[stevenh]

Hi All

This is my first post but I've been reading the forum for a few months now. I've found this an excellent forum and a great way to find all about emigrating to New Zealand (this is our plan in the next couple of years).

Me, my wife and 2 year old son are planning a recce next January, starting in Auckland and working our way down by car to Christchurch (plan stops in Hamilton, Rotorua, Napier, Wellington, Blenheim, amongst others).

Even though we want to enjoy it as a holiday, we do obviously plan to use it as a fact finding mission. We like the look of Wellington and plan to visit some of the suburbs, check out facilities, housing, etc.

My question is, is it worth arranging to meet with recruitment agencies in Wellington to see what employment opportunites are like (my background is market research and their appear to be few agencies in the city).

Also any advice on what we should include on our recce trip that would help us get a better understanding of NZ would be appreciated.

Thanks :yes

[JandM]

Hello, and welcome to the forum.:)

[dilanium]

Hello and welcome!

[BaldyBeardyBloke]

Hello and welcome.

I would say 'yes' to arranging interviews with agencies. Didn't do it myself but many others have had success this way and, besides, what harm can it do. If nothing else you can get an idea of what an NZ company would be looking for in your field.

[Leanne]

Hello :)

[nippa&pippa]

My question is, is it worth arranging to meet with recruitment agencies in Wellington to see what employment opportunites are like (my background is market research and their appear to be few agencies in the city).

Also any advice on what we should include on our recce trip that would help us get a better understanding of NZ would be appreciated.

Thanks :yes

Yes, we did contact a recruitment agency before we came out and she arranged 4 job interviews awaiting for us in our first week, by the end of the week, my OH was offered all 4 jobs! :clap He managed to narrow down to one he want to take and able to sort the paperworks out while we were in NZ, as we were touring around NZ from south CHCH to AKL after spent a week in CHCH. (Got sister in AKL that happy to take our posts while we were touring..)

[marcia]

Hi and welcome

One thing we did on our reccie was go into the supermarket with what would a 'normal weekly' shopping list, you don't have to buy the items just price them up to see what your weekly shop would end up costing over here, just gives you a bit of an idea when you are comparing wages etc how far (or not) your dollars will go.

Try setting up interviews with companies, once they know you are keen enough to be visiting in person, they seem much more interested.

Good luck!

[slider]

Hello, and welcome to the forum :)

I would agree with the advice about setting up a meeting with a couple of recruitment agencies. Do this in advance, let them know when you plan to visit and you could be attending interviews whilst on your recce. :nice1

[dusk]

Hello :)

[beth&rich]

Hi!

Setting up a few interviews has got to be worth the effort - it'll give you a much better understanding of whats available and what kiwi employers are looking for. I wish I'd done that on our recce.

Beth

[AndyR]

welcome to the forum!

[Kiwi-In-Texas]

hello and welcome.

[Red Devil]

Hello and welcome to the forum... yes, definitely arrange appointments with recruitment agencies. OH did just that with the Nursing agency she's signed up with and we all met up with our contact in Auckland. They were so helpful and arranged appointments at some hospitals along our 'recce' route to get an idea of the set-up in NZ... you're probably in a completely different industry, however the point I'm making is that it'll definitely be of some benefit.

You may wish to read our conclusion from our 'recce' trip, as there's some helpful links and also the route maybe of some interest.

Click Here (http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=17728&highlight=recce)

Good luck and enjoy your trip :nice1

[Janey]

Hi
Welcome to the forum, We have just recently returned from a recce trip to Wellington and found it useful to visit agencies they then know what you look like how to prject yourself and pick up finer points of you CV this helps them when they speak to future employers we also visited schools who were most accomodating it was interesting visiting 2 as they were very different.
Another thought is to go into the supermarket(s) we stayed in a holiday bach so did a small weekly shop and compared prices and quality and variety and were pleasently suprised. It is worth going to some open homes as well to see style, size etc of housing within your price bracket and areas. Finally we did a trial commute from the farthest out areas we like to compare times and whether we would get a seat or not. We tried to view the trip as how we would live not as a holiday as that can give you a total different frame of mind.
incidently what line of work are you in and where do you wish to settle? If you are planning on January its worth bearing in mind Kiwi's take longer Chrsitmas breaks and staff who are responsible for recruiting might not be back until mid to late January
Good Luck and keep us posted
If you need to know anything feel free to pm me
regards
Jane

[Scotty69]

Hi and welcome to the forum. :nice1

[stevenh]

Thanks everyone, some very useful advice.

Janey - as you've just come back from NZ and fitted so much in whilst you were in Wellington, I hope you can answer a few questions;

1. Which suburbs did you visit and use as the basis for your trial commute, how did you find the journey compared with UK - cost, ease, reliability?
2. Were there any suburbs that you particularly liked (or would avoid)?
2. Which recruitment agencies did you visit and would recommend?
3. Which schools did you visit and in which areas?

My line of work is Market Research and we are initially looking at settling in Wellington. We are visiting at the end of Jan/early Feb 2009.