caraca

Hi, I'm new here, soon to be going out with my wife on her visa, but will also be working.

Anyone have any idea of or experience of the current situation regarding work in IT out there, and how it looks regarding work outside of Sydney and Melbourne. I get the impression most of the major work is in these places.
We are thinking of Cairns with her being a nurse there.
Cheers

Bix da Boss

G'day and welcome to the BE forum - enjoy the experience

We are actually living in Cairns. IT jobs are prob more readily available and better paid in the bigger cities but, there are a few IT jobs to be had in Cairns, all depends on your skills and level of IT you are in.

What sort of visa does your wife have? Anyway, once here, if you dont like Cairns you could always move to another state, people do it all the time over here - just pack up and off they go! Met a guy this week who, in the last 20 odd years has lived in 15+ different places wherever work took him and his family!! That must be a record One things for sure, they didn't have time to get bored eh

Have fun

Gill

DadAgain

Probably depends what you mean by "IT work".

Of course there are tech support roles all over the place and network engineering happeneds everywhere - but since head offices tend to be in capital cities (and even Brisbane doesnt do well in this regard) - The software development side of the IT industry if *very* heavily weighted toward SYD/MEL.

I've been in Brisbane for 10 years and have seen the IT world shrink, grow and shrink again - but its crazy how small the world is. Software developers around here have all worked for the same bunch of employers (some big qld govt departments and a couple of corporates who are based in BNE) and its a very cliquey environment. Most of the time even if you change jobs if you're working in consulting you end up back with the same clients as you had before!!... I can only imagine Cairns would be *MUCH* *MUCH* smaller and much harder to break into.

You might find yourself unemployed and seraching for work for a LONG time in Cairns!! Good luck

Hills Boy

I guess you're familiar with Seek - there are other job sites, but it's a good place to start. Set yourself up with some email alerts tailored to your skills and experience for a few different places and see how many relevant IT jobs land in your inbox each day for each area. I don't claim it's the most scientific way of getting the answer you're after, but it'll be a pretty good guide of what's on offer in Cairns compared to other places. At the moment there are seven 'IT' jobs advertised in Cairns on Seek.


I'd echo the comments in earlier posts. It's obviously not impossible to get an IT job there but it's a pretty small market and you could be waiting for work for a long time. If funds allow, settle in and wait it out in Cairns. Don't wait for the perfect job; take anything remotely relevant to gain local experience and contacts. If you've only ever been a permanent employee, don't forget to look at contracting to begin with.

caraca

Thanks a lot for the advice here. I will look on Seek and I'll try and find some others as well. As you say it's a start.

thanks,
CARACA