When Sam Matti came to Australia, he had a bachelor degree in automation engineering and five years of experience working as an engineer at an electric power plant in Baghdad. After fleeing religious persecution in Iraq, where Islamic State was targeting minority Christians, Matti arrived in Australia in 2015. Here, Matti, who speaks five languages, applied for every suitable engineering job – but couldn’t even land an interview.
“I applied for every possible and available position on Seek,” says Matti, now 37.