You will need a job offer to get a work visa. So finding a job is likely to be what you need to do to move to New Zealand.
People here find positions by using jobs websites or contacting recruitment companies (‘head hunters’).
People also contact employers directly. It is often the most successful approach.
Whichever approach, or approaches, you use, you will find most employers here are happy to consider people from overseas if there are no people in New Zealand available to fill the post.
Finding a job from overseas
There are lots of job websites in New Zealand. Many of them post jobs from employers expecting applications from people already in New Zealand. Some specialise in connecting with people overseas.
Sector specific websites
Some specialised sectors and professions have dedicated job websites. If you are looking for a job in one of these sectors, check out the website:
Healthcare jobs | Kiwi Health Jobs
Dairy farming jobs | Farm Sourcejobs
Education jobs | Education Gazette
Crown Research Institute jobs | Science New Zealand
Engineering jobs | Engineering New Zealand
General job websites
The most popular websites for jobsin New Zealand are TradeMe and Seek. These sites list a lot of vacancies.
You can find other general job vacancy websites on the careers.govt.nz website.
Trade Me Jobs
Seek
Job vacancy and recruitment websites | careers.govt.nz
Recruitment companies
New Zealand employers often use recruitment companies or agencies to find suitable employees, particularly for specialist and high-level jobs. You can register with more than one recruitment company. The New Zealand employment market is small, so it is important to keep track of who you have contacted about jobs and when.
You do not need to pay the company or agency as they get paid by the employer when they place someone in a job.
You can find a list of recruitment agents on the careers.govt.nz website.
Job vacancy and recruitment websites | careers.govt.nz
Professional registration
Depending on your specialty, you may be required to register with a professional body in order to get a job and visa. In any case, getting a visa may be more straightforward if you are able to obtain professional registration in New Zealand.
More details are on the Immigration New Zealand website.
Occupational registration | Immigration NZ
Contacting employers directly
In New Zealand, approaching potential employers directly is an accepted and very successful approach.
Employers here often have vacancies they are not advertising on jobs websites, or that they have not got round to advertising yet. You may just be ‘the right person at the right time’.
In any case, showing this sort of initiative always impresses New Zealand employers, even if they refer you to a job application process or recruitment company.
You can also contact professional bodies and employer organisations directly.
Using phone or email
Do not be afraid to call or email a company you are interested in working for, even if that is not how you do things in your home country.
You can ask if they have any jobs now or coming up. You can also ask for an informal interview or at least for the opportunity to send in your CV with a covering letter.
If they do not have a suitable job for you, the people you contact may offer you the name of someone in another company. Or they may give you advice about other skills you have that may be useful to others.
Calling employers from overseas is not much harder than calling them in your home country. Just remember you must pay for the call and to check the time difference between your location and New Zealand.
Informational interviews: How to succeed
03:14
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You don't have to wait for a job to be advertised. This video will show that there are many successful ways to find
out more about your industry and jobs in New Zealand.
"Hi Ruby the problem I'm having now is how to find out more information about my line of work and where do you think I should start?"Okayyou could start by setting up an
informational interview." "Ohwhat is that?" "An informational interview is where you set up a chat or conversation with someone in your line of work you can find out about their industry and the aim is to build up a network of
professionals in that field so they can help you with your job search." "Ohthat sounds great. What are the steps?" "First of all, do your research andthink about people that you know are people that you've met people that you can contact that are in the
industry.Start with friends and family networks people who you've just come across previously, and you can try Google and LinkedIn before you have the meeting. Do some research, make a list of questions. Practice them, and that way
you'll get the most out of the meeting. To set up the meeting you can do this by emailphone or LinkedIn,start off by introducing yourself and let them know that your research in the industry because you want to understand the industry from the New Zealand perspective. If you're emailing, don't send your CV, don't ask for a job. Your aim is to get their time this is a networking event, not a job-seeking event so you just want to get to talk to them for 15 minutes be flexible they're giving up their time
for you, so the interview can take place over the phone or in person, it's always more effective if you do it in person. Start off by introducing yourself and remember to thank them for sparing the time to see you. "Thank you very much for
meeting me."
All right seen it let the employer talk more than you and ask some of your specific questions which hopefully you will havepractisedbeforehand so since the industry is really small what particular crops were excuse that in short supply in this industry in terms of HR I think you need people who it's
important to show your interest in the person who's giving you their time. "Thank you." What skills are needed in your area" "Well my area is almost on the sales side" If you're going overtime make sure that you check that it's okay for them to carry on. "it's getting close to 2 p.m. How are you for time?" "I have a few more minutes, say about 10." "Thank you so much for your time and it has been really helpful for me."
"Ohmy pleasure." After the interview, make sure that you send a thank you message. There is email or LinkedIn. "So how do you think it went?" "Yeah,it was great.I cannot believe it, the manager gave me 20 minutes to have the informational interview and I can say it's amazing." "Congratulations, it sounds like you made a really good
impression, let's see what happens next. Thank you."
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Meeting in person
Many employers prefer meeting potential employees in person or at least face-to-face online. It may increase your chances of getting a job.
Today, on-line video calling makes this much easier than ever before. Just remember to schedule the call for core New Zealand business hours, usually NZST 09:00 to 17:00hrs. Be aware New Zealand switches to Daylight Saving time (NZDT) usually from late September to early April.
Some migrants take a fact-finding holiday here and make appointments to see key employers. Make sure you call or email ahead of time to set up the appointments. This will make a better impression with New Zealand employers.
What employers want: Tips from NZ employers
05:43
View transcript
Communication skills - They're absolutely vital. They'reimportant, both written and verbal communication skills ensuring that you write veryclearly and articulate it well and same within the
verbal communication. Speaking slowly, articulate yourself and actually think about what you're saying so that the other person understands with the same.
"Teamwork and interpersonal skills in a candidateareextremely important for us. We're an organization that works in an agile way so you'll be working lots with people across the company and in
different projectgroups.Teamwork is essential. More and more collaboration isbecoming the centerpiece of what makes us a successful organised group of people and it's about those
people connecting together and in today's world that we live in it's very diverse having that connection between that diversity as of gigs is extremely important nowadays anyone needs to be confident proud of their achievements
and be comfortable to show that in an interview. If you don't care about yourself, no one else will when we work. We look at people that are aligned with the values of our organization, so the last value is excellence, and it really is being the best that you are bringing yourself to in and workingas hard as you can and bringing the effort through another quality that we look for in candidates is that they're passionate and driven. We are a technology software development house, so people that are interested in technology and have a passion for and where the future of technology is going.
Self-management is really important because, yeah, New Zealand businesses as a whole team to be a lot flatter in the organizational structure.There's an expectation that you're proactive and recognizing what needs to be done in
doing it, so one of the key things that we're looking for people that we havepassionforthe job,sort of flexible people. They're really open to change, and also part of it is the real willingness to learn and adapt and be curious networkers. Always assess anyone in their own career and we also value their in their organization understanding what's going on within the industry in developing relationships with people,internally and externally within your industry so you develop more that relationship that also they're understanding it depending on what skills andbackground you bring to New Zealand.
It may be more helpful to get some type of experience, potentially voluntary for a while you're starting to look for a job in New Zealand, it's a way of understanding how we work. Getting familiarwith the language linking into thecommunity and also aligning some voluntary work skills that can then be relevant for weekscopes. Any candidate has analytical and critical thinking is someone we'd like to have on our radar as well. But also with the world that changing, it's a key skill set that peoplewill have to have to be successful.If you look at where the future is going, you know problem-solving and collaboration to solve problemsisreally important. They can be very hard toassess in an interview situation. Buildinga CV or a repertoire of stories whichyou can illustrate how you've solved problems is important so I think initiative and drive for a candidate is very important in our organization so anyone that can demonstrate they can take something and drive it through to completion is someone we're looking for.
We are a values-based business so really understanding how you fit with the valuesthat we have and what your valuesare. Makesure that you're not only the right person forus but it's also the right organization for you. We've got 51 different nationalities here at KPMG, over 30% of all of our hires come from overseas, so we don't necessarily have a fit we're looking for, people thatadd to the culture of the organization. It's really important that your CV matches the job description. We might get hundreds of CVS so it's important that your CV looks interesting in the first 30 seconds.Oneof the most importantparts of pulling together a CV is to make sure that it's clear and concise and easy to read - a CV should say this person has the skills that we needsomake sure to highlight and target your CV for every job. If you read a good CV, it really gives you a feel of what that person can do, the personality what they represent and what they can accomplish, and you feel that you want to interview them.
Before sending your CV off, get someone to check it for grammar and spelling and that it actually feels clear and concise. To be honest, get two people to check it. If you can, I think a LinkedIn profile is a very good tool to have and I think it's something you should ensure that it's always up-to-date and relevant so cover letters form a really important part of any application it is meant to just encapsulate the key things that you want to get across. Still needs to be concise but it's a chance to be slightly more personal and put your own communication styleon but just your own motivation and your own interest in the company in the role.
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