As predicted the end of the holiday season in Wellington has seen a marked increase in job related news. Essentially I am still on my good old holiday visa at the moment, but even this had an unexpected bonus when I recalculated how much time I had left and got 2 extra months as a reward! No, the NZ immigration have not started offering prizes for holidaymakers with calculators, rather that I had become so used to telling people I arrived in October, I started to assume I was here from the start of that month - in actual fact I arrived at the end of the month - combine this with some 'fearful' adding I was doing earlier and I thought I had until the end of Feb to find something!
I blame the alcohol and relaxed lifestyle - for example getting up before 0900 is considered bloody early now! Still I always did say that people should work when they are older and retire whilst young, I guess this is a 6 month retirement for me and in a nice hot* place like this is an extra bonus.
*The weather has been exceptional so far this summer, most days in Wellington have been in the mid 20's with strong sun and little wind. Even the locals are shocked, and by them having a little British lineage, you can imagine this is a topic for a fair amount of local chat as well!
Anyway back to the quick job new update...
Basically I am, again, in the midst of 3 applications that are reaching a concluding stage. In other words I have had interviews with 2 of them, and the remaining one is booked for next week. Of the interviews held so far, I know via feedback, that I am in very strong positions, and I understand one is checking references.
This time the positions are all problem or operations management with more of a business analysis tilt, as opposed to the helpdesk team leader roles I went for before Christmas. In fact one of the positions is with a commercial business, but they do have a very strong relationship with the NZ government...yes I know, I seem to have sold out on my ideals here a bit, still they are so far offering the most money - so what the hell!
Of course I have said this before, but I really hope that by this time next week I will have at least one contract on the table, hopefully two - and then I just need to pick one to sign. I have contacted local immigration who assured me that I should be processed within a few weeks after the job offer (but my medical needs renewing, so that is another cost), so maybe by the end of March I will have come out of retirement and be all 'weekend' focused like other workers.
Well it is Saturday morning here and neither Charlotte nor Caroline is up, so I think I will pop back for another 5, maybe 10.... Possibly 20.......