Big need for telecom skills in UK and Europe

By Richard Braddell

WELLINGTON - Britain needs you - at least, if you have strategic, financial or marketing skills in telecommunications.

It may not be the big dollar, but the sterling equivalent could be even better for New Zealanders prepared to join the brain drain and head for London, according to representatives of UK recruitment firm Joslin Rowe.

Briton Nick Cole and associate Geoff Sewell, a New Zealander based in London, are canvassing the local market for skills to match burgeoning demand in Britain and Europe.

In the past, social evenings in London pubs with the many Telecom alumni there have provided good fishing, but now they hope to deepen the recruitment pool through seminars in Wellington and Auckland.

New Zealanders are in demand and while a recently qualified accountant with one of the "big five" firms might be looking at sterling 40,000 a year, the real money is made by those with specialised skills.

A former Telecom employee with expertise in cellular pricing and marketing is now earning sterling 40 a day on a 12-month contract, but rates between sterling 400 and sterling 700 are not unusual for people with strong project skills.

Mr Rowe and Mr Sewell say that demand is being driven by the internet and mobile.

In the past 12 months, they have placed 12 people in permanent jobs, a record Mr Cole is proud of, given the 12 weeks it usually takes British firms to make up their minds. In addition, they have more than 50 people working as temps.

But it's not all one way. Joslin Rowe also hopes to get the placement business when New Zealanders return home from their OEs.