I completed a Cert III Beauty Services (which incorporated the Cert II Makeup Artistry as it was called then) and got a job at a department store counter. This is not a "Makeup Artist" position although people might call themselves that. What you really are is a Retail Cosmetics Assistant and it's like that throughout the whole of Australia.
My real work started when I scored a gig assisting a photographer. I got this through a paper ad. Though this gig, I then ended up assisting a makeup artist on various jobs around town. (I was not paid for that work). Then I applied for, and landed, a job as a Makeup Artist on the special events team with the cosmetic house I was employed by as an RCA.
I then commenced further training and continued to assist until I made Senior.
It was then I could call myself an MUA.