Peter Loew

Hi all

I have a subclass 190 visa for Melbourne, Victoria which was received in Dec, 2013, and I am planning to migrate around the end of the 1st quarter next year.

I have around 10 years experience of Project Management and Programme Management in technology focused industries. This would include delivering lots of software development / Agile types of projects across different technologies (mostly web and enterprise), and doing broadcast media / interactive TV projects (e.g. working with the broadcasters like the BBC on bringing their broadcasting 'online' and over Internet channels).

I also have experience in projects dealing with a variety of different kinds of clients and stakeholders (e.g. law firms, media firms, digital media, finance).

I am currently a contractor in the UK on a day rate and I will look do to the same in Melbourne, though I will be flexible if I need to be in this regard. I could also consider Sydney, as I have read that although I have a Subclass 190 Visa for Victoria, technically I can work anywhere in Australia (have to confirm this though).

Having a brief look on the jobsites, Seek and Indeed, I don't see many Project or Programme Management roles going in the Melbourne area (or Sydney for that matter), unless I'm looking in the wrong place.

Does anybody have an idea of the demand for my type of role in the Melbourne area? I'm a little concerned given that my cursory searches haven't really yielded the results I was hoping for.

Thanks for the help.

P

Buzzy--Bee

Well a brief search of Seek for Project Manager jobs in ICT in Melbourne turned up 718 results, although how many of these are genuine jobs is always up for discussion.

I'm a PM working for a major technology integrator here and while I am not looking myself, I understand from others that the market is "OK" at the moment.

You will be unlikely to get a job before you arrive though and the market will have changed for better or worse by then.

BB

Bermudashorts

I am not in your line of work so won't try to comment on the job market. But am also baffled as to why you can't see any roles on seek.com.au. I got 1,089 jobs in Melbourne for IT Project Managers and 2,152 jobs in Sydney for same. Not quite as many for program management but still many hundreds. '

Your visa allows you to work anywhere yes. Although as there are jobs in both states and Victoria was kind enough to sponsor you, it is up to you whether you want to meet your moral obligations.

wongstonn

There are conflicting reports of the market for IT PMs in Melbourne at the moment. I think "OK" would be be a fair average. In recent years the market has trended towards having domain expertise in the industry your are PMing in.

For more senior roles, do ensure you are searching for "Program" management and not "programme" management as it is spelt differently here.

Peter Loew

Fully understand that, I plan to hit the job boards once I've over and settled in.

Peter Loew

With Seek and other jobsites, it matters that you put "project manager", in quotes. When I did this I got around 209 results come back - not bad, but not in the realm on 718 / 2152 jobs either. If you don't use quotes, other job ads come back with the words "project" and "manager" in them, and while some of these may be relevant and interesting, they won't be the job title one would look for with the above search in mind. I am still optimistic about finding good roles in Melbourne, however.

I plan on settling in Melbourne, since I am sponsored by the Victorian government, it's just useful to know I can technically settle anywhere.

Peter Loew

Ah, like the Americas then. Good tip, thanks.

Usually in London the requirements is the same - you need domain expertise despite doing the same role, cross industry. This is most apparent within the banking and finance sectors. I actually had hoped it would be less of a requirement in Australia.

Bermudashorts

Well I think it is you that is seriously limiting your options with that search approach.

I have just run my search again on Sydney and Melbourne, under IT but without quotation marks and got well over 2,000 results. I have checked the first ten pages and all but one were "Project Managers" but there was a "Project Service Manager" as well. I then went to some of the later pages of results and looked at another ten pages and again they are all Project Managers. Still you want to limit yourself up to you...

Buzzy--Bee

Some employment agencies and I dare say employers here either don't understand what project management is or put misleading descriptions in ads.

I applied for role entitled "project manager" a couple of years ago and through asking questions found out that what they really wanted was a lead architect.

BB

Peter Loew

I am very used to hitting job boards here in the UK as a contractor for many years now, so my approach is a tailored one. I am beginning to realise this will have to change for the Australian markets. I've re-searched without quotes, there does see to be an excess of roles that sounds like PM ones but are labelled differently, and vice versa.

Peter Loew

Ha, interesting. Though some agencies are guilty of that here in the UK too while employers/companies are guilty of squeezing two roles down into one to save on cost, e.g. PM/BA.

What's the standard PM qualification in Australia, is it PRINCE2? And for Program Management, do you know if MSP is well regarded?

Buzzy--Bee

Prince2 and PMBOK. No idea about MSP.

But most of us old hands are fairly uncertified!

BB

Budgie

Hi Peter,

You sound exactly like me 10 years ago when I moved over. I had the same skills and experience as you, I'd even worked on Interactive TV projects for the BBC as well. Small world

The hard part will be finding that first job. Once you get that, and begin to establish your contacts and reputation, things become a LOT easier. When I moved over I started off in Sydney and it took me 4 months to find work. I registered with 140 (I counted them) recruitment agents and only got 3 interviews in all that time. Ended up getting work through a company that advertised directly on Seek and the boss knew an old boss of mine from the UL.

I would suggest that expecting to pick up contract work initially will be extremely hard. Australia is definitely about who you know, rather than what you know. This is even more important when the job market is not great, which is currently the case. The Recruitment Agents over here are also much worse than the UK ones (even though most of them over here seem to be UK Expats!). Expect countless job applications where you don't get a response and can't speak to the Agent. Getting past the Agent to the Client is harder than getting the job itself, in my opinion.

I would suggest two things:

1. Scour your UK contacts before you leave for any links/contacts that will help you find work in Australia. Any contact, however tenuous, will help considerably.

2. Try for a job with a consultancy as a permie first. I worked for SMS Consulting in Melbourne and can recommend them. They hire a lot of expats and value experience from abroad. Do some time with a consultancy (2 or 3 years) and pick up experience and contacts across multiple clients and sectors, then branch out on your own and go contracting.

Hope this helps - and good luck!

P.S. MSP is not terribly well known here. You say MSP to people over here and they think Microsoft Project! MSP is supposed to be used as a government standard in many States but in my experience it seldom is.

Budgie