Graduate Careers

Employment outlook

The IT employment outlook within Australia remains strong. Leading recruitment specialists report solid growth in the number of IT positions advertised across all skill and experience levels over the past 12 months. A robust economy and heavy investment in infrastructure by Australia’s top 100 companies are two of the major factors underpinning the buoyant market.

Graduates entering the IT industry can expect competitive salaries that compare extremely well to other industry sectors. Of course, salaries vary depending on roles and experience, but graduates can generally expect to start on a salary ranging from $42,000 to $62,000, which is among the highest on offer for graduate positions.

Dynamic career paths

IT is one of a few careers that allow you to combine your skills with whatever industry sector you feel passionate about and wish to work in. IT is pervasive, and is a critical component across every organisation in every industry. From health, security, mining, retail, education and government, to finance, hospitality, business, management, tourism and entertainment, IT is the core that keeps the organisation running.

Today, in addition to technical skills and experience, employers place a high value on business knowledge and communications skills. Visit www.ictcareers.info for information about the diverse range of roles available to IT professionals.

Beyond the graduate market

Salaries for IT professionals across the board have shown steady growth over the past 12 months with average increases of 4.9% over the 12 months to May 2008, according to the ACS 2008 Remuneration survey. Salaries in the private sector increased by 5.1%, compared to 4.1% in the public sector, and 3.6% in the education sector.

The global nature of the IT sector also creates international travel and work opportunities. The ACS has been working to achieve accreditation to the International Federation for Information Processing’s IP3 program, which will afford professional members international certified recognition for their knowledge and skills, making it even easier to work overseas.

Skills in demand

IT is suffering from a global skills shortage, which is creating increasing opportunities for professionals.

IT roles even accounted for six of the 20 hottest recession-proof professions according to a survey by US job placement firm, JobFox.

The study found that the skills most in demand and most likely to enjoy strong security in coming years were software design and development, networking and systems administration, software implementation analysis, testing and quality assurance, database administration and general IT management with cutting edge mobile IT and Web 2.0 skills.

Many of these roles increasingly require not only strong technical skills but also highly developed ‘soft skills’ in communication, negotiation, presentation, change management and more, suggesting that the ‘geek’ stereotype of the past has become truly irrelevant to today’s modern IT professional.

Yohan Ramasundara is director of the ACS Young IT Professionals Board and the ACS representative to the South East Asian Regional Computer Confederation. He is also the Vice Chairman of the ACS Canberra Board. Yohan is currently employed by IP Australia, a federal government agency, as Assistant Director Audit, Evaluation and Risk Management. He was highly commended in the 2007 Professions Australia Young Professional of the Year award.

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