Employment with AQIS ????

[Den76]

Does anyone here work within the AQIS?
How hard is it to get into?
Do they prefer any qualifications or experience?

Looking for a career change

Any info would be helpful


Den

[deanp100]

Hey mate, I worked for AQIS in QLD for 16 years with a lot of secondments to Canberra. It was a great life for the first decade but the face of AQIS changed from a big family to just another govt dept. I did a lot of hiring and in the 90's agricultural qualifications were essential. That produced some really great inspectors. This slowly drifted to desirable but not essential, then on to no quals needed but it would help. It is probably down to completely un-related qualifications desirable but not essential. However with any govt interview session, there will be thousands of applicants, hundreds of interviews for several positions. You have to stand out from the crowd so knowledge and experience may just do it. When I interviewed I put a lot of weight on an attempt to find out about the service before the interview and I loved agricultural qualifications and country boys and girls. We used to employ in packs rather than occasional single vacancies. You would be starting on the bottom but it is still a great life. Lots of overseas travel opportunities to work up to. I went OS a lot. I continually compare it to when it was run by the state ag depts and those were the days. Please don't put too much weight on what you see on TV. Only the ********* get filmed for Border Patrol. The airport baggage is a tiny portion of the job.
Let me know of you need anything else.
cheers

[EBII Ghia]

My brother works for AQIS, time split between the airport and the wharves.
He worked in a International hotel chain for many years before moving to AQIS, so no formal quals there, except customer service.