I just thought...if you think about how many forms and papers you have to fill in and submit to get a visa for Oz...that is about a quarter of what it will take to get a job stacking shelves at Woolies or flipping burgers at Maccas.

Please don't think I am joking.

I have degrees, professional certifications, post grad certs, management training certs, SAP course certs, chartered acountancy certs......and about 24 interviews later realised my career destiny was not in Oz because I was not born there.

Just as well I got the one and only job I did have in Oz before I left the UK as I think I would have returned to the UK sooner and missed some of what Oz has to offer...sunshine, beaches and er, thats it really.

Sounds negative yes, but please do your homework - you'll never ever know unless you give it a go as we did. Good luck.

They really did not like you down here did they.

My experience is that local experience counts. I work in a office where about half the people are born in Australia and there are a lot of English people doing very well.

The only problem is that demand for SAP outstrips the supply of native SAP professionals. People with good UK/EU/US industry experience (in my experience) get snapped up.

The project work probably isn't as good as what you would get in the UK/EU and the money is not as good. You do see a lot return to the UK after about 18 months for those reasons alone.

If you had 24 interviews with SAP and did not get a job, I would assume that you have little industry experience, you're skills are not that good, you just didn't interview well or they just didn't like you.

I dunno if they did or did not....I was offered roles at Bluescope Steel, Qantas, Westfield, Dairy Farmers.........

Who said they were with SAP...you assumed that. I spent 3 years as an FD in a major construction development company who used SUN.

My career is finance....qualified accountant.......where I work now I "own" the finance system which happens to be SAP. I have the IT team look after it for me to my design, protocols, procedures, etc.

I probably didn't interview well in some places 'cos my displeasure at being interviewed by someone who clearly knew less than me came shining through !!!.....that's the bullet some have to chew on to get on the first rung of a Oz career ladder.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't having a go at you. You said quote "I have degrees, professional certifications, post grad certs, management training certs, SAP course certs, chartered acountancy certs......and about 24 interviews later"

You're right, I did assume but it was based on that info and the fact the you were responding to the OP's post on SAP in Australia... Doesn't take much to put 2 + 2 together.

That's a common problem with Australia. People from the UK (generally) have so much more industry/project experience that you just cannot get in Australia and it kind of puts their noses out of joint. Conversely though, a lot of UK (in particular from London) immigrants come over with a bit of a superiority complex.

Very true........same point the other way is that some folks don't like to be shown how things can be done differently may actually be better....

Yeah but didn't you know, nobody knows how to do something better than an Australian!

First you say it is locals only then you say this!

There is a way to show locals how to do things and I can tell you went about it the wrong way.

I did not say locals only.

I said they will naturally want to employ a local first.

It takes a shit of the first order for a director to look me in the eye, shake hands on offering me a role, tell me the offer will be in the post that day, looking forward to when I start, asking about all my welfare..........you name it they wanted me.........giving me HR names who will be in touch.....then silence.

And I mean silence......not even an apology came.

Australia is pretty much the same as the UK. Some companies will want certification, some won't care and will look at your employment history and experience. And it all depends on the person hiring too.

Probably a bit stricter overall than the UK I suppose, the agencies do seem to vet candidates more here, no checks, but they always meet you before submitting you to a role whereas the UK this never happened to me. And there seems to be a lot less cowboys, wideboys and blaggers here.

Unless you were a Cisco Boffin most employers seemed to like MCSE about ten years ago. It was very difficult to find any kind of work, most applications didn't even get an acknowledgement. Eventually I managed to get a contract with IBM, then several more, that kept me going until I was ready to retire, thoroughly enjoyed working for them.

Nearly everyone who has interviewed me knew less than me on a technical level. Why would they be wanting to employ me otherwise? Do I therefore act like a smart arse know it all like you come across in your posts or do I patiently explain technical matters in a way that managers understand.

My experience of Sydney IT is that of a highly international environment. You seem to have had a god awful experience, probably due to your superiority complex, blame it on Oz, come across as bitter then expect all and sundry to believe you you that this is a backward place where non locals don't get a look in.

The joy of looking for a job. A frustration people have the world over.