# How is current Australian IT Job Market for Software Professionals?



## Souvik Das (Apr 13, 2010)

Hi friends,

I received an invitation on 21st January,2013 from SkilSelect for applying for PR visa (Skilled Independent -189) in Australia. I am a software professional from India having around 8 years of experience in Microsoft .Net platform (Software Engineer, ACS Code - 261313). My wife is also having 7+ years of experience in Software field as an Analyst (System Analyst, ACS Code - 261112) specializing in banking domain. We both separately applied for VISA 189 with second one as joint applicant and both received separate invitation as we both have required IELTS score and positive ACS assessment. We are planning to go to Australia after receiving PR visa one after another. The second person will go to Australia once the first person secure a job in Australia.

I have 2 questions for you.


Will the joint applicant (secondary applicant) be able to go to Australia first independently before the primary applicant (first applicant) after receiving PR OR the primary applicant will need to accompany the joint applicant during entry to Australia for the first time as a PR?


How is the Australian IT job market for software professionals? Who will have better opportunity for receiving a job offer in Australia quickly - a software engineer specializing in Microsoft .Net platform or System Analyst specializing in banking domain?

Many many thanks in advance for your help.


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## jayprabu (Nov 2, 2012)

I would suggest you to do a research on job availability in Aus job sites and then decide who is better to go first.

as far as i know, secondary applicant can go first until unless anything like who should go first is mentioned in your visa. I am not sure.

btw, congrats for EOI invite


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## Souvik Das (Apr 13, 2010)

Hi, thanks for your reply. 

I am worried because people are posting negative feedback about availability of IT jobs in Australia.

Can anybody please suggest how bad it is actually?


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## msarkar_expat (Oct 8, 2012)

Hi Souvik,

I am currently in Sydney on 457 visa. Very soon I'll be applying for 189. Can you please tell me what all documents you have submited as Work Experience Documents? I have offer letter, release letter, experience letter from my previous companies which mention everything ACS require except "Description of Duties Performed". Have you faced any similar situation like this?

Regading your question, .Net job market is very good here. However it depends if your skill set is matching or not. You can check in Seek.com for further information.

Thanks,
Maitrayee Sarkar


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## Souvik Das (Apr 13, 2010)

Hi Maitrayee,

for positive ACS assessment the thing that you need is only get the reference letter signed by your employer in the prescribed format available in ACS. Your employment reference letter should contain the skillset of yours the way it is described in sample skillset of the designated trade in ACS. This was the way I got reference letters from my previous employers. It is not necessary to have phrase "Description of Duties Performed" in your reference letter from employer. 

here goes a sample ACS skilled employment example reference. 

http://acs.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/7570/Skilled-Employment-Reference-Example.pdf

Get your reference letter signed in this format from your employer.

Good Luck !!!
Bye.


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## pbiswajit (May 14, 2013)

Hi Souvik,

I am also thinking of applying for Australia(Skilled Independent -189), Since i saw your postings in the forum that you were trying for the same, would like to know what is the progress, have you already got the visa, if yes, have you relocated to Aus. Let me know through which consultant you were processing your application. it would be nice if you can share your e-mail id with me. 

Biswa P


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## applyoz (Apr 20, 2012)

Souvik Das said:


> We both separately applied for VISA 189 with second one as joint applicant and both received separate invitation as we both have required IELTS score and positive ACS assessment.


Woah! I suggest you dont go ahead with two applications. Suggest you to disregard one invitation and go with one. There will be certainly be a problem with your VISA though i am not sure if it will result in both of your VISA getting rejected. Check the forum for more postings on that. Will paste the link if i find any relevant thread.


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## applyoz (Apr 20, 2012)

Comments inline.



Souvik Das said:


> Will the joint applicant (secondary applicant) be able to go to Australia first independently before the primary applicant (first applicant) after receiving PR OR the primary applicant will need to accompany the joint applicant during entry to Australia for the first time as a PR?
> Yes as long as there is no condition mentioned in VISA grant letter
> 
> How is the Australian IT job market for software professionals? Who will have better opportunity for receiving a job offer in Australia quickly - a software engineer specializing in Microsoft .Net platform or System Analyst specializing in banking domain?
> Getting a job is tough but not impossible is the general feeling among the forum people who are in Australia. People have got jobs within a month and many people within 6 months.Depends on the skill. .NET seems to have better openings, check the threads for more details.


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## rakulgarg (Jan 22, 2014)

Hi,

I am planning to apply for PR under category 190..please let me know how is the job market in australia for C/C++/PERL developers...


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## Souvik Das (Apr 13, 2010)

rakulgarg said:


> Hi,
> 
> I am planning to apply for PR under category 190..please let me know how is the job market in australia for C/C++/PERL developers...


You may check seek.com.au with your skill set for number of vacancies available in your trade. But it is really difficult to guess the real picture. For example, I am a .net developer with 9 years of experience and I am seeing 2700+ job posting in seek. But I am not getting a single interview call as of now eventhough my skill sets are matching more than 90% of requirements for most of the jobs. Don't know what is going on. If you are planning to land in this country be prepared to do the hardship. If you are having a stable job in India then think twice before coming here. Here you have to apply for the job and then call the recruiter back regarding the status of your application. Everybody is asking for local experience. I still don't understand what is so special about local experience. Do people in Australia write some special .Net code than people in India? I don't know. I may sound a bit of pessimistic because I am struggling now. I went directly to the office of a software company yesterday and asked about available vacancies. They said they have outsourced development jobs in Punjab, Hydearbad, Bangalore, Sri Lanka because it is much cheaper and "NO VACANCY" here. I just want to give you heads-up. Decission is up to you.

Have a good day.


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## Kiran S Raizada (Jun 25, 2013)

Souvik Das said:


> You may check seek.com.au with your skill set for number of vacancies available in your trade. But it is really difficult to guess the real picture. For example, I am a .net developer with 9 years of experience and I am seeing 2700+ job posting in seek. But I am not getting a single interview call as of now eventhough my skill sets are matching more than 90% of requirements for most of the jobs. Don't know what is going on. If you are planning to land in this country be prepared to do the hardship. If you are having a stable job in India then think twice before coming here. Here you have to apply for the job and then call the recruiter back regarding the status of your application. Everybody is asking for local experience. I still don't understand what is so special about local experience. Do people in Australia write some special .Net code than people in India? I don't know. I may sound a bit of pessimistic because I am struggling now. I went directly to the office of a software company yesterday and asked about available vacancies. They said they have outsourced development jobs in Punjab, Hydearbad, Bangalore, Sri Lanka because it is much cheaper and "NO VACANCY" here. I just want to give you heads-up. Decission is up to you.
> 
> Have a good day.


Hi Souvik
My husband and me are coming to Australia for our visa validation. Please tell how long have you been to there? Did your wife join you? If yes, have she got a job? Have you tried casual jobs? 
Am sorry thats a lot of questions but we are really getting desperate.


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## k82 (Dec 27, 2012)

I too have applied for more than 100+ jobs in < week but no reply.for few of them i got reply saying that "your application has not been successful on this occasion." Although my skill set is in demand here (sharepoint/.Net) but no result yet.
But still cant loose your heart. we can find the other forum members were able to find job one day/other.
All the best


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## Souvik Das (Apr 13, 2010)

Kiran S Raizada said:


> Hi Souvik
> My husband and me are coming to Australia for our visa validation. Please tell how long have you been to there? Did your wife join you? If yes, have she got a job? Have you tried casual jobs?
> Am sorry thats a lot of questions but we are really getting desperate.


if you are coming for VISA validation then it is OK. But do not resign from the job back in India (like me) and come over here. Atleast one of you should have a job back in India. I am here for more than a month not getting any calls from interviewer. I came to know from recruiters that there are many local Australians who are looking for job, as a result getting a job without having local experience is extremely difficult. I have not yet tried casual jobs but will try soon. My wife also came along with me. She also did not received any interview calls as of now. Don't believe job vacancies posted in seek. Because it is fake.


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## Souvik Das (Apr 13, 2010)

k82 said:


> I too have applied for more than 100+ jobs in < week but no reply.for few of them i got reply saying that "your application has not been successful on this occasion." Although my skill set is in demand here (sharepoint/.Net) but no result yet.
> But still cant loose your heart. we can find the other forum members were able to find job one day/other.
> All the best


same here. Where are you staying in Sydney? In Parramatta region?


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## Wolfgang1 (Jan 13, 2012)

Souvik Das said:


> if you are coming for VISA validation then it is OK. But do not resign from the job back in India (like me) and come over here. Atleast one of you should have a job back in India. I am here for more than a month not getting any calls from interviewer. I came to know from recruiters that there are many local Australians who are looking for job, as a result getting a job without having local experience is extremely difficult. I have not yet tried casual jobs but will try soon. My wife also came along with me. She also did not received any interview calls as of now. Don't believe job vacancies posted in seek. Because it is fake.


Not sure how you had concluded that jobs posted in seek are fake!. It is not necessary that employers revert to you as soon as your resume is sent to them. Recruiting is a time consuming process here and more often have multiple rounds. Usually most companies will be associated with multiple recruitment agencies. So a job requirement from the company with have job posting from each of the agency. If the company is associated with 5 recruiting agencies then for one job requirement from this company there will be 5 job postings (in seek and other job portals). You can easily make this up from the job requirements sections. In general a job opening posting and the process of final selection can take anywhere between 1 - 2 months unless its really very urgent.

I know how it feels when you are waiting for your very first job here but, keep a positive mind set and look for some kind of local experience, even if voluntary if you are really interested.


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## k82 (Dec 27, 2012)

near to parrammata. wht abt u any luck


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## k82 (Dec 27, 2012)

Souvik Das said:


> same here. Where are you staying in Sydney? In Parramatta region?


near to parramatta .wht abt u . any luck ?


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## tipzstamatic (Aug 13, 2013)

considering how long your post is, please don't spam different threads with the same question. if you wanted to, you could have made a new thread for yourself to address your questions and advice... :-/


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## Souvik Das (Apr 13, 2010)

Wolfgang1 said:


> Not sure how you had concluded that jobs posted in seek are fake!. It is not necessary that employers revert to you as soon as your resume is sent to them. Recruiting is a time consuming process here and more often have multiple rounds. Usually most companies will be associated with multiple recruitment agencies. So a job requirement from the company with have job posting from each of the agency. If the company is associated with 5 recruiting agencies then for one job requirement from this company there will be 5 job postings (in seek and other job portals). You can easily make this up from the job requirements sections. In general a job opening posting and the process of final selection can take anywhere between 1 - 2 months unless its really very urgent.
> 
> I know how it feels when you are waiting for your very first job here but, keep a positive mind set and look for some kind of local experience, even if voluntary if you are really interested.


How long it took you to land your first job in Australia? I am here in Sydney, Australia for 2 months now, applied to more than 500 jobs to receive enquiry from recruiters only. And even the enquiry is reducing day by day. 

Back in India, I was a primary developer (only one in this world) of a core component of a product of a company which is making 700+ million dollar a year for this product only. It still is the highest revenue earning product of that global MNC. Every Coles, Woolworth store in Australia executes the component written by me when customer takes print out of there bill as they are two major customer for my past company in Australia. Same holds true for Yes Optus. I should at least receive one interview against my 500+ applications.

Don't encourage skilled software engineers from India to come over here to become "sales assistant", "kitchen hands", "waiter" etc. 

I will definitely advice people who are earning well in India not to come over here. The salaries that are posted in seek are not for software developers coming from India recently.


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## dragonfly21 (Aug 30, 2013)

Souvik Das said:


> How long it took you to land your first job in Australia? I am here in Sydney, Australia for 2 months now, applied to more than 500 jobs to receive enquiry from recruiters only. And even the enquiry is reducing day by day.
> 
> Back in India, I was a primary developer (only one in this world) of a core component of a product of a company which is making 700+ million dollar a year for this product only. It still is the highest revenue earning product of that global MNC. Every Coles, Woolworth store in Australia executes the component written by me when customer takes print out of there bill as they are two major customer for my past company in Australia. Same holds true for Yes Optus. I should at least receive one interview against my 500+ applications.
> 
> ...


Have you rented a place in Sydney? Have you considered changing careers (taking up a course in some other field, applying for other jobs) instead of beating your head against a dead IT market?


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## Scattley (Jul 30, 2012)

You really need to take time in applying for the job. 500 applications in 60 days suggests that you are just regurgitating the same application for multiple jobs. The agencies want to know that you have researched them, called them to discuss the position before applying, applying on the first day it is posted is a red flag...it means you have not done your homework but are desperate. Every item in the selection criteria needs to be address, your cover letter needs to refer to additional points made in the telephone conversation. For IT positions there will be over 100 applications of which only 4-7 will be presented to the company by HR or the recruiting agency for further review..you need to get to that point. Culling " form" applications is extremely easy and what they all do. If you have not received a 1 in 7-10 interview ratio you need to have a look at your application and think about ways to improve (or change your expectations).


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## tipzstamatic (Aug 13, 2013)

considering the change in government recently, expect things to be tougher IMO.
and., well, you can't blame the company for having their preferences. it is by no means discrimination, but we can't all expect to arrive with open doors and welcoming arms. we're migrating for opportunity. the fight starts there - the PR application is just the journey to that... so yes, there will be hardships and frustrations, but that's what we signed up for and that should have been an informed decision.


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## Souvik Das (Apr 13, 2010)

Scattley said:


> You really need to take time in applying for the job. 500 applications in 60 days suggests that you are just regurgitating the same application for multiple jobs. The agencies want to know that you have researched them, called them to discuss the position before applying, applying on the first day it is posted is a red flag...it means you have not done your homework but are desperate. Every item in the selection criteria needs to be address, your cover letter needs to refer to additional points made in the telephone conversation. For IT positions there will be over 100 applications of which only 4-7 will be presented to the company by HR or the recruiting agency for further review..you need to get to that point. Culling " form" applications is extremely easy and what they all do. If you have not received a 1 in 7-10 interview ratio you need to have a look at your application and think about ways to improve (or change your expectations).


I have received calls from recruiter and confirmation regarding the fact that they are forwarding my resume to employer. But I am not receiving calls from the actual employer. That is my problem. I have included my skill sets in my resume. In my cover letter I have mentioned skills that I have that are in job description. But still I am not receiving any calls for actual interview with employer.

I am stating the actual condition of job market in Sydney for a software developer coming from India who has no contact over here. People who get optimistic by seeing jobs in seek.com.au need to be cautious. There is definitely not enough jobs for software developers coming from India.

I will be grateful if someone can guide me about what are the alternate career option that I have so that I can earn my living for my family and myself.


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## greeniearun (Sep 24, 2013)

This is really scary....


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