[emaino]

Is there anyone working with Java development in this forum? I´m going to be arriving in NZ in January/February 2008 and any kind of information regarding this area would be extremely helpful.

So far Auckland and Wellington seen to be the best places for this kind of job hunting. I was wondering if there´s any demand in the South Island too... that would perfect since I would love to live in Christchurch...

As far as I know the best websites to look for this kind of job is SeekIT (http://www.seek.co.nz) and Trademe (http://www.trademe.co.nz/). Is there any other worth looking?

Thanks in advance! :nice1

[jdbob]

Geekzone (http://www.geekzone.co.nz) has a jobs forum, might find something there.

[immortal167]

hi, my partner was in this line of work but has gone back to the UK. There are a number of recruitment agencies that you should be able to locate off the net. They are in urgent need of Java developers. BUT, the jobs are mainly in Wellington or Auckland. Few contracts in Chch and almost none anywhere else in the South Island.

[Joanne100]

There is work in Christchurch for java developers, not as many choices as
Auckland though, but then Auckland has a larger population.

Don't now about agencies, never had to use one.

Derek (joanne100 OH who is a java developer)

[BaldyBeardyBloke]

I work in IT (although not a developer) and can confirm the above.

[Tia Maria]

My OH is in Java and got a job very easily in Auckland, you could always give Christchurch a few weeks first and if nothing turns up head to either Wellington or Auckland.

Initial Salary range for a Java programmer in Auckland is about $65,000 to $90,000, depending on experience.

Good Luck!

Cheers

Tia

[Familyofmonkeys]

My OH is in Java and got a job very easily in Auckland, you could always give Christchurch a few weeks first and if nothing turns up head to either Wellington or Auckland.

Initial Salary range for a Java programmer in Auckland is about $65,000 to $90,000, depending on experience.

Good Luck!

Cheers

Tia

That sounds about right...how many years experience do you have? Are you certified?
Could look at both Telecom & Vodafone...both recruiting at moment and pay well. Very easy to find this kind of work in Auckland.

[emaino]

Thanks everyone for the tips.

I have been working as a Java developer for 5 years now, mostly for big companies here. I have 3 certifications (SCJP, SCWCD and SCBCD) and intent to get the architect certification as soon as possible.

With all that I consider myself quite experienced, specially with web development since I have been working with all major frameworks used in that area (and some obscure ones, I may add...).

If I get a job that pays more than 70K (at least for the first months) I wold be extremely happy. 80K+ would be perfect but I think this is going to be hard
with no NZ experience at all.

Auckland looks like a big city but I am probably going to prefer to Wellington or some other smaller city.

[Familyofmonkeys]

Thanks everyone for the tips.

I have been working as a Java developer for 5 years now, mostly for big companies here. I have 3 certifications (SCJP, SCWCD and SCBCD) and intent to get the architect certification as soon as possible.

With all that I consider myself quite experienced, specially with web development since I have been working with all major frameworks used in that area (and some obscure ones, I may add...).

If I get a job that pays more than 70K (at least for the first months) I wold be extremely happy. 80K+ would be perfect but I think this is going to be hard
with no NZ experience at all.

Auckland looks like a big city but I am probably going to prefer to Wellington or some other smaller city.

With that kind of experience, you could easily find $90k + with larger companies. Don't undersell yourself.....PM if you like :)

[mwongho]

Hi Emaino,

I am in the same boat as you, with the same experience and certifications. What kind of visa do you have ?

[emaino]

I have the visitor´s visa. Unfortunately, it looks impossible to get a Job offer while outside NZ. I have contacted some NZ headhunters and have arranged some interviews... but only AFTER I set my foot in NZ!

After that I can get a Work Permit easily, I think. This option would be faster too, since I wouldn't have to send all the necessary documents (and ask for translations for some) to NZ and wait for an answer. It appears that the Work Permit takes no more than 2 weeks if I apply while in NZ.

About the 80k salary range... I was told by the job agencies that I contacted that, since I wouldn't have any NZ experience, it would be extremely difficult to find a job above that range, at least initially.

Hope someone can confirm all that...

[emaino]

I have contacted several companies that were listed as accredited employers. So far none had any openings in my area (Java). :no

Perhaps someone may get lucky.


www.trimble.com (http://www.trimble.com)
www.topazsolutions.co.nz (http://www.topazsolutions.co.nz)
www.simpl.co.nz (http://www.simpl.co.nz/)
www.shift.co.nz (http://www.shift.co.nz/)
www.infinity.co.nz (http://www.infinity.co.nz/)
www.gfg-group.com (http://www.gfg-group.com/)
www.cortellgroup.com (http://www.cortellgroup.com/cortell)
www.ibm.com/ibm/nz (http://www.ibm.com/ibm/nz/)
www.telstraclear.co.nz (http://www.telstraclear.co.nz)
www.eagle.co.nz (http://www.eagle.co.nz/)
www.datacom.co.nz (http://www.datacom.co.nz/)


Feel free to add more IT companies to this list (Java ones).

Cheers!

[Angelonthemove]

PM me for email address we are looking for a developer but not sure what exactly they are looking for. But think you may be too expensive but who knows. when are you due over here? We are similiar to Eagle Technology they are our main compeditor.

[emaino]

I need some advice regarding my CV, specially about the level of details for each job I had. I'm currently looking for a Java developer role and would like to create a CV that focus in it. Since English is not my first language, any advice about the expressions I used would be extremely welcome.

My current CV was created with the helper of a headhunter which told me that it would be good to show exactly which kind of roles/experience I had in each job. Now I'm having some feedback from people who are living in NZ, specially from familyOfMonkeys (which had provided me with some invaluable tips) and have some knowledge about the NZ IT area... it appears that I can improve my CV if I change it a little bit.

Thanks in advance!

Here's it:



-------------
Certification
-------------

SCJP: Sun Certified Java Programmer 1.4;
SCWCD: Sun Certified Web Component Developer 1.2;
SCBCD: Sun Certified Business Component Developer 1.3;


-----------------------
Professional Experience
-----------------------

Company: Secretaria Estadual de Fazenda (SEF)
Level: Java Developer
Period: From 08/2007 to 01/2008 (End of contract)
Duties: Implementation of use cases for the CBF (Fiscal Barrier Control): a system designed to calculate taxes and catalog all products that may cross the borders of each State in Brazil. Some products, such as Medicines and Cigars, have a set of rules that are defined in their own systems. The CBF system would communicate with these by using Web Services and EJBs.

Being a very lucrative system, it would be used by the government in all States.

Technologies used: Java/J2EE, Struts, Weblogic Workshop, Java Controls, Java Pageflows, Jasper Reports.

------->

Company: Accenture
Level: System Analyst (Java Developer)
Period: 10/2005 – 08/2007
Duties: Analysis and system development using Java technologies for the following companies: Petrobras (Energy) and CVRD (Mining). Usage of automated testing (unitary and acceptance). Development of an automated document (test case creation) framework. To act as a coach for new hires. Quality assurance. Use case definition.
All projects for these two companies used Java/J2EE and Struts. Hibernate and BC4J were used for persistence. Our team used design patterns such as MVC (Model-View-Controller), Business Delegate, DAO (Data Access Object) and Transfer Object when applicable for each project.

Sample projects I participated:
• BDEM (CVRD): This project involved the development of a system that calculated how much a new mining project would cost the company. This information can be used by the board of directors to see if a new project would have any profit, before actually implementing it.

• JUR (CVRD): The system acts like an online organizer for all legal documents and contracts so that every employee could search and access it anywhere. It included a custom security framework that filters which kind of document each employee has access to.

• CEMFE (Petrobras): This project involved the development of a system with the ability to catalog all of the company´s tools and machinery. It provides detailed information about each item´s current status so it is possible to know who possess it at a given moment and where it is located. Since this project was built considering the usage for the entire company, we had to deal with a huge amount of data. I was involved with customer contact - from requirement definition to system installation and configuration at our client´s location.

• Quality Assurance & Coaching (Petrobras): I was assigned to stay at our client´s location to coach a new Java team and to provide quality assurance for some of the projects developed by Petrobras. I had total freedom to perform refactoring on the existing code to improve it´s quality and efficiency. I was responsible for providing documentation (Use Case, Class Diagrams) for existing projects that had none.

----------->

Company: Kemel CRM
Level: Java Developer
Period: From 06/2002 to 10/2005
Duties: Development of modules on a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) project, using Java/J2EE and Struts. Usage of AI techniques, such as data mining and decision trees. Kemel developed a CRM software that is sold in modules. Each module would add new functionalities to the existing software. We used EJBs with CMP (Container-Managed Persistence) for database access.

Sample modules:
• Decision Tree: Allows the software to analyze its data and display relevant and useful information for any decision making process, like what kind of customer would react better to some marketing campaign. We used Applet technology to create this module.
• Automated mail: Allows the configuration of different kind of advertisement to be sent as an e-mail for the customers that would react positively. We used JavaMail and Velocity to create this module.
• Generic reports: Allows the creation of custom reports by our customers. The software supported text and graphic reports. We used IText and JFreeChart to create this module.


------
Skills
------

Programming: Java; Java Web; J2EE; BC4J; Struts; MySQL; PostgreSQL; Oracle; Hibernate; IBatis; JUnit; DBUnit; Selenium; Jasper Reports; IReports; BEA Weblogic Workshop
Webdesign: HTML; Action Script (Flash); Dreamweaver; Flash; Fireworks;
Application Servers: Weblogic; JBoss; Tomcat;
Others: Datamining; Decision Trees; Extreme Programming

[MarkS]

As someone who has recently spent a lot of time trying to recruit Java developers in Wellington, I can tell you for sure that the market is crying out for good people. If you can back up what's on your CV with a good interview, you'll have no trouble getting a good job.

The main thing I look for in a CV was a good indication of what you, personally did on a project - i.e. how you made a difference. Not "the team did this" or "we implemented that", but "I worked on such and such and delivered it by...", etc. It's an easy market to pick up a job in, but the difference between candidates who get good salaries and candidates who get great salaries is that top people make it very clear why they're worth the money.

See also a previous thread, http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?p=142437#post142437.

Each section should say something about why you'll be a great employee. E.g., you have "Some products, such as Medicines and Cigars, have a set of rules that are defined in their own systems." What would sound much better (if it's true, of course!) is "I was responsible for implementing business logic across a range of areas. I created different systems, each with their own responsibility for handling appropriate areas. For example, medicines and cigars had very different business rules." Etc. Your CV should be making you sound good, not the team you worked on.

Anytime I see on a CV the phrase "we worked on", I assume you mean, "they worked on and I kinda heard something vaguely about it" , and I discount it. If you did it, take credit for it. If you didn't, leave it out.

Don't be afraid to blow your own trumpet. If you're good, and you want a salary to match, you have to tell them you're good - no one is going to assume it on their own.

[Familyofmonkeys]

As someone who has recently spent a lot of time trying to recruit Java developers in Wellington, I can tell you for sure that the market is crying out for good people. If you can back up what's on your CV with a good interview, you'll have no trouble getting a good job.

The main thing I look for in a CV was a good indication of what you, personally did on a project - i.e. how you made a difference. Not "the team did this" or "we implemented that", but "I worked on such and such and delivered it by...", etc. It's an easy market to pick up a job in, but the difference between candidates who get good salaries and candidates who get great salaries is that top people make it very clear why they're worth the money.

See also a previous thread, http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?p=142437#post142437.

Each section should say something about why you'll be a great employee. E.g., you have "Some products, such as Medicines and Cigars, have a set of rules that are defined in their own systems." What would sound much better (if it's true, of course!) is "I was responsible for implementing business logic across a range of areas. I created different systems, each with their own responsibility for handling appropriate areas. For example, medicines and cigars had very different business rules." Etc. Your CV should be making you sound good, not the team you worked on.

Anytime I see on a CV the phrase "we worked on", I assume you mean, "they worked on and I kinda heard something vaguely about it" , and I discount it. If you did it, take credit for it. If you didn't, leave it out.

Don't be afraid to blow your own trumpet. If you're good, and you want a salary to match, you have to tell them you're good - no one is going to assume it on their own.

You managed to say it all much better that I could!

[Chiba]

This is the best guide I've seen for writing an SE CV:

A Glimpse and a Hook (http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/02/25/a_glimpse_and_a_hook.html)

In fact, read all of his getting hired tips - they're gold.

Good luck! I agree with the other comments - solid Java skills will get you hired in NZ.

[emaino]

Thanks for everyone´s help.

I'm going to make some changes in my CV and continue to contact IT companies. I've got some phone interviews but they always say that it would be preferably to meet face to face.

Cheers!