While there are still numerous HR Web sites offering IT professionals offshore opportunities, most remain because the Webmaster didn't bother to turn off the page when the lights in the office went out permanently.
Karen Davies, senior executive consultant with IT recruitment company Reddin, has watched the market decline and shift egged on by the economic climate. Having travelled from the UK in 1999 she has seen the overseas demand for Australian IT talent wane substantially.
"When I left the UK, there were still plenty of opportunities," Davies said. "But you were only really in the running if you had chalked up a bit of experience."
Although IT graduates can no longer jump directly on a plane, or directly into work, it is more likely these days for IT workers to travel within the company for which they're already working. And even in slow times the right skills combination and a sense of adventure will enable many to track down those opportunities that are still available. However, without the promise of streets paved with English pounds or US dollars, adventure and not money has become the central focus of Aussie IT expats in places like Eastern Europe, Asia and South America.
According to Norbert Kiss, currently doing a stint in Singapore with systems integrator Geac, the global slowdown has particularly affected Australian IT workers because of their high salary expectations.
"Companies are moving to cheaper countries and employing cheaper staff," Kiss says. "Australians are a good link between the East and West, they tend to be culturally sensitive and in many instances offer a broad appreciation of the region."
However, Kiss points out that the Asian region consists of seven or eight different markets each requiring a slightly different approach.
"This (travel) makes you as an individual far more flexible in your approach to business," Kiss said.
Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests returning IT expats are finding it increasingly hard to use their skills as a meal ticket.
Paul Crisp, development and marketing director of the IT Skills Hub, an IT employment and training portal launched in December 1999 as a spin-off of the IT&T Skills Task Force, is calling for calm in the jobs market.
"We have seen a noticeable increase in people hitting the jobs board on the site, and from the feedback we have been receiving a lot of people who have been out of work for a long time," Crisp said. "A lot of people were expecting to return to Australia and walk straight into good positions based on the overseas experience, but given the market in Australia that isn't necessarily what has happened."
But whilst the current climate doesn't allow them instant entry onto the IT gravy train, a stint abroad provides most expats with technical, managerial or cultural insight they would be hard pressed to come across at home.
Recently returned from a four-and-a-half-year stint in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, with Australian software development company Prophecy International, Andy Wong believes the offshore experience provided him with significant insight into both management and dealing with overseas partners.
"I learnt more management and basic survival skills that I would have been exposed to here," Wong explained.
Distant climbs can also provide exposure to a range of technologies not yet seen in Australia. Geoff Horne, a senior network engineer currently working in the US with IT event management group Key3Media, said his position in the US earns him greater money, respect, and access to technology than it would in Australia. He seems most excited by the pervasiveness of IT, especially the Internet.
"The best thing about the US is that the Internet is everywhere, and I mean everywhere," Horne said. "But, like it or not you will put on weight, they have a lot of fatty food and you can't get small portions of anything."
A stint in an overseas office can also simply provide a chance to do something different.
On his way to a position in the UK, iTouch software developer Ben Dinnerville stopped over to in Cape Town, South Africa where he has already found all-important insight into the professional development opportunities provided by a trip overseas.
"It can be a chance to stay with the same company, but still take a fresh start," Dinnerville said. "It allows you to define yourself better, or move in a different direction."
And although the crime rate is a concern, he says South Africa is not as bad as it is portrayed in Australia.
"I am having a ball with the locals, I might try to seek out some other expats," Dinnerville said. "It can be difficult figuring out the localisms, like what to expect when you order food, or how to understand some of the work practices."
While Crisp conceded that the expat experience does not provide instant entry into the IT industry as it once did, he points out that the skills acquired through travel remain an important element of occupational development.
"There are specific technical areas which are experiencing greater demand at the moment, but work experience outside Australia will be well regarded in terms of general career development regardless of the skills base," Crisp said.
"Make no mistake, the market will come back again. When it does the recovery will by IT lead, and those with the right combination of cultural knowledge and skills will do well."
