Originally Posted by The Bloke (Post 7660543)

..... and even UK certificates/degrees won't carry as much weight as one that is issued by an Australian Uni/TAFE/training institution or Government licencing organisation.

Originally Posted by seang (Post 7664515)

Sorry to hijack.
Is that Ronnie D. in your avater?

Originally Posted by IvanM (Post 7665872)

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

Originally Posted by Deancm (Post 7666458)

Not if you a wino on the street! :D

Originally Posted by Dorothy (Post 7660742)

This is Australia. You need a certificate III in Meteorology to pass wind here.

Originally Posted by Olibeneli (Post 7665573)

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.

Originally Posted by Deancm (Post 7660903)

To directly answer your question, in IT in Australia, it is very important to have a degree. As far as certification is concerned such as MCSE, OCP or SAP certification, it is good to get your foot in the door with no industry experience. If you have industry experience then these certifications are a waste of money. The Brianbench certs especially are a waste of money and not worth the paper they are written on.

Also, degrees from Indian universities aren't viewed to the same standard as a degree from an Australian, UK or US uni and many degrees aren't recognised in Australia but could count as credits to an Australian degree.

If you have a lot of industry experience and a good reputation within the industry, even a degree isn't necessary. There are many IT industry veterans around that started in IT before there was even such a thing as IT degrees.

As far as SAP is concerned, if you are planning on doing an functional FI cert course, it would probably be better to do an actual accounting course. For example, a SAP FI/CO functional guy with accountancy quals will be in much higher demand and command a better salary than a Tech/Func SAP FI ABAPPER.

Originally Posted by Olibeneli (Post 7664704)

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.

Originally Posted by IvanM (Post 7664744)

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.

Originally Posted by sr71 (Post 7665643)

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.

Originally Posted by ronan_in_Oz (Post 7667904)

I understand that local experience counts. But a new immigrant, can not be expected to have any local experience. :confused:

Originally Posted by plantpot (Post 7668013)

Absolutely sometimes you just can't get the experience locally and hence can't get the job, just make sure you are nice to everyone you meet and network like mad because it REALLY helps if you know people who can help you get a foot in the door.....sometimes it really IS that hard, and sometimes it's not.... personally I find the quote by Dorothy that 'you need a cert in Meteorology to pass wind' rather apt ....but I haven't given up yet....

Originally Posted by Deancm (Post 7668016)

Australia has a tendency to be very anally retentive in instances such as these.

Originally Posted by man_called_Horse (Post 7668070)

Thats because companies have been stung in the past, Its actually very hard to fire someone who is not performing. There are laws that protect employees by giving them extra training etc rather than giving them the shoe and its costs companies $thousands, employers are just being over cautious because employees in the past (maybe immigrants) have been 'economical with the truth' when it comes to experience.

Everyone is guilty of making their CV look better than it is....Just certin people in the past brought it to a new level and now we all live with it.

Originally Posted by ronan_in_Oz (Post 7667904)

I understand that local experience counts. But a new immigrant, can not be expected to have any local experience. :confused: