Which Australian city (Sydney or Melbourne) has got more IT or Software job opportunities & better salary?

Question

I am planning to move to one of these places (Sydney or Melbourne). Appreciate your help.

Answer 1

I was a senior manager with a consulting company and I did a lot of analysis on this and pay rates (charge out rates) in particular. (Now I run my own company)

It works out pretty much as there is more work in Melbourne IT with many major banks, telcos etc preferring it as a base. Sydney is more industrial (headquarter) oriented. Rates in Sydney are almost the same proportion higher than Melbourne as the difference between median house prices! (That number was about 35% three years ago).

Canberra has abundant IT work and cost of living is lower again (by about 15% over Melbourne). Charge out rates are similar to slightly lower than Melbourne but the work tends to be longer term contracts.

Perth is another place with many mining and financial headquarters. It is truly booming and I don't know but I reckon house prices are probably similar to Canberra.

That's consulting - I assume salaries follow pretty much the same trends.

Answer 2

It really depends on what kind of IT you are looking to get in to. Sydney has a larger population and more businesses, but Melbourne seems to have more financial businesses, such as ANZ bank.

You may not have considered: Canberra is the national capital and is in-land, between Sydney and Melbourne. As the seat of the government, there are a number of 'federal', military and agency organizations that are headquartered in ACT (Australia Capital Territory). The cost of living tends to be a bit less there as well, with equivalent salary to either of your other options.

Given a choice though, I'd definitely go with Sydney.

Answer 3

G'day,

Some terrific answers!!

I just have to add a little extra info on top of what already mentioned here:
1. Are you a PR or Australian citizen? If you are not Australian citizen, you cannot work in government organisations, which means that Canberra may not be that suitable for you.
2. I've been in the IT industry for over 7 years in Melbourne and I have experienced the ups and downs of IT demands during these periods. There were periods that even having in-house IT Dept was not that important anymore and therefore the companies/organisations started shrinking the IT dept or getting external contract. So it is hard to predict if the IT demands will be high or low when you come to Australia. Don't get me wrong, I am more than happy to welcome you to Australia, but I just dun want to sugarcoat the truth.

Sydney and Melbourne have the same demands. If you want to do your own research, it may not be a bad idea to check these Australian employment websites below.

Hope this helps. Good luck on your job hunting and welcome to Australia :)

Answer 4

This depends on what you want out of your lifestyle as there are other major cities as Hobart,Adelaide,Perth,Darwin,& then in each of the states there are the major cities.For example if you want to move to a warmer climate than Queensland is your first choice & Brisbane is the capitol of this state.There are alot of tourist facilities there & there is tht Goldcoast,Sunshine Coast which all have the possibility to attract people but with it comes a downside.This is that it is the perfect weather as they say but it is also becoming very populated as people are moving from the southern states to live in the warmer climate.Perth is a beautiful city of Western Australia & has beaches also but it is not regarded as a major tourist attraction & this is not saying it doesnt have the ability it is just that many people associate Australia with either Sydney Melbourne or Queensland.So it depends on what you want out of life as it will all depend on what you want as all part of Australia has its attractions on all aspects.Somw may have the beaches others may have the wildlife & others may have the old convict heritage way of life & then there is the true life of this country & this is the outback.Anywhere you go you will love it as long as you do your homework about the town & surroundings & most of all what is it that you like about this city/town.

Answer 5

I agree, it has to be Sydney.

Answer 6

sydney.