IT Contracting in Australia/NZ

[subversive]

Hi everyone, I've been lurking here for awhile but this is my first post. I'm wondering if anyone has any relevant information that could help me. I'm an experienced IT professional in the Systems Admin area, with my MCSE and VCP certifications. I'm currently on a contract in Canada with IBM which ends in September. My wife and I (we have 2 young kids, she's a stay at home mom) have always thought we'd like to see the world in a more in depth way than 2-3 week vacations allow. As an IT contractor, it seems a perfect fit. I could take a 6 month or 1 year contract overseas, and then return to Canada. We're not interested in leaving Canada permanently. However, most of the job and contract postings I see which I'm qualified for on Aussie career sites specifically state "residency required". I'm wondering if there are actually positions which overseas contractors can get hired for. Does anyone have any information or experience which they can share which might help answer this questions for my family and I? Thanks.

[Jodi7576]

Hi subversive...not sure if I am going to answer all of your questions but thought I would share my experience. I moved to Oz in August of 2007 and was able to secure a job from Canada before I left. Since I was under the age of 30 I was able to get a Working Holiday Makers Visa which allowed me to work any job in Oz for no longer than 6 months consecutively for a total of 1 year. When I was looking as long as I was legal to work in the country employers didn't care that I didn't have residency status. Oh yah, I work in IT in the area of Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence.

So if you can get that visa and you move over here and you live in Sydney or Melbourne you shouldn't have much trouble finding work. Even if it is fulltime employers will know that you can only stay for 6 months and if they want you to stay longer they have to sponsor you....which is what happened for me. I ended up getting sponsored and am still here 1.5 years later. The only thing I would caution is hiring has slowed down with the recession but if you go to Seek.com.au you will see that the big cities are still offering quite a few jobs. If there is an email contact for the job listed and you have an impressive resume email them directly and explain the situation !

Good luck...

[rickstrand]

Hi Subversive,

I live in Melbourne with my family and work in IT, been here for nearly 3 years and loving it.

First, you need to be eligable to work in Australia by having a:
* Working Holiday Visa or,
* Spousal/Defacto Visa or,
* 457 Work sponsorship Visa

You won't get any work without a visa, in fact you're not likely to get in the country without a visa. They're very strict at the border! I haven't had the rubber glove treatment, but close!

Contract work was big here for years but the recession has changed things drastically. Work is still available in the big cities but tends to be perm, from what I've seen and heard anyway. Also, unless you're very specialized, contract rates aren't much better than perm.

If you qualify for a working holiday visa then you could be sweet, but you would likely require a hefty amount of savings to prove that you and your family wouldn't be a burden on the system. The quality of medical care here is very good, but it's not cheap. In fact nothing is that cheap, the cost of living is quite high but the you would likely earn more here to compensate for that.

You're other option is to get a 457 sponsorship visa. The company I previously worked for did big recruitment drives in South Africa and Brazil and hired quite a few programmers from each country. Although this option would require a longer investment in time from you. The process is expensive and time consuming for the sponsoring company.

Australia is a great place, there is plenty to see and do as the country is so diverse. It's strange because a lot of things are so similar to back home yet there are so many differences, it's really cool. Give it a go!

Good luck.

Cheers,