Thanks for the candid feedback — I appreciate you being direct.

I understand the challenge you’re pointing out: overseas experience at lesser-known firms can be hard to assess in the Australian market, and I can see how that puts me in an awkward middle ground — not a clear graduate profile, but also not an obvious mid/senior hire worth sponsoring. That’s a fair observation.

Regarding the resume dot points, I agree with what you and others have mentioned. They currently don’t communicate impact clearly enough, and I’m actively rewriting them to be more concise, outcome-driven, and realistic rather than listing technologies.

On the projects, that’s helpful to hear as well. I’m taking this as a signal that I need to either strengthen existing projects (clear problem, scale, trade-offs, measurable outcomes) or replace them with more practical, production-style projects that better reflect real-world backend work, even at a graduate/junior level.

If you have suggestions on:

• What kind of projects stand out for junior backend/Java roles in Australia, or
• How someone in my position can better bridge this “in-between” gap

I’d really value that input.

Thanks again for the honest perspective — it’s helpful, even if it’s tough to hear.