Employment in New Zealand

I was myself a job seeker once and I have been consistently involved with applying for and securing short-term contracts ever since I started my own venture. I call it ‘hands-on job searching’ and it’s quite rewarding sharing my experience with professionals who have hired me as their mentor. No matter at what stage of your career you are on, I can easily conclude that searching a job is a full-time job in itself unless that is if you have skills that are highly sought after or you are one of the few people in an industry where workers are always in demand. Getting a job is never easy especially when you are trying for that first break in a new work environment. As a job seeker, you are constantly riddled by job descriptions, employers’ cultures, the skills gap and inaccessible recruiters (some of them love playing god) adding up to making job hunting an often unpleasant and frustrating experience. It’s easy for anyone to relate to the emotions of fear, anger, shame, conf...

I met a job-seeker who has been in NZ for the last few months and in our meeting he was constantly complaining about the employment market, recruiters, job boards and his agent from his home country. He was frustrated about his job application rejections besides the fact that he felt he had the required relevant experience. He asked me, “Is that right on how I am being treated in NZ job market?” in a tone that he was the victim of wrongdoing. I tried to explain him that key question wasn’t whether it’s right or not, although one would tend to agree with him in principle. The key question is what are you doing about it? “Are you playing victim or are you adapting?” I asked him, “if you’re being robbed, you don’t just sit around thinking…Oh, why is this happening to me? Why me? This is not right. Instead, you react. You shout for help or you fight to defend or you call a cop or you run away…right?” Constructive action / adaptation is opposite to sulking as a victi...