My backpacker jobs during my Working Holiday Visa in New Zealand

Glassy

After this catastrophic experience in the kiwis, I decided to go to a place I had felt good at during my road trip, without having found a job first (a first for me!). The future was quite uncertain for everyone. My visa was expiring 3 months later, and I just wanted to enjoy my last months in New Zealand.

At first, I found it difficult to find a job. I walked around Napier for hours, handing out my resumes, with no luck. After two weeks, a bistro contacted me. A few days later, I started a second job (the next one on the list). Just goes to show, you should never give up!

So my introduction to the hospitality industry was my glassy job, polishing glasses and cutlery behind the bar at a gourmet bistro. I’m super clumsy. So, I have to admit, I was a little bit afraid of this job. In the end, it wasn’t so bad.

Pros

If glassy is your only task, then the job is actually pretty cool. I got along great with the bartender so it was fun to work with him. Plus, every once in a while, he would let me taste his new creations, which was pretty cool.

In this type of work, you often have to be pretty fast. The advantage is that the evening will go by pretty quickly. You’ll also be making a lot of trips back and forth across the 5 meter long bar. If my pedometer is right, I was walking more or less 7-8 km per shift.

Cons

Unfortunately, the place I worked at as a glassy was not the healthiest work environment. There was very poor organization and some conflict between the staff. So in addition to being glassy, they asked me to help the waiters. The problem was that I didn’t want to be a waitress and they didn’t teach me how to be one.

So I started working 20 to 30 hours a week when I was supposed to work 15 hours. This wouldn’t be a problem if it was my main job. But as mentioned above, I started another job soon after at 40-45 hours a week. So I’ll let you do the math. The advantage, however, is that since I had very little free time, I was able to save a lot of money.

Then, the chef did not have the greatest communication skills and yelled at his employees often enough. So this job became very stressful for me and it became difficult to go there every day.

Bottom line: tested, approved (but not at this place).