21/10/2013

(My Mission To Find A Job In New Zealand & Get A Work Visa)

I have some news about the Celtic/Maori music collaboration project. There was the possibility of a suitable group of musicians, with Irish band members, but Toi Maori told me that it’s only possible to work with New Zealand-based musicians. It would have been great to bring in some Celtic musicians from Galicia, Scotland, Ireland and maybe Brittany, to achieve the high standard of music required for the project. Restricting the criteria like this though is limiting the reach, but that’s the way it’s going to have to be. This is because of the budget but more so because they say they want do something different, for it to have the look of a New Zealand based band and for it to be sustainable. There are possibilities of working with some really good New Zealand-based musicians and it might mean adjusting a few things with the “possible band” but both parties still have to discuss this strategy. I’ll keep you posted on some of the progress on it.

There isn’t a fulltime role available in the project so I decided that my best option is to look for something else. It’s a shame but hey, the experience of it all has been great. I’ve learned a lot and made some great contacts that I might not have made, or made so quickly, if I wasn’t working on the project. So onwards & upwards I say. I’ll have to keep looking for jobs.

One thing I’ve learned in my job search process, even in Amsterdam, is to keep applying for several jobs at the same time. Keep looking for other possibilities. One strategy that a friend of mine told me about is to target the industry and companies that I want to work in and try to get face-to-face meetings with the hiring managers, asking them for just ten minutes of their time to network with them, at least for the start of the process. I’m a bit behind on that now because I lost a bit of time with doing the research for the project but I’ll put everything into it from now on.

Tourism is a hard industry to aim for, as most of the jobs are seasonal. So if I get a job for six months in tourism, when that job is finished, I have to have another job and another work visa straight afterwards, otherwise I have to leave the country. There are permanent tourism jobs out there but what I’m coming across is that most employers are turned off by the fact that I don’t have a work visa. I have to convince them though that it is possible. Persistence is what’s going to be needed and having the drive to go forward and keep pushing. I have plenty of that in me.