From my research it seems that mid-career professionals in IT or computer networking should find it easier to find work in Australia compared to other professions such as engineering, accounting etc. Based purely on what friends have reported, medical professionals are in most demand. Hospitality is a big education industry and I know some South Asians working there after their studies in Hotel Management. I cannot comment on academic jobs or other industries.
In the UK, for natives or settled migrants with UK degrees, it's easy to find contract work in almost any profession, as long as you have some experience but full-time jobs are a bit harder to come by outside of big companies who hire on graduate schemes. Professionals willing to start in small companies can find stable employment and work up to being the equivalent of a chief engineer, but may fight it challenging to migrate abroad where their qualifications are considered to be worthless. Companies are willing to give high posts to less experienced people if they show talent. There is a lot of work available in specialised sectors and sub-specialities and a lot of work for those with interdisciplinary skills. There is a lot of opportunity for self-employment and any and all types of business. Consultancy and contracting are huge. Sales and marketing in technical fields are also big business. I can tell you this from personal experience but many of these opportunities are not available for migrants. As for migrants, based upon my observations, Academic jobs for outsiders is very challenging especially in reputable universities. You may get a job following a PhD from a reputable British university, but it would be likely at a smaller university unless its really research oriented. Many Asians work on company-transfer visas in IT, banking etc. Many gained work in admin or banking in the City of London when the visa system was more lax- just spreadsheet data work really. There is a huge demand for IT everywhere in the world it seems. Many rich Indians are setting up businesses in London. For migrants who haven't been able to work professionally, historically migrants have taken up factory jobs (1950s-1960s) but in more recent times, service jobs, particularly petrol pumps, convenience stores, Asian restaurants. Aus and NZ migrants usually work for a couple of years in temporary jobs and contracting work, save a little money, travel and return home. Indians do the lower-level work or work in IT, finance, retail etc. Americans are usually business managers, academics etc. There are huge numbers of Chinese students. The highly qualified ones work in maths or biotech. Qualified Russians usually work in academics and those from Eastern Europe in skilled manual work. French, German and Dutch migrants work everywhere but never in trades or semi professional work. There are lot of people in retail across the board.
I've been researching jobs in Canada but cannot tell what is in demand. A 2008 parliamentary report revealed that 60 per cent of skilled immigrants work at a lower occupational level than they did before moving to this country. I read a statistic that only a small percentage of engineer migrants ever gain a licence to practice and that many find it
difficult to gain licensure. Manual, service or skilled technical jobs (electricians, technicians, programmers) seem to be in high demand. There seems to be little breath in field of work and sub-specialities in engineering, just based upon the dismal numbers of job advertisements etc. I've seen almost no jobs for interdisciplinary experts. The only jobs for Public health professionals seems to be working in low wage part-time jobs as a receptionist for a diet clinic, whereas worldwide they could be a high profile policy advisor or managing a big project for a biotech company looking for grants or Public Health consultant on the health service. Jobs for specialist engineers or engineering project managers in high technology seems only to exist in Quebec (lots of vacancies) but they must be French speakers. Indeed it seems that Montreal has a lot of engineering and high professional jobs but elsewhere in Canada (again just based upon job sites), there is only demand for engineers in petroleum and IT.
If you're in engineering, public health, environmental sciences etc, what level of work are you doing? Is it big global projects with cutting edge technology, patent-worthy innovation, deep application of science, nation-level field work with good prospects for project management and leadership? Or is it more technical work like designing-to-spec, managing ongoing projects, retail, sales, inspection, installation and maintenance etc? What scope is there for interdisciplinary work particularly in project management?
I need your input on this.
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