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Working in a good job is one of the best ways to experience a foreign country. You have stability and the kind of income that lets you get to know a culture.

For Australian workers in a range of job sectors, high demand means now is a great time to try to land work in cities ranging from New York to Dubai to London. Qualifications in finance, nursing, information technology, law and engineering can be tickets to overseas jobs and are complemented by the reputation of Australians as hard working and easygoing.

On their return from overseas, Australians who have worked abroad often find new career opportunities.

Take the case of Andrew Jeffers. As a certified practising accountant he headed to London eight years ago, and had "no friends, no contacts and no jobs lined up".

Nevertheless, he wanted a job at a similar or higher level than the reasonably senior position he had in Australia. After four weeks of pounding the pavement and advice from recruitment consultants, he landed the glamorous position of chief financial officer of Intuit Services Europe.

"I worked in London two days a week and in their other major office, Paris, for two days a week," he says. "The rest of the time I travelled between their other offices in France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands."

Phillip Guest, the managing director of international recruitment firm Michael Page International, says finance and law are among the professions in highest demand for Australians working abroad.

"We're seeing the strongest demand internationally in those two areas," Guest says."The key reason is that worldwide economic conditions are very strong and that's what is pulling people offshore, despite recent events in global markets having impacted certain sectors."

Guest says that Australians have highly transferable skills in most countries they like to travel to, with many going to Britain, the US and Asia. "Our education standards in Australia are high and are very well regarded, particularly in Asia where they are sought after. We're also seeing a fair bit of demand lately from the Middle East," Guest says.

Jeffers subsequently further expanded his experience by working with a company that required him to travel to the US and Mexico. He returned to Sydney in 2004 and now runs two businesses - a digital media recruitment company and a management consultancy.

Apart from the finance and legal professions, Australians are also globetrotting in areas such as health care, information technology and engineering, according to recruitment specialist Gary Morrison, the manager of international operations for recruiter Clinical One. "Australians have always been viewed as exceptionally good quality candidates," Morrison says. "It's their ease of integration to a new cultural environment, great work ethic and ability to get on with the job."

The manager of professional services for the NSW Nurses Association, Kate Adams, believes the strong demand for Australian nurses overseas will continue. "Nurses are always going to go overseas," Adams says. "We would like them to stay here because there is a worldwide shortage of nurses but you'll find many - particularly in their late 20s - head overseas to get more experience."

However, it's not just nurses who are in demand. Many careers in the health-care industry are booming.

Kerrie Rhodes, 35, returned to Sydney from London last year. She works in health-care public relations and was never short of career opportunities when she went overseas.

"I went to London in 2000 on a working holiday visa and didn't have a job," Rhodes says. "I was working within a week of arriving in the UK, although I didn't expect it to happen so quickly. It was supposed to be for a two-week project. That turned into a six-month contract and then it turned into five years. The company ended up sponsoring me."

Rhodes says health-care public relations is a niche market but the skills are transferable across borders. "In this industry, London is one of the international hubs for health-care public relations," she says. "You are working with the world's biggest companies and clients, so the experience you get gives you such an advantage when you come back to Australia."

Her international experience has boosted her career. Within two weeks of arriving home in May 2007, Rhodes had three job offers.