What “no experience” really means to a recruiter
Nobody expects you to have run a haul truck. They want to know three things: will you turn up, will you follow safety rules when nobody is watching, and can you pass the paperwork. That last one catches more people than the first two.
The paperwork is a pre-employment medical with a drug and alcohol screen, a national police check, and usually a white card plus a clean driver's licence. If any of those is a problem, fix it before you apply. It is the cheapest way to move up the pile.
The roles that take beginners
These are the usual first doors. Pay depends on the site, the roster and the contractor, so treat the ranges as the shape of the market, not a promise.
| Role | What it is | What helps you get it |
|---|---|---|
| General labourer | Cleaning, moving materials, supporting a crew | White card, fitness, references from any manual job |
| Trade assistant / offsider | Working beside a tradie or driller and doing what they need | White card, licence, a bit of tool sense, a good attitude |
| Storesperson / warehouse | Receiving, picking, inventory on site | Forklift licence if you can, a warehouse reference |
| Camp services | Kitchen, housekeeping, laundry, gardens | Food handling certificate for kitchen roles, reliability |
| Traffic controller | Traffic control around roadworks and site roads | Traffic control ticket, patience |
Advertised entry pay on joinFIFO's own tracker sits around A$75k to A$110k for these first roles, which is why the camp-services and labouring doors are so crowded. See the full range on the Why FIFO page.
The stepping-stone route
If you can't get a site job straight away, work close to it. Civil construction, plant and equipment hire, warehousing, logistics and shutdown work all give you a reference that a FIFO recruiter understands. Six months of that beats a gap on the CV.
Tickets: buy few, buy first
Start with the white card, basic first aid and a clean licence. Working at heights and confined space entry come up often enough to be worth considering. Forklift and HR licences help for operator and stores roles. Offshore work wants safety survival training like BOSIET. Our ticket planner sorts which ones to buy before you apply and which to wait on.
How ready are you right now?
Checklist
Are you ready to apply?
Nine things recruiters check, roughly in order of how often they end an application.
Ready score
0 / 15
Tick what's true for you.
Applying so it gets read
- Use labour-hire and mining recruitment agencies as well as job boards. Many entry roles are filled through them and never reach a big ad.
- One page CV. Put tickets and licence at the top, then your last three jobs with dates.
- Say you can do rosters. A line like “available for 2:1 and 8:6, can start in two weeks” saves a recruiter a call.
- Apply for the role you could start Monday, not the role you want in five years.
- Be reachable. Missed calls from unknown numbers are how a lot of people lose first interviews.
The Get Hired guide goes through the CV, the agencies, and the interview questions in full.
The full version
Get Hired
The CV, the agencies, the phone screen and the interview, written for people who have never been on a mine site.
See the guide · A$49Where this comes from
- Airswift: how to land a FIFO job with no experience
- Civil Safety: how to get a FIFO job in Australia (training, tickets and requirements)
- The Nightly: FIFO jobs with no experience
General information only. Pay, tickets and visa rules change and differ by employer, so confirm the details before you commit money.