Getting into FIFO

FIFO jobs in Perth with no experience: where the doors actually are

The roles that take green applicants out of Perth, the tickets to get first, and the order to go after them.

By The Hiring Desk · Senior HR Professional · October 2026

Perth is the point of hire for most of Western Australia’s FIFO work. If you live here, or can, you already have the one thing a lot of applicants do not: you can get to the airport on a Sunday night. Here is where someone with no site experience actually gets in.

The roles that take green applicants

Camp and village services. Housekeeping, kitchen hands, utility, laundry, bus driving between camp and site. This is the most common first door. Hospitality and cleaning experience counts. More in FIFO utility and camp jobs.

Trade assistant and labourer. Mostly through contractors and labour hire, often on shutdowns and construction. Construction labouring, farm work and warehouse work all help here.

Stores and logistics. If you have warehouse experience and a forklift licence, site stores roles are worth chasing.

Traineeships. Operator and trade traineeships open every year, including for mature-age applicants. They are competitive, so apply early and apply to several. See mature-age apprenticeships in mining.

Tickets to get first

White Card and first aid, from a provider listed on training.gov.au. Then only what the roles you are going for ask for. Do not buy a pile of tickets before you know which door you are using. The order is in White Card first, then what.

Labour hire is the fast lane

Register with two or three labour hire firms that supply the resources sector. Take the short assignments, including local ones in Perth’s industrial areas. A month or two of recent site work changes how every later application reads. Keep applying direct at the same time. Labour hire or apply direct?

Where to apply

Not just the big mining companies. Contractors, camp operators, labour hire, maintenance and shutdown companies all hire green people more readily than the operators do. Set up job alerts, apply within a day of an ad going up, and follow up with a phone call where there is a number. How to apply properly.

If Perth is not working

Living in a regional town like Kalgoorlie, Karratha or Port Hedland can get you in faster, because local candidates can start Monday. It suits some people and not others. Should you move to the regions?

Not sure where you stand? The free two-minute readiness check will tell you what to fix first.

The full playbook, from the hiring side

How to Get Into FIFO (and get asked back): the recruiter's screen, the ticket budget planner, your way in by starting point, the CV and interview, and the unwritten rules of your first swing, plus the Employer Map: 50 places to apply. A$49, opens in any browser, yours forever.

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About the author. The Hiring Desk is a senior HR professional with twenty years in HR across Australian mining and construction, most of it on the hiring side, who still works in the industry, which is why there is a pen name and no surname. Nothing published here is about any one employer; it is how the industry screens, hires and runs sites, from someone still inside it. A FIFO household of her own, onshore and offshore. Author of the The Hiring Desk guides.