I was lucky enough to be an outsider sitting inside the room for the "IT is exciting! Why don't young people know this", breakfast on the 25th November. It was a real eye opener for me. I'm amazed that IT faculties in Australian Universities are finding it a challenge to attract enrolments, when it is so obviously an excellent career path. I'm acutely aware that my greatest professional weakness is my low levels of competency with ICT. As an Arts graduate, every role I have ever had has been completely dependent on somebody having the right IT skills for things to function. The solution in each instance has been to outsource that work- generally to someone earning at least double my salary.

My whole family is in IT and lots of Russians friends I've made while in Australia are programmers. They've all done extremely well career-wise, and for quite some time the general perception among Russian immigrants about computing as a profession has been that it was a secure and very lucrative career path. Things started to change, however, after the dotcom crash. The current feeling is that the ‘golden era' of late 1990s with its incredibly high IT salaries will never be repeated, with the rise of outsourcing giants India and China offering cheaper, high quality programming solutions.

So where would be the niche for Australia to make it an attractive proposition for people craving successful and rewarding careers? The current computing environment seems to be more ‘puzzle oriented' - that is, it's no longer about creating programmes from scratch, but about knowing how to integrate disparate systems, written in different programming languages at different times, into a cohesive, well functioning whole. This must be quite an exciting idea for those with analytical minds. Perhaps, that's where the promotional focus should be.

I must say that I completely agree with you. I have finished uni (UTS) a year ago, still looking for job. Last time saw position for JUNIOR business analyst which required 2-3 years of experience. How junior is that than??? How are we suppose to get into workforce while we do not have a chance to get experience.

I believe that also recruitment companies are getting lazy. I know one of those companies, they have most of the graducate jobs, but unfortunately if you get rejected once, that's it for you. Even if you try to apply for completely different positions there is no way for them to even look at your resume. It not very encouraging for graduates I believe to keep on looking and applying. Next thing that comes to mind is to change profession.

 

 

I teach IT at a boy's independent secondary school. Most of the boys in my classes think that they know everything - they can set up a facebook account, use email, search the Internet, play games and produce their school homework on a word processor. What more do they need? There is also a perception that all the IT jobs are in India. Parents seem to believe that IT jobs do not carry much status or salary and thus do not encourage their children into taking up a practical field. There is also a belief that the IPT, SDD and IT(Multimedia) [year 12 HSC courses in New South Wales] do not scale well for calculating the UAI. [Which they do not]. As a result of these (and other) beliefs, enrolment in IT classes has fallen at my school over the past five or six years. We run an acceleration program in IPT for brighter students and this is what has kept the subject alive at senior levels. SDD has disappeared. Multimedia is seen as an exciting field and we do have more interest and demand for this subject. The boys (and their parents) seem to think that this is an exciting, interesting area that could carry high salary, status and employment prospects.

My husband has recently retired from the IT industry, my son-in-law works in IT and I have numerous friends and aquaintances in the industry. From the outside, I think that the IT industry has a lot to do as far as public relations is concerned.There seems to be little in the way of a clear career structure, public knowledge of careers in IT is poor, perceptions of what the industry actually does is blurry, and there is a general impression that it's all going ot India anyway. The current economic crisis and the resulting disintegration of IT companies doesn't help.

I suggest an advertising campaign aimed at students and parents informing them of the possibilities available. A good route for this would be through school career's advisers, careers evenings and teachers. Support for IT teachers' associations [CSTA in NSW] could be rewarding. Lobbying the NSW Board of Studies to improve the scaling of the IT HSC exams might help. These actions would almost certainly result in more students studying IT at school. This would flow on the university, but then what? Some of the other comments in this forum suggest that getting into the industry is not easy. Maybe some work needs to be done at that end.

 

How would industry like to connect to schools? I am a VET IT teacher and careers teacher at a regional secondary school. Many industries with skills shortages are using these sorts of programs to generate interest among young people, particularly through work placements and school based apprenticeships. This helps teenagers to connect to the industry through real world experiences and creates a better understanding of what the industry is about and the wide variety of opportunities available. However if you asked most young people what IT is about, they would have no clue. Especially due to the hidden support nature of the industry. Don't just promote, connect to schools. Upon seeing this forum had been set up I went to my resource files on information and opportunities to explore IT and found very little in it. Many other industreis are offering: Cadetships, industry site visits, careers days, work experience, day in the life programs and more. There are a range of industries trying to capture the imagination of young people and IT is being left behind.

Ksenia, I have 7+ years of experience in IT, and since I graduated , overseas, quickly got a job (overseas as well) and since then my career has been in a steady path. But since I've been in Australia, I have been looking for a position and it is very hard to find, and there is one such bad thing as the recruitment is done not by the employers, but by these so called agencies. I think indeed it is a part of the problem. I have had some experience hiring people for projects and it seems to be a lose-lose situation, the recruitment agencies use staff with low skills, make the candidates unhappy and the employers also unhappy because they are not able to get the best ones. The employers that takes their teams seriously run their own recruitment program.

And I am not the only one high skilled person in IT that is having this perception. I have had comments from highly skilled developers the difficulty that is to deal with those recruiters.

I wouldn't call such career and such things "exciting', would call rather dull.

 

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Australia. I think this site syndicated with all job sites worldwide through RSS feeds. So visitors or job seekers can finding a job on the Internet

easier for than visiting each job site. Through this RSS technology this site connected with database of job pages originating from company web

sites, recruitment agency web sites and large specialist recruitment sites. You can understand more about RSS Technology Searching by

visiting http://www.jobsinworld.com/australia-jobs/ .

Reading the previous posts and from personal experience, I agree with most of the posts and would say that the IT industry in Australia and IT career path has suffered from a variety of different problems, and issues that have to all be addressed concurrently. Although I'm currently doing a Masters in IT, my undergrad was in Psychology and Management. Having worked across IT teams in a large Australian financial services company over the last 2.5 years, I've seen how the uncertainties associated with working in IT and the lack of appreciation from corporate leadership for the value of IT has created an overall impression that IT technicians are largely support staff, just there to follow and do as they're asked by their business customers / stakeholders. I believe this isnt just isolated to the financial services, but many parts of the industry, which is highly dependent on business partners / stakeholders to survive, even exist.

The reality of the situation is that most IT jobs in Australia at the moment (apart from technical developer jobs) do not regard technical knowledge (ie programming/ network/ system knowledge) as a key component to the business, but rather as a means to do business and resolve their problems. It's a sad reality that means IT staff do not have much of a say when they in the business decision making process or recognition for their contribution to business success. This goes against the perceived influence of IT in business that IT students are taught (especially in ability of IT to make sweeping changes to business), and creates a sense of frustration and feeling powerless when they enter the workplace. Combined with the uncertainty of contracting, it makes many new IT professionals feel disconnected and unenthusiastic when dealing with the business, and subsequently, out of the decision making process. Even for those who choose to engage with the business (in roles like BA or consultants), there is no excitement in dealing with other staff, when your job and budgets are dependent on business demands, which often are not compatible with the chosen technology systems.

Although IT is becoming increasingly integrated into more aspects of society, the perceived role and influence of IT professionals in the organisation / business has reduced, and the the expectations / requirements placed on IT staff are increasing. Combined with the lack of job security and development pathways, making the transition to work is increasingly becoming a difficult process for IT students. Universities need to work with industry to prepare more IT students for this reality, and fina a way of helping them cope and strive in this work environment.

My thoughts

prior UNI:
I think it is very hard to give youngsters a guess what a IT job is like, as seeing people sitting in front of a screen never
made me enthusiastic either even during university so best would be having a job part time to get experience.
As i always say try to find out what you don't want as it is almost impossible to find out what you want in the age around 20.

during UNI:
practise, practise as some people already pointed out but how we are going to get there, yes university and industry need to be
connected and maybe the ACS is the perfect connector to provide a platform. Where do companies getting resources from? recruitment agencies
they don't know anything about these jobs and try to sell the most expensive resource so newcomers will get promoted last.
Many countries all over the World have this issue. In germany they have every six months a job-fair in the university where students just walk by and can talk to professionals or going to visit a presentation.
Key is that the industry is keen, are they willing to invest in young potentials in Australia or do they just want to have temporary expensive contractors to fill gaps?
I have never experienced a stronger contracting market than in Australia in most of the countries in Europe contracting is the exemption, so what would help is a cutural change
and show everyone how much of an advantage it can be to get new blood and creativity. But we have a very strong competitor, the current market driven by the recruitment agencies.

University - ACS - Industry connect them, uni provides the future professionals, ACS can steer the board and the Industry shows us the demand.

Have all a really good new year!

have a clue whats going on in the real world - UNI and 9 years of international IT career

IT GRADS The worlds of the doctor,lawyer, engineer, tourist industry worker, teacher, and the commerce force, are all familiar to us.even a layman, who does not have any of the above qualifications, can visualize at the drop of a hat, a light and color version of all the shops and institutions connected to the above mentioned people;in his imagined urban place like Google map unfolding.we know where to go, who to ask and most important what to ask, if the need arises, from the professionals and their places-the multi-complexes belonging to the above mentioned professions in our city.but when it comes to the world of the IT graduates, and this world is big globally-it draws a blank when we try to imagine it.why are we so unfamiliar with it?even those who have a little knowledge about it are soon thrown off the track.IT develops fast, rejects the old, adds the new, focuses on its IT graduates and workers, holds conversation with them, and the IT people have exclusive magazines and exclusive ADS!then there are so many IT products and services, you just do not know where to begin.if anybody who is not an IT person is asked to think of an IT park he will just hum and haw. if non digital- literate people having a small office or a private clinic, want to work using IT services and products, they would not know where to start, what to ask for exactly, or to put into words what are their needs.everything IT is cut out and made for big corporate sectors and multinationals,whereas people working from home even if they do connect to big institutions having their colleague professionals working there and they all are connected to their clients; and the database flows to all of them;yetfor a private worker to convert his office to a complete "IT-ised" affair is very difficult.a worker belonging to a big organisation, but working from home, and staying connected to the bigger arena and the clients allotted to him is a different matter.here he is not running his own private office and doing his own entire thing. he is just a dot, like the several other dots connected to the big organisation.the dots get their orders from the big top. The misfits of science and its recent IT branch I was weak in MATHS I still got on with life somehow, I could not understand science Still the world went round with me, wow!! I am just slow to understand the IT lingo, And I AM STRUCK OFF!! the very path of progress, bingo.

Myself working in IT sector,Its really difficult nowedays to get into IT field for the freshers struggling for job because of Recession.

For your information find some exciting jobs in IT field and other sectors for any positions.

Visit:http://www.jobsinworld.com/Part-Time/jobs-in/Australia