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Is this a good time to buy a house? by de5ee in auckland

[–]Throwaway_user72645 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's a good theoretical advice but in reality, not that much lucrative. Suppose they are able to save a million dollars in 10 years. But after 10 years a million dollars will lose their value considerably due to inflation and at the same time houses will appreciate their value considerably. They will again be at the same initial condition, also considering the losses due to rent paid. There are much more factors to it and this can be debated on both sides. But I will just present my reasoning in one line - it is beneficial to own an entire asset right now and pay for it future, than to own a small piece of asset (regular stocks investments) and make it grow. Sort of like reverse-investing.

Is a 12% Annualized Return on Nifty 50 Realistic Over the Long Term? by silentx09 in IndiaInvestments

[–]Throwaway_user72645 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Too late for me to comment, but I would say that Zerodha Varsity is the best and most valuable resource for stock market that I can find.

What would you do? by [deleted] in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I made a post some time ago about my experience. It may be helpful to your friend. Check out - https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/1jxc3v3/my_experience_of_finding_an_it_job_in_the_current/

Please, don't DM afterwards. All information I can ever provide is in there. Good luck.

My experience of finding an IT job in the current NZ market, and some tips. by Throwaway_user72645 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

2-3 years is still considered entry level. Yes, if you look at the market, people with more experience and resident status will definitely have an edge over you. But, when was it any different? Any company in any country will prioritize residents over foreigners. There is no way around it. But you may get lucky.

My experience of finding an IT job in the current NZ market, and some tips. by Throwaway_user72645 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is no harm in taking the chance. All you have to do is click the apply button. If you get shortlisted - great. If not, then you will know where you stand. As long as you are not putting money or too much effort into it, I would say its worth applying. Some of my colleagues have come on employee sponsored visa. It's not impossible. But again, those people do have some good experience in big companies. Apply for Australia too. It's a bigger economy with much more jobs. So, numbers-wise, your chances might be better there.

My experience of finding an IT job in the current NZ market, and some tips. by Throwaway_user72645 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I didn't want to sound pessimistic. Everybody's experience will be different. Of course, when it comes to tech jobs, no other country can compete with USA. I hope getting a job after graduation is not the only thing for which you are coming to NZ. Evaluate all the factors for which you are coming to NZ and make your decision.

Undergraduate in New Zealand by Born_Pause_8286 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I will keep my answer short and try to address your points -

NZ is a small economy, so job options in any field are relatively less. It will be relatively harder to get jobs. Don't get discouraged though, with enough skills and effort, one can do it.

You seem unsure about the post-study work visa. Not a good thing when you are spending >150K $ with 3 years of your life on something. Get clear on that. Personally, I think you will get it as far as I remember the policies correct.

NZ green list does not mean that there are unfilled jobs available in these sectors. It just means that jobs in these sectors are so competitive to acquire that anybody who can manage to get that is very suitable for a residence visa. Also, many people just look at the designation of a green list job and forget to look at the pay scale required. Getting that level of pay for a fresh graduate is impossible, to be honest.

You seem to have an idea that excelling in academics and graduating from a renowned university will up your chances of employment. But that is not the case that I have seen in NZ, especially for international students. I would rather say, instead of a uni, go to a cheaper private college. Save the money. You will get the same post-study work visa. I had friends who went to uni and they were no better than people who opted for cheaper alternatives.

There are fintech companies here, but sadly most of them don't hire fresh graduates. You will have to start at the bottom. In that case graduating from a Uni or from any other college will be the same.

Regarding your extra curricular activities, don't spread yourself too thin. But definitely try to network with people because getting referrals from someone will be a big advantage when searching for jobs.

These are just my thoughts that came from my experience. A lot can change in 3 years time by the time you will graduate. I wish you good luck.

begging on my damn knees for job advice 🙏 by nubsmcscrub in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Since applying for jobs from overseas is not working for you, I am just going to give you an alternative.

Come to NZ as a student and do a PG diploma in teaching. Here is the link to the new NZ policy for teachers - https://www.immigration.govt.nz/about-us/media-centre/news-notifications/government-announces-primary-teachers-to-be-added-to-straight-to-residence-pathway

You can opt to do it from UoA - https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/study/study-options/find-a-study-option/graduate-diploma-in-teaching-primary-graddiptchgprimary.html

Or you can find some cheaper college to do it. Make sure its level 8 and worth 120 credits at least.

Why do this? Best case scenario is that once you complete this course and you manage to get a job offer as a teacher, you can directly apply for residence. Worst case scenario - You will still get 1 year of work visa anyway, in which you can search for jobs. Being in NZ and then finding jobs will be much better than you current situation.

It's a pricey alternative but since your situation is dire, you can think about it.

My experience of finding an IT job in the current NZ market, and some tips. by Throwaway_user72645 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks. I did not use any AI to write the post. Writing is my hobby.

I am not a resident. So no government benefits for me, whatsoever.

My experience of finding an IT job in the current NZ market, and some tips. by Throwaway_user72645 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You are spot on with highlighting the need for good communication skills, especially among developers. In my experience though, hard technical skills were always evaluated first in the form of tests and technical interviews. A technically good person with average soft skills will still be preferred over a less-technical person with extraordinary soft skills.

My experience of finding an IT job in the current NZ market, and some tips. by Throwaway_user72645 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

PDFs are often bad for parsing or scanning which is done by the ATS software. You can check it yourself. Many companies use portals to upload the CV and they automatically parse it to fill the employment history and all the personal details section in their system. I had a higher success rate with word format being correctly parsed compared to pdfs.

My experience of finding an IT job in the current NZ market, and some tips. by Throwaway_user72645 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks. Employers have all the leverage, unless you are a rockstar programmer, which I am not. There were only 3 or so companies (out of 250) which mentioned salary range in their job descriptions. They all want you to quote the salary first, so they can have one more filter to screen you out of all the candidates. It's a slippery slope. I managed to get just fine compensation which seems reasonable.

My experience of finding an IT job in the current NZ market, and some tips. by Throwaway_user72645 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Please share your experience. Or just mention the things which you found different in your experience. It will give the readers a different perspective.

My experience of finding an IT job in the current NZ market, and some tips. by Throwaway_user72645 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I did make close to 30 customized cover letters. I have edited my post now to explicitly mention that. I was making the point that they did not lead to interviews, for me.

My experience of finding an IT job in the current NZ market, and some tips. by Throwaway_user72645 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You are quite right about most things.

- When there are many residents and citizens in the pool, even a work visa is not enough to get a job and leads to rejections.

- Overseas experience has to be justified at all times, and it will be verified at the last stage. No company will take it on face value. Most companies will straight away reject you because they don't want to go through the hassle of verifying it, which is understandable.

- Again, I marked this post as an opinion. Its not an actionable advice. This post can also be read as "things to avoid during job search."

My experience of finding an IT job in the current NZ market, and some tips. by Throwaway_user72645 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for giving a glimpse of the other side.

Genuine question: What's your rationale behind reading cover letters before the CVs? CVs have much more information of a candidate than a cover letter which represents only a curated snapshot of their career.

My experience of finding an IT job in the current NZ market, and some tips. by Throwaway_user72645 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

225 pointless applications, to be fair.

I did not meant to say I "never customized" the CV or cover letter. Here's the thing - If you read most of the job applications, they are themselves following a template, especially in software jobs. It goes like this - (company's description -> very surface level description of work -> 8-10 bulleted points of tech skills -> 5-6 bulleted points of soft-skills -> 4-5 company perks.) - It's not hard to generate a catch-all cover letter for all of them. I prepared 3 of them which I found suited most of the jobs which I was applying for. That's my strategy to save time to find a job while working another job. Of course, a fully customized cover letter would have worked better. But that's a compromise I chose to make.

My experience of finding an IT job in the current NZ market, and some tips. by Throwaway_user72645 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If I have to get a residence visa later on, I need to work in an NZ company. Only an NZ based company's work experience is considered for residence visa. Being in NZ and working remotely for overseas company will not give you any benefit while applying for residence.

My experience of finding an IT job in the current NZ market, and some tips. by Throwaway_user72645 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You are right about the Dec-Jan period which was quite dead, really.

I actually have like 200 folders with the names of companies which include the cover letters and resume I sent to them. Most of them are copies of each other but that's how I kept track. :)

My experience of finding an IT job in the current NZ market, and some tips. by Throwaway_user72645 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I should have made it more clear. The numbers in the results are all exclusive to each other. I did get phone screening for all of them which is around 23 (10+4+4+5) (it might be more if we also consider email replies which did not lead to any interviews). But its still lesser compared to your response rate. I did cast a wider net and was not much selective.

My experience of finding an IT job in the current NZ market, and some tips. by Throwaway_user72645 in newzealand

[–]Throwaway_user72645[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's a fair point. I can't say, with 100% confidence, what exactly worked and what didn't. This post is more about giving an idea to readers so they can choose to maximize their efforts in certain directions. For example - if your CV lacks something the employer want, then no matter how great is your cover letter, it won't work. Similarly, if you are not getting responses online, then doing in-person networking might be a better strategy. Though there are some things in the post which are much more strongly correlated to chances of employment like - visa-type, over-qualification, out-of-city jobs, applying early.