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The fact that there is so little software work in Australia and that it pays much less means that about a third of my graduating class works in the US now, and

The fact that there is so little software work in Australia and that it pays much less means that about a third of my graduating class works in the US now, and it's not the mediocre folks. Most of the good folks who stayed went into PhD programs/NICTA.

meric 9y ago
I'm working in a company, so many of my colleagues were former-NICTA.
madeofpalk 9y ago
> there is so little software work in Australia Is this actually true? Maybe me and my friends have all been extremely fortunate, but none of us have ever had a trouble getting a job doing development and being paid well. Sure, there's a smaller amount of cool, hip, early-stage startups to go work at compared to... New York, but still there are loads of people hiring if all the recruiter spam is anything to go by.
- Eridrus 9y ago
  Maybe I didn't look hard enough, but it seemed like the main companies in Sydney were Atlassian, Google and banks. And SF/NYC is exactly what I'm comparing it to. I mean, I live in NYC now and don't have any real desire to move back. Definitely interested in hearing about your experience though, what's the most interesting software stuff going on in Australia?
  - madeofpalk 9y ago
    I previously worked at Nine (their digital arm, formally known as Mi9) building their VOD platforms which was an amazing experience of great project with great developers and designers. Made friends there for life. Now, I'm at an airline (well, at a digital agency who are at an airline) working on their new inflight wifi product. It's pretty interesting, talking to all sorts of APIs onboard the plane, super optimising the site so its still fast to run over a satellite connection. Yeah, Sydney isn't San Francisco - that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Jobs still exists, but most of them are in stable companies. If you want that 'startup life', go move to SF.

meric 9y ago

I'm working in a company, so many of my colleagues were former-NICTA.

madeofpalk 9y ago

> there is so little software work in Australia Is this actually true? Maybe me and my friends have all been extremely fortunate, but none of us have ever had a trouble getting a job doing development and being paid well. Sure, there's a smaller amount of cool, hip, early-stage startups to go work at compared to... New York, but still there are loads of people hiring if all the recruiter spam is anything to go by.

Eridrus 9y ago
Maybe I didn't look hard enough, but it seemed like the main companies in Sydney were Atlassian, Google and banks. And SF/NYC is exactly what I'm comparing it to. I mean, I live in NYC now and don't have any real desire to move back. Definitely interested in hearing about your experience though, what's the most interesting software stuff going on in Australia?
- madeofpalk 9y ago
  I previously worked at Nine (their digital arm, formally known as Mi9) building their VOD platforms which was an amazing experience of great project with great developers and designers. Made friends there for life. Now, I'm at an airline (well, at a digital agency who are at an airline) working on their new inflight wifi product. It's pretty interesting, talking to all sorts of APIs onboard the plane, super optimising the site so its still fast to run over a satellite connection. Yeah, Sydney isn't San Francisco - that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Jobs still exists, but most of them are in stable companies. If you want that 'startup life', go move to SF.