[ChrisG78]

Hello folks,

I've been following this forum for a while now and have to say that all infomrmation I got from here so far is superb! But let's start with a little bit more about myself:

I'm writing you guys from Germany, I'm 23 years old and live together with my 22 year old girlfriend for just about one year and a few months. Since I spent six months in Oz when I was still at school I've been thinking about making the big move. Originally Australia was my favourite place to go but things have changed a little and my girlfriends NZ-experience (also gained during student exchanges and long-term holidays) shifted my moving plans a little further from Oz to NZ.

The main problem in our situation is that I've just finished my studies (Bachelor in Business Admin and Banking) while my girfriend is still studying for another two years at least. Therefore we don't have much work experience (let's say nothing!) or funds saved up for an immediate move. The good thing is that I found a good Job in a bank after my studies, so that at least one of us can gather some work-experience and save up a bit of cash.
Plans are that we start moving in about 2 1/2 to 3 years time. PR from the start would be a dream but I don't think the point mark will stay that low for too much longer so we'll have to make our way over through work visa combined with job offers.
So my question would be if there are any chances to find a job in the Banking or Business sector. As I mentioned further up I have studied Business Admin connected with a Banking Diploma (probably comparable to a trade certificate). I know from the NZIS-pages that it's rather ITs and craftsmen what they are looking for.
I am not a native english speaker but (without trying to show off ;)) I would consider my english as very fluent. In several tests (e.g. TOEIC-test) I even reached the native speaker scores and when I speak everyone thinks I'm an aussie 'cause my german accent vanished almost to 99%. In my new job I'll be mainly working in english as I'll be looking after english-speaking business-customers.
I could'nt find anything via the search function, so if you made it ti the end of my not-so-short text than I would be gratefull for any kind of advice.

Cheers for that and a nice weekend to everyone where-ever you are at the moment!

Chris

[Singel]

Hello Chris

Just want to say WELCOME to the forum.

I'm impressed with your English :nice1

GOOD LUCK with your job searching.

:cheers

[Marie P]

Welcome to the forum Chris .

Good luck ,

Marie x

[Annierobrigado]

hello

have you visited the list of occupation shortages in nz? i think they do need banking people too, not just IT. try navigating www.immigration.govt.nz and see the links to the list of occupations needed in nz.

what you can do too would be to visit nz again and when you get there you can apply for a job. what's going to work in your favor would be your OZ education as well as your girlfriend's NZ education. that can add points. besides there is the holiday to work visa - which is offered to young ones like you. I have some friends from the philippines who applied under the skilled migrant category, they are in the banking industry and have been given their work to residence visa. they will soon leave for nz, just wrapping things up here in manila. so i guess you can do that as well. the website above will greatly help you, and so will this forum, so just join in whenever you can and don't be afraid to ask things! the people here can be your good friends, in cyberspace or in nz.

hope to meet you soon (in nz, okay?)

annie

[ChrisG78]

Thanks everyone for your replies so far. Makes me feel kind of better (especially the last post :)), sounds like there is a realistic chance...

See you in NZ sounds good, although it might take a little while till we get there...

Have a good one

[Ria]

Hi ChrisG78,

Not sure if it is the same for German nationals, but as we're all in the lovely EU, I don't see why not.

Anyway, any UK citizen can obtain a one year tourist visa as long as they are under 30 years old. This visa allows you to work (allegedly only on temporary jobs) but NZ work experience is worth points too. A friend of mine did this and got a job with an NZ bank in Wellington, no problem. The only drawback was that the bank would not 'sponsor' him after the year, so he left before the 12 months expired and got another 'financial' job with another NZ employer. He did not have any banking experience, although worked for an energy brokers in the UK.

He was already on the PR route and has now been awarded full status. So I would say that as you are both well under 30, you will not need to get PR before you travel, to work legitimately in NZ.

I would probably head for Wellington or Auckland first or possibly Christchurch as they are bound to have the most financial vacancies.

Lastly, many forumers have expressed that employers are far more interested in offering you a job when you are in the country.

Good luck.

Ria

[Miffy]

Hi Chris and welcome to the forum.

First of all your written english is excellent and if your spoken english is half as good it won't be a problem at all. :)

As for banking, there is a lot of retail banks, as there is anywhere, however there is not so much on the investment banking side, as NZ does not have its own stock exchange and I think it uses Australia (I think Australia has one ???) anyway whatever it uses is very small compared to London, Frankfurt or even Paris. This type of banking work and the HQ Banking of retail banks is found in Wellington, so if thats the industry you want to get into that where you will need to look or go. But I',m sure your degree in Business Admin will help in other ways.

Good luck :cheers

[GeorgeM]

Chris

With a standard of English like that you would stick out like a sore thumb in New Zealand - can you not dumb it down a little?

If you want to fit in remember to get your grammar wrong frequently (e.g. use 'should of' instead of 'should have'), mix up words that sound the same but which mean totally different things (their / there / they're), use the incorrect word as often as possible (less instead of fewer, for example) and always use apostrophes in plural's.

That way you'll seem like a real kiwi :laugh !

[ChrisG78]

Wow!

Your experiences, storys and hints gave me a real boost on this grey and rainy tuesday morning. The 12-months work and holiday visa for U30s sounds like a real good option. It's not too expensive (that's what I found out so far) to apply for and if we should figure out that we don't like NZ as much as we originally thought, then our way back is a bit easier... maybe
But it's a really good feeling to hear that it is possible. I've never really been job hunting as I was in a trainee-program with a bank for my studies and I was offered a job by them afterwards. So that's a new situation, why not giving that a go in NZ ;)!

@George: I'll do my best not to stick up like a sore thumb (nice saying I've never heard that before), I think most mistakes will occur unintentionally anyway ;)