Before departing Argentina the Kiwi made contact with a Recruitment Agency based in Wellington. Through some fruitful Skype conversations and emails by the time we arrived in New Zealand the Kiwi had a job interview scheduled in Wellington.
The recruitment consultant helpfully discussed the job market in depth and understood our potential needs moving back (in the Kiwi’s case) to NZ after a long time away, having done it herself. She even collected the Kiwi from the airport on the day of the interview – now THAT’s above and beyond, can’t imagine Recruitment Consultants doing that in the UK!
Unlike the UK, long CV’s with plenty information is the order of the day here. We were used to trying to reduce the number of pages constituted our CV’s for the UK job market, but in New Zealand that is not sufficient – the more information and detail the better!
After the interview the Kiwi determined that he didn’t prepare for the interview enough so, lesson learned, he prepared far more for the next job interview though another agency. After a 2 hour interview with a panel of 4 people he was called back for a further long interview, then after a break for lunch back again for a few hours of psychometric testing. Fortunately, the two flights to Wellington and 5 hours of interviewing was successful!
As for me, I registered with agencies in the hope of some temp work whilst I looked for something more permanent with eventual success. It seemed that my work permit with no exclusions was not going to be sufficient in securing a permanent role. A wonderful 3 month temping assignment at a Law firm which was great fun to work in (the people were so incredibly friendly and inclusive) in the CBD kept the pay cheques going and now, despite the odds, I have a permanent job, which is subject to my getting permanent residency (application pending!).
My first interview was actually nearly 2 hours of testing, before the prospective employer even met with me! The Kiwi’s prospective employer met him first then the testing was used to confirm what they already thought, but not the case here… which made me feel a little reserved about the employer. After I passed the testing another appointment was made to actually meet and have a formal interview with a panel of two, then back again for a coffee meet the following week… phew! Such a contrast with my experience in getting jobs in the UK, which seems a breeze in comparison!
Work view
Now I just have to knuckle down and get on with some work …but I have a lovely view to inspire me, as I am working in Wellington’s tallest building. I take comfort to note that the Earthquake Commission is also based in the same building…!
Oooh – for some reason I seem to have missed this update – so just want to wish you luck with the residency application. At least you are only round the corner from Immigration now – and if you have coffee at Cafe Neo – I reckon you should be able to earwig on some interesting converstaions 🙂 And the coffee is nice!
Hxxx
Thanks! From your blog sounds like I will need all the help I can get!! Be interesting to see how it goes – although I am sponsored by the Kiwi through the Family Category. 🙂 Not been to Cafe Neo yet,… duly noted!!