Why did I look for a restaurant job in New Zealand?
I went to New Zealand on a working holiday and looked for a job. I was concentrating on restaurant jobs. I’m a Japanese. I was 25 years old.
For foreigners like me, looking for a restaurant job is natural. Our English is not good enough. You can cook or do monotonous tasks like dishwashing at some restaurants without speaking English often.
Furthermore, in New Zealand, your job experience is much more important. If you don’t have job experience related to the job you are looking for, it’s hard to get the job. In Japan, your personality and aptitude suit a job and you can get it.
I guess a lot of young students in some countries work at a restaurant. They can start the jobs without a experience and get the experience of a restaurant job. In Japan, when you go out to eat at a restaurant, you can see students working there. I worked at a bakery and a convenience store when I was a student. The tasks were customer service and related to a restaurant job.
Because of these experiences, I got a job in New Zealand.
I spent plenty of time searching for a job. I can say Facebook is the best when it comes to restaurant job search.
How you search for a job on Facebook
There are a lot of groups where employers look for workers. You can search Facebook with keywords like “job New Zealand” and you’ll find groups. There are region-specified groups(Auckland, Wellington, etc) and/or job-type-specified groups(farm work, hospitality job, etc).
Employers post on a group about job descriptions and you can contact them and send your CV. You could post your information like your experience, your availability, and so on. Employers contact you and ask for a CV.
If they like you, they and you schedule an interview. You can go to the shop and attend the interview.
Other popular job search methods in New Zealand.
Job search websites(such as Indeed, Trademe, and Jora)
You can apply for jobs on job search websites. There are way less scammers than Facebook. If you speak good English and have good job experience, this will work for you.
But, compared to Facebook, the number of jobs available is small.
Distributing CVs to shops
You can walk to shops and hand CVs to them. You may also talk with managers and tell them about your passion and aptitude. This might be better when you are in suburbs. You can’t find a lot of jobs available online in suburbs. Some shops are looking for an employee. But, they don’t post information online.
When shops are looking for an employee, this way will work. Otherwise, they keep CVs in a drawer or somewhere and may never check them. In my restaurant where I worked for 1 year, we got lots of CVs. We kept them in a drawer. They were mixed with other documents.
You need to print CVs, which costs you. You need to walk long and give CVs to shops. It will take time.
Reasons why Facebook is the best
You have more choices on Facebook, especially when you are in cities, where there are lots of restaurants are. 85.9 percent of the entire population in New Zealand uses Facebook(Source). Big companies have human resource departments and they can look for workers on reliable famous websites like Indeed, Jora. Most managers of small restaurants don’t know a lot about these websites. It’s easier for them to use Facebook instead because they use it daily.
You could join more than 1 Facebook group and get more job opportunities. You can see lots of posts from employers on the groups every day.
You can post your information on Facebook groups. You can’t do the same things on other websites online. All you need to do is wait. Employers who are interested in you message you. They are interested in you so you are more likely to attend a job interview. When you contact employers on posts on Facebook groups, they get messages from many job seekers. You need to compete with them.
A Demerit of Facebook
You can start Facebook only with an email address, which means anyone can use Facebook. There are a lot of scammers on Facebook job search groups. They contact you or you contact them by mistake. Then, they try to steal money from you. You need to tell them from ordinary employers.
I was looking for a job on Facebook. A lot of scammers contacted me. I wasted my time.
Comments