BaggiesFans
17th March 2009, 11:00 AM
Hi All,
I went to Christchurch for a job interview yesterday and have essentially been offered the job subject to references. This now poses a major dilemma for me and my husband in terms of both jobs and locations. I was hoping by writing about it here it might both help clarify it in my mind and hopefully there may be some people on here who can offer useful advce / insight.
The situation is that I currently work for a really great company, with good pay and benefits, pretty flexible hours & a fairly easy life really. I had my apprasial on Friday and there was talk of a move into a newly created CFO position, with the pay rises that go with that. The CEO was also happy to pay for me to do business courses, possibly even an MBA if that's what I wanted. They have been really good to me in terms of bringing me up to speed with the busines, trips around the country etc. I've only been there 7 months and have some big projects under way which would grind to a standstill if I left. Sounds great eh?
So the problem is that the job is in Rotorua. We currently live in Tauranga and I'm doing a 180km round trip each day. This isn't sustainable long term so realistically we would be looking at moving to Rotorua. My husband isn't that keen on living here in terms of the lower socio-economic mix / crime & the smell. This is less of an issue for me as you can largely avoid that living in the right area. The bigger issue is that my husband is a community mental health nurse and the local DHB & Mental Health team particularly has a very bad reputation and he has been told in no uncertain terms by colleagues who have worked there he really doesn't want to work there. There is also our son to consider and my husband is really fearful of him being bullied by the Maori kids & the quality of the schools.
The other option is a role with Christchurch City Council. This means a pay cut for me but I would hopefully be able to walk to work each day if we get set up right, so save all that petrol / travelling cost so probably not any worse of at the moment. You would also say it's a lower level role than is on offer in Rotorua but being a large organisation there are opportunity for progression. they also offer training, although I'm sure that won't run to an MBA. I'm also concerned that I might get frustrated by the bureacurarcy to get things done - not sure if that's a valid concern or not? However I'm sure that there will be less opportunity for pay rises & bonuses.
Walking to work was one of the ideas I had in my head aboput moving to NZ and we always say Christchurch as our long term place to settle. My son would be able to go to a good school and the DHB / mental health team has a very good reputation by all accounts. I can see other advantages in terms of being in a larger place, more going on, easier to get round the country, and I think better opportunity to develop a social circle - other expats starting on the same team at the same time etc. The other biggie is taht we would make the move now, with associated expense and I doubt we would be looking to move elsewhere for a long time. If we go to Rotorua it would only be for a few years I think before we looked at Christchurch again. The other thing is the weather - Up here you don't rerally get much of a winter - about 6 weeks of storms/ cold winds that's about it. How bad is the Chrsitchurch winter? What about the quality of the houses? - we were freezing up here because our house had no insulation and no proper heating so we were reliant on electric radiators.
Sorry this has turned into a much longer post than I anticipated. You can see there is a trade off my career, my hubands career & lifestyle / location. we tried to work through methodically last night giving each item a score but ended up pretty even on both!
Looking forward to your comments.
I went to Christchurch for a job interview yesterday and have essentially been offered the job subject to references. This now poses a major dilemma for me and my husband in terms of both jobs and locations. I was hoping by writing about it here it might both help clarify it in my mind and hopefully there may be some people on here who can offer useful advce / insight.
The situation is that I currently work for a really great company, with good pay and benefits, pretty flexible hours & a fairly easy life really. I had my apprasial on Friday and there was talk of a move into a newly created CFO position, with the pay rises that go with that. The CEO was also happy to pay for me to do business courses, possibly even an MBA if that's what I wanted. They have been really good to me in terms of bringing me up to speed with the busines, trips around the country etc. I've only been there 7 months and have some big projects under way which would grind to a standstill if I left. Sounds great eh?
So the problem is that the job is in Rotorua. We currently live in Tauranga and I'm doing a 180km round trip each day. This isn't sustainable long term so realistically we would be looking at moving to Rotorua. My husband isn't that keen on living here in terms of the lower socio-economic mix / crime & the smell. This is less of an issue for me as you can largely avoid that living in the right area. The bigger issue is that my husband is a community mental health nurse and the local DHB & Mental Health team particularly has a very bad reputation and he has been told in no uncertain terms by colleagues who have worked there he really doesn't want to work there. There is also our son to consider and my husband is really fearful of him being bullied by the Maori kids & the quality of the schools.
The other option is a role with Christchurch City Council. This means a pay cut for me but I would hopefully be able to walk to work each day if we get set up right, so save all that petrol / travelling cost so probably not any worse of at the moment. You would also say it's a lower level role than is on offer in Rotorua but being a large organisation there are opportunity for progression. they also offer training, although I'm sure that won't run to an MBA. I'm also concerned that I might get frustrated by the bureacurarcy to get things done - not sure if that's a valid concern or not? However I'm sure that there will be less opportunity for pay rises & bonuses.
Walking to work was one of the ideas I had in my head aboput moving to NZ and we always say Christchurch as our long term place to settle. My son would be able to go to a good school and the DHB / mental health team has a very good reputation by all accounts. I can see other advantages in terms of being in a larger place, more going on, easier to get round the country, and I think better opportunity to develop a social circle - other expats starting on the same team at the same time etc. The other biggie is taht we would make the move now, with associated expense and I doubt we would be looking to move elsewhere for a long time. If we go to Rotorua it would only be for a few years I think before we looked at Christchurch again. The other thing is the weather - Up here you don't rerally get much of a winter - about 6 weeks of storms/ cold winds that's about it. How bad is the Chrsitchurch winter? What about the quality of the houses? - we were freezing up here because our house had no insulation and no proper heating so we were reliant on electric radiators.
Sorry this has turned into a much longer post than I anticipated. You can see there is a trade off my career, my hubands career & lifestyle / location. we tried to work through methodically last night giving each item a score but ended up pretty even on both!
Looking forward to your comments.