A rejection email in Melbourne rewrote her career

In Melbourne after marriage, Rakshitha Arni Ravishankar expected a straightforward move under a bridging partner visa. Instead, a steady stream of rejections has left her job search stuck in a brutal loop: employers want Australian media experience, but she ne

The email arrived on a Monday morning, and it landed like a door closing.

Rakshitha Arni Ravishankar was at the study desk her husband built before she moved here—still feeling more like his than hers in a house where their life is being remade in real time. The subject line was the first warning. The message was warm, but the outcome was firm: the team would move forward with another candidate.

When she asked for feedback, the recruiter told her they had found someone with stronger experience in the Australian market. She said the rejection made logical sense—yet still hurt. The role was entry-level, even as she brought 10 years of experience as a writer, editor, and communications specialist.

That single rejection captured a broader reality she has been trying to explain since she arrived in Melbourne in January after marrying her husband. who has been living in the city for nearly two decades. She and her husband had been in a long-distance relationship between India and Australia for over a year. and her move was planned across that time. She arrived on a bridging partner visa that gives her full work rights.

What she hadn’t planned for was how sharply a career transition can collide with a new market.

For most of her career, she worked in India. But in Melbourne. nearly every job listing she has encountered asks for demonstrated experience engaging Australian stakeholders. familiarity with the Australian media landscape. or a track record of pitching to local news outlets. The subtext. she said. feels consistent: prove you already understand how this place works before you’re allowed to work in it.

She understands the logic. She has hired people herself, and she knows managers want someone who can “hit the ground running.” Still, it stings when her decade of work feels like it doesn’t quite count.

She has since learned there is a term for this mismatch: underutilization. A 2024 Australian report conducted by Deloitte Access Economics found that almost half of the country’s migrants are working below their skill level. In her day-to-day job search, that statistic doesn’t feel abstract. It feels like a pattern she can’t break.

Her job hunt has reached deeper than income.

For the first time in her adult life, she is financially dependent on someone else. She said her husband is kind about her situation and reassures her every day that things will start looking up. but financial dependence—even inside a loving and equal partnership—feels isolating. She described work not only as a paycheck. but as the structure of her day and the way she stays motivated. It has also been, she said, how she introduces herself to new people.

Without it, she has felt scared.

In the evenings, she scrolls through LinkedIn and watches former colleagues get promoted, start businesses, and announce their successes. She said she isn’t envious in a simple way. What she feels is fear and grief—watching everyone else move forward while she stands still.

So she tries to make the waiting productive.

As someone who has written about work and careers for most of her professional life, she said she always understood—at least intellectually—that careers are built through relationships as much as credentials. Moving abroad has forced her to test that idea in practice.

Over the last few months, she has reached out to communications professionals, consultants, and her partner’s friends across Australia. Some cold emails have gone nowhere. But some messages have led to useful advice and warm introductions. Others have helped her learn the unspoken rules of a professional culture she is still learning. She described the oddity of asking questions that might feel basic for someone at her career stage—but she has come to see networking less as a job-search tactic and more as a way to find community and rebuild confidence.

She also found reassurance in how common the experience is. Talking to other immigrants and professionals who have been through similar transitions showed her how slow and messy finding work in a new country can be.

She hasn’t found a job yet. But she said this chapter has changed how she sees her life beyond the job search.

Her previously long-distance husband and her are finally building life in the same place. She is learning her neighborhood by feel and looking forward to morning walks. She is getting used to navigating Melbourne a little better each day. She described these as small things—but meaningful ones, because they make the city feel more familiar.

And the lesson she is taking from all of it is clearer now. She doesn’t have an Australian resume built from local roles yet. But she has a better understanding of what rebuilding a professional identity in a new country requires: patience, humility, and more coffee catch-ups than she expected.

There is one phrase she keeps coming back to, shaped by the way the market has handled her applications: she feels like she needs local experience to land a job, but she needs a job to gain local experience.

Melbourne job search migrant employment underutilization Deloitte Access Economics bridging partner visa communications specialist Australian media networking LinkedIn career transition