job searching in New Zealand -

6 weeks, since I set foot in this foreign land that I will call home.

I have myself prep for a brand new start of my life when my husband and I decided to move away from home, knowing that we will be starting from fresh, like a graduate, with no network, we will be sending out hundreds and thousands of application to secure a job. However, I have never thought that it could be so demotivating.

Everything back home was easy to me, started on my first job with Baker Tilly immediately on my return from UK without too much of suffer in writing up resume or cover letter, went to the interview and got the job offer almost on the spot.

It was slightly different when I moved to Shell as I was being invited to apply the job by HR. The entire recruitment process took about a month, after submitting the application, waited for 3 days for the interview confirmation. There was a second interview, phone interview, about a week after the face-to-face interview was done. It took another week to hear from the HR for the offer.

It was pretty easy back home but this is not the case here in New Zealand. Made a number of applications online, only received emails started with "Unfortunately....."

In New Zealand, there are plenty of jobs are advertised by the agencies not directly from companies on the internet. Throughout my job search, I have registered with a number of agencies, Hudson, Randstad, Hays and more. I did this because I am not familiar with the local market, meeting different agencies is one of my strategies to do market research, a form of information gathering from the local recruitment expert and also knowing how would the kiwi employer value my skills and experience after a dramatic experience I had with one agent.

One of the recruitment agency I engaged get me so upset. According to the recruitment consultant, kiwi employer does not value overseas experience, they only look at local experience, unless I have experience from the UK or Australia, otherwise, they will treat me as a fresh graduate.

After hearing this new, I was in total shock, because he was the first consultant I met. Immediately, this has got me into despair, questioning myself, "have I make the wrong move to came here?" I was so lost the moment I walked out of the room. After settling my emotions, I reset my thought, that's where I make up my mind to meet more recruitment agencies, to get guidance and advise as well as assessing my value, preparing myself to secure a role.

After a few meet and greet, I am confidence to set focus in my job search strategy, to apply for jobs that I wanted instead of applying entry level jobs or applying aimlessly.