Tēnā Koutou (Hello to all)

Through our blog, we try to bring you the quality information on the different pathways and visa types to migrate to New Zealand in ABS format (Accurate, Brief, and Simple). In recent times we have extended this information to the next level where you could hear from the successful migrants themselves about their successful journey to New Zealand and feedback on the employment opportunities in New Zealand in different industries.

This time we got the opportunity to talk to one of the successful Electrical Engineers and chartered professionals with global experience working in New Zealand. Vikas has several years of experience in project management from India, the United Kingdom, Australia, and now in New Zealand, managing multi-million dollar projects. Vikas has been working in New Zealand as Senior Project Manager for more than five years and well settled with his wife and two children. Please find below the transcript of the interview. We hope it will help you understand about this ever-growing demand of Engineers New Zealand and any implications of COVID-19 on this industry.

Q 1. Could you please tell us about your job? And what do you do?

     I am an Electrical engineer and a chartered professional involved in the transmission and distribution industry here in New Zealand, majorly in Project Management. I am responsible for managing multi-million dollar projects, which includes building substations, overhead power lines, and underground cables. 

Q 2. Please tell us about your professional journey to New Zealand and your prior work experience?

    After completing my bachelor’s degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering in the year 2005, I worked with a couple of electrical organisations in India for about four years before I moved with one of the largest multinational electrical companies in Newcastle, the United Kingdom. I worked in the United Kingdom for a couple of years and moved to Australia to join a new employer. The renowned names of employers I added in my career are Tata Power, Siemens Energy, GE, and ABB.

After working in Australia for just over 3.5 years, I moved to New Zealand in Dec-2014. Since I moved to New Zealand, I have been working in a state-owned power utility PowerNet Limited in Invercargill, NZ.

Q 3. Could you please give some insight into the job market for engineering professionals in New Zealand?

  The job market for engineering professionals in NZ is growing at a fast rate. Being New Zealand, a great tourist attraction, we see multi-million tourists visit New Zealand every year. And this will keep growing in the future, which enhances the basic infrastructure requirements of NZ. In addition to this being very rich in varieties of farming industries, New Zealand has played a vital role in supplying food globally, which makes it distinct from other island countries. 

 All these reasons, NZ’s infrastructure requirement is growing faster than ever, and this is happening in almost every engineering sector. So the prospects would be tremendous and stable in technical areas. 

Q 4. Do you think the current COVID-19 situation will impact the job market for Engineering professionals in NZ?

As this is apparent, the COVID-19 has impacted all different industries around the world, so the NZ. But this impact is short term because as soon as vaccination is released, the effects of COVID-19 will be fading.

As we see in today’s world, everything is based on technology, whether it is medical science or the physical world. So the demand for engineers will always be there. The COVID-19 impact is only short term, which means the students who start their study now will be passing in 1-2 years, and by the time they are available to hunt jobs in the market, we will come out of COVID-19 anyway.

Being NZ dealing with this virus situation pro-actively, the impact on NZ is minimal, which means NZ will be able to stand back more robust and faster than other countries in the world.  

Q 5. What would you advise the prospective student or fresh graduates from overseas on how they can make a career in engineering in New Zealand?

Fresh graduates will see quite a decline in Job sector for the moment due to the impact of COVID-19. So, that job market would be challenging up until late 2021. There will be border restrictions in place from the majority of countries around the world, and there is a question mark for the survival of many new industries that would have been hiring newcomers if COVID-19 would not be here. Even the big companies have put most of their hiring on hold for the moment until situations are clear, however as they move towards mid of 2021, they will be able to assess their requirements based on the number of projects comes in the market. Around that time, the NZ government would be able to allocate more funding to infrastructure projects.

This means the students graduating after mid-2021 would see quite a satisfactory response from the employers, the job market will be stable, and lots of new openings will be seen in most of the engineering sectors.

Interview ends.

Would like to learn more about the fantastic opportunity for engineers to study and settle in New Zealand? Please contact us with your detailed CV at services@immigrationlawadvice.co.nz

Please note that we do not offer job recruiting services.