IainMcG

Hello guys & gals,

Just joined this site as I have spent hours looking at job websites in Australia, but figured this forum could answer some questions I have

Ok so I graduated Northumbria University this year with a 1st in Computer Forensics . I have a fascination of technology and in particular computer hardware. While my degree was not focused on this area, I kept up to date with it as best I could and continue to do so.

I visited Australia in 2007 and spent time in Stradbroke Island, Brisbane and Cairns. My time in Australia was great - fantastic people, great weather and unbelievable scenery. Brisbane was particularly impressive for me as the people I stayed with were so welcoming and they showed me a really great time. Since then I have wanted to go back!

I am very fed up living at home now and University wasn't my favorite experience, so I really want to sort of, start fresh. I am working various jobs here painting, bar work, gardening however I really would like to get a job in my preferred field - computer hardware. I have a working holiday visa granted for the mean time so I can at least get out there when I need to and sort things out

Sorry for this long post BTW but here are a few questions I have so I fully understand what I need to do to get a grasp on the whole process. I realize I don't have a full working VISA etc but my plans where originally to go out first for a while, get to know the place a bit better and try establish contacts etc before looking for a full time job.

Q1.) The area of computer I am interested in would be something like the following, I have taken a job from Aria Technology here in the UK, its description of this role is what I would love to do:

Building systems of the Aria net and Gladiator range
Building bespoke / custom build systems
Testing of computer systems
Testing, diagnosing and repairing refurbished computers for resale
Process RMAs correctly
Test, troubleshoot and diagnose items to component level

My question is: What companies based in Aus, with branches in Brisbane would be similar to the likes of our UK equivalents i.e. Aria, Ebuyer, Scan, Dabs? These types of E-Commerce companies are really attractive to me.

Q2.) I do not have specific qualifications in Computer hardware troubleshooting etc Although my degree is IT based, I don't know if employers would be interested in it. So my question is:

Do you think I could get a job in this field with my current qualifications, if not what should I look to get to help me out? Maybe a microsoft cert, or I believe Comptia A+?

Q3.) What kind of salary etc are you looking at in this area of work? I know its the kind of area that isn't as well paid as Software Engineers etc but I have no idea of what to expect in terms of a salary. Money isn't a huge issue for me, I am not bothered about getting a bath in dollars lol but I understand the cost of living may be higher than here in the UK.

Ok thanks for reading guys and I look forward to the replies I do apologize for the lengthy post, but the sticky said to go into detail

Thanks,
Iain

DadAgain

Newly modified joke for this thread:

Q: "What did the English Immigrant with an I.T. Degree say at his first day at work?"
A: "Do you want fries with that?"



Sorry I dont mean to be disparaging - but you're pushing shit uphill looking for an IT job in Brisbane unless you want to work slave conditions for at least a few jobs before you find a 'keeper' that pays enough to live on. Very specialist positions that you seem to be describing (I have no idea what "Aria" and "Gladiator" are) are very unlikley to exist and you might be forced to start at the bottom of the support heap and work for $30-40k a year dealing with tedious rubbish all day.

IainMcG

lol! I do hope I don't need to ask that question when I do get out there

Are IT jobs just not a priority in Brisbane or is it more down to, too much competition?

EDIT: Sorry aria systems are just normal computer systems built by the company for customers. So I would like to build systems for whatever company that is like Aria in Australia, I can't find many Australian E-Commerce sites like the ones over here though

Oh and I'm Irish, just studied in England

Thanks,
Iain

DadAgain

Brisbane, despite being a large city, is a very small business community. A LOT of business have a presence in Brisbane, but head offices in Sydney or Melbourne so IT operations tend not to do anything interesting in Brisbane for most corporates.

There is quite a lot of state government work around in Brisbane, but with Qld torn apart by storms and floods earlier this year and tourism income in the north reduced to practically nothing by a high AU$ there's pressure for the state government to reduce spending on anything other than reconstruction and significant I.T. projects may well find themselves postponed 'until better times'.

I'm not saying its impossible to find jobs in Brisbane - they do exist. There are a few mining companies who do significant work in Brisbane, 1 bank, 1 airline, 1 major travel agent and a few other significant businesses, but there are a LOT of people competing for each job and without any local experience, and a skillset that people havent heard of and dont understand (very very little e-commerce in Brisbane) I suspect you'd really struggle.

IainMcG

I see, hmm maybe Brisbane isn't the place for the dream job then. Just wondering if you knew of any companies who rely primarily on e-commerce trade that offered the kind of services such as Computer components etc that I could have a look at their sites and figure out where they are mostly based?

Thanks for your reply

DadAgain

E-commerce computer components?... hmmm.... nope - not in Australia!

(turns out this mob are in fact in Brisbane: http://www.megabuy.com.au - but I doubt they'd be big enough to justify employing any significant I.T staff. - probably pretty much a family-sized operation importing and spending their lives stuffing boxes and re-posting. I'd imagine this is typical of Australian e-commerce operations)

fish.01

The largest ecommerce IT parts/system suppliers I know of in Brisbane are http://www.umart.com.au/.

They have 4 physical stores/warehouses around the Brisbane/SEQ area and one in Melbourne. They are very busy and do build bespoke systems so presumably would have jobs just like the criteria you listed but not sure how often they would come up. Their Milton store is the head office I think.

There is a bunch of smaller suppliers that do custom builds with a physical presence and an eCommerce setup. Some of course would be family only but many seem larger with multiple stores so you could contact them all first to see how much interest you get. Here's some of them:

- http://www.bestcomputer.com.au/products.html (Ashmore and Burleigh stores, Gold Coast)
- http://www.pcshopper.com.au/home.php (Greenslopes shopping centre)
- http://www.bestdeal4u.com.au/ (Large Capalaba retail showroom and East Brisbane office)
- http://computerfunction.com.au/ (Indooroopilly - a Leading Edge franchise)
- http://www.gamedude.com.au/ (Springwood)
- http://www.gocomp.com.au/ (Rocklea, Milton and Maroochydore)
- http://www.pioneercomputers.com.au/ (qld office of large company - qld govt supplier)
- http://www.matesrates.com.au/ (25 mobile technicians and shop)
- http://www.msy.com.au/ (Australia wide with 6 stores in Brisbane/SEQ)

There is a bunch of eCommerce only stores but they tend to be very small box stuffers.

There are also some traditional physical computer shops who build custom systems that have an eCommerce web presence like:

- http://www.computeralliance.com.au/main.aspx (Mt Gravatt Central)
- http://www.concordecomputers.com.au/index.php (Burpengary, Capalaba, Cannon Hill and Strathpine) - [email protected]
- http://www.precisioncomputers.com.au/home/index.php (Southside and Northside shops/service centres in Brisbane)
- https://www.pcezy.com.au/ (Chermside)

Note these are just the Brisbane area suppliers. There are many more eCommerce custom systems suppliers in the rest of Australia if you decide to branch out.

fish.01

"there are a LOT of people competing for each job" - our company must be doing something wrong... ...we struggle to attract a lot of quality candidates for many of our developer positions. We have 40 IT jobs (across the spectrum of sales, mgt and development) available at the moment. We are in a mainstream development area (.net) though so I agree that niche area's would be underrepresented.

As an aside, apart from Virgin Airlines, Suncorp Bank and FlightCentre some of the other significant Brisbane based businesses DadAgain mentioned include Credit Union Australia, Orrcon, Data#3, Mincom, TechnologyOne, Sunsuper, Wotif and Pipe Networks.

IainMcG

This information will help greatly, I have sent a CV to msy.com from speaking to someone from that area they had mentioned that msy was quite large. After looking for the IT Technician role last night through various search engines it became clear that I may need to do Comptia A+ to really have a shot of a job in the role of a technician type person.

I will have a look at those websites, see what jobs are going and try in get in contact. Thank you very much for this list.

Out of interest what company do you work for?

IainMcG

Turns out Umart are looking for "experienced Technicians" for their Douglas St Milton branch. Quick google search showed that it was just outside Brisbane.

Duties include: "New system builds & software configuration, system repairs and component diagnostics"

Seems like the kind of thing I'm after to be honest, although I am not experienced in the field, I have to start somewhere! Going to amend my CV and give this a go.

Does anyone have tips for someone like myself, who isn't currently in their country in terms of writing a CV/Covering letter? Should I indicate I already have a working holiday Visa etc?

Pollyana

Milton is pretty much a Brisbane suburb, good transport links etc. Make sure the office is above the flood line, we had a major system hosted out that way and nearly lost it during the floods, it had to be retrieved by boat - through a second floor window!
If you're approaching companies from outside Australia, definitely tell them you have a visa already or you are unlikely to get much interest - companies here rarely want to wait for someone to sort a visa out as that can take months. However, be aware of the restrictions on a WHV and how long you can work for any one company - unless you can get them to sponsor you for something like a 457 visa, or even PR.

IainMcG

Hi pollyana,

I just sent my Covering Letter & CV. I did mention in covering letter that I was outside the country but I have a WHV granted and currently seeking a return to the country. Oh well I have tried anyway!

I did not realize how serious those floods were until recently, there was some serious damage done around the place.

Pollyana

Certainly was, many millions of $$$ being spent just restoring the basic public assets like roads, never mind the damage to personal homes and properties, and the loss of life.

You might be lucky and pick something up by mentioning you already have a visa - chances of employment to rise greatly once you get here though

isgraham

Iain,

If you've got a first I eould go down to the City of London and make a big chunk of money before you consider goign to Australia just make sure you get your application for migration in before you are 30. The reason being is that salaries are besically rubbish in Australia so you need to make your money in the UK before you move to Australia. If you have a desperate urge to go to Australia forget about IT and think about mining.

IainMcG

Hi graham,

I am sure I could have got a job within the forensics field no problem, however I simply could not move to London. My experiences there were unbearable and I really didn't enjoy the city itself. Plus the field of computer forensics really doesn't interest me.

I have applied for Aria, Scan, Ebuyer, Amazon in the UK to establish some better income and get some experience in the field I desire. The problem is that they themselves want to offer graduates all these schemes revolved around database management and web development which I do not want to do and none of them had the courtesy to get back to me anyway after I made inquiries

I would look at the option of going to Australia and doing some mining, labour or farming. I enjoy working on farms at home, however I'm sure they are a lot different out there While doing this labour work and earning a few quid I could then pursue a career in the IT Technician field while making a few contacts etc

My mother knows a colleague who's son was out farming and said they had an absolutely great time. The people they were staying with even offered to fly them back to Australia because they thought he was a great lad. So to sum up I am not too concerned about starting my preferable career straight away and I would happily look at other options in Australia so I could even see the place a bit before settling. At home though, it is difficult getting any jobs where I live, I am literally working whatever I can get my hands on.