The IT field Thread

Hello,

I thought I would start a specific IT thread to try and gauge the climate of the IT job market in Australia in real(ish) time. I hear differing stories all the time about what kind of state the IT employment situation is in, some people are getting a job easily others finding it tough etc. I will be moving over next year, so I am especially interested and although there are a few threads regarding this, some are quite old or fragmented.

So if you are searching for work, or have recently arrived in OZ, or if you have just got a job in IT in OZ, then please share your thoughts and experiences.

Please say what it is you do, and where you are doing it/looking for it, what efforts you have made and what it is you think as hindered you/helped you as it makes the thread more useful and cohesive. If you have just moved, mention where you have moved from, and what type of visa you have.

Me? I am a SQL DBA, hopefully I will move into BI before the move, been doing it for about 10 years, I am currently in London, British, and want to live in Melbourne on a 176. Please start your posts this way.

Hopefully after a while a picture will emerge, and we can all get a decent idea of where its all at, and perhaps offer each other some help or suggestions.

Cheers,

P.

From what I've seen (and I'm in the UK), salaries and contract rates are broadly similar to London outside of the banking sector in Sydney and Melbourne at the current exchange rate.

Something I heard was that start-ups tend to pay better than established companies in Australia because they want to attract talent. This is the opposite of my experience in the UK, where they tend to offer lower salaries. Funnily enough, there seem to be more new companies coming out of Sydney than London.

http://www.technojobs.co.uk/job.phtml/941752

I know that SAP is in demand and keep getting tempted.....

Accenture are looking for SAP people in Australia - has anyone got any experience here?

Not me, in fact I dont really know anyone with SAP experience. I am going to sign up for the AustralianIT news app on the ipad, hopefully I will learn a fair bit about the IT market from that.

Regards,

P.

There's an article on the Age's website today about encouraging people into IT.

http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/innovation/blogs/smoke--mirrors/software-engineering-starts-at-home-20120621-20qbe.html

Some of the comments are interesting. I'm at the point where I'm starting to get the urge to move out of programming.

Good article, I'm starting to think things might be picking up a bit. What kind of programming do you do? Are you currently in OZ (Which city?)

Regards,

P.

I'm currently in London, and mainly do Java / Android.

The UK jobs scene is pretty bad at present. I'm a contractor, and have seen rates fall over the last three or four years, with long periods out of work. I'd certainly not recommend it as an option if someone's looking at coming back.

Having canvassed a few people, I believe that Oz is better. Most of the work is in Sydney, followed closely by Melbourne. There are a few things up in Brisbane, and whilst the salaries tend to be slightly down on Sydney, that's more than made up by lower living costs.

I am hearing similar stuff, I'm a contactor as well, in London. My time is up in about a month so I am now sure how it will go after that. I have also heard similar things said about OZ, only I get the feeling they have not had their ecomonic downturn yet, I get the feeling its on the edge unless your in the west where the mining is. I dont mind going over while its steady, but I would be very concerned about going over just as it (the economy) starts to go downwards.

Regards,

P.

The contract market in London is pretty dead right now. It seems to be very sensitive to recession, and whenever there's a downturn recruitment shuts down. That said, I had a call from an agent about a banking job which could be the best opportunity in the last few years if it comes off...

I don't know what's going to happen with the economy. My suspicion is that the UK is going to be down for the next few years, which would seem to be supported by predictions of interest rates remaining at 0.5% until 2017. There still needs to be a correction in house prices here, and that will bring about more pain.

Since you're an IT guy, you've probably seen this piece on the RBS at the Register. There's a telling comment that the only reason we're not seeing a financial crisis from the major failure of their systems is that we've already had it a few years back.

With Australia I get the impression that it's in the same place that the UK was in 2007. House prices have started falling, but no real problems have kicked in. One possibility is that they'll have a bit of a slow down, then things will pick up again. The feeling on property investing boards is pretty good at present, which might be an indicator. But then again, if something goes wrong, such as a withdrawal of foreign funding to the banks, then there could be a nasty housing market crash, and we've seen what they can do to places like Ireland and Spain.

I'm considering heading to Oz in the autumn, unless I find something decent here first, and maybe spend a stint down there on a contract. If things look good then I can always make a more permanent move down. If not, my possessions can cope with six months in a self-store facility.

Just wanted to chime in here, as I seem to be in a similar situation. I already have a permanent resident visa and plan to come to Australia beginning of next year, when my current contract runs out. I do Java and Enterprise Integration so I'll be looking at the banks for a project. Maybe I'll also look at startups, wouldn't mind working in a more dynamic environment for a while.

The market here in Germany is fairly strong though, so leaving a good market for uncertainty is a bit of a leap. But I guess as a contractor you should be used to a bit of risk and uncertainty. What I'd love to here is from the people that already made the transfer to Australia, as an IT contractor. How hard it was to find that first project and major differences between the markets, if any.

Hi,

Im a CRM Dynamics Developer, been doing that for about 2 years, prior to that I have 10 years experience with SQL databases and MS Access, I have also in the past few years done some BI work with SSRS and SSIS.

Currently based in the Midlands but moving to Perth in August on a 175. Have been looking on Seek.com.au for jobs and contacting the recruiters through LinkedIn, had some positive replies from them but they all say it would be easier when Im in Perth or re-contact them about 4 weeks before Im due to arrive.

If anyone has any suggestions/contacts I would be grateful if you could pass them on.

Regards

Bharat

Hi everyone - for those who will be looking for work in VIC, NSW and QLD - M&T Resources specialise in IT roles.

http://www.mtr.com.au/Home.aspx

Hi, have been doing BA work for about 6 months in Adelaide. Government contract. Pay is definitely better than my UK permanent job but then of course no pay for holidays or sick pay. I think the agencies are a mixed bag though I personally have had no problems. Getting the first job is the thing. definitely don't worry about lining things up before you leave, the agencies tend to want quick turnaround. One tip, it is end of the financial year now so the govt is gearing up for next year.

Yes the rates have been cut for contractors in London especially across the financial sector.

There have been many articles about this and I know lots of other contractors this has affected www.contractoruk.com

The contract market is tough at the mo - hence looking further afield... However I disagree about the overall IT market in the UK as there are so many perm jobs about.

I get called daily about perm jobs because of the massive skills gap in the UK - www.itjobs.co.uk over 25k jobs here.

Is this the same situation in Sydney?

Hi,

 

Im a CRM Dynamics Developer, been doing that for about 2 years, prior to that I have 10 years experience with SQL databases and MS Access, I have also in the past few years done some BI work with SSRS and SSIS.

 

Currently based in the Midlands but moving to Perth in August on a 175. Have been looking on Seek.com.au for jobs and contacting the recruiters through LinkedIn, had some positive replies from them but they all say it would be easier when Im in Perth or re-contact them about 4 weeks before Im due to arrive.

 

If anyone has any suggestions/contacts I would be grateful if you could pass them on.

 

Regards

 

Bharat

Your're basically doing what I did. I work in IT Infrastructure Sales and contacted 5 recruiters when I was in the UK to make appointments with them to come see them and go over how they can help me find a role. In the end, I only actually met with one as the others weren't so interested in doing any work, just forwarding your CV. He helped me change my CV a little, got to know me a bit and then spoke to some of his contacts about my skills/experience. I had an interview a couple of weeks later and got the job the next day. The job was never advertised. I think I was very, very lucky, but the luckiest thing was finding a recruiter who was actually willing to work for me as a candidate as opposed to working for employers.

I went on Seek and other big websites and found vacancies being advertised which I might be suitable for, and then contacted the agencies asking to meet with them about me, not a particular job. Like I said, I was lucky to come across a relatively small company who specialise in IT recruitment in Brisbane, and it all worked out well.

You will definitely get a warmer response once you are in Australia.

Sorry, but I don't know anyone in Perth.

Hi, would you mind sharing the company in Brisbane as head over in September

Thanks

Hi, would you mind sharing the company in Brisbane as head over in September

 

Thanks

Deacon Recruitment

http://www.deaconrecruitment.com.au/it/

They're just a small firm, only a couple of staff, but they got me a job. It was Gordon Tan I dealt with. My boss told me he liked their style as they weren't constantly trying to poach his staff to place them elsewhere. They didn't have anything for me initially but spoke to a few people, kept his ear to the ground and got me an interview.

Just before I got my job, I also met with these guys and they seemed relatively helpful...I think the guy in charge in Brisbane was called Waren Peters.

http://www.itcom.com.au/

I've been in IT for a long time and do enterprise Java / integration / architecture and hands on. Have been mainly on contract for the last 20 years, luckily at the same client for the last 2. I've been to OZ a few times, last time was in Nov 2011 with the express purpose of getting a feel for the jobs market and whether I would really like to live there. I met with an agent in Sydney and Brisbane and found them to be very welcoming, much better than in the UK. I have decided I want to go to Sydney but I'm way past the emigration age so my only hope is the 457 visa. Then as some others have indicated its a bit of a catch 22. ie its very difficult to get fixed up with a job remotely, you have much more chance once on site in OZ. But even if I go with interviews setup in the first week I would have to wait for the visa which could take 6 weeks so that meets hanging around with no income for that time. In contractor thought thats pure lost income but in another line of thought its a holiday. So whatever there is considerable risk involved but one I'm probably going to take. Unfortunately its never been the right time until now to take the plunge. I hear that once on a 457 for some time its possible to move over to permanent migration. Although Sydney can be compared to London in some ways, in other ways it is smaller but I think the Aussies are great lot and worth the risk in trying to get in.

Jules, I'd argue that it would be difficult for Oz recruitment agents to be worse than their UK counterparts. :biggrin:

Jules, I'd argue that it would be difficult for Oz recruitment agents to be worse than their UK counterparts. :biggrin:

Definitely agree.

Hi folks,

Im a .Net / SQL Server developer with 7 years experience. My family and I are moving to Brisbane in Feb 2013 on a 175 permanent residency visa and I will be looking for jobs as soon as I arrive.

I have never been contracting before and Im thinking that it would be a good time to start seeing as I will be able to start work almost immediately when I arrive and have just about enough experience in development to land a contracting job.

It would be great to share experiences / information with you guys...

Im thinking of contacting a load of recruiters/ companies about a month before I go to get the ball rolling.

Does anyone know if that Skills matching database is any good? Im gonna put my CV on it at some stage...

Here is the link:

http://www.skilledmigrant.gov.au

Looks like not all is rosy Down Under in the IT sector.

http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/business-it/relocation-the-only-option-for-it-contractors-20120703-21ene.html

It sounds like the east coast is slowing, whilst things are booming in the resource states. Anyone noticed this on the ground?

We were looking for someone to do a helpdesk role for a month to cover holidays and some proejcts in Brisbane. We've taken on a contractor for a few weeks in the last couple of days, but apparently we were inundated with CVs, mostly from people who have lost their jobs due to the staffing cuts in the QLD Government. Certainly around Brisbane it looks like there have been a load of people dumped onto the job market in one go because of that.

Hi guys,

I am thinking about going to Sydney at the start of the new year with a 6 month working VISA, depending if I can get a better picture on the IT job market...

I currently work in Infrastructure (Microsoft) for a software company in Belfast, I have been here since finishing University in 2009.

I would be keen to make the move but I am obviously cautious about leaving full-time permanent work...