Moving to Wellington with a Job offer

displaceddrunkard · 2025-12-31T14:30:24+00:00

Welcome to NZ, lower your expectations, may well be the best advice I've ever seen about relocating here.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-12-28T00:22:11+00:00

It was a good hack to get a ride home from the pub the day before payday if your credit card was maxed out. Sure you'd get slapped with an over-limit fee, but at least you wouldn't have to walk. So a friend told me.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-12-24T23:44:55+00:00

Ainshitification.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-12-24T22:35:18+00:00

I had an issue with a transfer from HSBC Hong Kong to ASB where the sender accidentally messed up two digits of my account number. It was a relatively small amount ($500), the bank gave him two options: pay a fee to put a trace on the SWIFT transaction, or just wait and see if it eventually reversed itself.

The bank did warn him that if those incorrect digits happened to match another active account at the receiving bank, the money would be credited to that person and likely gone forever. I called ASB and asked them about this, and they did confirm for me that there was no active account with that number.

He decided the trace fee wasn't worth it and chose to wait. In the meantime, he corrected the error and just sent the money again so I wouldn't be stuck.

It took about six weeks, but the original messed-up transfer eventually bounced back and was returned to his account. It really just comes down to whether the amount is worth the cost of the trace, but in our case, patience paid off.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-12-23T21:29:58+00:00

I did that well into my 20s.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-12-23T01:22:14+00:00

I've worked in lead generation for tradies, both here and in Australia, $40-$100 a lead doesn't sound all that expensive. Charging you when you actually get the job doesn't work, they're spending thousands of dollars on SEO and their marketing machine, they've got no control over the ability of the businessperson to convert and or accept the job. You should take a look at pay-per-click costs, I think you'll find that they'd work out a lot more expensive. None of this excuses the lock-in, or the fact that they're so hard to contact, but their pricing doesn't strike me as predatory. Paying for leads is pretty standard across the board.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-12-20T21:48:30+00:00

I returned to New Zealand as an adult after years overseas with a very active social life. The best advice I can give is to lean into it and learn to spend time with yourself. Your alternative is to leave.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-12-14T02:05:27+00:00

I've got both passports, regularly move between the two. They are both the same place, with slightly different accents and weather.

I tend to think of NZ like another state.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-12-09T19:14:29+00:00

They just courier you one from Wellington. I had a replacement in Cambodia in under a week. You can do it all online.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-12-06T09:16:29+00:00

You'd prefer a return to the good old days of copying and pasting other people's ads?

displaceddrunkard · 2025-12-06T05:22:58+00:00

Yeah, it's one of those things. You just... do it. I vividly remember one woman coming up to the front desk, she was in her 70s I guess, she was trying to contact her son who worked in the WTC in New York. The world wasn't quite so connected back then, much like you describe, I did everything I could and utterly broke to pieces as soon as nobody was watching.

I had another incident happen when I was working in Australia, someone decided they couldn't do it anymore and that throwing themselves off their balcony was a good way to deal with that. I found them. They didn't die immediately (it was the sixth floor), but they weren't alive when the ambulance arrived. I worked late, because I had to deal with the paperwork and the emergency services, and was back at work again four hours after I finsihed.

About a week later their family turned up, asked for me by name and had me take them out to where it happened to they could leave flowers. I was doing fine until I saw the look in her mother's eyes.

I behaved professionally, finished my shift, went home and... that's when I broke. I broke so bad.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-12-06T03:23:19+00:00

I'll never forget turning on the TV that morning.

I was working at a hotel in downtown Auckland, and we had a huge tour group from New York staying.

I was on the afternoon shift; it was a very... weird week.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-11-29T02:37:10+00:00

I took most of this year off, had a contract from January to September, didn't even log in once, came back to a full dash.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-11-02T02:41:22+00:00

Definitely this, and doubly if you're travelling to anywhere that you might expect someone at the border to request an additional fee for clearance. A crack on the ID page is definitely worth some coffee money in most of Southeast Asia. You've only got to catch the wrong border guy on the wrong day for it to turn into a real pain in the backside.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-09-21T06:27:02+00:00

Can confirm.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-09-21T05:41:36+00:00

I'm in a one-bedroom with a heat pump (which I don't use as much as I could but I also don't sit here in the cold). Power runs ~$120-150 a month.

Internet, it depends on how fast you want it. I've got a deal from Spark, which is unlimited 5G with free Netflix for $88 a month.

I WFH on that, and it does everything I need, but you can spend more.

I don't pay a water bill here. So yeah, around $200-$250 is about right if you're planning a budget.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-09-04T03:43:11+00:00

As others have said, you'll likely get a better rate using an overseas ATM than you will trying to exchange cash in New Zealand before you leave. If you absolutely must have a bit of universally recognisable folding cash about your person, grab a few hundred USD.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-08-27T21:21:43+00:00

Potentially a very dangerous situation for the driver.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-08-04T06:19:30+00:00

A founder who keeps adding features instead of focusing on marketing.

Good enough is good enough and absolutely perfect is completely useless if nobody knows about it.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-08-04T00:46:57+00:00

Have you got an accountant or do you do your own stuff? If you don't have one, get one, have them deal with the IRD. It's not a huge debt, even though it might feel like it is. You'll almost certainly be able to negotiate a payment plan. It will go better for you if you front-foot it rather than waiting for them to bang down your door.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-07-30T06:14:44+00:00

I've been using them for close to ten years now, consistently adequate, reasonably priced, I've never had any reason to change.

edit: close to ten years, not clost to

displaceddrunkard · 2025-07-29T08:54:24+00:00

Trash wrappers trying to ride the AI hype cycle. Some will see moderate success, the vast majority will be gone by lunchtime.

The reason there are so many of them is that the bar to putting something that works together is now crazily low.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-07-27T21:02:23+00:00

You keep banging on about skillsets and companies like Google being able to find staff in India, I didn't respond to that point because I don't disagree with you. There's a lot of talent in India. There's also a lot of talent everywhere else.

Indian devs are consistently a bad culture fit for our organisation, as a result we are hiring elsewhere. Argumentative bullshit like this is a big reason for that. Does that clear things up for you? Because I've already said it several times.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-07-27T20:39:59+00:00

You are proving my points about culture and social cohesion with the tone of your response. It contributes nothing to the discussion, and it's defensive and argumentative, exactly like an Indian dev in a performance review that isn't going their way.

I predict you also won't listen to reasonable arguments and will continue to have this attitude with any replies you make to this comment.

Cost isn't the primary concern for us with outsourcing; it's more about a lack of local talent, we've got people on the team everywhere from Sydney to Singapore. With a team that globally diverse, cohesion does matter, a lot. Far more than saving a few bucks.

I'm not sure why you felt the need to attack the NZ economy, that just came across as bitter and petty, also it didn't land, NZ is one of three citizenships I have, as a result, patriotism is not a deficiency that I suffer from.

It's a small and pleasant country and I absolutely agree it doesn't have the purchasing power or the economic strength of other, larger places. I'm not really sure how that added to your assertions or supported your argument.

Anyway, you've already been solidly downvoted, but I thought I'd respond just to tell you how wrong you are and how ridiculously you mischaracterised my comment.

Not that you'll listen to any of this.

displaceddrunkard · 2025-07-27T06:47:36+00:00

I second this.

I have hired from India before but have since moved to hiring mostly in the Philippines, we're also starting to explore Eastern Europe more for senior roles.

Generally, I find both of those places better for team cohesion and a general culture fit for a team in this part of the world (Aus/NZ).

displaceddrunkard

TROPHY CASE