Big OE returnees living in a dream-world

The OE was once a sure-fire way to fast-track your way to success, but these days there are some things to be careful of if you want to make the most of it.

Simon Swallow, general manager of Global Career Link, says it is important not to become too specialised.

"Some people are not necessarily any better off than when they left because the skill set that they've developed is not applicable to the New Zealand market."

Swallow deals mostly with finance, accounting, banking and IT candidates and says money weighs greatly on the minds of returnees.

"When they come back from Britain they're generally pretty concerned with how much they're going to get paid. That seems to be the primary driver."

But some are sadly disappointed with how much they'll fetch.

"They will come back here and they will think that they're worth a lot more money than what they can actually get. They don't have a realistic expectation of what they should be getting in New Zealand."

For Swallow's candidates earning £60,000 ($170,000) in Britain can expect $80,000 or $90,000 when they return which is a lot less than they generally expect.

"A lot of them scoff or limit their options in terms of what they want to do. We find that a lot come back, get annoyed and then end up leaving again."

Some returnees also have dreams of saving British pounds for a deposit on their first home. But those who haven't kept an ear to the New Zealand housing market can be disappointed.

"They find that in the years that they've been away house prices have gone up 30 per cent. The money that they bring back is no longer enough to pay a decent deposit that they wanted to put on the house."

Under Britain's highly skilled migrants visa programme, Swallow says people on OEs are able to stay longer than the previous two-year limit and that's changing the calibre of the returning candidates.

"Now you're seeing that more of the ones coming back are at the stage where they're ready to come back, as opposed to being forced to cut short their trip because their visa ran out."

Some of those returning home are also coming back with a bit of an attitude.

"They come back with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder. 'I've worked in London and I've worked in these large markets and I'm better than this'. If that's what they honestly believe then coming back to New Zealand wouldn't be the right thing for them anyway."

Louise Lawton, a consultant with Portfolio Recruitment, also says that when some returnees come back to New Zealand, they also need to come back to Earth.

"We do have some candidates who come back and think they're really hot to trot and they're expectations are far higher than the market demands. But then it's our job to tell them what the market is like and say realistically what kind of salary they'd be at."

But returnees do have some cause to be confident. Lawton primarily recruits web designers and account service staff and finds employers ready and willing to snatch them up for between $50,000 and $180,000.

"A lot of our clients actually anticipate and look forward to candidates coming back from overseas because the experience they've gained on the international market is really valuable for them."

Depending on the type of work they've done overseas, some can pretty much write their own ticket.

"We sometimes have a list of clients that say, 'When a person comes back with such and such portfolio experience, make sure you get them to me first'."

Lawton also says there is a growing freelance market where web designers can take their time and wait for the right full-time opportunity to come around.

But for public relations, communications and journalism candidates, they won't have to wait very long.

Michelle Boag, proprietor of PR People, says she places several of them each month about as fast as they can clear customs.

"If I have a candidate who walks in who's been earning £30,000 (£85,000) in Britain, I can usually line them up four to five interviews within the first week and they get jobs quickly. Often they'll get jobs before I can even place them in the job."

And the communications returnees are commanding a bit more than the accountants. Someone on £30,000 in Britain can easily expect $60,000 here. But who could possibly be hiring so many spin doctors and afford to pay them top dollar?

"The government sector has taken a huge number of practitioners and that's continuing to grow. The local government sector is big," says Boag.

But even Boag's candidates need to watch the type of experience they gain overseas.

"The danger is in specialisation. Because the market is so big over there, they have specialised in a particular industry."

The other concern is with gaining too much experience.

"I've had people who've been over there for 10 years and come back and still been in demand. The only difficulty is that the higher they price themselves over there the more difficult they are going to find it here to match that because those opportunities aren't as numerous."

Some PR returnees also come back with inflated expectations.

"The problem is if they expect to treble their salaries when they come here. They can't do that. You can't say, 'Well I'm earning £30,000 in Britain therefore I'm worth $90,000 in the New Zealand market. It doesn't work that way."

Nicola Pohlen of recruitment consultants Pohlen Kean has also had to manage her share of expectations from returnees. She deals mostly with marketing, finance, sales, and human resources positions.

"Often they've got over-inflated expectations around remuneration and also around how their experience will be valued in the New Zealand market. This is what some employers have experienced and are nervous about."

Just because you've done an OE doesn't necessarily mean you can come back and rule the roost.

"Sometimes they think that New Zealand employers will think that they bring a lot to the table but often that isn't the case. What happens is that, particularly for people working offshore for big companies, what they've actually had exposure to is a slim slice of an organisation."

With New Zealand's smaller organisations, companies are looking more for generalists. Transferring a specialist skill could prove difficult. Pohlen says rather than focus on how many pounds they were earning, candidates need to look at their skills.

"I don't think it matters much what money they were on. It's more about what skills they're bringing. How relevant are they to the jobs that they're looking at?"

Pohlen says employers are taking a risk by hiring someone who has been away for too long. They might take a job which is not a cultural fit or take a job and then move and take another job.

Returnees must also understand that they are not the only ones who have matured over the past years.

"What they don't realise is that we've moved, we've grown, we've changed, we've actually gotten more sophisticated even in five years. They've remembered us as we were. I think they've thought that they might have grown and we've stood still."