moving2nz

Thanks for this, I need to reconsider Auckland then as a final destination as the companies there in general look much more interesting than in Wellington.

Yeah I only found out today that Xero was a .NET shop, actually that was a bit disappointing. Same for TradeMe. So was hoping there was a startup scene using something more interesting, Python or even Go perhaps.

I actually don't mind Java at all, perhaps Java skills are better to focus on then in terms of it being more useful in moving to New Zealand :)

Actually last time I was in NZ I ended up doing remote work for companies in the UK/Europe, it was a big factor in why I returned to London. It's a couple years later and while things are comfy here I do kick myself sometimes for not giving NZ a proper go re. a software dev job while I was on my WHV (working holiday visa). I think if I moved to NZ, I would have to work for an NZ company in order to possibly eventually qualify for residence, as I don't have any other ties to the country. Otherwise, I would definitely consider remoting for a foreign company.

I would've thought NZ would more attract people who are more interested in work/life balance and an outdoorsy lifestyle than people who are more interested in interesting tech/projects, for that you need to go to California or to metropolises like Melbourne/London/Berlin. At least this is what my stereotyped view has been.

EDIT: I misread that you were from Australia but in NZ, but actually you're in Aus.

Are there (m)any engineering-led companies in NZ then? Thinking Uber, Netflix... where the management have technical backgrounds themselves or at least engineers have more power to influence decisions (technical and otherwise). Where software development is part of the core culture of the company rather than just another department, so to speak.

The cargo cult is in most places, unfortunately, though I wonder if "pseudo-agile" is on the way out. I think people have long since caught on that the term "agile" really is mostly used as a buzzword, so perhaps pseudo-agile for the sake of appearing agile might get less popular.

I'm interested in moving to Wellington (but would consider Dunedin). I realize Auckland is probably the best place career wise but am not particularly keen on it.

Interesting you describe the NZ market as idiosyncratic - I'm guessing it's not like European or North American cities then? I didn't get a chance to go to any tech meetups or such when I was last there (2017) so couldn't get a "feel" for what the market might be like.

I don't have any .NET experience but am using Java in my current job and am comfortable with it. 75% salary sounds reasonable considering the lifestyle tradeoff, I'd been figuring 50% as most of the software development jobs on trademe.co.nz at a glance seemed to be distributed between NZD$60k to NZD$120k, tops. Things like internet and food seem overly expensive in NZ compared to London though and rent isn't noticeably cheaper either, so I'd guess even a 25% pay cut may incur a bigger lifestyle dent than it would in London.

EDIT: my skillset in terms of languages is roughly, in order of familiarity: Python, Java, Go, Javascript. I used to be a Django developer and now do more general backend work.