CatherineF

Can anyone in the know tell me what the current situation in New Zealand is for IT professionals wanting to enter the country on a permanent visa?

Immigration New Zealand have made it crystal clear that there is a need for skilled IT professionals, and that there is work available, but when my husband tried to corroborate this with a couple of IT recruiters in Auckland and Wellington, he got a completely different story. He was told that there just aren't many jobs being advertised anymore and that immigration at this time would be extremely foolish.

We weren't naive enough to assume that New Zealand was unaffected by the recession but we weren't aware the situation was as black as the recruiters painted.

To give you some background, my husband has 9 years experience of technical support and J2EE/unix/databases. He's currently in a managerial position. We started thinking about emigrating a couple of years ago and last autumn we applied for permanent residency to Australia. All being well, because his profession is on the CSL, that visa will be granted in a few months. For reasons I won't bore you with, we now intend to use the visa to move permanently to New Zealand. Our plans are very advanced in that we have sold our house in preparation for moving.

Our savings will be minimal so securing a job before arrival, or at least having reason to believe it will be possible to secure a job a couple of months after arrival, is necessary. We have 2 very young children so whilst wanting to follow our dream, we have to be as careful as possible to minimise the risk.

Tell me honestly... is the dream over?

eddie_nz

The IT industry in Oz is much bigger

and if your comming to NZ you need saving, working and saving for a house deposit in NZ is nigh on impossible.

Browner_

To be honest, I would say only having that sort of reserve is quite risky, unless you have minimal housing costs and/or are prepared to take any job short term.

As for the IT work well, certainly jobs are fewer and further between at the moment.

Get your hubby to look at www.seek.co.nz, and then work out how many vacancies there are that he could do/would want to do, and then factor in that he is competing against other applicants.

What makes you want to come to NZ rather than Australia?

I cant get a job for love nor money, but my skills are different to his.

ukkiwi

I know a lot of IT companies have locked the door as regards to general recruitment - companies like EDS\HP are even reducing numbers and salaries.

Suggest the direct approach - has he joined Linkedin.com and searched for direct contacts in NZ?

Look at NZ jobs posted on the websites of the following.
EDS
HP
SUN
Microsoft
Fujitsu
Gen-i
Telecom
IBM

ukkiwi

I just asked a friend in NZ IT recruitment for a view. Reply received below.

Things are quite quiet here in NZ. I expect they will pick up dramatically in the next few months as the work is there, it is just on hold and is like a river building behind a dam. But that is my personal opinion

CatherineF

Thank you all for the feedback. We won't be in a position to move until the end of the year so we'll have to cross our fingers that things improve and make as many contacts as possible.

cypherpunk

Unfortunately NZ developers are mostly in thrall to Microsoft so enterprise Java and Unix are less popular, although jobs do crop up from time to time.

MrCFD

If you were dead set on NZ, then I think that Wellington would be the best place to find work at the moment.

The new government has reiterated that their view is a greater emphasis on technology and IT. That said, most ICT departments in the government have in the last two weeks put a cap on the number of employees that they will employ for BAU work. Project work is ongoing and largely unaffected, but all expenditure is being justified nowadays.

There is a greater emphasis in a lot of government departments on shared services models and a number of places have gone through large restructuring initiatives recently (dept of internal affairs, Housing new zealand, etc) and with the restructuring, there are a number of middle management roles that have been disestablished and quite a lot of new roles out there (on such example would be a Business Solutions Managers incorporating BAs, SAs, and PMO functions).

Hope this helps. Obviously as always it is a case of being in the right place at the right time with the right skills. Good luck!

Keyser Soze

Does anyone know about the IT franchises in NZ? I'm a network Administrator/Support Engineer and was thinking of buying into a francise if we are lucky enough to get there, does anyone have any information about their success or failure especially around Southlands?

crap coffee

especially nz Government depts. My OH worked as a senior program/project manager - in thrall to Microsoft mostly. he sneered.... miles behind the UK here! despite being offered around 150k a year (a permanent position), He left for London to work for a premier investment bank. I applaud him for taking the chance to fulfill his dreamS and finding a little self-improvement ):

Surely You Don't want to Get Stuck Behind, do you? (if you are a young smart chap? )

(dunno what I'm doing here without him, funny situation ...man)

Don't worry: Plenty of IT jobs in Welly -as always.