Opportunity Knocks: How the FAANG Layoffs Can Benefit NZ Tech
2022 saw NZ Tech reach the number two spot for GDP export in NZ behind dairy, beating out both tourism and meat exports. It may take a while for tourism to rebound but the demand for New Zealand tech to other nations is incredible. We are a trusted country with some very talented individuals with a lot of our tech landing all around the world but we do have a large export focus in Australia, USA & the UK.
With the FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix & Google) laying off tens of thousands of staff recently this could be leading to a surplus of talent overseas wanting to come to NZ. Some reports have said that about 200k staff have been handed redundancies over the last couple of months and these people are extremely talented individuals. I have already seen an influx of people posting on LinkedIn asking for contacts for immigration lawyers.
For quite some time there has been a shortage in some tech sectors in particular roles and right now is the time for us to be hiring this talent if we are unable to fill it locally. I’m a big fan of hiring local talent but if you can’t find that talent locally it is better to attract that talent to come into the country compared to the alternative of outsourcing it out.
People love our country, our culture, and even the weather, you can’t beat the South Island all year round. There is no better spot to land than Christchurch (CHCH) where the tech sector is in full swing and the startup culture is rapidly expanding. In fact, the startup scene in CHCH has had a “record-breaking jump in rankings” according to Startup Blink.
CHCH rocks, it’s easy to get around with rush hour traffic adding 5–10 min, and the city has recently rebuilt after a major earthquake that happened 12 years ago (some projects are still ongoing). When the weather is right you can be surfing in the morning and drive up to the ski slopes in the afternoon. You can take a relaxing 99-minute drive listing to your favorite podcast on your way to Hanmer Springs or hop on a 1 hr flight to Queenstown (the adventure capital of the world).
Boots on the ground in NZ is the best way for us to build a tech sector and we know it, we like hiring people who pay taxes in NZ. Since a large portion of our tech is for export it makes perfect sense to bring some of that outside knowledge in-house. We need people from every corner of the globe so if you are looking for a job make sure you use the ecosystem map from Canterbury Tech because 80% of jobs in NZ are not advertised on large job sites, we love hiring via connections and hiring people with the tenacity to contact us directly. We are about to see a massive boom in Web3 & AI so make sure you have your CVs up to date.
For companies in NZ looking to bring in talent from overseas make sure you check out deel.com I’d highly recommend you have a look at it and listen to this podcast. They are a one-stop shop for hiring talent from overseas. Though I love supporting locals sometimes the talent can only be found overseas. Deel deals with the HR side of things including employment contracts, local employment rights, payments and I heard they are even appointing staff in NZ soon to deal with immigration inquiries so you will be able to start staff remotely but then bring them in-house once all the visa issues are sorted.
It’s cool that we now have the ability to fill a skills gap with diverse people with different backgrounds while also giving them the opportunity of a trial run with the intention to bring them into our beautiful country. Prior to the pandemic, it was difficult and you would have to take a bet on someone by reading their CV and vetting them remotely, and sometimes you would have to hire blind. We now have the ability to test the waters and see if the fit is right, this also gives the person on the other side of the world the same opportunity, they can see how your organization works, how the management works, what the culture is like and see if it is the right fit before they pack bags to move countries.
