Elizabeth Tucker

I arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand, in May 2014. Prior to my arrival, in 2011 (although it was probably much earlier than that), I had what I like to describe as an 'epiphany moment'. Over the years, I had come to realise that I had so much more to offer - particularly my head for numbers, and this was being 'wasted' - and so I began to wonder whether I was in the wrong job (despite having been in it for the past 20 years); I was working as a Case Manager for a government department in the UK, and whilst the work on the whole was enjoyable, albeit very challenging, I wanted more from my career and to explore other avenues.

So how did I come to be in New Zealand? you might well ask ..... Well, for some time, my husband and I had spoken about emigrating and despite what happened next, in 2006 we initally spoke about moving to New Zealand. To cut a long story short, even though my husband's occupation was regarded as 'skilled' and at that time 'in demand', we struggled to secure enough points to submit an Expression of Interest and without a job offer 'up front' we had to stay put. For those of you who don't know, it's one of the first stages of applying to migrate to New Zealand under the Skilled Migrant CategorySo, around about the time I had this 'Epiphany moment', we began to look at our opt2012 we faced a major challenge. After much discussion, we had decided some months earlier to embark upon a journey to migrate to Australia, but with many obstacles in our way, it wasn't going to be easy. Our primary hurdle was my husband's imminent 50th birthday later in the year, and due to strict immigration legislation, that meant we had to secure an offer of employment for him ahead of this deadline, otherwise he was considered "too old' .. I knew that unless I took charge of the situation, nothing was going to happen for me, and I so desperately wanted it to!I So, with a fresh surge of motivation, I re-engaed with a distance learning training had always had a natural affinity with numbers had an unfulfilled dream of working within accounting and finance, and .for a new and rewarding career move into finance and accounting. Just need to find a sympathetic employer to help me realise the potential I KNOW I have!