[Toto]

This may not be for everyone but I just wanted to post a link to a company called Taylor & Associates who specialise in obtaining job offers for people wanting to settle in NZ.

I used them successfully last year, only had a couple of telephone interviews and didn't have to travel to NZ for an interview. This may not be the case every time so I guess you'd have to be prepared if they wanted to see you. However they secured me an offer within 1 week of starting the job search!

It was not a cheap service, as well as a flat fee, they also bill you for 10% of your anticipated 1st year earnings when they have secured an offer for you. They have a very high success rate and but I think they only take on people who they honestly believe they can find a job for. They cover a variety of different occupations and there are details on the website of the latest 20 offers they have secured. It worked for me though and my husband and I are now settled in NZ and have been for 9 months. Here's a link to their website if you're interested.

http://www.jobfastrack.co.nz/jobindex.php

Sue

[Sarah & Alex]

We never used a company to secure a job from the UK... we thought about using the above but then decided to try it by ourselves first...

It is hard to secure job offers without being in the country (but not impossible).

I was lucky that my company had an office in New Zealand ... Every week I would go onto the intranet "Just in case" the perfect job was there and one week it was!... unfortuantly it said "must be legily able to work in NZ to apply".

At that time we had already submitted EOI and was in the unfortunant draw where they changed the rules to 140+ for automatic selection ... darn 100 point no job offer was what we had submitted. This meant we needed a job offer to get PR... This was a bit of a catch 22, needed job to get visa but needed visa to get job.

So what did I do? I rang the hiring manager and explained the situation (and sold my self on the phone!) and then asked was it OK for me to apply ... He said "YES apply, if you have problems with the normal job application site, e-mail me your CV directly". That was the Wednesday night, Thursday I applied, Friday I got 2 e-mails ... 1 saying they would like to give me an interview and the other was a meeting request for a conference call on the Monday!!!!. 2 Weeks later I was offered the job. I then re-submitted my EOI the process went so quickly and then we were granted PR.

However Alex's story was completely different... Everyone he contacted said "great, you have just the skills we are looking for ... can you contact us as soon as you arrive in NZ"... No-one would give him an interview as he was based in the UK.... the good news was that once he arrived in NZ he contacted them all and got 4 interviews and a job offer within a week of arriving.

There are pros and cons to using a company to secure a job offer whilst you are in the UK ... and alot factors on whether you really HAVE to get the job before arriving in NZ (and whether you have the money!)... A third option that many people have suggested on the forum is, come to NZ on holiday and then apply for a job and a working visa....

All I want to say is keep your options open and good luck for anyone else looking for a job in NZ.

Sarah

[wiki]

A flat fee AND 10%? They might be a good company but that's a hell of a whack to lose out of your first year's income!

[Trigirl]

just what i was thinking. i'd certainly have to have exhausted all my options - job sites, normal recruitment agents (who charge the employer!), expo, recce trip etc etc before even considering shelling out that much.

[speckythecky]

Sounds like someone is making a lot of money for very little work. They will be taking money off both the recruiter and applicant.
One good thing is that if they are taking 10% off your first year, they will be pushing for a better salary for you to increase their take.

[MarkS]

One good thing is that if they are taking 10% off your first year, they will be pushing for a better salary for you to increase their take.

Unfortunately it often doesn't work that way. Say they get you a job for $60k. Are they really going to push the employer to offer you another $5k? It's only going to be worth a few hundred bucks extra commission for them, not really worth the time and hassle for them.

Agree with everyone else though - this sounds like a mighty expensive way of finding a job. Might be cheaper to fly to NZ for a few days and do some face to face interviews!

[Toto]

You're all absolutely right of course - it was alot of money to pay and I still shudder when I think about the cost of it! However I just wanted to throw another option in the pot.

Ultimately we have no regrets as we are now where we want to be and loving it!

[stu70]

Quite honestly, the NZ job market is as good as it will ever be. It is an employee's market. It is really not worth your while to spend a penny on securing a job via third party if that means paying some fees. Be creative in your search and the results will be positive. Cheers

[Trigirl]

Ultimately we have no regrets as we are now where we want to be and loving it!and thats the most important thing. good for you :)

[mgbridges]

Here's my experience, for what it's worth:

I started applying for jobs last November, from the UK. I registered my CV with several websites (Telecom, EDS, IBM and an agency). Very little happened - I had a telephone interview with Telecom then nothing.

I then spoke to a couple of other agencies and their view was that it would e very difficult to secure an offer without visiting NZ. They gave me two reasons:
- employers like to do face-to-face interviews, and videoconferencing just doesn't cut the mustard.
- visiting the country shows commitment. Employers suspect that if people apply for jobs from the UK all the time they're just dipping their toe in the water and might change their mind. The recruitment process can be costly for employers so they only want to talk to the people who are definitely going to make the move.

So I organised my recce trip and it paid off big style. I had 2 interviews set up before I got out there and ended up having seven. I came away from Auckland after a week with 2 job offers in my pocket and a third which followed soon after.

Your experience may be different, just thought I'd share mine.

Martin

[MattA]

That's my plan as well mgbridges. I'm going out 3 weeks before I move over to try to get a few interviews in. I'm sure something will shake loose.