Job Hunting

The job search is on. In the past few weeks, Ashley and I have applied for tons of jobs, rewriting our cover letters for each one, trying to find some work here in the capital city of New Zealand. Here are a few observations for those of you back in the states…

Although New Zealand is a “western” country, it is still a relatively small country, and most of the businesses here are small-businesses. Other than the evil American fast-food chains, Blockbuster video, some retail stores and car dealers, just about everything is mom and pop style.

A lot of hiring is done here by word of mouth. Larger companies have to advertise positions to meet standards and laws, but lots of jobs are awarded because of who-ya- know.

I guess none of this is really any different from the job market in lots of places…but I just received a rejection letter yesterday from a cleaning company…apparently I am little overqualified. Ashley also heard back from a company needing staff for their restaurant-same thing. Not to mention the tons of applications that we don’t get a response on.

I have been applying for a diversity of jobs, from receptionist and office manager jobs-which I had experience with at H & S- to customer service or sales positions. I have applied for a store manager position with a natural health store-I figure I have a good experience on both sides of that one, to work as a survey taker at local events-I figure I’ll just dance and gather a crowd and then Ashley can circulate and get the surveys filled out, or pickpocket everyone…;)

If I had a little (like two years) more experience with AutoCad I could have applied for a few jobs in survey companies, but no openings have been available at my level position. A surveying position was actually the first thing I applied for way back when we first landed on Waiheke, but as it was explained to me by the local surveyor: there are only a handful of large companies. Most of the surveyors are one, two or three person companies working out of their homes. Roofing companies are similar. So no luck there yet. I guess I could put my door knocking skills to work and start visiting homes for jobs.

Ash has been putting in apps with restaurants, hotels, a neat local coffee company called Roasted Addiqtion to be a processor (read: bag filler), and customer service stuff. No doubt that this search has brought school right back to the forefront of our minds, and we have been researching that as well. First thing will be to get her residency application approved, then we will know more.