How to Network Your Way Into an Australian Job (Cold Email + LinkedIn DM Scripts That Worked)

For three months I applied into the void. Seek, LinkedIn Easy Apply, company career pages, fifty applications a week, and almost nothing back. I was a 485 holder in Melbourne with three years of software work in India behind me and no local network at all. Every application was a stranger asking a stranger for a job, and the pile was too deep for a stranger to care.

Then one LinkedIn DM to an engineer I had never met got me a fifteen-minute call, and that call got me a referral. That was the turn. Not a better resume, a warmer door. This post is the exact method and the exact scripts I used to build an Australian network from zero and turn it into referrals: the cold email, the LinkedIn DM, the informational-interview ask, and the follow-up you send after.

Why this matters

Referrals get read. Cold applications get filtered. When you have no local network and a 485 clock ticking, the slow grind of applying into an ATS is the worst possible use of your weeks, because a referred candidate skips half the queue and lands on a human's desk with a name attached.

A large share of roles get filled through referrals and internal networks before they are ever advertised, or while the ad is still technically open. You cannot apply your way into that layer. You can only talk your way in. For an international grad with a visa timeline, that is the difference between spending your runway refreshing an inbox and spending it building the handful of relationships that actually convert.

Who this is for

This is for you if:

• You are a 485 holder or international graduate with little or no local professional network in Australia.
• You have sent dozens of applications and gotten silence, and you know the referral route works but not how to start it.
• Cold outreach feels cringe to you, and you want scripts that are short, specific, and do not read as desperate.
• You want a repeatable weekly system, not one lucky message.

How do I network to get a job in Australia with no local network?

You do not start by asking for a job. You start by asking for information, and you start with people who are close to your target, not the busiest person at the top.

The order that worked for me: pick 15 companies you would actually take a job at. For each, find two or three people who do the work you want to do, one level above you. Not the CEO, not HR, the senior engineer, the team lead, the analyst. Those people reply, because you are one of them and the ask is small. Recruiters are a parallel track, not the first one.

Then you send a short message that respects their time and asks for one specific thing. Here is the informational-interview ask that opened doors for me:

Hi Priya, I am a software engineer in Melbourne, recently finished my Master's in AI and now on a 485 with full work rights. I am trying to understand the Melbourne market properly before I go deep on applications. You have been at [Company] for three years doing exactly the work I want to do. Would you be open to a 15-minute call so I can ask how you got in and what the team actually looks for? Happy to work around your calendar, and no worries at all if now is not a good time.

Short. Specific. One ask. It names why them, it caps the time, and it gives them an easy out. That last part matters more than people think. Removing the pressure is what makes the yes easy.

What is an informational interview and how do I ask for one?

An informational interview is a short, low-stakes call where you ask someone about their role, their team, and how they got in. You are not asking for a job. You are asking to learn. That framing is what makes people say yes, and it is also what makes them want to help you later.

The magic is in what happens on the call. You show up prepared, you ask good questions, you listen more than you talk, and by the end the person has spent fifteen minutes investing in you. People refer candidates they have a relationship with, even a fifteen-minute one, far more readily than a name in an application pile.

Three questions that consistently made the call useful:

• How did you personally get into the team, and what did your path look like?
• When your team hires, what actually separates the people who get in from the people who do not?
• Is there anyone else you would suggest I talk to?

That last question is the engine. Every good informational interview should hand you the next one. Ask it every single time.

How do I cold email a recruiter (and what do I actually say)?

Recruiters are a numbers game, so make it easy for them to slot you. Lead with the role you want and your work rights, because the first thing a recruiter needs to know about an international candidate is whether they can legally start. Do not bury it.

Subject: Software Engineer, full work rights, Melbourne

Hi Dan, I am a software engineer based in Melbourne with full work rights on a 485 visa. Three years building backend systems in India, plus a Master's in AI here, and I am now looking for my next role in the Melbourne market. I saw you place a lot of backend and platform engineers, so I wanted to introduce myself directly. If you have anything current that fits, I would love to talk. Resume attached if useful, and happy to send anything else you need.

Keep it to one screen. Role and work rights in the first line, one sentence of proof, one clear ask. A recruiter scanning fifty emails should know in three seconds what you are, that you can start, and what you want. The subject line does half the work, so put the role and "full work rights" right in it.

How do I cold DM a hiring manager on LinkedIn about a job?

A hiring manager is not a recruiter, so do not pitch them like one. They care about their team and their problems, not your job search. Lead with them, keep it tiny, and make the ask a conversation, not a favour.

Hi Sarah, I saw your team is growing the data platform at [Company], and it is exactly the kind of work I have been doing. I am a data engineer in Melbourne, full work rights on a 485, recently finished a Master's here. I am not going to pitch you in a DM, but if you are open to it I would love a quick chat about what the team is working on and whether my background could be a fit down the line. Either way, the [specific thing they posted about] work looks great.

Notice it does not ask for a job outright. It references something real they posted, states work rights in one clause, and offers a chat. The genuine compliment at the end is not filler, it proves you actually looked at their work instead of blasting the same message to forty people. On LinkedIn, keep it under six lines, because anything longer gets a "read later" that never comes.

What is the "hidden job market" and how much of it is unadvertised?

The hidden job market is the set of roles that get filled without ever running a public ad, or that get filled from referrals while the ad is still up. A team needs someone, a manager asks around, someone's contact gets a warm intro, and the role is gone before it ever hits Seek. Or the ad runs for compliance while the shortlist is already built from internal referrals.

You will see a "70% of jobs are never advertised" figure repeated everywhere. I could not trace it to a credible primary source, so I am not going to hand you a number I cannot stand behind. What I can tell you honestly: a meaningful share of hiring, especially for the mid-level roles a 485 grad is chasing, happens through referrals and internal networks before or alongside the public ad. You cannot apply into that layer, because there is nothing to apply to. You can only get into it by being a name someone already knows when the need comes up. That is the entire case for outreach over Easy Apply.

When do I send my resume in a cold outreach thread?

Not in the first message to a hiring manager or a peer. A resume in a cold DM turns a conversation into a transaction, and it reads as "please screen me" instead of "let's talk". The exception is a recruiter, where the resume is the product and attaching it up front saves everyone a step.

For everyone else, wait for the pull. When they reply with interest, or right after a good informational interview, that is the moment. Send it warm:

Thanks so much for the call, Priya, that was genuinely useful and I took a page of notes. I have attached my resume in case it is handy if you ever hear of something on the team or elsewhere. No pressure at all, and I would love to stay in touch. If that intro to your colleague on the platform side is still open, I would really appreciate it.

Send this within a day of the call, while it is fresh. It thanks them specifically, attaches the resume without demanding anything, and gently reminds them of the referral or intro they offered. That follow-up is where informational interviews quietly turn into referrals. Most people never send it, which is exactly why sending it works.

What you can do about it

The scripts above are the hard part solved. The work is running them consistently for a few weeks instead of sending one message and waiting.

1. Build the listPick 15 companies you would actually take a job at, and for each find two or three people one level above you who do the work you want. That is your outreach pool, roughly 30 to 45 names.
2. Send a fixed number of outreach messages every weekAim for 10 to 15 per week, mixing peer informational-interview asks, one or two recruiter emails, and a couple of hiring-manager DMs. Consistency beats intensity.
3. Book the informational interviewsWhen someone says yes, get it in the calendar fast, show up with three real questions, and always ask who else you should talk to. Each call should seed the next.
4. Convert to referralsSend the follow-up within a day of every call, attach your resume warm, and keep a simple tracker of who you spoke to and what they offered. Referrals come from the second and third touch, not the first.

If applications alone were working, you would not be reading this. Outreach is slower to start and far faster to land, and on a 485 clock that trade is worth making today.

Sources and further reading

Related reading on this site: why you are getting no callbacks in Australia, what filters your application before outreach even matters, and why AI alone will not get you hired, the resume gaps the same recruiters filter on.

This is the outreach method that worked for me as a 485 visa holder in Melbourne. Scripts and market behaviour change, and every field is different. This is job-search and networking guidance, not migration advice. For your visa situation, talk to a registered migration agent.