barnsleymat

I've been promising for quite some time to put our whole NZ move story on here to maybe give a few of you thinking about moving some tips.

Back in 2008 I first had the idea of moving to NZ, some of our friends and family had done it and hadn't looked back, my wife and I talked for ages about it and we weren't getting any closer to a decision. I was using sites like this and google to find stuff out, I signed upto a few newsletters etc and eventually received an invite to a New life New Zealand seminar/meeting at a hotel in Leeds, we went along and got a few pointers but still nothing was any clearer. After the seminar I emailed Paul Goddard <snip> to say we enjoyed it and ask for any some advice, he's a top bloke and like me had been involved in Promoting Music and bands in the UK so we had some common ground. Not long after we decided to spend some time in NZ to see if we liked it, we booked a few weeks off work and got some flights to Auckland and had a couple of weeks in Takapuna on the North Shore, got a car and had a good look around. We headed down to Hamilton and had a face to face chat with Paul <snip> which was great. One day during our stay my wife was ill in bed and I was over the road watching Takapuna FC, my mobile beeped and it was a text from my wife simply saying LETS MOVE HERE. So the journey begun. One of the lads I worked with in the UK at the Printer was living and working in Auckland, we spent some time with them and on our last day took us to the Airport, the previuos day he'd just been made reduandant as the company he was working for had gone bust. On our way to the Airport he turned around and said to me knowing we wanting to move 'you've got no chance getting a job in the printing industry, it's on it arse'. Certainly not what we wanted to hear as the only way we could move would be if I got a job offer.

So, I knew we had to up our game and do anything and everything to make it happen against all the odds. Print shops were closing left right and centre and the chances of me landing a job were pretty dire. We knew signing up with an Immigration Advice company <snip> would be very expensive but could make potential employers realise we were very very serious about the move. Shortly after we did sign up and started looking for jobs etc, my friend was right, the printing industry was in a state but I still applied for anything and everything I could find, the months past and we weren't getting anywhere. Our tactics needed to change, so I came up with a plan of action. I've been promoting bands/gigs for years, promoting is what I do so I decided to use every trick in the book to promote myself. I build websites too, simple great looking HTML sites and I'm an expert on a Mac. This was my plan, I'd spend a month in NZ by myself, the 3 months running up to my visit I'd promote myself and my visit to every in NZ connected to Printing/Graphic Design, Publishing etc. I built a website (link in signiture), I polished my CV up so it was web friendly, print friendly and looked the business and I'd collect as many email addresses as humanly possible. I ended collecting 1500ish email addresses by sitting every night at my computer with a map and by going on Fina n Yella, it took many many hours. Once I'd collected all the email addresses I could I emailed them all in groups of 5 to bypass spam filters telling them of my visit, what i did, what I was doing and a copy of my CV and link to my site. I got a big response, even if they weren't interested in me they were impressed by my approach, the Kiwi's loved it. I got many meetings set up, a few interviews and even an phone interview just before flying out. Once in NZ I got even more response, I'd made sure an NZ mobile sim card was active for me to use as soon as I landed which went on the website a few weeks before. I had interviews from Auckland to Invercargil and many places inbetween, got offered a few jobs and eventually accepted one. The one I accepted was from an interesting guy that was so impressed by my approach we arranged to meet up in Auckland as he'd given me some great advice and was a endless stream of tips and tricks, when we did eventually meet at Shed 5 he offered me a job, the afternoon I was flying to Dunedin for an interview in Alexandra. The job offer was a total surprise, his line of business is quite a way from web offset printing which I was used to. After many complications and months of angish and even giving up with the move we're finally in NZ, when people say you're lucky I always stop them and say it took 3 years and a huge pot of money just to get here, no luck involved.

So that's that, I'm typing this at work in Kingsland where I'm working for this amazing guy. It was never going to be easy but against all the odds we made it, NZ ain't perfect but we love it, if we had have given up we'd have spent our whole lives thinking of what could have been.

So if any of you want to access my 1500 strong email list, PM me, it was compiling that list along with the website etc that gave me my chance, or even getting a small website and good looking CV put together, it all worked for me. Give me a shout.

Woodlea

Well done for a great post which show what can be accomplished by the modern equivalent of getting on one's bike! Good work!

Debbie2NZ

Huge round of applause to you Matt. 100% determination. Well done. I can relate to your response to people telling you you're lucky. I had no real reason to come to NZ apart from the fact my husband is a kiwi and he fancied returning to NZ after 20 years in the UK and just thought, 'why not ?'. I just ended up telling people the story can only be told in retrospect. We arrived in February of this year and started looking for work. We applied for dozens of jobs between us but it was just no go, apart from 4 weeks temporary work for me. Our savings had just about gone and we were planning to return to Britain, broke and fed up. Then my husband was offerred work in a different city to the one we tried to settle in. So, I sit here with boxes full of household stuff ready to move there next week.

AngelaandJim

Great post glad it has worked out for you.

Paul Goddard is a great guy who works for workingin-visa.com has done for quite a while now.

JenR

that's a brilliant story, good for you! and an amazing website, i'm gonna remember your link to recommend to people!

can relate to the email address searching - I've done lots of that whilst helping my husband job search out here. he's v.english and a bit reluctant to 'cold-call' people but I persuaded him and he's also had some luck in the end. just goes to show you've gotta search for stuff, it's not just gonna land in your lap!

Jen x

p.s. met you're not missing barnsley

gingerdingo

Great post and great idea. Inspirational!!

RobDon

Ditto the above!

johneastriggs

Matt, totally Inspirational!!
You deserve all the success in the world mate.

oakwell

cracking story matt and knowing you personally i can confirm you got everything you deserved....never know one day i might be a neighbour!

Tray

Great determination

MV5555

Great story bud from one barnsley lad to another.......been here with the wife and 2 for 4.5 yrs now.

Lived in Hoyland and Cudworth PM if if you fancy a chat