Resn - Newcomers give Wellington digital interactive edge
Wellington-based Resn, creative digital partner of leading brands and advertising agencies worldwide, needed to recruit flash developers and designers who are on the long term skills shortages list.
Resn has been proactively recruiting from overseas, successfully bringing in three migrants thus far.
Iain Shaw - Market Research Analyst from Scotland
Iain Shaw hails from Scotland and is employed by 4RF as a Market Research Analyst. He decided to settle in New Zealand because of the high quality of life, the outdoor activities available, and being from Scotland he finds the weather here a huge improvement!
Vincenzo Paparelle - Chef from Italy
It’s a case of second time lucky for Italian, Vincenzo Paparelle who works as chef at Soprano Ristorante restaurant on the Kapiti coast.
Annie Rastello - Project Manager from France
Annie Rastello is a Project Manager at 4RF. Originally from France, Annie moved to New Zealand from six years in the US because she was attracted by the fact that there are fewer people here than in many other English speaking countries.
Restaurant’s international flavour more than just the food
Paul D’souza - Chef from India
Monsoon Poon is a restaurant located right in the heart of Wellington’s Courtenay Place cuisine precinct. One fifth of its workforce is migrants. Owner Mike Egan, who is the national president of the Restaurant Association in New Zealand and has ownership in several restaurants in Wellington, extols the virtues of the skilled migrants on his payroll and says that his business would not be viable without them.
Mike uses an agent to help him find the right people from offshore with the right culinary skills. In addition to permanent staff, the restaurant also employs temporary or transient staff (Chinese chefs are more transient and return to China after their permits expire, Mike says). And it employs young people from overseas who are here on working holiday permits. According to Mike, they provide a reliable source of labour – they’re usually hard working and want fulltime work. In towns like Queenstown they’re a vital source of labour for the hospitality sector.
While Monsoon Poon is not an accredited employer, Mike says that they’ve found the immigration process fairly easy. ‘We have been assigned a case manager at Immigration New Zealand who fully understands our needs and our business and conversely, we understand our obligations. We make sure that our applicants match the requirements with regard to qualifications and experience. We work to make sure all the documentation is correctly and fully completed in order to make it easy for everyone.”
Mike says that while industry colleagues sometimes complain about the process, it’s usually because they haven’t done their homework properly and their application is stalled due to the inadequate information they’ve provided. “Immigration New Zealand has policies and procedures and they are there for a reason and it’s important that the balance is right. It should not be a rubber stamp that enables just anyone to come to NZ and work but also it should not be so tough that we can’t get the right labour to enable us to compete globally.”
Emma Goldstraw is a migrant who found work at Mike’s restaurant. Emma hails from Manchester in the UK and has been in New Zealand for about 4 years. “I was originally just backpacking and didn’t want to go home. I travelled through Thailand and Australia, ended up in New Zealand and decided to stay. I had a friend here at the time and came to meet them,” she explains.
Although now working in Auckland because her partner is studying there, Emma initially based herself in Wellington. “I liked Wellington– its relaxed and laid back. It’s obviously beautiful, and people are approachable and friendly”. She sums up the city as “Friendly, Windy, Funky.”
From her own experience Emma feels it’s hard to find a job here and hard to earn good money compared to Australia. She managed to find a job at Monsoon Poon by answering an advertisement in the Dominion Post. She describes a typical day for her in Wellington as going to the gym in the morning and working the late shift in the restaurant. “On sunny days off I would walk around the sea front, go to Kaffee Eis, have brunch at Floriditas, just mill around really. Go to the fruit and veg market, buy a bottle of NZ Pinot Noir and cook some dinner.”
She has words of advice for people offshore thinking of relocating to Wellington. “Get onto your visa renewals quickly, be organised, and bring things like birth certificates etc with you. Don’t be put off by what can be an expensive and long process. My previous employers were extremely helpful and helped me with my work visa and residency application.”
Paul D’souza is a chef at Monsoon Poon. He came to Wellington 15 years ago after being head hunted from a 5 star restaurant in his homeland in Goa, India by another Wellington eatery. It was no coincidence that Paul’s skills were sought after. Adding to Paul’s valuable practical experience was a three year course of study in international cooking, plus fluency in English gained from studying the language at school.
Paul decided that the best way to approach a new job in a new country was a one year trial basis. After twelve months in Wellington he liked the city enough to want to stay. “It’s a good place to stay – cool and clean. I like the nice weather and the people are nice. And it’s close to the sea,” he says. Paul also enjoys Wellington’s smaller population (its population density of 58.8 people per square km compares to Goa’s 316). He has no immediate plans to go back to India to live – “perhaps in my retirement”, he says.
Mark Hussey - Emergency Doctor from The United Kingdom
Wellington's lifestyle and its people are unbeatable, according to UK-born emergency doctor Mark Hussey.
Cecile Diamante - IT Analyst from the Philippines
Wellington’s walkability and friendliness wowed Filipino IT analyst Cecile Diamante from her first moments in the city.
Professor Jeroen Douwes – Co-Director from the Netherlands
“This may come as a surprise to many Wellingtonians,” he says,“but I prefer the climate here with its mild winters.”
Petr Tobias – Anaesthetist from the Czech Republic
Its a long journey from the Czech Republic to Masterton, and for Petr Tobias, it was one that was a long time coming.
Carlos Zevallos –Beekeeper from Peru
It was the loud buzz of thousands of honey bees, music to a commercial apiarist ears which enticed Carlos Zevallos from his native Peru to the temperate shores of New Zealand.
Luca Fascione – Software engineer from Italy
It is not often that the Wellington wind gets good press so when Luca Fascione mentioned he loves the wind a further explanation was needed.
Ray and Diane Cherrell – diesel truck mechanic from UK
Ray and Diane Cherrell immigrated to New Zealand from Lincolnshire, England, in 2006. ‘We’d visited Auckland on holiday in 2002 –it rained every day but it didn’t put us off..”
Angela Ballantyne & Ryan Orange – academic & policy strategist, Kiwis returned.
After 10 years away, expatriates Ryan Orange and Angela Ballantyne were nervous that Wellington would not live up to their expectations on their return.
Cynthia Patterson – CIO from United States
“We wanted to live in a more progressive-minded society. Australia was too much like a mini-US, Canada was too cold, but luckily New Zealand was perfect.”
Desi Ramoo – Scientist from United Kingdom
“I’ve been lucky but when you are moving your family from one side of the world to the other it is important to make sure you know what you are getting yourself into, make sure everything is in writing.... "
Thomas Kuhne – University lecturer from Germany
“Wellington is a fantastic city with very friendly, relaxed people. We love the natural scenery and the fact it isn’t crowded at all.”
Gilbert Sanseau – Software engineer from France
It takes a certain kind of person to find the south of France boring but luckily for Wellington that is exactly what Gilbert Sanseau and his partner found.
Jitendra Bothara – Seismic engineer from Nepal
Back in 1993 Jitendra Bothara was in Nepal working on an earthquake engineering project when he met two men who would change his life. Beca directors Dr Richard Sharpe and Rob Jury.
Kation Cai – Banking consultant from China
Seven years ago Kation Cai set out on an epic journey. His goal, to learn English. Spurred on by the competitive cost of living and study, the friendliness of New Zealanders and the breathtaking environment, Kation made the 11,000km journey from Guangdong to Wellington.
Heli Matileinen – Research scientist from Finland
Heli and her husband, Mika spent two years in California while Heli was doing post doctoral research in breast cancer targeting but despite the sunny climes, America wasn’t where they wanted to settle and they applied for residency in New Zealand.