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Home / Business / Economy / Employment

Kiwis in London: It doesn't matter how hellish the job is, just get it

Vaimoana Tapaleao
By Vaimoana Tapaleao
Pasifika Editor·NZ Herald·
23 Aug, 2015 09:48 PM5 mins to read

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Kiwis in London. The overseas experience is becoming much more of a challenge. Photo / Getty Images

Kiwis in London. The overseas experience is becoming much more of a challenge. Photo / Getty Images

Kiwis in London say getting a dream job in the UK has become increasingly hard work; with many having to take up extra training and working low jobs before securing good work.

Dozens of people have responded to an article in today's Herald telling the experience of a young New Zealander, Alex Hazlehurst, and her struggle to find a job in London.

The 25-year-old, from the Hawkes Bay, has a background in broadcast journalism and only managed to get a job in the field five months after landing at Heathrow Airport earlier this year.

Read more:
• I'm talented. I'm hard-working. I'm blonde. So why can't I find a job in London?

Many Kiwis living in London say they too have faced similar experiences, while others say they had no difficulty getting a position in the city.

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One reader said: "The day I touched down was like Alex's - [I was] young, bright-eyed and full of hope. After a month of job hunting, I got to talk to a recruitment agent who had a Kiwi friend, so knew all about Middle Earth.

"He gave me the best piece of advice I think I've ever been given - get some London work experience. Doesn't matter what it is, just get it.

"I took his advice, got a hellish job only vaguely related to my field, stayed two years, then landed the absolute dream job."

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The reader said she had spent 10 years in New Zealand working to get the job she was now in, in London.

"To Alex and the rest of you Kiwis: Get your London work experience...8 years later, I'm still in London and still loving it."

Craig Harlick left for the UK with his wife and young son four years ago, for a short stint.

As a senior instructor at the Motutapu Outdoor Education Camp, he wanted to get into a similar position in their new home overseas. However, he was regularly asked to undergo extra training - in rock climbing and abseiling - as he was told the assessments were very different to those back in New Zealand.

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"To cut a very long story short, it is four years and four months since I landed. I have a load of UK awards which I feel aren't worth the paper they are printed on and have to work two job through the day and three nights a week just to make up a 35-hour week."

Another reader who found it hard to get work in London, Chris Boswell, said he went to more than 20 job interviews and every one rejected him based on the two-year working visa he had.

Despite having 19 years' experience in sales and management in New Zealand, he was told it was not relevant in the UK.

He wrote: "Probably more so than anywhere else I have lived, it is truly not what, but who you know in London."

Other Kiwis in London say they have enjoyed an easy transition into the workforce, with several saying they picked up their dream job opportunity almost immediately.

Jono Joseph said he had had three friends who, like himself, had arrived in London and found professional jobs within two weeks.

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"I have been here four months now and had a job two days in. Had a few other offers too...a professional job. It all comes down to attitude - I started looking and had interviews before I left New Zealand," he said. "I hope the article doesn't scare anyone off."

Natalie Cole also had a positive experience in the job hunting game when she and her partner left for the UK.

"Every job interview I went for ended with the interviewer excited that I was a Kiwi as we are known to be some of the hardest workers.

"I landed a full-time permanent job working in Balham only after six weeks of returning to London from travelling and within that time I had an awesome temp job to keep me going in the meantime. For my partner, who is a builder, he was offered work they day we arrived!"

Statistics New Zealand figures show that 9475 people left for Britain permanently or for the long-term in the past year. That was over 1200 more than made the move the previous year. Only 8022 people did so in the year ending July 2013.

Britain has long been a favourite place for young Kiwis looking to explore the world, with many going on to stay after securing a good job.

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London Mayor Boris Johnson has called on British authorities to
make it easier for New Zealanders to travel there, after visa changes restricted work opportunities for visitors from New Zealand and Australia.

In 2013 he wrote an article in the Daily Telegraph, where he relayed a conversation he had with a teacher from Australia, who had had to leave a job in London after what he dubbed "disgraceful" immigration rules.

He wrote: "She has been told to bog off by the authorities in our country because it was - they said - too much of a palaver to go through the business of sponsoring her to stay."

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