Computer Network and Systems Engineer
Current labour market rating
No shortage
Previous labour market rating (February 2013)
No shortage
Australia
June 2014
Comments
Employers fill their vacancies with little difficulty and positions routinely attract large numbers of suitable applicants.
Survey results
The vast majority of surveyed vacancies were in private companies, with a small number in government departments.
About 45 per cent of surveyed vacancies required applicants to hold relevant qualifications at the bachelor degree level. o Many employers indicated that, instead of qualifications, they preferred applicants who had certification in a computer networking system, most commonly CISCO, followed by Citrix and
VMware.
In addition to qualifications and certification, employers generally sought applicants with practical experience ranging from two years (for entry level roles) to upwards of seven years (for senior positions). o A number of employers indicated that they were seeking applicants with sector specific experience. This may have been used as part of the screening process due to the large number of applicants, rather than to any issues regarding transferability of skills.
A strong emphasis was also placed on softs skills, such as stakeholder management and communication. Employers filled 86 per cent of surveyed vacancies, compared with 94 per cent in 2013.
The number of applicants and qualified applicants per vacancy, however, increased significantly compared with 2013. There were 56.3 applicants per vacancy, of whom 47.3 held an IT related qualification (compared with 20.7 and 6.7, respectively, in 2013). o There were 3.7 suitable applicants per vacancy (compared with 5.2 in 2013).
Some employers commented that they found the most difficult recruitment was for network and systems engineers who could do the full range of design, implementation and maintenance