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Ask HN: Aussies, to what extent do high labour costs restrict you?

6 points by JamesPeterson ↗ HN
Hi HN!

I'm looking at taking a year out and doing something completely different; to draw away from my current domains (finance/government bleh) to doing something interesting and of value. The problem is, if I want to take an entry-level role the employer has to drop a significant investment in me!

I'm looking for a junior business development role, but the problem is these only exist at Big Co. They seem happy to take me on, but the work always seems to be of no value (ie. crappy products). Small firms don't seem to be able to open these positions up.

How do these rules affect you, if at all?

10 comments

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samlev
It probably depends on where you are.

In Brisbane, there seemed to me to be a noticeable lack of decent IT jobs going. There were a few out there, but most of them were either "Big Co./Government", or small dev shops which had a very high turnover due to low pay, and relatively crappy work environments (there seems to be a lack of "Managers who can").

Of course, that is my experience with one city. Australia just isn't a great ecosystem for funky cool tech start-ups, and probably won't be for a long time (comparatively poor internet access/speeds, small population, really out of the way compared to... well... anywhere in North America or Europe... we're not well positioned).

That's how I see it anyway. Others may have different opinions, or have seen the dev world there differently to me.

JamesPeterson
I am also in Brisbane, though the roles I'm looking at aren't necessarily in IT; this problem does not seem specific to the IT industry here.
samlev
Yeah, Brisbane is suffering from too many people, not enough companies. We're not as out-of-the-way as say, Adelaide, but there's really nothing there to draw companies.

Oh well, maybe if enough disgruntled workers get fed up enough, they'll start their own successful start-ups, and draw other companies to the area.

JamesPeterson
I grew up in Cairns, a small city in far north Queensland. When it came time to go to uni, a huge subset of our year shifted to Brisbane (those looking on - Brisbane is Queensland's capital city and has far better tertiary education available than the rest of the state). After uni, it seems everyone is shifting to Sydney/Melbourne.

This simply shows people will aggregate toward where opportunity pre-exists.

samlev
You say Cairns, but perhaps do you mean Atherton, or Tolga? Because that's where I grew up, and your name is awfully familiar.
JamesPeterson
Nay; Edmonton, on the south side. I did attend Cairns SHS from 2004-2006, if that's of help.
dmharrison
I haven't found that. I've moved back about a year ago and found despite being less that syd/canberra it's still pretty solid, even with the financial climate.

There's a few startups dotted round and some now big ones as well mincom, tech1, ... I think there are quite a few around however they stay quite and do tend to be more enterprise focussed, which makes sense for here. I don't think you're going to get many aus backers without really clear revenue plan hence targeting people who clearly have money. Seems to be slowly opening up though.

Walking round YOW this year you could pick out a few startups round. The lean startups and mike lee's product dev talks were pretty well attended so maybe there'll be a spate in the next 9 months.

dmharrison
I'm also in Brisbane (moved back from canberra) and it does seem more service orientated, hence consulting/corporate/mining, however it's the same anywhere. Most great jobs aren't advertised and you get them through doing great work and building a network of people who can get you that awesome job hence are biased toward proof in the form of experience and social connections/proof. I've done the corporate drill but I figure as long as you've got a goal|outcome, an exit plan and timeframe it can be worth it.

Small firms/startups for bizdev are likely to target experienced people recruited from networks even more than bigCo IMHO.