

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

Hi HN!<p>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!<p>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.<p>How do these rules affect you, if at all?
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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JamesPeterson
Nay; Edmonton, on the south side. I did attend Cairns SHS from 2004-2006, if
that's of help.

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jacques_chester
OT: HN formats paras using double newlines.

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JamesPeterson
Fixed. Thanks!

