Naturally, no working holiday blog would be complete without a few posts dedicated to the work experience itself. I was very lucky (and super grateful!!) that my employer in SG was willing to accomodate my quest to embark on this adventure - it meant that I had more leeway when it came to financing my travels, and I could seek out opportunities I was happy with without worrying too much about costs.
Depending on your skillsets and industry, it might be worth negotiating an arrangement that works out for both parties, if your boss is agreeable to it.
Work Arrangements
Since I stayed on as a full-time remote employee for my SG office, I didn't necessarily need to find jobs in NZ to sustain myself. Nonetheless, I've always wanted to try different stints that I would otherwise not have the chance to in SG. Besides, how can this be counted as a work holiday if I didn't actually work? 🙃
While I was able to have some degree of flexibility, I still needed to plan around my SG work schedule first and foremost. Given the timezone differences, my afternoons and evenings were dedicated to my main job (2pm - 12am), and I can only make use of my mornings and weekends for any travelling, activities, or extra jobs I wanted to take up in NZ.
This limited my options quite a bit - typical work holiday jobs such as fruit picking or farm work which would require longer hours were out of the equation. I had to look for positions that offered set hours in the morning, and that would not require much commitment both in terms of time and energy.
Ultimately, I decided to only take up work-for-accomodation arrangements, which I absolutely recommend for anyone in a similar boat. You get to cut down on one of the biggest areas of expense (rent), experience the working culture in NZ, and interact with the local hosts.
Given that the work is unpaid, there is also a lot less stress and expectations placed on you. In fact, such arrangements are sometimes viewed as exploitative or unethical depending on your scope of work - if your labour benefits a business in any way then it is supposed to be paid. In any case, what's important to look out for would be whether you're getting a fair deal (decent food, accomodation, hours, etc.) in exchange for your labour, benchmarked against NZ's minimum wage.