ODHRAN O’BRIEN

Where are you from in Ireland?
Templeogue, Dublin.

When did you come to Australia? Under what circumstances?
We got here in July 2007. My wife is a doctor, so she is on a consultancy programme over here so that’s the reason we came over. I had a sports advertising business at home and I had been running that for about four years but I wanted a change as well. The thing about doctors is they generally tend to go to Canada or Australia but the standard of living here is a bit better, so we plumped for Australia.

What do you do for a living?
I’m an IT recruitment consultant, so I work with Charterhouse in Melbourne. We’ve got three offices in Australia – Melbourne, Sydney and Perth – and we’re in Abu Dhabi and Singapore. I work with IT recruitment in the energy and utility sectors. Most of the people I would be placing would be project managers, business analysts. I work with the Origins of this world and AGLs.

Describe your career path.
I’ve an arts degree in German and Economics. I was working with Logica [an IT and business services provider], because they had bought an Irish company. They pioneered the commercialisation of text messaging. I got a job with them in Dusseldorf, Germany because I had fluent German. After that I went back [to Ireland] and did a postgrad in IT. But I had come across a business idea from a friend that I used to play soccer with in Germany. That’s when I set up Club Print. I signed long-term deals with rugby clubs around the country, starting out with Terenure Rugby Club. It was an initiative where I would sell advertising to local businesses. I noticed there was less take-up around July 2007. I thought I was losing my pitch but it turns out things were just tightening up. I sold it in the end.

Was it easy to use your Irish experience to get a start in Australia?
If you come over here with specific skills, it’s fine but I just found that because I had been working for myself for four years in a niche environment I found it a bit tougher. But I suppose that is how I got into recruitment.

What recommendations would you give someone looking to work and live in Australia?
Try plan ahead, if you’ve got any contacts. In Melbourne, people are willing to sit down and have a coffee with you. Try to get the lie of the land as soon as possible. People might have to lower their expectations slightly and take one or two steps back. Maybe don’t come over all gung-ho. But if you’re any good you’ll find that you can move up the ladder pretty quickly here.

What, if anything, do you miss about Ireland?
I don’t regret it at all that we came over. Just the distance. It is a hard place to get back to. What we miss is the family support. We have two kids and when we were growing up we would see our cousins regularly but it’s not the same for them. But if you’re in any way sociable you will meet people quickly. There are worse places to be!

Westmeath native Kenny Dowling says he loved his time working on farm in in Cordillo Downs, South Australia.

Kenny Dowling and Anne Marie Flattery had not intended to work on a two million-acre farm in rural Australia, but that’s what happened.

Kenny, 24, who is from Athlone, Co Westmeath, and his girlfriend Anne Marie, 25, from Ballymahon, arrived in Australia in early 2009 and saw a ‘help wanted’ ad for station hands on the remote Cordillo Downs cattle station in South Australia.

“We thought we’d stay for three months so we could get the second year working holiday visa, but we ended up loving it and staying for 10 months,” Kenny told the Irish Echo while on holiday with Anne Marie and his parents John and Phyllis in Cairns.

Backpackers from Ireland and many other countries are helping to fill gaps in the rural workforce, often doing jobs Australians no longer want to do.

This has become so prevalent that ABC television’s 7.30 Report recently made a programme about the trend, with Kenny and Anne Marie the centrepieces of the story.

For Anne Marie, who has no rural background, the ways of the Outback were a steep learning process.

“After the flies and the mozzies you kinda get used to it pretty quick. But it’s definitely something you have to get used to, the heat and everything, but it’s good,” she told ABC.

Kenny took a little while to adjust to the sheer vastness of Cordillo Downs.

“It’s unbelievable compared to what I’m used to. It’s acres upon acres of sand and grass compared to small fields at home. You know, it’s just bare compared to what we’d be used to,” he said.

Anne Marie vividly recalls the first night they spent in a mustering camp.

“There was a couple of cattle coming in, [they] took our water that night where we were and I nearly had a heart attack. I was waking Kenny. But you know, you get used to everything,” she said.

Kenny says the remoteness and getting away from it all was what attracted him to the Outback. “It’s the beauty, isn’t it lovely? It’s relaxing compared to the hustle and bustle in the city. You know, you come out here, it’s a lovely way of life,” he said.

Kenny has learnt a lot in his time on the station. “Even breaking horses is different here,” he said.

The Irish couple’s employers Janet and Anthony Brook say the station’s isolation makes hiring staff difficult. “I think [people] are too used to creature comforts in and around the cities; the cinemas and the cafes and things like that,” Anthony said.

“Our nearest town is 180km away but it is a two-and-a-half hour drive. So that’s where the nearest pub is,” Janet said.

“We’ve put ads in papers and we’ve left them in there for a month and got two people apply. So generally we’ll take anyone. Anyone who answers the ad.”
Kenny and Anne Marie answered their ad. “We’ve just been very lucky over the last couple of years to have this Irish crew come through,” said Janet, who formed a strong bond with the Irish backpackers.

“We eat together, we work together and we have fun together. We go to the gymkhanas, and the races and have our own barbecues. So you do actually form these good ties with the people who are working with you at the time,” she said.

“When you get on well with them, it’s taking it to the next level. They become friends instead of a boss,” said Kenny.

Taking part in a rodeo was another thing Kenny was unlikely ever to get an opportunity to do in Ireland.

“Buck jumping was something I have always wanted to do, and you only ever see it on TV. And to get the opportunity to go out on a rodeo was absolutely great,” he said.

Next up for Kenny and Anne Marie is the far more sedate environs of Canberra. Having secured their second year working holiday visa, Kenny, who is a qualified carpenter, is hopeful a friend can line up some work for him. Anne Marie, who managed a sports store in Ireland, is hopeful of finding similar work in the capital.

But they’ll never forget their time at Cordillo Downs.

“To come out and see what central Australia and the Outback really is, is just unbelievable. No matter how much you see on TV or how much you read about it, when you come and experience it, it’s unbelievable,” he said.

by Pádraig Collins

It has seen its fair share of ups and downs in recent years, with the dotcom crash of 2000 and the subsequent boom period, but while other industries are cutting costs and freezing recruitment, the IT sector is currently looking relatively healthy for 2009.

Times are by no means easy, but the demand is still present for software developers, in particular, in most of the major cities. Word on the ground is that those who are highly skilled, flexible and prepared to negotiate on salary should find employment without too much difficulty.

Last week’s Hays Recruitment Quarterly Report on IT found that recruitment in the industry is still ongoing in many sectors and that highly skilled technical candidates remain in demand. Large government-funded projects such as the Australian National Broadband Network will require a significant number of skilled workers and even the private sector is still recruiting – albeit at a slightly slower pace.

According to Peter Noblet of Hays Recruitment, contractors are currently much more in demand than those seeking permanent positions.

 “We’re seeing a lot more contract roles coming up as companies become that bit more circumspect about their recruitment policies,” he told the Irish Echo. “A contractor is more flexible than a permanent worker and with everything that is going on in the economy at the moment, that is what most employers are looking for.

“There is still a shortage of skilled workers in many areas of development, such as Dot.Net, Voiceover IP, Java and J2EE. But the right experience, knowledge and business acumen is essential. Average workers will struggle.”

Finding a job depends on where you’re living as well as your skill set. Sydney, the traditional hub of IT activity, has seen a distinct slowdown, but still has by far the most positions available. Brisbane is suffering slightly due to the mining industry slowdown, but is still relatively buoyant, according to recruiters.

By contrast, Melbourne has seen a dramatic downturn, according to the general manager of Finite IT Recruitment Solutions, Duncan Thomson. As a result, many workers are investigating a move to Canberra, which is seeing a surge in job opportunities in the IT sector.

“Melbourne is a tough market for IT at the moment,” Thomson told the Irish Echo. “I would say it is one of the toughest markets in Australia.”

Finite IT have seen the number of applications for jobs around Australia double in the last nine months, he added.

“We are now getting double the volume of response to each ad we place,” he said. “I think on reflection it’s a lot tougher out there than it was this time last year…The market is an awful lot slower. But things are still looking optimistic for the year ahead. There is always demand for good quality IT professionals.”

When software developer Stephen Price, 31, from Dublin, arrived in Sydney in January 2007, he had a range of job offers to choose from. Having acquired residency through his skilled occupation, Price found jobs in both contract and permanent positions were plentiful.

“When I arrived in Sydney, it was in the middle of an IT boom and there were more jobs available than people to fill them,” he told the Irish Echo. “I actually had a choice between four different jobs around the city and I found that, as a contractor, the money was better in Australia than Ireland.”

However, as the economy worsened at the end of last year, Price was let go from his company and found himself searching for work at the worst possible time of year.

 “There are still jobs out there but these days there are more people looking and less jobs available,” he said. “I was lucky enough to get a good role at a good rate, but the other jobs I was in the running for were not positions I would be interested in when times are good. I think IT professionals who are on Working Holiday Visas or are looking for sponsorship might struggle to get work in the current market.”

 Aidan McGowran, 26, from Dublin, was also searching for work in Sydney last month and found his Working Holiday Visa was a distinct disadvantage in the eyes of recruiters. Despite this, he found it much easier to secure a job than he had initially feared.

“I thought it would be tough to find employment during December and January, which are traditionally very slow months for recruitment in Australia, and I doubted the recession would make things easier,” he said. “But there seemed to be a decent number of jobs available, although the rates on offer were slightly lower than previously.”

As the markets in Europe and the US continue to slide, it is inevitable that more IT professionals are going to descend Down Under. Recruiters are already seeing a surge in Australians returning from overseas in search of work, and there has been an increase in the numbers of people overseas applying for skilled migration visas.

 “There are certainly more and more candidates looking for work,” Noblet said. “But this is no Dot.Com crash. I still think the jobs market will be pretty good in the first quarter of 2009.”

by Isabel Hayes