I just got back from an 8 month working holiday and traveling abroad. I lived and worked in New Zealand and did some traveling in other countries after that. I found it very hard to try and get even entry level jobs while in NZ. I had over 2 years of landscape design experience. Unless you have specific connections or networks, it will be nearly impossible for you to be able to land a designing job at a firm. Given the chance they will most likely hire a local who knows the laws, culture and landscape over a traveler (whom they don’t even know how long they will stick around). If you have a working holiday visa in Australia, you can only work for 6 months for the same employer of the 12 months you can be in the country. In New Zealand, you can work the whole 12 months for the same employer with the NZ working holiday visa and from what i heard form countless travelers and my boyfriend, its much easier to get jobs in NZ as a traveler. I tried offering to do part time drafting or marketing for all of the firms in the city I was living in. It didn’t work for me but I would suggest trying that (I was in a city that only had about 10-20 firms and I was only in that city for about 3 months). Be open to working at plant nurseries or free lance drafting or rendering if you have certain programs on your computer. I ended up working as a receptionist and doing hospitality temp work… it was a blast though and in the end it gave me the funds I needed to keep traveling for 2 months after that.
Where to start? start looking for firms and job openings before you go in the cities you’re thinking of living in. Trademe.com is like our craigslist here in the states. And definitely make sure you have the correct working visas you need before you go as well. NZ is easy to get and really fast and I know Australia’s is a little more confusing and slower.
Hope this helps!
