Life in New Zealand - The move has been made...

[Mr Zog]

Its one of those days...people said it will be an emotional roller coaster but one always believes it wont happen to you...

I barely started as we are still to sell a lot of things, house included, but today i feel like it is just not going to happen. Spend 2 weeks there, have done over 80 applications and only got 2 bites. Makes one really despondent...But hey, aanhou voorentoe! WIll push through, it has taken some ppl 3 years and keeping the end goal in sight and the reason one is doing it is important!

Let this week begin and see what it holds!

I know the feeling.

When I got here I applied to so many places for a job, and only got one bite for an interview with Bass Pro Shop that I (obviously) didn't get.

Thats when I took matters into my own hands and basically talked the old boss into giving me a job. Worked that first week, and he kept me on. Used some of the experience I got on that job to get the new job.

When the new job was advertised I didn't just apply. I didn't just fill in the form. I took each point / item that they specified as a requirement and told them how I could do that part of the job. I sold myself. The rest is history.

Don't just apply. Sell yourself. If the HR person / boss sees that you are willing to do more than just fill out the form, he'll know you are willing to go the extra mile at work too.   

[Ama ride ride]

Its one of those days...people said it will be an emotional roller coaster but one always believes it wont happen to you...

I barely started as we are still to sell a lot of things, house included, but today i feel like it is just not going to happen. Spend 2 weeks there, have done over 80 applications and only got 2 bites. Makes one really despondent...But hey, aanhou voorentoe! WIll push through, it has taken some ppl 3 years and keeping the end goal in sight and the reason one is doing it is important!

Let this week begin and see what it holds!

Kiwi bosses work in mysterious ways. Even if you are in a global skills field they insist on something called "New Zealand working experience" Fkck know what exact it is but it exist. 

After 10 months in NZ I am still not working in my designated field. I do have a job and I enjoy it but I am not in my strongest skills area. Yes frustrating but that's how things go for the majority of immigrants. Kiwi's are scared of hard working foreigners, They will oversee you and give a lesser skilled Kiwi a job first.  Deal with it. Handle it. Manage it. See it as a challenge.

My wife on the other side got 5 interviews in 8 days and 2 job offers on the table withing 5 days after her interviews. So its about what you can do.

[immigrant]

Our plants chemical engineer worked in Home Depot stocking shelves for 2 years before he got to work with us. Our head accountant was a "sandwich artist" at the local Subway. I swept floors for a year..... We just had interviews for 2  new operators. We had immigrant engineers with 5 years experience lose out to 2 twenty year old kids living with their parents.  Life is not necessarily fair in the new country. You just need a lucky break and somebody to believe in you.
Keep trying Silvrav. 

[silvrav]

Thanks guys!

@Mr Zog I try to do that in my cover letter but it seems I will need to focus and do more so 

@Ama ride ride @immigrant thanks! I am willing to start anywhere and work my way back up! Its just that dam work visa thats a thorn in my side. If it was a year ago we could apply for residency from SA side, but now they upped the points to 160 (vs 140) and we at 145, so need that offer to put us over the edge.

I had a long chat this morning with a guy that i potentially would have had an interview with, btw to which they found someone locally,  anyhoot, he is also a saffer and pretty much advised the same in that its much easier to find something when you there full time.

So short term 6month plan is as follows:

1. Keep applying for work from this side, with more focus and detailed on selling my self (as Zog said)
2. Start saving big time and get debt free (big one being the house).
3. Will wait till year end to get bonus paid out to help with debt.
4. Get wife and son set up at mother in laws for the upcoming months
5. Plan to go over feb of next year and start the job hunting on the ground.

I am very lucky that I have friends in NZ and 2 have offered that I can come stay with them indefinitely while job hunting.

[Mr Zog]

@Mr Zog I try to do that in my cover letter but it seems I will need to focus and do more so 

Try not to have a "generic" cover letter.

Write a new, detailed, "selling yourself" cover letter for each application. Mention the company name, mention how you WILL be an asset to their company (by name), etc.  Write so that if you were the HR person you would be very intrigued to have further communication with the applicant that has so obviously done his homework (google the company and mention stuff that you found interesting).

Holding thumbs for you H 

[Camino Cerdo]

Changing countries seems to be much more complicated than I ever envisioned. But here in (A)merica things are booming and labor willing to work is getting hard to find. Does it help it you have a job lined up when trying to immigrate? We run a small business, farming and contracting and could use a couple more crew. We work long hard hour when busy but young man that just got our of high school two years ago grossed 50k last year.
I loved SA when I traveled there. Hate to see so many finding leaving is the best option for them.  But if someone is interested in options here let me know. Maybe you could come through Mexico and get a Coyote to smuggle you across the border.

Bob 

[Mikie]

Changing countries seems to be much more complicated than I ever envisioned. But here in (A)merica things are booming and labor willing to work is getting hard to find. Does it help it you have a job lined up when trying to immigrate? We run a small business, farming and contracting and could use a couple more crew. We work long hard hour when busy but young man that just got our of high school two years ago grossed 50k last year.
I loved SA when I traveled there. Hate to see so many finding leaving is the best option for them.  But if someone is interested in options here let me know. Maybe you could come through Mexico and get a Coyote to smuggle you across the border.

Bob

Better do it quick, before Don build the wall

[Sardine]

Changing countries seems to be much more complicated than I ever envisioned. But here in (A)merica things are booming and labor willing to work is getting hard to find. Does it help it you have a job lined up when trying to immigrate? We run a small business, farming and contracting and could use a couple more crew. We work long hard hour when busy but young man that just got our of high school two years ago grossed 50k last year.
I loved SA when I traveled there. Hate to see so many finding leaving is the best option for them.  But if someone is interested in options here let me know. Maybe you could come through Mexico and get a Coyote to smuggle you across the border.

Bob

Would you consider a hard-working lady who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. Plenty of aviation experience, not much farming, but eager to learn!

[funky_munky]

Changing countries seems to be much more complicated than I ever envisioned. But here in (A)merica things are booming and labor willing to work is getting hard to find. Does it help it you have a job lined up when trying to immigrate? We run a small business, farming and contracting and could use a couple more crew. We work long hard hour when busy but young man that just got our of high school two years ago grossed 50k last year.
I loved SA when I traveled there. Hate to see so many finding leaving is the best option for them.  But if someone is interested in options here let me know. Maybe you could come through Mexico and get a Coyote to smuggle you across the border.

Bob

Would love to, but would you be willing to sponsor the visa? From what I have read, if you get a job offer in America or any other 1st world country, the employer would have to be willing to sponsor the Visa. Not sure if it would be possible for the employer to sponsor the visa process with the future employee paying the fees?

[silvrav]

Changing countries seems to be much more complicated than I ever envisioned. But here in (A)merica things are booming and labor willing to work is getting hard to find. Does it help it you have a job lined up when trying to immigrate? We run a small business, farming and contracting and could use a couple more crew. We work long hard hour when busy but young man that just got our of high school two years ago grossed 50k last year.
I loved SA when I traveled there. Hate to see so many finding leaving is the best option for them.  But if someone is interested in options here let me know. Maybe you could come through Mexico and get a Coyote to smuggle you across the border.

Bob

Would love to, but would you be willing to sponsor the visa? From what I have read, if you get a job offer in America or any other 1st world country, the employer would have to be willing to sponsor the Visa. Not sure if it would be possible for the employer to sponsor the visa process with the future employee paying the fees?

Bob I have sent you pm 

Funky munky its in NZ like that as well... When I get a visa/sponsorship from NZ employer they just complete some docs. I still have to pay the visa fees

[Camino Cerdo]

Changing countries seems to be much more complicated than I ever envisioned. But here in (A)merica things are booming and labor willing to work is getting hard to find. Does it help it you have a job lined up when trying to immigrate? We run a small business, farming and contracting and could use a couple more crew. We work long hard hour when busy but young man that just got our of high school two years ago grossed 50k last year.
I loved SA when I traveled there. Hate to see so many finding leaving is the best option for them.  But if someone is interested in options here let me know. Maybe you could come through Mexico and get a Coyote to smuggle you across the border.

Bob

Would you consider a hard-working lady who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. Plenty of aviation experience, not much farming, but eager to learn!

Sure, if you can fly you should be able to drive a tractor or run a remote control dredge.  But you have a skill that is needed here and pays better I think.  Was on the news a few days ago that the regional airlines were getting desperate for pilots.
Bob

[Camino Cerdo]

Sponsoring Visa should not be a problem. I have worked with a few Mexicans on paperwork, some liability on sponsoring someone for citizenship, (have to agree to take care of them if they get sick or injured and can not work but not sure they have ever enforced it)  Unfortunately Mexico is doing better and they all have gone home. But sponsoring for Visa should not be a risk to employer. What would help is if the person coming in had a skill we could say we could not find locally. (sheep producers bring in herders this way as do high tech companies).
I am off next week for a three month ride across Central Asia and China. I do my best thinking with the wind in my face so I will rattle this around in the head a bit and see what falls out.
Bob

[thabogrobler]

Sponsoring Visa should not be a problem. I have worked with a few Mexicans on paperwork, some liability on sponsoring someone for citizenship, (have to agree to take care of them if they get sick or injured and can not work but not sure they have ever enforced it)  Unfortunately Mexico is doing better and they all have gone home. But sponsoring for Visa should not be a risk to employer. What would help is if the person coming in had a skill we could say we could not find locally. (sheep producers bring in herders this way as do high tech companies).
I am off next week for a three month ride across Central Asia and China. I do my best thinking with the wind in my face so I will rattle this around in the head a bit and see what falls out.
Bob

To get Saffas in the US for farm work is relative easy on the H2A visa, however this visa does not lead to residency. And thereies the challenge.

By trade I am a qualified plumber and one of the few countries my missus would ever go to is the Us. Getting a proper work visa as a tradesman is a different ball game as very few employers will wait 18months + for you to arrive.

I worked in the Us in 2001 on an H2A. It must be the hardest I worked in my lkfe but it was the most stressfree 6 months of my life!

[Ama ride ride]

Silvrav

One thing to keep in the back of your mind.

South Africans who are already in the job market and who you may need to contact for potential jobs,(consultants, managers etc)... Some of them are very anti-South African and will decline your CV just on the fact that you are also from SA. Its my personal experience.  The Kiwi consultants are fair and to the point. The SA ones will make it hard.
 

[Horizon Seeker]

Has anyone applied recently for a UK Spouse Visa? Any comments on how long it took would be appreciated 

[Tr0jan]

Silvrav, thanks for taking the time to explain many of the subtleties. The Mrs and I are also going(once paperwork is done) to wellington, so hopefully we will see you there one day?

[Mikie]

Silvrav, thanks for taking the time to explain many of the subtleties. The Mrs and I are also going(once paperwork is done) to wellington, so hopefully we will see you there one day?

Only after you leave that black BeeEm in my garage, nê?

[Horizon Seeker]

What is the best way to move a couple of hundred rand into an overseas bank account?

[Duke916]

Maybe buy currency here and take it over 

[King Louis]

Only saw the thread now....been a bit busy.

Good luck with everything Hannes and all the best for your and your family's future.