IT / Software Job prospects in Australia?

henke

Hi

I am just wondering what are the job prospects in Australia in the area of IT / Software Development or even anything basic in this area?

I have a 2:1 BSc (Hons) Degree in Applied Computing and graduated in 2009. I worked for a year doing an internship in this area with company taking me up to August 2010 and have been out of work since then.

Most prospects in Ireland seem to be confined to Dublin which I am not too keen on as I don't know anyone there. I am very keen to travel now when I am young and have many friends who are heading to Oz. I am not the manual type so don't think I would be cut out for fruit picking or physically intensive jobs.

So I'm wondering what prospects are in such an area and what are the best areas?

Would you need to travel out there first or is lining up a job first a possibility?

Any help or feedback would be great.

Cheers

Feelgood

Hi Michael,

There are loads of IT/Software jobs down here. The money is good and the prospects are excellent but this really depends on your skill set and experience.

Firstly, given that you have no experience and are pretty much a graduate I think it would be extremely difficult for you to secure a job before you get here. Try and think of it from an employers point of view - guys with IT degrees out here are two to the penny why would I hire you from across the water when I have plenty of local candidates?.

Secondly, if you come on a 1 year working holiday visa you can only work for the same employer for 6 months. This will work against you as you will only be able to apply for 3-6 month temporary contracts which straight away limits you to specific roles. You are basically looking at desktop support or helpdesk roles. An employer is not going to hire you as a developer without the experience. Even if someone would hire you as a junior developer, they would be looking at investing time and money into training you, if you can only work for them for 6 months they aren't going to do that.

Basically you need to get yourself a cut above the rest, get some industry certifications under your belt. If you have a few months before you travel and are doing nothing, sit your Cisco CCNA and Microsoft Certified Systems Admin exams. Even without experience, these will give you a much better chance of getting a job once you get here.

If you are only coming on a years travelling, I wouldn't be too picky about the work you are going to do to be honest.

henke

Feelgood wrote: »

Hi Michael,

There are loads of IT/Software jobs down here. The money is good and the prospects are excellent but this really depends on your skill set and experience.

Firstly, given that you have no experience and are pretty much a graduate I think it would be extremely difficult for you to secure a job before you get here. Try and think of it from an employers point of view - guys with IT degrees out here are two to the penny why would I hire you from across the water when I have plenty of local candidates?.

Secondly, if you come on a 1 year working holiday visa you can only work for the same employer for 6 months. This will work against you as you will only be able to apply for 3-6 month temporary contracts which straight away limits you to specific roles. You are basically looking at desktop support or helpdesk roles. An employer is not going to hire you as a developer without the experience. Even if someone would hire you as a junior developer, they would be looking at investing time and money into training you, if you can only work for them for 6 months they aren't going to do that.

Basically you need to get yourself a cut above the rest, get some industry certifications under your belt. If you have a few months before you travel and are doing nothing, sit your Cisco CCNA and Microsoft Certified Systems Admin exams. Even without experience, these will give you a much better chance of getting a job once you get here.

If you are only coming on a years travelling, I wouldn't be too picky about the work you are going to do to be honest.

Hi

Thank you very much for the feedback. Yeah I see your point on development work and see how with little experience they would take.

No I wouldn't be picky at all about what I do as long as I am fit for it.

Are the many roles in desktop support / helpdesk down there and would there be much competition for them or difficult to get such a role?

Well I haven't fully made my mind up yet on going but if I do go the plan is to go in September so that would give me a few months alright so the exams you mentioned are definitely something I am going to look into.

Feelgood

MichaelM1987 wrote: »

Hi

Thank you very much for the feedback. Yeah I see your point on development work and see how with little experience they would take.

No I wouldn't be picky at all about what I do as long as I am fit for it.

Are the many roles in desktop support / helpdesk down there and would there be much competition for them or difficult to get such a role?

Well I haven't fully made my mind up yet on going but if I do go the plan is to go in September so that would give me a few months alright so the exams you mentioned are definitely something I am going to look into.

What I mean about not being picky is that, if you are only coming for a year you will be travelling around a lot. All you should really be looking for is something to supplement your travels with the least possible effort involved.
Working in subway pays $25 an hour apparently!. As a sandwich engineer!. So even if you don't get an IT job, there are plenty of other things you can do that don't involve heavy manual work.

If you are coming out with a view to getting a sponsored IT job allowing you to stay here for mor than a year, I would say get cracking on the certifications mentioned. Check out www.seek.com.au and have a look at support/helpdesk roles and you will get an idea of what they are looking for.

Either way as you will eventually learn, there is a lot of emphasis on IT certifications in the marketplace and they are all recognised worldwide. So I would say use the free time while you aren't working to do as many as possible. Whether you come to Oz or not, they will stand to you when looking for a job. In fact, depending on the role you are going for most recruiters will disregard your CV if you haven't got a minimum of a Microsoft and Cisco certifications. You can self study all of them.

If you have your heart set on being a developer starting looking at Microsoft Certified Developer certs.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/view-by-name.aspx

AlMadden

Guys

Someone might be able to help me. I'd be opposite to MichaelM1987 having over 10 years in ICT experience as helpdesk and field technician but only having a 2 year cert in Computer Aided Engineering and 1 year cert in computers.

Do I need to go to ACS to get my skills assessed before anyone one would give me a job or would ACS even do that without having more certs and degrees. I have just received my PR visa and migrating to Melbourne permanently in the next few weeks to join my wife and child who are already settled there. Need to start work ASAP when I get there.

Any help or point in the right direction would be very much appreciated.

hussey

AlMadden wrote: »

Guys

Someone might be able to help me. I'd be opposite to MichaelM1987 having over 10 years in ICT experience as helpdesk and field technician but only having a 2 year cert in Computer Aided Engineering and 1 year cert in computers.

Do I need to go to ACS to get my skills assessed before anyone one would give me a job or would ACS even do that without having more certs and degrees. I have just received my PR visa and migrating to Melbourne permanently in the next few weeks to join my wife and child who are already settled there. Need to start work ASAP when I get there.

Any help or point in the right direction would be very much appreciated.

No need to go to ACS to get a job, ACS is for getting skills certified for visa reasons (permanent visa) and since you have that no need for ACS at all