Strategic moves to facilitate goals
When the wave of tech restructures hit in 2023, I lost a role for a Sydney fintech with a remote-first culture I’d been working in from New Zealand.
Home was walking distance from the beach in the beautiful NZ surf town of Mount Maunganui, a place where you can surf in the morning, have a coffee, and drive less than an hour to world class mountain biking in Rotorura.
I was embedded in the local triathlon, surf lifesaving and cycling clubs, and had founded a professional meetup, ProductTank Tauranga. I owned a beautiful home, had built my first investment property, and had started sponsoring a girl through school in Cambodia.
Life was good.
I was in the process of figuring out how to enable the next investment property to continue the journey towards retirement when the restructure happened.
The choice
I could see there was a shift away from fully-remote working and it seemed unlikely I’d be able to secure another suitable fully remote role. In less than a year the tech market had turned from naming your price working in crypo, in favour of employers. Competition for roles was also much higher due to the restructures.
It seemed like hybrid or in-office was going to be the way forward and I was faced with a choice:
Look for something locally but not really get ahead financially
Move to Auckland where there were more/better paid jobs
Move to Australia
Moving to Auckland didn’t stack up economically vs moving to Australia because, at the time, the interest deductibility rules on renting out your house in NZ meant you couldn’t deduct mortgage interest from your costs, and so were effectively taxed on your mortgage interest.
While designed to discourage people from investing in property, by the previous government, this had the net impact of making it less favourable economically to move around the country for better jobs or experience, or to provide a service in short supply to a particular place. While keeping your home you eventually wanted to return to.
I imagine it would have impacted skills shortages in the medical profession, engineers, teachers, etc. Super curious whether this impact was ever considered by the politicians?
Anyway, the economic feasibility didn’t stack up, so I joined the brain drain to Australia.
Why Perth
Perth has the optimum income/opportunity vs cost of living ratio, and a great climate, with plenty of options for outdoor adventures in the South West. To me it was the best all round mix for opportunity and lifestyle, and you were effectively playing in a bit more of a blue ocean of talent than on the East Coast. So it was a no brainer. If you’re thinking of a move and want to compare rates across Australia, all the major recruitment companies do regular salary and contracting rate surveys - for example Robert Walters.
Pre-move strategy
I did a reccie visit for a week while finishing up in my fintech role and made some initial contacts. I met with a recruiter while in Perth put a post out on LinkedIn asking for suggestions on who to meet. That post plus doing something similar in the ProductTank Perth meetup led to three invaluable coffee chats and a whole lot more connections. I kept in touch with those people, which led to more connections. One of the original people I met is now contracting in the same place as me, and working in AI which I’m keen to get some experience in, so it’s been easy to catchup for coffee and find out what’s going on in that space in my current organisation.
When I got back after finishing up in my role, I landed a part-time remote product discovery role through Expert 360 for a couple of months while I moved countries. I think I heard about Expert 360 via the Product Aotearoa slack group I’m a member of. I ended up planning and executing a move in four weeks while working 20 hours/week through expert use of Google calendar for timeboxing and planning!
Moving
Telling everyone you know about your plans has unexpected spin offs. A personal trainer friend from where I lived introduced me to an NZ couple working in Perth for a couple years. She used to train them in Auckland. I met them on the reccie trip, we got on really well and they offered a place to stay initially.
With immaculate timing, a colleague from my old company ended up moving to Sydney shortly after I moved to Perth, and offered me her rental next to the beach. It was also next to a surf lifesaving club, awesome running routes along the river and coast, a trainline to the city, alongside a bike path to the city. Win win for everyone. I ended up buying it last year when the landlord decided to sell.
So the accommodation side of things ended up falling into place, fortuitously, but part of that was through putting yourself out there and letting people know your plans.
Before I left NZ I also landed a job offer in Perth via the recruitment company I’d met on the reccie visit. I also had an initial interview for a contract in Perth, after putting my CV on Seek with an AU phone number on it and getting headhunted for a role.
I had a couple more interviews within a couple of days of stepping off the plane, and ended up with three offers, two permanent, one contract. I decided to take the contract, back myself to take the risk of contracting long term, and setup my own company adaptandimprove.com.au
Since then I’ve been in work every single month since moving to Perth with only a couple gaps of a few weeks. One was due to the Lithium price crashing dramatically in early 2024 and January is not the best time to be looking for a new contract! Nothing happens until after Australia day in late Jan. However, I’ve found it takes me around 3-4 weeks to secure the next role if you don’t have something lined up already when a contract finishes up.
My career background had mostly been in banking and financial services to the time of moving to Australia. In Perth most of the contract work is in resources and government. I got my second contract for a mining company and have done a mix of mining, government and energy sector contracts since. It’s great working in different sectors and moving here has given me opportunities I would never have had by staying where I was in NZ.
Networking for success
Perth is definitely a place where your network helps you find the best gigs. I’ve been able to find work via my growing network for the last couple of contracts, rather than via a recruitment agency. There are lots of good agencies in Perth and I’ve built up good relationships with recruiters. They are a great starting place while you are getting established. However many great contracts don’t get advertised.
Once you have done a few gigs you’ve met quite a lot of people, especially if you end up on a big government programme. When you’re finishing up share your details and you’ll be amazed what comes of it. I’ve had a couple of great referrals that have led to new assignments. I’ve also done things like organise Friday drink catchups with a group from a large programme I particularly gelled with, and that’s helped us stay in touch and help each other out with referrals.
When I chose a career path back in my 20s I deliberately chose something that you could do anywhere with transferable skills so you had the option to live and work anywhere. Tech/digital products was a great choice, enabling a move from the UK to NZ back in 2007. My skills are currently ranked in the top 10 on the list of most in-demand roles in Australia for 2025.
I’m also in the process of upskilling in an area where there’s a skills shortage, cyber security, also in the top 10. I spent a year on WA’s largest cyber security programme and enjoyed learning something new and having a bit of a change in the tech space.
Reflecting
The restructure was a catalyst for ‘architecting’ a pathway towards maximising income to continue generating wealth for the future, while enjoying an active outdoor lifestyle in the now. I’ve recreated the lifestyle side of things in WA and am embedded in the same clubs here: triathlon, surf lifesaving, swimming and cycling. I’m also on the governance committee of Swimming WA and getting involved with a professional meetup, Agile Perth by helping source a speaker for the next event. I’m working on some strategies to grow my network and visibility and see where that leads.
Perth probably won’t be forever and I still have my beautiful home by the surf in NZ, but it’s the right place, strategically, for the medium term. And an awesome city to live in. One of my favourite experiences here to date has been swimming up the coast of Perth with my Swim Smooth squad in a community event called Shore-to-Shore. I’ve also written about this in a couple of LinkedIn posts:
Embracing change - Kiwis in Australia - my most viewed LinkedIn post ever, with over 4,000 views!
Swimming up the Coast of Perth - a reflection on my first 9 months in the city.
Photo credit: shoreface.photos