Australia beckons Indian Techies Date:   Friday , December 02, 2005 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. While disconcerting news about heavy layoffs by Telstra make techie wary of venturing into this island nation, one also sees abundant opportunities. With the Information Technology in Australia rated as the youngest and fastest growing industry with a 12 percent growth rate each year, Australia hold promise for techies. “A lot of Fortune 100 companies have set up shop here, and many home grown companies are beginning to expand globally,” Srinivasan says. It is not just the Information Technology that is in demand in Australia, vast opportunities are available the areas of electrical, chemical and civil engineering, health care services, finance and accounting and more. In an effort to attract talent, by the end of 2005, the country hopes to add 20,000 additional places to where professionals can immigrate to in Australia.The Australian Department for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs and Australian industry will also run joint recruitment events in India to better match skilled professionals with employers who are finding it difficult to recruit skilled workers locally.