I have over 10 years’ experience in Industry 1 which I want to return to as part of our move to NZ; I’ve been away from it for over 6 years and only have experience of the UK environment (which in all fairness is about 14 years ahead of NZ in terms of structure, regulations and issues so this point should in principle work in my favour).
Following voluntary redundancy from Industry 1, I decided to try Industry 2 which is radically different but it hasn’t quite lived up to expectations. I am therefore reluctant to apply for roles similar to my current one and would rather put all my efforts into moving back into Industry 1, even if it takes me longer to get work.
I applied for two roles in November 2018, one which required an asap start and another which led to 3 interviews, written assessment and personality tests. No news in over two weeks, so safe to assume the worst. I have since applied for 3 similar roles with other companies online, one of which has already come back with a rejection email.
My questions are this, please:
• I now have my Work Visa (woop woop) – does this potentially improve my chances of being considered for a role?
• Normally, I would go back to the hiring manager to at least ask for some feedback (hopefully, some useful stuff that I can work on / take on board for next time!). I am also thinking of asking to be considered for a lower level role which has just been posted (I suspect that this was the person that got the role that I was interviewed for, but it may just be me overthinking the situation). Good or bad idea?
• Further to the above, would it be a good strategy to perhaps look at roles one job level below the one I was in when I left Industry 1 in order to get a foot in the door, familiarise myself with the NZ landscape and bring myself up-to-speed with the current state of the specialist area?
• I appreciate that it varies from one industry to another, but how are people finding job searching overall, in particular those doing it from abroad?
• Would it potentially be more realistic to apply for roles in Industry 2 in order to secure employment in NZ and then focus on the industry-change?
Another option: I've had an offer from a UK company in Industry 2 for a role which they could see me doing from NZ, but it is all very tentative (including remuneration options) and I am concerned that it would take my focus away from applying for a proper Kiwi job and from returning to my preferred industry. If we were absolutely desperate to move, that would of course be better than no job and it is a good company albeit very small. However, we don't have a set date for an actual move and it is more a matter of me getting a job first.
I only have two weeks in NZ from next week, and at this stage it is very unlikely that I will be able to at least get an appointment / interview in which is disappointing. After that, it is back to offshore job applications.
Thank you in advance and have a great weekend!