So you're about to graduate with a STEM degree but you aren't too sure exactly where to go to
find yourself a tech job? Then you've come to the right place today I'll talk to you about the
best tech graduate jobs in Australia and give you a general lay of the land when it comes to
finding tech opportunities. I'm Samanvay, a data scientist living in Sydney, Australia.
So why should you listen to me when it comes to finding tech jobs? I've spent the past five years
being a data scientist and a data engineer in all types of companies from startups to
establish tech companies to corporate companies and I've also got multiple friends and colleagues
who have got into tech following a variety of pathways. So these experiences have given me a
pretty good gauge as to what getting a grad job in tech entails. Once you've graduated,
there are three types of companies that you can be working for. The first is a startup,
the second is a scale-up or an established tech company and the third is corporate
organisations such as banks or consultancies. For each of these three types of organisations,
I'll walk you through the pros and cons of working there, so that you can make the best decision
for your circumstances. So let's talk about startups. Startups are private organisations
that have anywhere from five people working there to 100 or 200 people. Let's talk about the pros
and cons of working in a startup. So the first pro is that given the small size of the company
you'll be given a lot of responsibility right off the bat. This means that you'll be learning
at a break neck speed and you won't be limited by your job title as to what you do on a day-to-day
basis. For example my first job was in a 50-person startup even though I was hired as a data analyst.
Over the two years that I was there I did everything from the work of a data scientist,
data engineer and a software engineer (mainly a back-end developer). Over the two years,
I worked on a very large scope of work which gave me a breadth of experience which helped me
guide where I wanted to go next in my career. So as a startup, you are definitely not limited by
your job title. The second pro is that startups operate with a generally flat structure which
means that there's very little hierarchy in place. So this means that you could well be seated
next to the CEO of the company and there aren't many places where you'll get that kind of an
experience. So this flat structure means that you have a lot of autonomy in the way you get your job
done but be warned though because this comes with a lot of responsibility. But if you're
someone that doesn't wait to be told what to do and thrives as a self-starter then startups is
the perfect environment for you. The third pro is that you'll be working with very switched on
and smart workmates who are extremely fun to be around. Due to budget constraints,
startups can only afford to hire a limited number of people which means that they need to make
every hire count. And this in turn translates to hiring the best of the best to get the job done
well. So usually hiring at the startup has a very high bar. So it's not all sunshine and rainbows
working as a startup. So let's talk about a couple of the cons of working at one. So startups make
for very intense working environments. As I mentioned earlier you're going to get a
lot of responsibility right off the bat which means that work-life balance is not the best.
So at times it's very easy to burn out if you're not too careful with setting your boundaries from
day one. Next con is that pay is usually less than market value. Now this can't be easily generalised
across all startups because a 50 person startup is very different to 100 or 200 person startup which
is extremely well funded. But usually startup pay is not the best which can be a con for a couple of
people. But startups as I mentioned is where you want to be going if you want to maximise learning
and usually if you've got a couple of years of experience at the startup you can easily make up
for that difference in the next role that you have after a startup. Because startup experience is
very valuable out in the industry. Lastly you'll have a bit of an impostor syndrome when working
at a startup because you're surrounded by the best of the best you definitely won't be the
smartest person in the room. Especially if it's a small company, you'll be surrounded by executives,
founders and people from all walks of life. But this is also a pro as I mentioned earlier this
is going to maximise your learning potential. So now that you know the pros and cons of working at
a startup, how do you find these startup jobs? There's lots of incubators and VCs in Australia
like Startmate or Blackbird Ventures that run their own hiring platforms and they also have lots
of fellowships that you can apply for to get your foot in the door in the startup community. Other
than that there's also a slack community called Earlywork where you'll find the best and brightest
of Australia in the tech industry and there's lots of jobs that are posted in that forum. So I would
say that's the place to be if you're looking for startup jobs. Let's talk about working at
established tech company or a scale-up examples of these types of companies include Canva, Atlassian,
Google or Afterpay. A lot of these companies tend to be publicly listed companies and most
of them have more than 1000 or 2000 employees. So there's a lot of pros to working at established
tech companies. The first pro is that you'll be very well looked after. The salaries of these
companies are usually better than market standard and there's heaps of perks and benefits working
at these companies. The second is that the hiring standard that these companies is fairly high. So
this is the perfect place to be if you need strong mentorship and if you're interested in working
with extremely smart people. So this is a great place to be as a graduate because there's going to
be great structured mentorship program and you'll be learning quite a lot on the job. The third pro
obviously is the brand name. The brand name of these companies can open a lot of doors for you
once you decide to leave that company. For example if there's candidates with Canva or Atlassian on
their resume then they're automatically associated with a brand of excellence. In terms of cons,
the first is that you'll be a part of a very large organisation which means that the impact
of your work is rather narrow. Your roles and responsibilities are very well defined and
structured. So there isn't much scope for you to step outside of the boundaries of your title. So
it's not the same as in a startup where you get a chance to be exposed to different operations of
the company but this might be a pro depending on your personality because sometimes given the size
of a startup the operations inside the company can be quite ambiguous and chaotic. The second con
is that there is a lack of transparency and hidden politics in majority of the large organisations.
It can take you a couple of months to even understand how your team operates let alone
how other teams fit into the big picture. So if you're someone that finds it frustrating how
the big picture operates on the grand scheme of the company, then working at established
companies won't be too good for you. And the last con is that these companies are extremely
competitive to get into. A lot of these companies have very regimented hiring process. Some of the
interviews for these companies can last as long as five rounds which can be a couple of weeks
of interviewing. So it can be quite frustrating if you're not prepared for a long arduous hiring
process. And sometimes tech people joke that the hardest part of the job at these tech companies
is actually the interview. So how do you apply for these companies? So applying for these companies
is very similar to applying at startups and I would also recommend hitting up people that are
working at these companies already and asking for a referral because a referral is the best way to
ensure that you secure a job interview. Finally the last option for you as a tech graduate is
to work for large organisations such as banks or consultancies so example of these companies
in Australia include Westpac bank, Commonwealth bank, big4 consultancies like PWC or Deloitte
or consultancies like BCG or McKinsey which have digital tech and data arms. So the first pro of
working in these types of organisations is that you'll learn a lot of soft skills.
These types of organisations are great to really improve on your stakeholder management skills,
sales skills, speaking and presentation skills. So if you're someone that values these types of
skills in addition to your tech skills then these types of organisations are the place to be. The
second pro* is that especially if you're working in consultancies you'll be exposed to problems in
a wide variety of industries. This is definitely not the case if you're working in startups or
established tech companies where your role is very siloed. So these types of opportunities are
great to explore your interest in a variety of industries, especially if you don't know which
industry appeals to you the most. Let's talk about the cons. One of the cons of working at
these places is that these places aren't the best to improve on your tech skills.
Whilst these organisations are decent at hiring technologists, the best of the best are going
to be poached by the leading tech companies out there. So if you're looking to chisel your tech
skills these organisations might not be the best place for you. The second con is that
these organisations have a very rigid hierarchical structure which means that there's a lot of red
tape to getting anything done within the company. And this might be very frustrating because you
definitely won't get as much autonomy as you think you might like. So the third con is the internal
politics of these organisations similar to established tech companies these companies
have its own politics to be dealt with and this is not really the best to maximise your learning
early on in your career. But from one perspective learning how to deal with politics can also be an
advantage. But in my opinion, you're going gonna learn that sooner or later. The fourth and last
con is their hiring process at these companies. All of these companies have very structured
graduate programs which means that you're gonna have to jump through a lot of hoops to secure a
job because literally thousands and thousands of people are applying to these organisations
every single year and these organisations have a lot of money to put behind their marketing
campaigns so don't be surprised when you're graduating and you start seeing lots of ads
from these types of organisations. So those are all the options you have when you're applying
for tech grad jobs in Australia. If you're someone that's passionate about maximising their learning
and working with really really smart people then I couldn't recommend startups highly enough. So at
a startup you'll not only learn tech skills but you'll also learn how tech businesses function.
If you're someone that prefers a structured and well-defined role and you value getting a
relatively high starting salary, then established tech companies are the place to be. Here you'll
get tons of benefits of working there as well as solid mentorship to allow you to progress
in your career. Finally you should only consider going to a corporate organisation like a bank or
consultancy. If you value developing skills other than your tech skills and it's really useful to go
to this organisation if you know you'd like to pursue consulting as a career in the future.
That's it for the video. If you enjoyed it, then smash that like button and I'll see you next time.