[Chutney]

Wondering if anyone out there could shed a bit of light on what the market for IT jobs (design/development) in Napier was like?

The missus and I are in the very early stages of the emigration lark, and at the minute we're just doing a bit of research to try and get an idea of whereabouts in the country we might want to look to move out to. We both liked the sound of the Napier/Hawke's Bay area, but from a work point of view I've kind of got it into my head that we may need to look at Wellington to get established and then perhaps work towards making the move to Napier at our leisure.

Any thoughts?

[GeorgeM]

Sorry to have to say that you hardly ever see adverts for IT jobs in Hawkes Bay.

Like most places the IT hot beds are where the head offices are, and in a centralised country like NZ that means (in order) Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch (with Christchurch a poor third as it doesn't have anything like the number of head offices of Auckland or the government departments or banks of Wellington).

Hawkes Bay is a pretty popular place for people to live in, so I would also assume that there would be a lot of competition for any jobs that did crop up there.

Depending on what your specific skills are would it be possible to work from home? If you've got a skill in demand and your work can be done remotely then employers might be amenable to this. If you're really set on Napier definiately an avenue worth investigating rather than waiting for a suitable job to turn up.

[Chutney]

Hi George

As I suspected (feared), by the sounds of it. My IT skills are mainly in the development/design area, but whilst they're fairly transferrable from industry to industry, one potential advantage may be that I've got very specialist skills and experience in Healthcare IT, so I guess it's possible that the regional health board for Hawkes Bay could provide one avenue in there.

It's probably going to be a case of looking at Auckland or Welly to start with though and then trying to engineer a move to Hawke's Bay once we're established.

Of course there's always the possibility that we'll visit Hawke's Bay, hate it and stay put. Yeah, right... :roll

Cheers for the advice.

[Nicola]

Hi Mike

I have been living in Hawkes Bay area for 6 months now and looking for an IT job with no luck. There have been three jobs come up with the local authorities, but not what I am looking for. Not that it worries me too much as my hubby is working, so I am quite enjoying being at home with the kids for a change. In the UK I was working a 70 to 80 hour week.

I can confirm that Hawkes Bay is a great place to live. We love it here in Havelock North. Only two negatives, the beeches are not that great and the house prices are high. Not as bad as Auckland I suppose, but to get a decent area we had to go way over what we initially thought we would have to pay.

Good luck with your move.

Nicola