How to get a job at Atlassian (or anywhere) as a new grad

While this article won't guarantee you a job at Atlassian or any other organisation, it will empower you with valuable insights into what makes a standout candidate. Transitioning from a recent graduate to a successful employee can be daunting, but with the right knowledge, you can confidently showcase your experience, skills, and attitude.

Elyssa Goodman, BA ‘99 LLB ‘01, is the Senior Talent Acquisition Manager (Early Career and Campus) at Atlassian. She says the most common mistake she sees students and early career professionals make is undervaluing their experience throughout the application process.

“People make the mistake of thinking experience must be paid experience. But you can amass amazing transferable skills from all sorts of activities: volunteering, team sports, jobs in retail or hospitality.”

Though all the organisations and industries she’s recruited for have had different priorities, Elyssa says, when it comes to hiring new graduate talent employers tend to look for four key attributes.

Call them your core skills or career constants, these 4C’s will be the foundations from which you build your working life:

If ‘group assignment’ is a triggering phrase for you, seeing collaboration at the top of the list could be traumatising. But the reality is both your ability to learn and your ability to make an impact as a new grad come from your ability to meaningfully collaborate. So, it’s vital to show you value teamwork.

“It’s pretty rare these days that you would work by yourself,” says Elyssa. “No one really makes standalone roles. So, you have to be able to show you could operate in a team.”

That means clearly demonstrating times when you have worked in a team and how you’ve used your interpersonal skills to contribute to a supportive environment or navigate a challenge.

Look, who doesn’t say ‘strong communication skills’ on their CV? It seems so generic, you’d be forgiven for wondering just how impressive is being able to communicate, really? But to an organisation, it matters a lot.

“Employers are looking to see you can communicate clearly and with courtesy,” says Elyssa.

That means recruiters will have a keen eye for your communication capabilities throughout the hiring process so don’t overlook opportunities to impress through your cover letter, professional email responses and telephone etiquette.

Short of choosing a career as a scientist or spy, it might be initially hard to place what curiosity means to let’s say someone entering the field of transport logistics.

But it actually makes a lot of sense.

“People that are curious will have the inquisitiveness and willingness to try new things,” explains Elyssa. “So, they learn more and pick up things quicker.”

In the recruiting world, this is known as ‘learning agility’ and it’s your ability and motivation to gain new skills as your roles and industry changes.

Speaking of change and growth, the last core skill on Elyssa’s list is the ability to get out of your comfort zone.

“When you start your career, you’re going on a journey. And my job is to find people that will go on that journey with that organisation. That means hiring people who can adapt and continue to deliver value to an organisation even if things change.”

Managing change, and even thriving in it, is a core career skill these days, says Elyssa.

“Some of the roles I recruited for 15 years ago, no longer exist, and the roles I am recruiting for now didn’t exist 15 years ago. So, if you are good at going outside your comfort zone, you’re setting yourself up for a career full of possibilities and impact.”