'Tis the season to get busy

By ALICE SHOPLAND

Wherever you live, everything is hotting up job-wise at this time of year - if you're prepared to take on temporary work created by the onset of summer.

Most seasonal work in the city involves hospitality and retail sectors, says Sherilee Eyes of Work and Income New Zealand.

If you live in the country or are prepared to travel, there's a huge variety available almost year-round. WINZ encourages people to take on seasonal work, and may offer some assistance such as a Work Start grant to help buy work clothes, or pay for travel in the first week.

If you take on a full-time seasonal job your benefit stops, but you may be able to get it again as soon as the job ends. And while your benefit is stopped, accommodation and childcare subsidies may still be available.

Temporary work can lead you to a full-time post, and as well as getting you out of the house, shows prospective employers that you're willing.

So what is there, and where is it? WINZ suggests these:

* Fruit and vegetable harvesting, packing, processing and pruning: Northland, Auckland, Bay of Plenty, East Cape, all-year round (in different locations).

* Vineyards: East Coast, often something available all-year round.

* Forestry: Waipukurau/central Hawkes Bay, Tokoroa, Wairarapa. All-year round, particularly autumn.

* Dairy industry: Waikato, Waipukurau/central Hawkes Bay, October to May and July to August.

* Lambing and shearing gang work: Waikato, Taranaki, Manawatu, central North Island, Wairarapa, March to May, September to February, August to November

* Fisheries/seafood: mid-north/Kerikeri, June to September.

* Ski-related work on ski fields and in local towns: Tongariro, June to September.

* Tourism work - everything from waiting tables to being a tour guide: Resort and tourist towns such as Paihia, Taupo, Rotorua, November to February.

Seasonal work can be a great opportunity to see life from a different perspective. This writer's fairly impractical undergraduate degree in art history and Italian, for example, was paid for by numerous employers. Highlights included:

* Waitressing in a renowned Auckland steak restaurant. I neglected to mention my vegetarian status, although it soon became obvious because of my complete ignorance of which was the porterhouse and which was the T-bone (I know, I know!) Most memorable moment: mixing tomato sauce and mayonnaise for the shrimp cocktails.

* Tomato-picking in a steamy glasshouse with a hard-working couple and their permanently-stoned permanent employee. Most memorable moment: seeing bunches of tomatoes whenever I closed my eyes.

* On the production line at an airconditioning factory. My job was to comb the delicate metal cooling fins straight. Most memorable moment: slicing my fingertips open on the fins about five minutes after being told NOT to try and catch the units if they started to fall over.

* Driving the delivery van for a whole-food bakery. There were no racks in the van to stabilise the stacks of boxes, so driving up or down hills and braking were fraught with danger. Most memorable moment: reconstructing goods damaged in transit.

* Debt-collecting for a long-defunct credit card company. I was driving around South Auckland in my battered red Bambina, visiting people who usually managed to pay about $5 a month off their $1000-plus debt - it was pretty depressing. Most memorable about that job was that I wasn't threatened, not even once.

Student Job Search Auckland regional manager Sina Aiono says about 30 per cent of its summer jobs are from service industries (retail and hotels), 20 per cent labouring, 15 per cent are technical and clerical, and the remainder cover everything from horticulture and entertainment to tutoring and transport.