neil32

Hi,

I am looking to hear form people who work in telecoms in Australia, or in the UK who are looking to make to move to Australia, or have made the move recently to Australia.

I have my skills assessment and all my points, so I am on the verge of applying.

I am applying under telecoms tech and wanted to know what the job market is like just now and expect salaries. I am looking at SA as I have friends there but will need to go where the work is.

It would be great to hear from UK telecoms tech/engineers who have/are working for BT, Virgin, etc

It would also be great to hear from telecom techs working with Optus, Telstra etc.

I've had a look on here and google and the expect salary for telecom tech seems to be about $50k would you say thats about right?

Also anyone who is working in telecoms at a 1st/2nd line CCNA level or below I'd also like to hear form you, and what the Salary range, again a bit of research shows this at about $65k?

I have worked with BT/openreach as a engineer, Overhead work, underground work, customer installs, customer faults, Braodband...all copper no fibre experience.

I've been out of that game a while now, but still working in telecoms....so I had a bit of time working in provisioning and now work in a Network Operation Centre doing 1st/2nd line customer support..mainly dealing with Cisco.

I don't have my CCNA or done the CCNA course, I've just worked my way up through the company I worked for after BT to get into that role. I've been working in the NOC now for about 14 months and get by without any major issues and just self learnt the cisco commands, as my previous roles helped me with the understanding of how the network all connects, but I'd prob have to do my CCNA to even get a sniff of an interview in Oz.

Anyway if you can help please get in touch

Alfresco

Hi Neil,

I have moved this to the Oz forum for you as you'll get more responses there.

Buzzy--Bee

Mate there are loads of CCNAs here - everyone has it. Do CCNP and you may be better off against the competition.

Melbourne and Sydney will be the best cities for choices of jobs for NOC work, but many NOCS are now run from other countries.

BB

RedDragon2008

Have you non Cisco experience or skill set as well?

Clients are now demanding better service delivery from their Data Centres so I would expect higher demand coming for NOC teams. But less time sitting around doing nothing.

neil32

Buzzy Bee.....thanks for the info, not sure Im at CCNP level to be honest. Any ideas of salaries for CCNA NOC work or field roles?

RedDragon2008....mainly deal with cisco routers and switches, however I do carry out testing with other providers from PE to CE. I know what you mean about NOC's going overseas, we are lucky that our customers pay for UK teams. Also do you know expected salaries?

RedDragon2008

NOC team $60k to $100k base

neil32

Thanks for the NOC salaries.

Anyone got an indication on field engineer salaries i.e copper line work like optus/telstra engineers, understand most of this is now contracted out.

Also filed engineers for CCNA level, for installed of cisco kit

Bit of digging seems to be telstra engineers $55-$65?

Australia Bound

I am also in a similar line of work, more so senior data/voip engineer.

Anybody here in that line of work have a job lined up while still in the UK? I've got my PR visa and am ready to roll at a months notice, but i'm not sure if the companies in Aus will even look at my CV if i'm not in the country, even though i'm more or less ready to get on a plane.

Anyway here are the numbers from Hays 2012, number in bold is the avg, other numbers are the low and the high



Here's the full doc.

http://www1.hays.com.au/salary/outpu...2012-AU_it.pdf

cormac83

Hi,
Im in the same boat as you, looking role roles in sydney area.
I have my CCNA and going onto do my CCNA:Voice got about 4 years in VOIP and currently a field engineer.
Would be interested in your findings.

Australia Bound

From what i've learned we wont be looked at unless you're in country. But there are exceptions and people who get lucky.

Best way to find out is to start phoning up for jobs.

Advice is, always follow up any electronically submitted info, with a phone call.

neil32

Thanks for the info guys, I know from when I was travelling a while back, unless you had your PR/Citizenship or from recent experience you need this and your arrival date, you dont get much info at all......which is understandable.

Anyways from my experience I really dont think I'll get over $70k, I think I'll be looking at $60k, maybe even $55k.

Right place right time is my best bet I think

bruce67

Hi, I'm in WA and ex BT field tech. Telstra wages are about right but dificult to tell because a lot are on performance baced contracts. I haved moved on to business telephone systems (pay not much different) but have many friends in the "field". Very few techs work directly for Telstra it all done by a major contactor for each State/region who then contact to individual contractors. The work is mostly fixed rate jobs but most make a good living from it. In WA there are 2 divisions - PrePro(setting up cabling/piping for new builds and I&M (install and maintenance just like old BT). Many individual contactors do both.

Hope this helps a bit, shout if you have any other questions.

neil32

Hey.....thanks for all the info. So the $55-65k is about right for the basic and then performance pay on top of that.

Are these type of jobs hard to come by, is there a big drive for the fibre project? It might be worth me trying to get some fibre experience.

Do you just deal with phone systems or do you deal with cisco routers and switches? I suspect the pay for that would be equal to what you do.

bruce67

I'd say(for WA) Pay closer to 50 - I am not privi to the performance side. As I said direct employment by Telsta is not the norm. I am aware of Individual contractors making well in excess of 60k but obviously they do not get the benifits of being employed. Because fibre is being run in my area there is demand for contactors and there is also subsidised training. Don't bother getting experience outside Aus - its probably better to do it here.

I only deal with phone systems but because a large part of that is with IP phones I have a very basic working knowledge of routers. I would imagine you would be able to get the same pay but with better prospects in IT but thats a bit out of my field to comment on.

James.H

Not WHAT you know, but WHO you know I'm afraid.

I still work with copper and fault find the Telstra copper network for a living. I also do ADSL/SHDSL installs for ISP's.

What with the NBN in progress I was worried about copper work dying out and looked into fibre, but apparently it's now flooded and 'everyone's at it',

I used to install key based phone systems for NEC but that's a dying technology if there ever was one!