[liveAdream]

Greetings,

We are researching employment aspect of living NZ. There are too many questions we need an answer. Let's start it off with 3.

OH is in the business of IT infrastructure provisioning and is a senior technical person. His work requires quite a bit of strategic planning and customisation/integration for customers.

If we find a job in Auckland, is a NZ$100K salary too low?

Or, is NZ$130K too high an expectation?

Replacing Auckland with Wellington, what would the salary range becomes?

Thanks for your input in advance. Please PM me if you need more specific details.

[CJ22]

I'd say 110-120 (maybe with a bonus on top) was what you were looking at. There doesn't seem to be much difference between Auckland and Welly - Welly is maybe a couple of points higher.

However, somebody published a salary guide on one of the threads here recently (like this week), so if you search around you should find it.

[IanW99]

I'd say 110-120 (maybe with a bonus on top) was what you were looking at. There doesn't seem to be much difference between Auckland and Welly - Welly is maybe a couple of points higher.

However, somebody published a salary guide on one of the threads here recently (like this week), so if you search around you should find it.

This is the thread 2008 Salary Survey (http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=17092)

Ian

[liveAdream]

This is the thread 2008 Salary Survey (http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=17092)

Ian

CJ22/IanW99,

Thanks for your reply and taking the effort to dig out the needed info.

I posted the questions because nothing compares input from the locals. As an outsider, I feel I should have a basis to interpret and make judgement of raw data.

You have said what the document suggests too - Welly pays a bit more which surprises me. The only reason I can think of is the heavy governmental clientes which increase competition for personnel.

Am I in the right direction?

Lastly, suppose we settle in Bay of Plenty or Hawkes Bay area, say working for the local council. How much less should we expect from $110-120? Is 10% a good ball-park? Of course, OH may have difficulty to even be offered a job given his specialist skills.

[Mike & Nicola]

Hi its very difficult to bracket how much you can earn because it depends on a few things:

Firstly your experience and how good you are at doing your job and selling yourself for the job. If you come across well in interviews and your CV is good then the world is your oyster in AKL in IT as they're crying out for skilled staff here.

Also, if you need a job offer to get into the country companies will sometimes exploit that and lower your salary. If you're not dependant then negotiate hard!

Finally the company you work for makes a huge difference I believe. If you can get into a multinational then you're much more likely to get a comparable global salary rather than working for a small kiwi firm. I know from friends who work their @rses for such companies for a pittance, doing a highly skilled job! The best agencies for the multinationals down at the Viaduct in AKL are Hudson & Robert Walters.

Putting all that together expect offers between 60-130K.

Also bear in mind that once you've got your foot in the door of a good company but on a poor salary, you can always renegotiate once you prove yourself :-)

As a side, I have a friend who is from Havelock North and he's been trying to get a job back in Hawkes Bay for over a year with no luck. He's on around 75K in AKL and only had offers of around 30-45 back there. He's also found a bit of prejudice about being a JAFFA when applying as he's been in AKL for a few years!!!! Some of these kiwi's are a funny lot ;-)

Goodluck - its worth it!

Mike

[Familyofmonkeys]

OH here.

I'd have to agree with most of what Mike says. I think the range may be a bit broad, and I'd say lookin the 80 - 120 range. I'm not going to post my salary or company details, but suffice to say that I'm AKL based, have a similar level role in my company and am 'somewhere' in that range.

PM if you want more details.

[Tia Maria]

Most people we know in IT, who have good few years of experience under their belts, earn between 85 - 100 plus bonuses, so I'd say the previous ranges given are pretty spot on, (this is in Auckland). :nice1

Cheers

Tia

[liveAdream]

Thank you Mike, Familyofmonkeys, Tia Maria for the great insight.

We do not need a job offer to get into NZ. We do not know how to negotiate with employers in New Zealand because we do not know their mentality.

As a rule, we assume they will exploit our keenness to come and live in NZ and thus will not offer a competitive salary during the initial offer.

Naturally, they may go so far even as not to offer relocation package either. But is this practice common?

Now we know the range to expect for, we need a negotiate strategy if they offer say $15K less than what we should expect. Is it ok to tell them straight the level we expect?

[Tia Maria]

We didn't need a job offer to get PR either, so we turned up without one. Once in NZ the OH posted his details on Seek and he was contacted within half an hour by several agencies. He then got a few interviews that week and had accepted a job by the end of that week (my OH is a java programmer and this was a couple of years ago, but I'm sure someone can fill you in on the current job market).

He chose not to get a job before coming as he didn't want to be tied to a company due to relocation expenses or for his visa. He also felt you can gain a great deal of insight about a company by actually interviewing in person and as he had several interviews he could make some comparisons also.

Obviously the downside to this approach is the risk of not getting a job immediately on arrival. We had saved up 3 months salary, just in case, but this was not needed in the end.

He is now being recontacted by the agencies, probably because they think that after 2 years many people want to move on.

Cheers

Tia

[liveAdream]

Tia Maria,

We also choose not to get a job before coming as we do not want our visa to be tied with a job offer and more worryingly, our migration timetable will become compressed suddenly - only OH and I are helping. Our application has just begun.

Then all these changed when a company contacted directly. We still have reservations with the stress consequential to needing to start a job promptly (I guess we still do not arrive till July/August). We are left with a major decision if selling or renting out our house.

Unless the offer is tempting enough together with an adequate assistance to relocate and a generous relocation package, we are inclined to stay with our original plan as it is no joke to leave behind our legency here and administer it at the other half of the world. I can see constant headache and lack of sleep just to deal with issues, let alone the number of attempts something is fixed.

On the personal front - I note you have clocked up 1300 posts that have earned you 4 green dots. Is the forum your cyber home as I see your contributions here routinely?

Anyway, it is lovely to meet great people here. If we end up in Auckland, we surely would like to meet up with you, Familyofmonkeys and others, if you so wish too.