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Looking for advise from Aussies and Kiwis
Arik
Galen's Apprentice
in Zocalo v2.0
This thread's primary goal is to get some advise on high tech career opportunities in Australia and New Zealand. I'm pretty long-winded about it, but hopefully the post will make sense if you have the patience to read it all the way through. ;)
My wife is an aussie but we live in the US right now. Since we met, we've been sort of considering moving either to Australia or New Zealand eventually, most likely in the next 3-5 years. When it comes to deciding where to move, the top choices are either Auckland, NZ or Brisbane, AU (well, Brisbane or somewhere around the gold coast... in that area).
Now for my question... what is the high tech industry like there, amount of jobs, quality of employers, etc in and around Auckland and Brisbane? I'm not just looking for someone to spell it all out for me -- if you have a reference web site(s) I could use as a starting point in such research, that'd help too.
TIA!
My wife is an aussie but we live in the US right now. Since we met, we've been sort of considering moving either to Australia or New Zealand eventually, most likely in the next 3-5 years. When it comes to deciding where to move, the top choices are either Auckland, NZ or Brisbane, AU (well, Brisbane or somewhere around the gold coast... in that area).
Now for my question... what is the high tech industry like there, amount of jobs, quality of employers, etc in and around Auckland and Brisbane? I'm not just looking for someone to spell it all out for me -- if you have a reference web site(s) I could use as a starting point in such research, that'd help too.
TIA!
Comments
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Brisvegas sucks, its the worst parts of 1950's conservatism mashed into a mid 90's greedy cynical mould.
I'd head for Perth, if indeed you can find a job that suits there.
Point Google at 'Perth AU' and you should be fine. :)
What I'm trying to find out is the general "market strength" of the high tech industry around Brisbane, and the quality of employment.
EDIT -- Just reread your email... so I guess you are saying I should give up on Brisbane entirely and focus on other parts of Australia? My wife grew up in Brisbane and she quite liked it. We are both very liberal in our views, so a truly conserative city would indeed suck. However, Brisbane did not strike me as being conservative during my visit there. Also, if I skipped Brisbane, wouldn't Sydney be the most logical place for high tech?
I quite liked Brisbane during my 1 week there last year, but I don't know what it'd be like to live there. :)
As for NZ: the short answer is that we have a major shortage of high tech people (among other areas) to the point where the government is having to intervene to make it significantly easier for migrants to come here to live and work in those fields. What particular kind of "high tech" are you referring to?
I'll give the long answer when I've finished my DVDs.
[B]What particular kind of "high tech" are you referring to?
[/B][/QUOTE]
I've done a bit of everything, except for quality assurance. Anything that's in the list below would do. My ideal preference is Software Engineering, but given the outsourcing trend, it seems like doing business consulting work (aka professional services) is safer since it's harder to outsource, so I've been doing that for the last two and a half years.
So far I've had about 5-6 years of "corporate" work experience, and have done 6 months of development support (sort of like tech support but actually required creative thinking), about 6 months of IT (setting up a startup company network infrastructure from scratch, etc), 2+ years of software engineering (Java) both doing both UI and Server development though I prefer UI web based stuff... umm... and then 2+ years of professional services work, doing a lot of database stuff and SQL (integration of various disperate data systems, heavy data modeling, etc)
if you want dedicated headhunting sites or employment sites :
[url]http://www.careerone.com.au/[/url]
[url]http://www.jobsearch.com.au/[/url]
jobsearch has a dedicated IT sector section
If you want a more liberal city, you want Sydney, home to the Gay and Lesbian Mardi gras, which is a massive event, and damn fine for everyone, gay or 'breeder'.
You wont find much 'hippy shit' in Brisbane. I seriously reccomend against it, even given your wifes roots there. I think that perhaps if she chose to live elsewhere in AU for a while she may end up agreeing with me/Biggles/lots of people. :)
Is there a good Australian site that will compare the various major metropolitan areas of the country?
Also, there's that whole drought thing going on... I wonder if that could impact the IT industry.
Here's an apparently good job site for NZ: [url]http://seek.co.nz/[/url]. Have a look under the "engineering" section too, as often computer jobs can be found in there as well.
You'd almost certainly want to be in Auckland if you decided to come to NZ. It's the major population centre of the country (next one down is Christchurch at about 300,000 :)). It's also quite a liberal city in general. It's hard not to be with this many cultures mashed in to gether (no such thing as "chinatown" or "little italy" here). It generally has a fairly relaxed way of life, although not as relaxed as the rest of the country. Plus, if you like liberal you'll like NZ. :D
Oh, and no droughts here. Stupid rain. GO AWAY! Give me back my sunshine! And not for the usual 30 minutes either!
[B]Another one? Seems I get a question like this from a firstone every other month. :D [/B][/QUOTE]
Whatever do you mean Biggles? :D
Seriously though, if the wife was up for the challenge we'd be coming over...
;)
[B]Another one? Seems I get a question like this from a firstone every other month. :D
[/B][/QUOTE]
Indeed, :)
I'll be landing at Auckland airport on Monday.
Got any "must see" tourist locations you can recommend?
Then there's a zoo... also the stinky place... very nice museums. and stuff
srry, just had to post it. :D :D
[B]there's also chopper tours of LOTR filming sites.
srry, just had to post it. :D :D [/B][/QUOTE]
Given sufficient time to myself I'd do that (I still might regardless) but I have to take some heathen unbelievers along with me.:rolleyes:
Alaric: Landing for how long? :) I'll email you a brief list of things to do tonight.
Anyway, the universities are pretty good in general. I don't know much about their writing degrees, but if you like I can ask my friend who's doing the sort of degree you do if you want to be an author.
Heh, I'd like to get away from the United States, but I don't think it's going to happen before I'm emancipated.
Well, if you do decide to be serious about it I can put you in touch with Mr Learning-to-be-a-Novelist.
(Arik, you can have your thread back now. ;))
[B]Hmm... Google tells me that $1 USD = $1.3 NZD[/B][/QUOTE]
More buying power! Yay! :D
[B]Rotarua (sp?) [/B][/QUOTE]
Rotorua... ;)
BTW, Thank you Biggles! Did I tell you I got it?
;)
[B]Fees are significantly cheaper here too. :)
[/B][/QUOTE]
I'm not sure I agree with that. While it's true that things come out cheaper for an American who is taking a vacation in New Zealand, things appear to be pretty expensive for people who actually live in NZ.
For example, computers/electronics appeared to be twice the price of what they are in America. For example, at the time I was there, a PS2 was 250 in the US, and around 500 in NZ. At the time I was visiting, exchange rate was about 1 USD : 2 NZD, so it came out about even.
What I don't understand is how Kiwis, who earn their salary in NZD, can afford things like that. One theory I had was that the salary was double what it is in the US, but I checked a couple of salary sites and that does not appear to be the case. Jobs that pay 40/50k USD a year here pay 30k NZD a year in New Zealand.
The only other explanation is that cost of living is maybe cost of living is very low there (cheap food, cheap housing, free universal healthcare?), but I don't think that's the case either... so I'm quite baffled...
The cost of living here is low, especially outside Auckland. A good example is one you mentioned: free universal healthcare. Housing isn't that cheap recently thanks to a boom in property prices (it's about to burst) but still on the cheap side in general. I don't know how food prices compare, but here a loaf of bread will cost around $NZ1.75 and our weekly groceries costs for 4 adults is about $NZ80. And fees are cheaper here. My entire BE degree (8 semesters) cost around $NZ20000. From what I've heard that'll get you a semester in most US universities. Yay for government funding. :) Of course, international students have to pay full rate, usually around $NZ20000 a year.
Things like computer parts and PS2s won't be as cheap as in the US because we are a very small, very isolated market.
Of course, I don't know how this compares with the US, but I do know it is significantly cheaper than the cost of living for my brother in England, some friends in South Hampton, and for people in Asian places like Singapore and Hong Kong.
[B]Alaric: Landing for how long? :) I'll email you a brief list of things to do tonight. [/B][/QUOTE]
Hi, Thanks.
I'll be in NZ until Jan 3rd.
A bit of a scouting mission.
Auckland:
[list][*]Climb to the summit of Rangitoto.
[*]Visit the War Memorial Museum.
[*]Go to the top of the Sky Tower. Jump off if you're feeling in the mood.
[*]Visit a west coast beach (Muriwai is a good choice).
[*]Go to Devenport, visit North Head and all the 19th century to WW2 fortifications (ie, tunnels) - take a torch.
[*]Visit Kelly Tarlton's, the world's first underwater world. See real live penguins.
[*]Visit Mt Eden and One Tree Hill.[/list]
Rotorua:
I'll leave this to the tourist centres. There's more to do here than you'll have time for. If you can afford it, though, go on a site-seeing flight over Tarawera, or at the very least a boat trip on Lake Tarawera.
Wellington (Not the most exciting town, if you ask me):
[list][*]Visit Te Papa.
[*]Visit the Bee Hive.
[*]Stand at the end of the runway at the airport and watch a plane land a few metres above your head.
[*]Ride the cable car up the hill.
[*]Have a look at Peter Jackson's studios from the outside.[/list]
Christchurch (also not a huge tourist centre):
[list][*]Go on a day trip to the west coast by train (the [url=http://www.tranzscenic.co.nz/services/alpine.aspx]Trans Alpine Express[/url]). This is definitely worth doing.
[*]Visit the park.
[*]Visit the cathedral and square.[/list]
Dunedin (once again... not huge):
[list][*]Visit the albatross colony, see the dissapearing cannon.
[*]Go see Lanarch's Castle.[/list]
I'd recommend heading to Queenstown while you're in the South Island. There's more to do there than in Christchurch and Dunedin combined. Of course if it's a scouting trip you're probably more interested in the cities than the tourist centres. :)
[B][...]Dunedin[..][/B][/QUOTE]
It's like NZ was MADE as location for LotR... just add an a to that name...
[B]It's like NZ was MADE as location for LotR... just add an a to that name... [/B][/QUOTE]
Do they have a Rangers football team?