint and conducting further research on AI software to optimise our writing style. Additionally, by investing in data analytics we can also keep track of our success rate to celebrate our wins and understand our challenges; therefore, making strategic plans for improvements.

All of our resumes and cover letters are developed based on Ivy League universities' writing style blended into the Australian standard, and considering artificial intelligence software. This combination makes our documents unique and result-driven.

Live dashboard and articles

This year we also launched a live dashboard featuring our client’s profile, including location, industry and years of experience, as well as our success rate.

Also, we published three new articles on our website, The Key to Getting Full-time Employment in Australia After Graduation, Historical Migration: The Data Behind Your Australian Dream, and The Antidote to Unemployment, focusing on providing reliable information and tools to improve your chances of finding a job.

Pro-bono during the pandemic

The pandemic hit the economy and therefore the job market hard. The moment called for action.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we intensified our pro-bono efforts to assist our clients and the local community of students and professionals.

In the early stages of the pandemic, we made available for free the download of my book "The International Student's Blueprint: Your Strategy for Success in Australia". This initiative impacted over 200 people.

Following our mission, we kept the GiveBack Program while launching new initiatives such as the RUOK Day (Special Conversation), hosting Q&A sessions on Instagram and guest speaking appearances in LIVEs with renowned colleges and universities to provide insights on the employment market, occupations in demand, career strategy and tips on resume writing.

In June, we launched the new website featuring the VS Live! page, where anyone can get in touch with us in real-time to ask short questions. Besides, we are very active on social media, hosting IG Q&A sessions regularly and answering questions on Quora.

Our LinkedIn group 'Jobs for student visa holders & skilled professionals' now has nearly 1,000 members and we keep on the mission of advising international students and skilled professionals of job opportunities in Australia.

Future Roadmap

In line with what has been happening to the economy and the impact on jobs caused by the pandemic, we plan on keeping and expanding our pro-bono initiatives into 2021.

VS Strategy offers a range of solutions to international students and skilled professionals; from free resources such as the exclusive articles, free Q&A session on Instagram, VS Live!, and the LinkedIn group, to the super affordable Action session, and the result-driven Better Job 2021 to the more exclusive Career Strategy Program.

We have big plans for next year and it is all focused on providing quality content, enhanced tools and quality support that professionals need to progress their careers in Australia. This is how we are playing our part for a better future.

To all of you, international students, recent graduates, skilled professionals, and all other immigrants out there trying your best every single day, please: keep believing.

May all your wishes and dreams come true next year, right here, in Australia!

Happy Holidays from us.

Vanessa Sebben & The VS Strategy Team