Reconnecting with New Zealand

Last month I went back to New Zealand to visit family and friends along with trying to soak up some of NZ’s late summer sun as many of us do at this time of the year. What was different about this trip was I’d been asked to speak at my old high school and two opportunities to catch-up with NZBWN members who had returned to NZ and now living in either Wellington or Auckland.

It ended up that I spoke twice at my old high school, Villa Maria College, Christchurch. The first engagement included speaking along with the Chief Economist from ASB to 80 past pupils. I shared with this group some of my experiences attending Villa and my journey to the UK. I also shared a little about what has kept me in the UK and how I set-up the New Zealand Business Women’s Network and the importance of building relationships.

One experience which hit home for many Cantabrians in the room was how the Canterbury Earthquakes affected Kiwis in London and our response, uniting, raising funds and awareness of what had happened.

Common themes of returners:

- Taking 9-12 months to start to feel settled
- Similar problems to setting up in the UK – no recent NZ work experience on CV, experience too niche and recruiters saying that it would be difficult to find ‘that type’ of work in NZ.
- Isolation – if working in a city they hadn’t lived in before and friends having moved on.
- Work, half found work easily / half found it very difficult – depended on industry.
- English partners / family not settling.
- Dealing with not wanting to leave the UK. 
- Sick parents or not able to stay due to only being on a 2 year visa. 

Our discussion moved to how these two groups could help those living overseas move home:

- Write regular articles for our newsletter and social media to share experiences.
- Build checklists to help the move and the initial period of reintegrating.
- Skype calls with members still overseas to share experiences and help network members back into work.
- Meet every two months over brunch to welcome new women and share experiences on both a career and personal front.

What we’ll do going forward:

- As part of our project team around developing the Network we’ll incorporate this knowledge and experience by creating a page on our website designated to those returning home.
- Right now we’ll ensure we share articles written about moving home via our newsletter and social media and help both groups create checklists to make the move back home as easy as it possibly can be.

As our Returners are meeting for brunch in both locations every two months please get in touch if you’ll be passing through and would like to attend or if you’re considering moving home and would like to connect and we’ll put you in touch.