[clug] Career advice in Canberra market?

[Andrew Steele]

Given your posting here, I'm presuming you're looking for Unix related work.

I had my position as a Solaris/Linux admin made redundant last year.  It took me a while to find work.  I suspect that was probably mainly due to my lack of job hunting skills (as I jokingly said to people, I'd not needed to apply for work since the Internet has been around!).

But the most interesting observation was with regards to security clearances.

Making broad generalisations:

If you have no clearance, or a baseline clearance, most admin roles are for Windows.
Unix admins are required to have either NV2, NV2 or TSPV.

You can't get a clearance yourself, you must be sponsored by a potential employer.  A potential employer is far more likely to sponsor your clearance if you currently have work, than if you are out of work awaiting clearance before you can start - because they realise you need to put food on the table until you are cleared.

My suggestion would be if you have no clearance, while you still have work apply for a job (any job) that will sponsor your clearance, get the clearance, start that job, and then if you're unhappy find something you want to do - that will be a lot easier once you are cleared.

The other advantage of being cleared, is that work that requires a clearance, is not likely to be off shored.

Of course, this is what I found in the admin space, I don't know if the same goes for development roles.

Andrew

On 18/06/2014, at 2:09 PM, Paul <mylists at wilsononline.id.au> wrote:

> hi,
> Can any one give me some advice on what the market is like in there department or company.
> 
> Also should I retrain and what are peoples opinions on what skills are and will be in demand.
> e.g. programming languages, frameworks or software.
> 
> Note I'm not expecting any jobs offers from this.. but If you do know of any contacts to pursue please let me know that would be appreciated. My main objective is to obtain some knowledge about the IT market in Canberra.
> 
> I do know the Federal public service is currently in a downwards cycle and possibly the same for private companies, so if/when it does pick up I wanted to make sure I am prepared with the right skills and information.
> 
> thanks
> Paul Wilson
> 
> 
> 
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