point
The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

Australia beckons Indian Techies

Ashwini Kachapeswaran
Friday, December 2, 2005
Ashwini Kachapeswaran
While the demand for qualified and experienced tech professionals outstrips supply, organizations and countries innovate to attract talent to their shores. Whether it is the U.S. considering hiking H-1B quota or the U.K. coming up with impressive visa features or Australia proposing lower degree requirements for experienced IT professionals, there is a definitive movement among each country to woo the best and the brightest.

Despite a fluctuating employee headcount, Oracle Australia posted a net profit of $39 million in 12 months, increasing the revenue by 8.9 percent to reach $276.3 million over the same period, and announced plans to expand in Australia.

Coming at the heels of the Oracle announcement is the Queensland government’s proposal asking employers to reduce degree requirements for IT professionals. Though this proposal is at an early stage, it could prove golden for experienced tech professionals backed up by a non-engineering degree. Confirming the need for skilled labor, the Australian commission in India completed an “Australia Needs Skilled Workers,” expo in October.

With definitive agenda to hire more and increase the size of its skilled migration in the coming years, tech professionals can see a glorious era of migration to Australia. At present tech professionals can choose to work in Australia through the sponsored employee option or the skilled worker visa option. In the past eight years the skilled worker visas has been increased consecutively to the present level of 97,500.

It is not only the number of visas that are impressive in Australia, but also their salary packages. According to salary surveys the average pay for a techie with three years of experience ranges between 36,000 to 47,000 Australian Dollars per year. “There is a heavy need for experienced techies in Australia where the industry is just beginning to open up,” says Sriram Srinivasan, Tech Lead at a leading networking company in Australia, with headquarters in the U.S.


Share on Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Share on facebook