[hachajo]

Sorry for what is probably a really silly question (& if it's already been answered & I've missed it somehow!!) but I can't understand how if i secure a job offer from the UK, by the time I can realistically get myself over to NZ (bearing in mind married with 3 small kids!!), surely my potential new employer won't be prepared to wait that long?? Is it a case of "you get a job offer - you get yourself over there??"

Thanks everyone!!!

[holland]

Hi,

From what I understand, some people organise a lot of interviews, and then go over on a recce trip, meet the empoyers and hopefully get a job. I know with a few people the main wage earner ( hubby/wife) has gone over alone to save on costs, and check out NZ. Others ( like us), look online, send in CV's, and get responses back, but never gets to interview stage, as NZ employers would rather you be in NZ-which is fair enough. Then there is another way...where people do get jobs, by researching on internet/using a job agency such as seek, and have telephone interviews, and the NZ employers wait for them. I dont know exactly how long they will wait, I think everybody negotiates it depending on their situation, but I would say maybe 2 months?? Im sure other people will post and give you their personal experiences and how long employers are willing to wait.

J

[Familyofmonkeys]

You will find that it depends alot what area of work you are in. If you go to one of the NZ Expos in London or Manchester, most larger (not all) companies would not have gone to the trouble and expense of recruiting in UK, if they did not expect to have to wait for employees to reach NZ.
OH made contact with company in expo last October, had a telephone interview the following week (couldn't make face to face interview, as busy) and secured a job before end of October. We did not arrive in NZ until May. We also have 3 very young children. They were happy to wait, and just wanted to be kept informed of progress, so could plan for arrival once we had a firm date. Recruitment agencies seem to work differently. Although they will go to great lengths to get your details on file, they then don't really do much until you arrive in NZ, apart from set up a few interviews.

[hachajo]

You will find that it depends alot what area of work you are in. If you go to one of the NZ Expos in London or Manchester, most larger (not all) companies would not have gone to the trouble and expense of recruiting in UK, if they did not expect to have to wait for employees to reach NZ.
OH made contact with company in expo last October, had a telephone interview the following week (couldn't make face to face interview, as busy) and secured a job before end of October. We did not arrive in NZ until May. We also have 3 very young children. They were happy to wait, and just wanted to be kept informed of progress, so could plan for arrival once we had a firm date. Recruitment agencies seem to work differently. Although they will go to great lengths to get your details on file, they then don't really do much until you arrive in NZ, apart from set up a few interviews.

Thanks for your answers!! I guess your OH has a job which was on the skills shortage list??? We are going to the Expo in London in October and I have started to apply for jobs online through an agency (travel/tourism as have many years experience.) But all I am told is "sorry they are not able to assist me at present - however when I arrive in NZ and have the legal requirement to work, contact us again"!! Frustrating hey. But as someone else quoted, where there's a will there's a way!
You have certainly assured me its worth going to the NZ Expo - Thanks x

[hachajo]

Hi,

From what I understand, some people organise a lot of interviews, and then go over on a recce trip, meet the empoyers and hopefully get a job. I know with a few people the main wage earner ( hubby/wife) has gone over alone to save on costs, and check out NZ. Others ( like us), look online, send in CV's, and get responses back, but never gets to interview stage, as NZ employers would rather you be in NZ-which is fair enough. Then there is another way...where people do get jobs, by researching on internet/using a job agency such as seek, and have telephone interviews, and the NZ employers wait for them. I dont know exactly how long they will wait, I think everybody negotiates it depending on their situation, but I would say maybe 2 months?? Im sure other people will post and give you their personal experiences and how long employers are willing to wait.

J

Hi J,
Thanks for your responses. I have applied for jobs through agencies but am getting no-where at present! I was possibly panicking a bit thinking if I got an interview and was lucky enough to be offered a job - is it a case of go ASAP!! (Wishful thinking I know)!! However, will keep trying and see what happens when we plan to go over Feb 2008. Thanks again!!

[marcia]

We went to the manchester expo in Oct 2005, we had booked our reccie trip for Jan 2006 at this point, the employers were very enthusistic when we told them we would be there in Jan and gave my OH loads of phone numbers to make sure he could contact someone (it is the summer holidays in january so they weren't sure who would be available, so gave him everyones numbers!)

Kev endede up having a hour long interview in the pub, with the two top managers from PNCC and they said there and then they wanted him to come and work for them. It took a long while for the paperwork to come through so we could put in our EOI (we needed the job offer to have enough points to apply!) Once the job offer came through our application was fast tracked by NZIS and we had our visas really quickly. We were still trying to sell our house, but the council weren't pushing they knew we wanted to sort things out before leaving.

Anyway to cut a long story short, we made the decison in Oct 2006 to book our flights and get out here , we were sick of living in limbo land, being there but wanting to be here, my parents got power of attorny and sorted out our house sale, we came over on the 15th Nov 2006 and Kev started work at the beginning of December.

So in our experience employers are prepared to wait quite a while for good employees!

[hachajo]

Thanks so much marcia. Would you mind at all if I pm'd you?