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Thanks for a detailed reply ! I'm a bit surprised about the salary. I've seen than in IT it's pretty limited, but also that some other profession can make a ve

Thanks for a detailed reply ! I'm a bit surprised about the salary. I've seen than in IT it's pretty limited, but also that some other profession can make a very good living - my wife is a doctor and it looks like it's quite a good place to be for medical professionals. Living costs, yes - that's something I expect. But coming from Paris, I don't think I will be shocked neither... Also, we already have 2 kids and will rather be looking at houses in the suburbs / outside of the main cities, so this should bring the costs down. Again, thanks for great answer !

kovrik 10y ago
Yes, doctors get very good money here. But google it, most probably your wife will have to pass exams or something to prove her qualification and work here as a doctor. And NZ is a wonderful country for kids! Also, french community is quite large here!
- TheAlchemist 10y ago
  Actually it's rather easy for doctors with french diploma - just an exam to pass indeed. Rather easy process compared to other countries we considered (Canada, Australia)
roel_v 10y ago
"will rather be looking at houses in the suburbs / outside of the main cities, so this should bring the costs down." No, it doesn't work like that. Have a look at some RE websites and Google Maps. Prices are insane, even in places where you can't reasonably commute to places where there are jobs for educated people. Only places where prices aren't insane is in places people only go to get away from other people. Look, I loved living in NZ in some aspects, but it's not a place for someone with ambition. Even kiwis with ambition leave, even if they don't want really want to.
- TheAlchemist 10y ago
  This is something that bothers me indeed. My best case scenario is to create a company in the machine learning field there. The idea is not yet mature enough, so I'm giving myself time for now (we're planning to move in a year or two). As for houses, I've checked and it sure looks expensive, but again - I'm living in Paris area where the prices are insane in my opinion. In the suburbs where I live, it's ~5000e/m2 - with almost 1h commute to work.
  - kovrik 10y ago
    Well, you can come here, get residency, wait 2 years for a permanent residency or 5 years for a citizenship and then move to Australia. That is what most people with ambitions do here
  - roel_v 10y ago
    First, let me make clear that I don't want to dissuade you from going to New Zealand. It's a lovely place, but many people in Europe have a (somewhat) wrong image of it. So I just want to make sure you know what you're getting in to. Yes, compared with central Paris, prices aren't that insane. But if you want to bootstrap a company, you are looking for (one or more of): - cheap COL - access to customers - access to staff In NZ, you have none of those. You'll be much cheaper off living in northern France or somewhere else 'remote' and rural in France, or even the rest of Europe. You'll spend thousands a month renting somewhere that isn't even particularly nice (houses are of crap quality in general), money that you won't have when you're getting a business started. There aren't many companies that need or are willing to pay for cutting edge software. Sure, you can sell to anywhere in the world through the internet nowadays, but then why would you live hours flying away from your customers, on (relatively) crappy internet lines, many timezones away? Most Kiwis worth hiring have moved to Oz. That is not to say that all Kiwis left are idiots, of course, but in general they won't be the sort of high-flying, go-getter people you'll want in the initial stages of your company. And those that are left will be hard to find or to convince joining you. It will be easier to convince young people looking for adventure coming from abroad to join you, but they'll be gone just as easily, too (I've seen it happen several times). NZ is a great place to live if you want to have an outdoorsy-oriented, good work/life balanced lifestyle, while still being in an English-speaking, originally Europe (British) oriented country. Your friends and family will love saying how they will come visit you and then won't once they realize how far away it actually is (exaggerating only slightly here). Until the 1970's, NZ was a very insular, inward-facing, closed economy, of which the effects are still felt today. People like to live very spread out, which makes 4mm people responsible for maintaining infrastructure in an area bigger than the UK. It's true that the majority lives in a few cities, but that also makes those cities expensive. May I suggest you go live there for a few months first before you move - and treat it as 'living' there, not 'holiday'. So living in the same place, daily rhythm of Mon-Fri 9-5 and doing laundry on the weekends, not being able to go anywhere without a car (this is the number one thing my daughter complained about, although she was only 4 at the time). Good luck. If you take the plunge, I'm sure you'll have a great time and it'll be a great adventure, but your chances of being the traditional definition of 'successful' will not improve with going there (nothing wrong with that, of course - everybody has to define for themselves what constitutes 'successful').

kovrik 10y ago

Yes, doctors get very good money here. But google it, most probably your wife will have to pass exams or something to prove her qualification and work here as a doctor. And NZ is a wonderful country for kids! Also, french community is quite large here!

TheAlchemist 10y ago
Actually it's rather easy for doctors with french diploma - just an exam to pass indeed. Rather easy process compared to other countries we considered (Canada, Australia)

roel_v 10y ago

"will rather be looking at houses in the suburbs / outside of the main cities, so this should bring the costs down." No, it doesn't work like that. Have a look at some RE websites and Google Maps. Prices are insane, even in places where you can't reasonably commute to places where there are jobs for educated people. Only places where prices aren't insane is in places people only go to get away from other people. Look, I loved living in NZ in some aspects, but it's not a place for someone with ambition. Even kiwis with ambition leave, even if they don't want really want to.

TheAlchemist 10y ago
This is something that bothers me indeed. My best case scenario is to create a company in the machine learning field there. The idea is not yet mature enough, so I'm giving myself time for now (we're planning to move in a year or two). As for houses, I've checked and it sure looks expensive, but again - I'm living in Paris area where the prices are insane in my opinion. In the suburbs where I live, it's ~5000e/m2 - with almost 1h commute to work.
- kovrik 10y ago
  Well, you can come here, get residency, wait 2 years for a permanent residency or 5 years for a citizenship and then move to Australia. That is what most people with ambitions do here
- roel_v 10y ago
  First, let me make clear that I don't want to dissuade you from going to New Zealand. It's a lovely place, but many people in Europe have a (somewhat) wrong image of it. So I just want to make sure you know what you're getting in to. Yes, compared with central Paris, prices aren't that insane. But if you want to bootstrap a company, you are looking for (one or more of): - cheap COL - access to customers - access to staff In NZ, you have none of those. You'll be much cheaper off living in northern France or somewhere else 'remote' and rural in France, or even the rest of Europe. You'll spend thousands a month renting somewhere that isn't even particularly nice (houses are of crap quality in general), money that you won't have when you're getting a business started. There aren't many companies that need or are willing to pay for cutting edge software. Sure, you can sell to anywhere in the world through the internet nowadays, but then why would you live hours flying away from your customers, on (relatively) crappy internet lines, many timezones away? Most Kiwis worth hiring have moved to Oz. That is not to say that all Kiwis left are idiots, of course, but in general they won't be the sort of high-flying, go-getter people you'll want in the initial stages of your company. And those that are left will be hard to find or to convince joining you. It will be easier to convince young people looking for adventure coming from abroad to join you, but they'll be gone just as easily, too (I've seen it happen several times). NZ is a great place to live if you want to have an outdoorsy-oriented, good work/life balanced lifestyle, while still being in an English-speaking, originally Europe (British) oriented country. Your friends and family will love saying how they will come visit you and then won't once they realize how far away it actually is (exaggerating only slightly here). Until the 1970's, NZ was a very insular, inward-facing, closed economy, of which the effects are still felt today. People like to live very spread out, which makes 4mm people responsible for maintaining infrastructure in an area bigger than the UK. It's true that the majority lives in a few cities, but that also makes those cities expensive. May I suggest you go live there for a few months first before you move - and treat it as 'living' there, not 'holiday'. So living in the same place, daily rhythm of Mon-Fri 9-5 and doing laundry on the weekends, not being able to go anywhere without a car (this is the number one thing my daughter complained about, although she was only 4 at the time). Good luck. If you take the plunge, I'm sure you'll have a great time and it'll be a great adventure, but your chances of being the traditional definition of 'successful' will not improve with going there (nothing wrong with that, of course - everybody has to define for themselves what constitutes 'successful').