When we visited New Zealand, my brother's friend had a brother living in NZ so we invited him to dinner during our visit to NZ.
He had been a professional sales manager for a very large corporation in the US. He told us of his nice home with Lexus in the driveway and boat he owned in the USA. He told us of how he climbed up the corporate ladder to the senior position fairly quickly and received many accolades from his peers for his work in the industry.
He gave up all of this because he married a Kiwi and she wanted to return to NZ for a while.
He told us that it took him nearly THREE years to get a low level sales job in NZ and that it really only happened because he received help from a friend he made down there - essentially he "made it" because his friend "knew" someone and referred him to the job.
In the three year period he was jobless, he started his own business to make ends meet. He was fairly successful and sold the business (i think it was in wellington) and he moved to Auckland after he got the sales position.
I've periodically kept in contact with him and he still gripes about the lower quality of life he has down there compared to what he had in the US and his biggest gripe is that it's not what you know but who you know that makes all the difference in NZ when it comes to the job market.
I've had a few people offer to assist me in getting a job down there if and when we decide to move down there and perhaps my ego is a little bit too big to think that I would *need* help getting a job down there with my qualifications but it looks like that might make all the difference.
I don't suppose I could move down there and claim to be self-employed as an investor/stock trader and get by on that can I?
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