Why Volunteering May Be an Immigrant’s Most Overlooked Career Advantage in New Zealand
Written by Lindy Lelij, Founder of Mpowerme Coaching
Lindy Lelij is the founder of Mpowerme Coaching. With more than 30 years of leadership and international experience, she helps people navigate migration, cultural transitions, and identity to thrive personally and professionally.
When people think about immigration, they often focus on the obvious milestones. Securing a visa, finding housing, enrolling children in school, understanding systems, and of course, finding employment. But there is one pathway that is often underestimated in its power to transform an immigrant’s journey in New Zealand, volunteering.
Not simply as a “nice thing to do,” but as one of the most practical, human, and strategic ways to integrate into both New Zealand society and its work culture.
Having worked for more than 12 years in volunteer management within a large health organisation, I have had the privilege of working alongside hundreds of volunteers of all ages, backgrounds, and life stages, including many migrants and immigrants trying to find their footing in a new country.
Over the years, I have seen firsthand that volunteering often becomes far more than service. For many immigrants, it becomes belonging, builds self confidence, and often creates connections and new opportunities.
Volunteering: A gentle introduction to “New Zealand Work Experience”
One of the most common frustrations immigrants face is hearing the phrase, “Do you have New Zealand work experience?” For many, this question can feel deeply discouraging.
How do you gain local experience when employers want local experience before offering you the opportunity? Volunteering can become one of the kindest and most welcoming introductions to this challenge.
Unlike formal employment, volunteering allows immigrants to experience aspects of New Zealand work culture without the same pressure of needing to perform perfectly or the fear of failing in a paid role.
It offers room to observe, contribute, ask questions, and adapt. You begin learning things that no handbook or recruitment website can truly teach:
How New Zealanders often communicate in collaborative and understated ways
How teams tend to value humility, reliability, and initiative
How workplace hierarchy can feel more informal than in many other countries
How relationship building often matters just as much as qualifications
How trust is often built through consistency rather than status
Volunteering gives people permission to learn while contributing, and that combination is powerful.
My own first lessons in New Zealand through volunteering
When I arrived in New Zealand in 2003, I was eager to work with people and contribute meaningfully. My first volunteer role came in 2004 and 2005, when I coached the coaches at a teenage youth conference here in Auckland. That experience became one of my earliest windows into New Zealand work culture.
To be honest, it was also a culture shock. I quickly noticed differences in how people managed others here compared to what I had previously known in The Netherlands. At times, I found myself unsure whether what I was observing reflected broader New Zealand workplace culture, or whether it was simply the leadership style of that specific organisation.
But what that experience did give me was something deeply valuable is awareness of myself. It showed me where I naturally worked differently. It highlighted communication habits I had brought from my previous environment. It made me realise where I felt out of my depth in what was still a ‘foreign’ country. That kind of learning is often uncomfortable, but incredibly important. Volunteering gave me that insight before entering deeper professional spaces.
Volunteering is not only for newly arrived immigrants
One misconception is that volunteering is only useful when someone first arrives. In reality, volunteering can serve immigrants at multiple stages of their journey.
1. Early arrival: Learning and settling in
When newly arrived, volunteering helps immigrants understand local communication styles, build social confidence, improve language fluency in practical settings, create friendships and local networks, develop familiarity with workplace expectations, and reduce isolation. At this stage, volunteering often says, “You belong here, even before employment begins.”
2. During career transition: Building credibility
Many immigrants are highly skilled professionals who may need time to re establish themselves. Volunteering can show employers current engagement in New Zealand society, demonstrate reliability, initiative, and adaptability, build local referees and references, fill employment gaps positively, and provide examples of leadership, teamwork, and contribution.
Showing volunteer commitments on your CV signals something important. You are actively willing to contribute to the greater good of your community and country. Then, when “New Zealand work experience” comes up during an interview, you have already laid valuable groundwork.
3. During unemployment or career gaps: Maintaining purpose
One of the most moving things I have seen in volunteer leadership is when former volunteers return while temporarily out of paid employment. Not because they “had nothing else to do.” But because volunteering gave them a sense of belonging, continued purpose, social connection, emotional wellbeing, routine, and visibility within networks.
Many found themselves surrounded by others who understood similar challenges, or who introduced them to opportunities they otherwise may never have accessed. Sometimes volunteering protects identity when employment feels uncertain.
4. Later settlement: Leadership and giving back
Once immigrants become established, volunteering can evolve again. It becomes a way to mentor, lead, advocate, and contribute from lived experience. This often strengthens both confidence and community influence.
Volunteering does not always mean joining existing systems
My own journey taught me that volunteering is not always limited to stepping into predefined shifts or structured roles. Sometimes, volunteering means creating something where a need exists.
Over time, I initiated several community led projects myself. These included:
Helping establish a Montessori primary unit within an existing school in my neighbourhood
Assisting with fundraising and renovation efforts for our tribal chapel
Co creating a Māori mock up village during the 2011 Rugby World Cup, showcasing cultural aspects of Māori life
This final project was particularly meaningful. It required me to actively seek out local Māori and Pākehā participants and bring people together around a shared vision.
That experience taught me something profound. Volunteering can also be leadership. It can require initiative, trust building, cross cultural understanding, and collaboration. These are exactly the qualities many New Zealand employers value.
What employers quietly notice
While volunteering is not a shortcut to employment, it often demonstrates qualities employers respect deeply, commitment, reliability, community mindedness, initiative, adaptability, leadership, cultural awareness, collaboration, emotional intelligence, and resilience.
In New Zealand, these human qualities often matter more than people realise. A strong CV tells employers what you have done. Volunteering often helps show who you are while doing it.
Beyond employment: What it gives you personally
In my passion and drive to work with people here in New Zealand, these experiences have proven invaluable, not only for future employers, but for me personally. Volunteering gave me far more than “experience.”
It gave me confidence in unfamiliar environments, understanding of local dynamics, community relationships, cultural insight, opportunities to contribute, growth through discomfort, and a stronger sense of identity within New Zealand. Perhaps most importantly, it shifted me from simply arriving in New Zealand to actively participating in it.
Final reflection
For immigrants, volunteering should never be seen as “free labour” or something only to do while waiting for real opportunity. Often, it is part of real opportunity.
At different points in an immigration journey, whether arriving, rebuilding, transitioning, pausing, or leading, volunteering can become one of the most practical bridges between identity, community, and work.
Because a very powerful way to build a life in a new country is not to first ask, “Where can I get hired?” but rather, “Where can I contribute?” to lay a solid foundation in your sense of belonging. In New Zealand, belonging often leads to opportunity.
Read more from Lindy Lelij
Lindy Lelij, Founder of Mpowerme Coaching
With Māori and European heritage, Lindy knows firsthand what it means to live between cultures. She spent over four decades abroad before returning “home” to Aotearoa New Zealand. Today, as founder of Mpowerme Coaching, Lindy helps people navigate migration, cultural transition, and identity. Through positive psychology, deep journaling, energetic tuning, and narrative reframing, Lindy offers clients practical tools for growth and resilience. Backed by more than 30 years of leadership, governance, and business experience across Health, governance, and international trade, she brings both professional expertise and lived wisdom to her work.
