The IT field Thread

[Jessica Berry]

We have been in Adelaide 6 years now. My partner works in IT in Adelaide his skills are VMware, Microsoft Server, Microsoft Exchange, general server infrastructure support. He hasn't had any trouble finding work and finds his skills are much in demand. He currently works as an IT Consultant, but for one company and goes out to clients and has been there for 2 years. His company take on a steady stream of new people (as their business is growing and due to turnover as people find new opportunities) and are still recruiting, 2 new people start in a few weeks with similar skills to my partners.

 

I recently worked with a new arrival pom who had an IT background. He had worked for the same company for almost 20 years and had quite specialised skills working with a specialised product that is not used in Australia. It took him 3 months to gain work, but he has managed to secure a temporary contract, which looks like it will be extended and it is a great 'foot in the door' opportunity. The difficulty was trying to 'sell' his skills to employers. I spotted the job he has currently and to his credit he trusted my judgement and advice and basically did what I told him ha ha!!!

 

As others have said, it depends a lot on your skill set, but attitude and approach goes a long way too in my experience.

 

 

Just thought I would update on my posting from 6 months ago, we are based in Adelaide. OH still working for the same company, in the last 6 months they have taken on a steady stream of people and are still recruiting, so there are opportunities here depending on your skill set/attitude. Other people in the company have left, so they have found other opportunities within the IT field in Adelaide.

 

The other person I mentioned is still in the same role, working through an agency for nearly a year now.

 

HP in Adelaide have made redundancies.

 

In Adelaide there is very much an emphasis on being the right 'fit' for the organisation and personality/attitude/approach can contribute a lot to whether you secure the job or not.

[flightless]

Hi all

Any kiwis that made the jump over to work in IT care to tell your tale?

Did your work experience in NZ count for or against?

Did you get a job while still in NZ or did it take time on the ground in Oz?

 

I've been in varied types of IT work for 5 years here (previously more abroad though) and looking to make the jump but not sure where to, though Brizzy is looking good (except for the jobs maybe?)

cheers

 

PS Sheep jokes welcome :biglaugh:

[Guest]

I have read that European experience is not really taken into consideration in Oz as it is Asia/Pacific... Personally, do you think that getting some experience alongside of University, most likely over summer or at weekends, could potentially help me securing a job more easy than having no experience at all in Oz? I do have family in Oz but they aren't close family so I will most likely have to rent. I am hoping to go over with ~£6000 which works out to be $10,000 ($1.89 per £1, xe.com) so in the event that I am struggling to find work within the first two quarters of living in Oz I am not in any financial trouble.

 

EDIT: I have just been on the SEEK job web site and there are far more job vacancies in what I would like to do than there are here in the UK.

 

'No local experience' is often given as a 'reason' for an applicant not being offered a position - I personally question the truth in that. I think in most cases it is a case of preferring local candidates over migrants (some might argue that's fair and just but it isn't actually legal therefore 'local experience' is the get out clause)

 

I got a job in Australia without ever stepping foot in Australia based purely on my UK experience, albeit that was 5 years ago when times were a bit easier.

 

I wouldn't take a lot of notice of SEEK, it's been the downfall of many a migrant - a lot of those jobs don't exist, it it resume farming by recruitment agencies and/or they advertise for positions they hope they will be asked to fill that never eventuate. That said Jobserve is exactly the same so it might even out.

 

If you can get experience weekends/holidays then DO IT! You need experience wherever you get it.

 

I would definitely not expect to get professional work in Australia on a WHV - you might strike it lucky but as you are only able to work for an employer for 6 months most would be looking for longer term employees or experienced contractors.

[Bibbs]

'No local experience' is often given as a 'reason' for an applicant not being offered a position - I personally question the truth in that. I think in most cases it is a case of preferring local candidates over migrants (some might argue that's fair and just but it isn't actually legal therefore 'local experience' is the get out clause)

 

I got a job in Australia without ever stepping foot in Australia based purely on my UK experience, albeit that was 5 years ago when times were a bit easier.

 

Yeah, this.

 

It's basically an excuse to a candidate to say 'we don't think you will fit'.

 

I had 10+ years UK experience, and then had 3 companies wanting me (after I binned off the Agencies and DIYed the job hunting).

 

On Seek it was hard to tell the real jobs from the fake, but basically I had a list of the top 4/5 recruitment agencies (as I'd already seen them), and I went through EVERY job on Seek I could do, and sent my CV to ALL of the ones that were not lodged by those agencies.

[mogthecat]

YY re Seek. The best you can hope from Seek is that you'll get a call randomly from an agent in several months time for an unadvertised position after you have already secured a position elsewhere. I do find a follow-up call after an application gets a better response from them - sadly not least because they can then tell I am a native English speaker.

 

I would caution against Finite, particularly if they offer a visa. I moved from a good job at an investment bank to one that Finite courted me for for months. They lied about everything and by the time I realised it was too late, I was trapped because they held my visa. Very nasty - cost me a fortune and nearly ended up having to go back to the UK. Got another 457 by the skin of my teeth with a few weeks to spare.

 

In the last year I have found that a good LinkedIn profile brings the jobs to me rather than the other way round. I have quite a few years experience under my belt though - I'm not sure I'd be confident of finding work with very little experience. Excellent communication skills are a big plus as mentioned up thread.

[IronMan2]

Hi All,

I need feedback on Opuluntez - migration agency. They are MARA registered. I want to know how good they are in handling immig visas. I am a project manager - PMP certified and have approaced this agency for initial report. Will go forward with them if I get positive feedback about them. If anyone has successfully migrated via them, from IT sector, and from Pune, India - it will be great to hear from you please. ( I know - finding a needle in the haystack

 

Thanks,

 

Hi Nish89

 

I am too from Pune..

wht a small world it is. I did my visa from opulentz but they are just like a courier service. They don't advise u much on the quicker ways to get a visa and they are definitely not MARA registered agents.

 

U could go with Vahista Consultancy, which is on NIBM Road, Kondhwa or with someone else. Try to get someone who is MARA and who also has an Immigration lawyer with them.

 

By the way, how are things out there in Pune. Its been 3 yrs for me now that I have not visited.

[amalvaran]

Hi all,

 

I'm a 24 year old currently employed in indra philippines as a business analyst in the philippines who specialize in supply chain. I have 3 years work experience with 6 months experience working as an SAP-SRM admin.

 

I'm want to work and migrate to australia. Which is easier finding an employer that'll sponsor my work visa or applying for an immigration visa then finding work in australia?

 

I've been sending my resumes to employeers in seek.com. Are there any other website where i can find agencies or employers?

 

Thank you for the response.

[chethoo]

Hey folks,

 

This thread looks quite interesting. Kudos to all you guys who are keeping it alive.

It helps a lot of people who are in a dilemma.

 

Just to mention about myself, I am a S/W developer with ASP .Net, C#, SQL Server background with 6+yrs of experience.

Got my 189 PR visa Oct'13 and Planning to migrate with my wife who is S/w test engineer with 5yrs exp in Manual Testing.

Plan is to migrate in Jun'14.

 

I have started looking out for jobs from India, but as many ppl mentioned in this thread, haven't got any luck getting a call yet, as I am not on ground!!!

Well, that's the reason consultants gave me when I called them.

 

Beebs, please let me know any job opportunities matching mine or my wife's profile that you are aware of.

 

Happy job hunting guyz

 

Cheers!!!

[PW1]

Hey folks,

 

This thread looks quite interesting. Kudos to all you guys who are keeping it alive.

It helps a lot of people who are in a dilemma.

 

Just to mention about myself, I am a S/W developer with ASP .Net, C#, SQL Server background with 6+yrs of experience.

Got my 189 PR visa Oct'13 and Planning to migrate with my wife who is S/w test engineer with 5yrs exp in Manual Testing.

Plan is to migrate in Jun'14.

 

I have started looking out for jobs from India, but as many ppl mentioned in this thread, haven't got any luck getting a call yet, as I am not on ground!!!

Well, that's the reason consultants gave me when I called them.

 

Beebs, please let me know any job opportunities matching mine or my wife's profile that you are aware of.

 

Happy job hunting guyz

 

Cheers!!!

 

Chethoo, thanks for your contribution, the thread is really geared towards people who are already here and looking rather than asking people for opportunities when you have not arrived yet, otherwise it dilutes the threads purpose and loses focus. That aside, your post would be a little more relevant to the thread, and more helpful to you and the readers if you actually mentioned where it is you intend to settle when you eventually get here. Cheers! P.

[MrsPOB]

Just thought I'd chime in and share my experience...

 

Last year my husband and I decided to take the plunge, we relocated from just outside of London to just outside of Sydney. We decided that the 457 visa would be the easiest pathway for us to get to Australia. So we both went searching on the net, like most folks we found and applied to loads of adverts on Seek, only to realize we were wasting our time on 2am calls with agencies just milling out our CVs (my husband is a welder and I have 15+ years of international experience in technical pre-sales for collaborative technologies), the majority of adverts we answered weren't for actual positions.

 

So after about 3 months of nada, I changed my tactics, I researched specific Sydney-based companies I thought I would like to work for and also tried to figure out which companies were investing in the technologies I liked to work with - I ended up with 22 companies on my "hit list". I then followed each individual company and their recruitment accounts on Twitter, I followed them on LinkedIn (I made sure I had a solid, up-to-date profile) and, if they had one, joined their LinkedIn group. I found their recruiters' profiles on LinkedIn and sent them "In Mail" introductions (I upgraded my LinkedIn account to premium for this specific reason), I explained who I was, why I was contacting them and more importantly why their company appealed to me. Within 2 months a had a firm job offer and a 457 to boot. Of course not all the emails worked, but I will say the majority of them did. Plus, the contacts I made then allowed me to make another job change 6 months later.

 

There are jobs out there and I don't think it's any different than trying to land a job in England. Sure it can be a bit more complex if you are doing it remotely, but that just means you need to be a bit more creative in your approach.

 

Area: Sydney

Position: Solution Architect (Microsoft Collaborative Technologies)

[bogdan]

@MrsPOB Thanks for sharing your experience. May I ask how you managed to find those companies? Was it just Google search or did you use certain websites? And how did you figure what roles they had available? A lot of companies use recruitment agencies and don't even post their openings on their own websites. I have PR but wouldn't move without a job offer as I'm doing quite well here in London and I can still wait for the right opportunity. Seek has been of no help so far so I'd like to try something similar to what you did. I'm a .Net contractor by the way.

[PW1]

Just thought I'd chime in and share my experience...

 

Last year my husband and I decided to take the plunge, we relocated from just outside of London to just outside of Sydney. We decided that the 457 visa would be the easiest pathway for us to get to Australia. So we both went searching on the net, like most folks we found and applied to loads of adverts on Seek, only to realize we were wasting our time on 2am calls with agencies just milling out our CVs (my husband is a welder and I have 15+ years of international experience in technical pre-sales for collaborative technologies), the majority of adverts we answered weren't for actual positions.

 

So after about 3 months of nada, I changed my tactics, I researched specific Sydney-based companies I thought I would like to work for and also tried to figure out which companies were investing in the technologies I liked to work with - I ended up with 22 companies on my "hit list". I then followed each individual company and their recruitment accounts on Twitter, I followed them on LinkedIn (I made sure I had a solid, up-to-date profile) and, if they had one, joined their LinkedIn group. I found their recruiters' profiles on LinkedIn and sent them "In Mail" introductions (I upgraded my LinkedIn account to premium for this specific reason), I explained who I was, why I was contacting them and more importantly why their company appealed to me. Within 2 months a had a firm job offer and a 457 to boot. Of course not all the emails worked, but I will say the majority of them did. Plus, the contacts I made then allowed me to make another job change 6 months later.

 

There are jobs out there and I don't think it's any different than trying to land a job in England. Sure it can be a bit more complex if you are doing it remotely, but that just means you need to be a bit more creative in your approach.

 

Area: Sydney

Position: Solution Architect (Microsoft Collaborative Technologies)

 

This is a great post, thank you for taking the time out, much appreciated!

 

Regards,

PW.

[chethoo]

PW1, it's my bad. After running thru all these 21 pages at one go, I believe went out of context

 

Since this thread provides good info even for all those who are willing to migrate in near future, I believe we shouldn't restrict it.

It's a great initiative by the way.

 

And regarding my plan to migrate, I'm planning to move to either Sydney/Melbourne, but I'm keeping my options open.

 

Cheers!!!

C

[ItchyFeet76]

Are there any security specialists / penetration testers out there? My oh is hoping to secure sponsorship (or an intra-company transfer) but, as seems to be the case with so many other people (from what I've read on here), most of the jobs on SEEK seems to have been advertised for the past 6 months and are continually repeated!

 

Cheers, I-F :-)

[amalvaran]

Just thought I'd chime in and share my experience...

 

Last year my husband and I decided to take the plunge, we relocated from just outside of London to just outside of Sydney. We decided that the 457 visa would be the easiest pathway for us to get to Australia. So we both went searching on the net, like most folks we found and applied to loads of adverts on Seek, only to realize we were wasting our time on 2am calls with agencies just milling out our CVs (my husband is a welder and I have 15+ years of international experience in technical pre-sales for collaborative technologies), the majority of adverts we answered weren't for actual positions.

 

So after about 3 months of nada, I changed my tactics, I researched specific Sydney-based companies I thought I would like to work for and also tried to figure out which companies were investing in the technologies I liked to work with - I ended up with 22 companies on my "hit list". I then followed each individual company and their recruitment accounts on Twitter, I followed them on LinkedIn (I made sure I had a solid, up-to-date profile) and, if they had one, joined their LinkedIn group. I found their recruiters' profiles on LinkedIn and sent them "In Mail" introductions (I upgraded my LinkedIn account to premium for this specific reason), I explained who I was, why I was contacting them and more importantly why their company appealed to me. Within 2 months a had a firm job offer and a 457 to boot. Of course not all the emails worked, but I will say the majority of them did. Plus, the contacts I made then allowed me to make another job change 6 months later.

 

There are jobs out there and I don't think it's any different than trying to land a job in England. Sure it can be a bit more complex if you are doing it remotely, but that just means you need to be a bit more creative in your approach.

 

Area: Sydney

Position: Solution Architect (Microsoft Collaborative Technologies)

 

Nice share, maybe i should also try this strategy. So far relying on seek alone hasnt worked for me.

[ohwawa]

Hi

Just wondering if anyone knows what the IT situation is like in Perth. Been told by Hays its dead at the moment for BI analysts(SAS, SQL, SSIS, Business Objects etc)?

 

Many thanks in advance

[AashishKotagiri]

Hello I have experience with IBM WebSphere Technologies in Integration layer... WMB WMQ and Datapower. can anyone please let me know If there is any market for these tools? any info will be of great help.

[IronMan2]

Its been 3 months for me now since I started searching for job. I have a great 2 yrs local experience under my belt. Inspite of that not getting any calls. neither from any recruitment agency or from an employer. This country is really getting on my nerves.

[PW1]

Its been 3 months for me now since I started searching for job. I have a great 2 yrs local experience under my belt. Inspite of that not getting any calls. neither from any recruitment agency or from an employer. This country is really getting on my nerves.

 

Hello, what methods have you used to find a position? Let us know, somebody may be able to suggest something new, put your industry quals in your signature so people can see what you have. Mrs POB, left a great post a week or so ago, have a look at that, have you tried any of these things?

 

Regards,

P.

[arrumac]

Are there any security specialists / penetration testers out there? My oh is hoping to secure sponsorship (or an intra-company transfer) but, as seems to be the case with so many other people (from what I've read on here), most of the jobs on SEEK seems to have been advertised for the past 6 months and are continually repeated!

 

Cheers, I-F :-)

 

hi, target these companies. http://www.crestaustralia.org/approved.html. when hiring pen testers i wont use firms not on the list.

[ItchyFeet76]

hi, target these companies. http://www.crestaustralia.org/approved.html. when hiring pen testers i wont use firms not on the list.

 

Hi there Arrumac, thanks for your suggestion. I actually think hubby's already tried a few of those companies (submitted CV, anyway) but not heard anything back yet. Even the agent who assured us pen testers were / are in demand has been verging on the lackadaisical recently. Is this the Australian way or should we take it personally?! Our friend got offered a job (whilst in Oz), returned to the UK, chased up the contract and they never even replied (despite weeks of emailing them). We then found out (through another agent) that the guy who 'hired' him had actually left the company and nobody had bothered to tell him (our friend)! Really hope we don't end up in a similar situation...

 

May I ask what line of work you're in, please (you said you only used Crest-approved firms)? Would you perhaps have any contacts in this field (apologies for the cheek!)...? :notworthy:

 

Cheers :-)

Edited March 7, 2014 by ItchyFeet76

[arrumac]

You really need to keep on top of the agents, as was mentioned in an earlier post if applying for a role call straight after, then follow up and try to get a rapport. Quite a lot of the agents are Brits so not too hard. As for not getting back to you - it is the norm I'm afraid.

[Antigone]

My husband got a job on our first week in Melbourne. It was very fast for him - luckily, because we did not have so much funds, coming from a third world country. The day he changed his location to Melbourne in Linkedin, it was a Wednesday, he was contacted by a headhunter. He was asked to take an online java test (he got a 99% - he was even chatting with the owner of the house we are staying at and playing with the cat!!), then scheduled for interview with two clients on Friday afternoon and Monday morning. As an afterthought it seemed, headhunter invited him to visit their office the next day, probably to see if he looked presentable (Thursday morning).

 

Monday lunchtime, headhunter told him both offered him a job.

 

He just finished his second week at work. So yeah, we were very lucky. We are very grateful.

Edited March 14, 2014 by Antigone

[Antigone]

Oh I would also like to mention that the headhunter said they were very excited the moment they talked to him, because they knew they would not have a problem placing him because aside from his resume (which they had to edit because they said it was CTO-level, and not senior java programmer which was what he was applying for, and he would not want to seem overqualified for the job because employers do not want that) he has perfect English. So I guess lack of language fluency (grammar, or maybe even clarity/accent, I am not sure) seems to be another barrier against getting a job. He was lucky he spoke the language growing up at home (noone in his family spoke our language at home) and we spoke it throughout school, but those who didn't could still do things to improve, as it seems to be a major consideration.

 

Luck = chance + preparedness. Prepare your butt off now, so when the chance

comes, you have everything you need to dazzle them. :-)

 

Before we arrived we were very anxious, given the job market here. And like I said, we did not have a lot of funds. But just persevere because despite the not-so-ideal job market in Australia nowadays, they sure recognize talent when they see it. Best of luck

to everyone. xxx

Edited March 14, 2014 by Antigone

[ItchyFeet76]

Glad to hear your husband found work quickly, Antigone :-)

 

Has anyone heard anything about the lay-offs from BAE Systems Detica (not sure how recent?) flooding the IT market with jobseekers...? Think my oh may have some competition on his hands... :eek: