I was paid a $200,000 salary with no experience. This is what you need to know about my work

An Australian has revealed how he landed a six-figure mining job and was hired without any prior experience.

The underground miner was approached by job-seeking startup GetAhead in Melbourne and told the bemused host that all it took was one connection to the industry through his father to land the lucrative role.

‘[I] I actually had no idea I would end up in underground mining,” he revealed in the short video.

‘I was just asked at a barbecue by a friend’s father, who was a foreman in the mines.’

Since starting, he has earned an annual salary of $200,000, which is more than double the average gross salary for a tradie.

He urged job seekers looking to get into Australia’s lucrative earth industry to be persistent.

“Just keep trying,” he said.

“It’s one of those industries where it’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know.”

An Australian miner revealed he got a $200,000-a-year job during a backyard barbecue

The host asked him what it felt like to work meters deep beneath the earth’s surface.

‘A lot of people find it quite and intimidating, but yes, I think so too [it’s] whatever you get used to.”

He said spending time outdoors was a necessity for building wealth.

“You do what you have to do to get ahead in life,” the miner added

According to insurance broker Trade Risk, the average salary for a tradie was $90,940 last year, an increase of 11 percent from 2019.

“We believe this is the best representation of how much Australian tradies actually earn because it uses the taxable income provided to us by thousands of self-employed tradies from across Australia,” Trade Risk said in its report.

It found that boilermakers were Australia’s highest paid trade workers, taking home an average income of $112,535.

Electricians took second place with an average salary of $96,338 and plumbers rounded out the top three with an income of $95,507 per year.

But the report showed that the figures can vary widely.

Australians must complete a certification, the mandatory ‘Standard 11’ safety training, to work in the mines.

On-site accidents are a serious reminder that mining is not an easy business.

Mining is a lucrative industry in Australia, with workers often earning high salaries for FIFO work. Pictured is the Olympic Dam underground mine in Roxby Downs, South Australia

An average of nine miners die on the job in Australia every year, the third highest death toll of any sector, according to Safe Work Australia.

A man in his 30s died at the Oaky Creek Coal mine in a machinery incident in October, prompting renewed calls from then-Queensland Premier Steven Miles to tackle the cause of the industry’s accidents .

The volatility in mineral markets also means that mines can close at a moment’s notice.

Last week, ASX-listed Mineral Resources Limited announced it would cease operations at its Bald Hill lithium mine in the Goldfields region of Western Australia, 50km south-west of Kambalda.

The mine wants to reduce its workforce to just 10 to help with the transition to a ‘care and maintenance freeze’.

In a statement to the ASX, the listed company said it had to halt mining for the lithium-rich mineral spodumene due to the low prices it is currently attracting.

MinRes said the move will “preserve the cash and value of the Bald Hill spodumene ore body for when global lithium market conditions improve.”

The mining company has not ruled out resuming operations on site if lithium prices rise.