With our international alliance nicely up and running and delivering great opportunities we are seeing an increase in candidates looking to move away from New Zealand, at least for a while. For a while there the OE was as popular as ever but depressed global economies meant it was mostly an adventure rather than adding much to the CV. Careers were put on pause as you boarded the plane. Happily the last year has seen a partial return to the good old days and we are back to the situation where your OE can also help develop your career.
Earlier this week I was talking to a partner from a national firm in Australia and he made an interesting observation about a Kiwi lawyer who had joined their team in Sydney. It was an area of law that tends to be very jurisdictionally specific, as well as being subject to the whims of whichever colour government is sitting at the time. In Australia it even varies state by state. With that in mind they had banked on needing quite a long period to navigate the learning curve, including factoring in reduced budgets and billings. However, the Kiwi in question had done significant homework before even attending the interview and much more still before she sat down at her desk on day one. It meant that she exceeded all the expectations they had of her and she was able to get involved in more meaty matters, more quickly. Far more interesting than having to go back to basics and she was able to get more out of her time overseas. She also closed the gap to her New Zealand experience quickly and got the pay rises to go with that.
At the very least you will be expected to know where the differences in law are, but if you can you go beyond that there is an opportunity to really impress and good things will flow from there.