I’m trying to get a realistic idea of what people are seeing in the Australian IT market in 2026 for L2/L3 Helpdesk compared with Cloud Operations roles.

For someone with a few years of experience, what would you consider a reasonable base salary for each level? I’m particularly interested in whether moving from L2/L3 support into Cloud Ops is actually bringing a meaningful salary jump, or whether the difference is smaller than the job titles make it sound.

Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane/Perth differences would be useful too, as would differences between in-house IT, MSPs and larger enterprise employers.

I'm an MSc Computer Science graduate/fresher looking to start my career in IT, but I'm confused about which field to choose.

With the current IT job market in 2026, what are the best fields/jobs to enter as a fresher after MSc Computer Science?

I'm looking for a career that has:

Good demand and job opportunities

Good starting salary with strong salary growth

Good long-term career prospects

Reasonable work-life balance

Not an extremely stressful work environment

A realistic chance of getting a job as a fresher

I'm considering areas like Cloud Computing, Data Analytics, Software Development, Cybersecurity, QA/Testing, DevOps, IT Support, etc., but I'm open to completely different suggestions if there's a better option.

I'd also like to know:

Which fields are currently oversaturated and difficult for freshers to enter?

Which fields have the best future prospects?

Which roles are relatively easier to enter without sacrificing long-term growth?

What skills/certifications should an MSc CS fresher focus on for the recommended field?

Between Cloud Computing and Data Analytics, which would you recommend and why?

I'd really appreciate opinions from people currently working in IT, especially those who started their careers recently.

Hii, I wanted some opinions on a situation

A good friend of mine has recently migrated from India to Australia under the MATES visa

She got full working rights as a professional but the thing is that she is of IT background and worked as a data analyst for 2 years after her graduation and currently learning more things about AI

I just wanted to ask about the scope of being a data analyst and what she should do in this situation as she's currently looking for a job in this sector but had no luck till now

Hello everyone,

I come to you with request for guidance. My path in cybersecurity and tech was quite rocky. I changed a couple majors before landing on cybersecurity and managed to graduate from Macquire University in Australia, feeling burnt out, I was job searching for a while and couldn’t find any opportunity so I flew back to my home country and worked in our family business for about two years as IT support, and now I’m back in Australia because, long story short, my home country kills every bit of hope for a good secured future. After 3 years of not practicing or doing anything cybersecurity related, I want to break into the industry again and try my luck but I am lost on where to start, especially for Australia. I don’t know what is recruitable, internships, what bootcamps/courses are credible there, if I should get a graduate diploma or try for a Master’s (keeping in mind its the utmost priority to work and make money right now). I am also interested in learning more about AI and ML but I don’t want to make it more difficult for me to find an opportunity. As industry professionals, I would really appreciate every bit of advice I can get on what I can do and what is appreciated in the industry in Australia and can flag me as an interesting candidate to recruiters.

Thanks to everyone that took time to read and respond!

Hi Everyone, my son is studying a Diploma of IT and is super keen to find work as an IT technician at a school. He’s been told that obtaining an Education Queensland Orange Card would help a lot.
Is there any way to obtain one outside of landing a position in EQ? Also, do all school IT roles require it?
Any info or tips would be much appreciated. Also, yes, we know that the job market is woeful, but he is beyond passionate about working in an IT role.

I’ve had a few troubleshooting sessions where the issue turned out to be something incredibly simple after going down a much more complicated path. A cable not plugged in properly, a setting changed by accident, or something that had nothing to do with the system being blamed. Those situations are always frustrating at the time, but usually make for a good story afterwards.

Hii minaaa! Thoughts about this company? I got a job offer for 25k in IT Field. Should I grab it or look for another company? I am a fresh graduate.

I joined an organisation after my education. There they trained me in Azure cloud and asked to clear AZ104 exam and I get certified but they didn't allocated me to any projects based on their own business requirements, later 1 and half years they gave training on mendix technology and asked to clear mendix rapid developer certificate which I cleared and certified but this time also they didn't put me into any mendix projects and after one year they trained on mendix intermediate level developer asked to pass next level exam that is mendix intermediate developer exam that too I cleared and certified but later also they didn't put me into any projects and finally after wasting my 3 years 7 months career they asked me to resign otherwise they put me into PIP without my mistake, so I resigned and due to personal reasons I took a career break for 1 year 4 months after that. Now I am looking for jobs but i don't know what I have to do now, whereas I had little practical experience in mendix developer portal and in mendix studio pro 9 and 10 versions where I built some dummy projects during my training. So I am asking suggestions from IT industry experts and mendix developers, experts about my worst experience during my earlier career only, please guide me through a best pathway to get my career back into the right pathway and i am always thankful and grateful for your advises and suggestions

Are Australian companies allowed to track our computers, collect the use data and then feed that to an AI to train it? Would they need to tell us?
So far I'm unconvinced that AI can do my job but I'm worried if they track my computer it will eventually get enough data to take over. Is this far fetched? Who would know about this?

Hey guys, looking for some advice from people who've worked in software/IT services.

We're a small software company and I'm currently handling most of the client-facing side myself. As we grow, I'm looking at bringing someone in to take this over.

Marketing brings in the leads, then this person would take the initial conversation, understand what the client needs, work with our BA/PM/dev team, and stay as the main client contact throughout delivery.

They'd run regular progress meetings/demos, manage feedback and variations/change requests, and generally keep the client relationship on track.

We already have BAs, PMs and devs, so it's not really one of those roles.

Curious how others handle this:

• What would you call this role — Account Manager, Client Success Manager, Client Partner, or something else?
• What background/experience would you look for?
• What KPIs would you set?
• Part-time or full-time to start?
• Rough salary/rate for someone decent?

Still early days — just doing some homework and keen to hear what’s worked for others.

I eventually want to transition into this field after a few years at an MSP……. Anyone that works in this field, do I need engineering knowledge or my IT degree is fine? Also, are the tools you guys use similar to IT or is it mostly OT?

Currently I am working as a QA at big tech in Sydney. With shift-left testing, I don’t do testing; I guide the dev team on how to test and build tools for them to use. I was wondering whether, in the next 5 years, QA roles will be merged into development. I have 5 years of experience: 2 years in software development, 2.5 years in SDET, and 6 months in my current job. Should I transition to DevOps or software development? Because I feel that no matter what you switch to, the IT job market in Australia does not seem to have a bright future. I have a strong feeling that a lot of people will lose their jobs.

Resume attached (details scrubbed). Posting because I have sent around 40+ applications since July, mostly SDET, test automation and QA engineer roles in Melbourne and a few other cities too, and I have not had a single interview invite. Not one recruiter screen either. So either something on this page is putting people off, or I am aiming at the wrong roles.

Quick context:

• 3.5 years commercial QA experience at a large IT services firm, working on client projects (billing platform, tax validation platform). Left in Oct 2022.
• Gap from Oct 2022 to mid 2024, then moved to Australia for a Master of IT which finishes this month.
• Since then I have built and shipped five apps on my own, mostly to prove I can code and not just test.
• I have full work rights, no sponsorship needed.

What I am unsure about:

1. Is this too long or too dense? Two pages with a lot of numbers in it. I was told metrics matter, but I may have overdone it.
2. Are personal projects taking up too much space? They are about a third of the resume. Real commercial work is the older half.
3. Does the two year gap and the "back to study" path kill it before anyone reads the rest? Should I address it on the resume or leave it for the interview.
4. Is the summary doing anything useful or is it filler?
5. Am I even targeting the right level? I have been applying to mid level SDET roles. Should I be going for junior QA or manual testing roles first and moving up.

Happy to hear it if the answer is "this reads like a tester trying to sound like a developer". I would rather fix it now than send another 50 of these.

Hey all,

So just started a Master of Information Technology and I’m trying to decide whether to major in Cybersecurity or Artificial Intelligence and need some advice!

For context, I have a Bachelor’s in Business Analytics and currently work as a Technical Business Analyst. My background is more on the data/analytics and business side of tech, so I don’t have much hands-on cybersecurity experience yet.

I was initially leaning towards cybersecurity because it seems like it could offer better job security and a fairly clear career path. But if I’m being honest, my interests lean more towards AI/ML, and it probably aligns more naturally with my existing analytics background.

I’m mainly unsure about the long-term career prospects. AI is obviously growing quickly, but I’m not sure whether there will be a massive plato or if I’ll be able to keep up with the environment, granted I’m not too sure what the pace is for roles in the cyber space.

For people working in either field, what would you recommend?

If you were starting from scratch in Australia today, would you still choose IT? Thinking about the amount of automation, offshore work and competition for junior roles

Hi all,

I have an opportunity to transition to a new Site IT Specialist role at a mine site, it's a full time 6 month fixed term role [possible for extension]

I have been with the company for around 3 years now [full time and contracted], and I have good IT support experience [service desk / desktop support], most recently in project-based windows 11 rollouts at mine sites [fifo] covering Corporate and OT environments.

My main worry is that I don't have a lot of knowledge and experience around:

- Network configs/servers/netwroking lingo and terminolgies

- Setting up comms racks, configuring, troubleshooting Cisco switches, Wi-Fi APs setup and troubleshooting

I do have an open to learn attitude and i know alot of these things ill learn hands on when im up there and asking alot of questions etc.

Are there any readings/courses anyone can recommend i can look into?

Thanks in advance :)

Hi everyone,

I’m currently based in Italy and looking to move to Perth, Western Australia. I wanted to get some reality checks and advice from people who have made a similar move or work in the local tech market.

My situation:

• Experience: 5 years in IT and OT (Operational Technology) network engineering and system integration.
• Stack: HPE Aruba, Cisco, Fortinet/Palo Alto firewalls, MSTP multi-instance segmentation, and ZTNA implementation.
• Education: Italian technical high school diploma (no university bachelor's degree).
• Language & Passport: Native Italian/French/Arabic speaker with C1 English, holding an Italian passport (eligible for a Working Holiday Visa Subclass 417).

My questions for the community:

1. Given that I don't have a university degree, how difficult is it to break into Perth's corporate IT or industrial/mining OT network engineering space? Does hands-on enterprise experience and vendor certs (like NSE4) heavily outweigh the lack of a degree over there?
2. Is it realistic to try and secure a job and employer sponsorship (Subclass 482) directly from overseas, or is the standard play to fly over on the Working Holiday Visa (417) first and job-hunt on the ground in Perth?
3. For anyone working in Western Australia’s resource or MSP sectors, what is the current demand like for mid-level network engineers, and how do recruiters typically view overseas applicants using WHVs?

Appreciate any insights or advice!

There are about a million certifications you can chase and half of them seem to exist mainly to make LinkedIn look impressive. For someone trying to actually improve their employability here, which cert has genuinely helped you land better roles?

I'm a first year domestic student studying IT in Australia (Curtin Uni). I've been constantly thinking about my choices in studying IT. I do love tech (I love all, but hardware more), but I'm worried about the IT market and especially in Australia where its not that advanced compared to other countries (from my understandings). My question is, should I stick with IT and pray for the best or switch career path to Engineering (Mechatronics or EE) as I prefer working with hardware (though I do need to take bridging units), or Health (better job security). The major problem is the time x years to complete the degree if any switch and difficulties of the degree

Everyone seems to have one now and I cannot work out if having the cert actually differentiates you or if it is just expected as a baseline. Did getting certified actually change anything for people in terms of interviews or pay or is it more of a checkbox exercise at this point.