Work Abroad Programs

How I found a job in New Zealand

Upon entering New Zealand in November 2003, I already had a work permit allowing me to work at any non-permanent jobs for up to a year. This is typical of working holiday arrangements. I could work in a cafe, a ski resort, or temporary contract work, but I couldn’t be hired full-time professionally without going through immigration.

I targeted Wellington as the city I wanted to live in. Part of my rationale, honestly, was to live in the city at the center of The Lord of the Rings. Wellington, however, also had the second best professional job market (in 2003/2004), and is the third largest city, as well as the capital. I also liked the idea of living in a city that is less of a tourist center and more of a place to live. There were a lot of arts, culture, and music activities to participate in.

One of my first actions was to buy a pay-as-you-go mobile phone, which cost about NZ$190. When job hunting, I simply couldn’t afford to miss a call about a pontential job. Upon arriving in Wellington, I also got a bank account and figured out how to receive mail. From there, I spend many hours in Internet cafes paying to use a computer by the hour, looking for jobs. I also stopped in at many of the temporary employee centers and filled out applications. One of those was TMP/Hudson. Apparently they had two divisions. I stopped in to one division, the contract division, and they told me to go to the temp division. I applied for temp work, and was later told they didn’t have anything for me.

I was unable to stay at hostels for a few days due to The Lord of the Rings World Premiere, but I had emailed a church beforehand, and then stopped in to ask if they knew of somewhere I could stay. A few really great people put me up for a week in a suburb, and then I went back to hosteling. I was offered a part-time job for a week doing phone surveys. I’m not a big fan of outbound calling, but thought I could do surveys. Our team did a survey for the AA, the Automobile Association.

While there, I met a few people who lived in the same flat, and who had a room for rent. I had checked out a few places, but didn’t find a mutual arrangement yet. I wanted to live near downtown, as most of the jobs were near there, and I knew I wouldn’t get out as much if I had to bus into town. I liked the apartment, and the people there seemed cool, but it was a little more money than I wanted to pay. I also wasn’t sure if I was going to get a job before my cash reserves ran out. So, I took a risk. I decided that I would rather have a sense of what it was like to actually live there, even if I had to head home sooner than I planned.

To make matters more emotionally complex, two close family members were suddenly in the hospital. At that point, my days seemed numbered. I kept applying to jobs. I applied online through the local classifieds for a tech support job that I seemed qualified for, but didn’t hear back about it. I decided to place a followup call to Hudson about the job. They had not seen my application, but upon my pointing it out to them, they put me on hold, and then setup an interview for the next day. The next day, I received a call from someone else at Hudson for another interview, to work at Fontera. I was offered the first job before my second interview, but told them I would get back to them shortly. Fontera was a more chaotic environment with less security…the kind I would normally prefer, but since I wanted to focus on experiencing life in New Zealand, I went for Fujitsu New Zealand. Technically, I was sponsored by BUNAC who coordinated with IEP NZ, so I could work for Hudson, in a contract for Futitzu New Zealand, supporting Transpower, who runs the electricity grid for New Zealand. My position? Service Desk Analyst and Change Coordinator.

Five months in, I was offered a permanent job with a raise for Fujitsu New Zealand, with them as my sponsor, to stay indefinitely. It was a hard decision, but I turned it down. I’ll give my reasons in the next post.