Skilled new arrivals in NZ looking for work

Posted by Andrew on June 12, 2015

This week's blog comes from our Auckland Office Administrator, Eva Novak, recently arrived in NZ from Slovenia. 

It’s been 6 months since my partner and I said goodbye to Europe and headed to everything that New Zealand had to offer. We had Working Holiday Visas in our pockets so the job hunt would be easier, or so we thought. After a short trip around South Island and a lovely new years’ experience in the Northland, we finally settled in Auckland. Since we were staying with our friends, we didn’t have to look for any flats nearby, but instead were able to focus our energy on finding ourselves jobs.

The perks of having a Working Holiday Visa are that you are allowed to work for one employer for only 3 months. It is meant to be for work and holidays, which was not in our favour. We really wanted to find a full-time permanent employment and settle here for a while. We signed up with a few recruitment agencies for temp work and had no luck. Mostly – because of our visa status. And the sad thing was that no one was even willing to give us a chance, for example, in a form of a trial period of employment. If we are suitable candidates and have right experience, take us on board for those 3 months, and see how it goes! If we prove that we truly are reliable, hard-working and experienced, we can easily apply for a Work Visa afterwards. If not, no hard feelings. At least you gave us a chance. But no, we weren’t able to pass the primary screening with 90% of the companies and agencies because we ticked “no – we don’t have citizenship or residency”. 

But we didn’t give up. The first good sign was when I got a short time opportunity through one of the recruitment agencies. It was a 3-day task, simple data entry, but it felt great. The first tiny steps into the working industry in New Zealand! But I knew that this still wasn’t quite it. I truly wished to find a role in the recruitment process, either in an agency or company’s HR department. So I kept on searching, filtering and applying.  I believed that the right company will see through my visa status and support me to apply for a Work Visa afterwards. I just needed to be patient. And, of course, check Seek and TradeMe on a daily basis.

And so it happened, on one idle summer’s Thursday, I applied for the Office Administrator position at Superior Personnel and got invited to an interview a week later. And deep down I knew this was it. The first interview went great and so did the second. Before I realized I was signing the employment pack and meeting the team. I was stoked. Thrilled. And most of all, grateful that someone saw beyond my work status and gave me a chance.

What happened after three months? I got my Work Visa and am soon on a mission to apply for residency. All it takes is a little support.