First job out of study

Where entry-level and graduate jobs are listed

Entry-level roles are advertised in the same places as everything else: Seek, LinkedIn, ZEIL and company careers pages. Search for "graduate", "junior", "trainee" and "entry level" as well as job titles, because first roles often have titles you have not come across yet.

For government work, Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission lists public service graduate programmes and internships, and most public service agencies can advertise on jobs.govt.nz, where a RealMe login lets you set up job alerts. The graduate programmes on that list run from one to three years and several internships are marked as paused, so check each agency's page for dates. The public-sector guide explains how those applications work.

A CV when you have little experience

Employers hiring for a first job know you have not had one yet. What you can show is that you turn up, learn quickly and work well with people, and the evidence for that is usually already in your life.

• Lead with your education: the qualification, where, when you finished or expect to, and relevant projects or NCEA endorsements.
• Count real work of every kind: part-time and holiday jobs, volunteering, coaching, club or student association roles, caring for whānau. Say what you did and what changed because of it.
• Put projects where experience would go: a group assignment with a real client, a portfolio or a code repository.
• Keep it to two pages if you can (two to three is normal in New Zealand), with no photo and no date of birth. The CV guide has the other New Zealand conventions, and the free CV Builder saves a PDF with no account needed.

A manager from a part-time job, a lecturer, a coach or a volunteer coordinator can all be referees. Ask them first, and use the references guide to brief them.

Internships, work trials and unpaid work

Employment New Zealand is clear about the difference. A paid internship should pay at least the relevant minimum wage, with all the usual employment rights. On an unpaid internship you are a volunteer, and employment law does not apply apart from health and safety law. That only holds if it is genuinely voluntary: the employer should confirm in writing that it is a volunteer position, should not gain an economic benefit from your work or have you doing tasks integral to the business, and should limit how long it lasts and how many hours you do. The longer you volunteer and the more hours you put in, the more likely it is that you are legally an employee.

A work trial during an interview follows the same logic. Employment New Zealand's example is that asking a barista to make two or three coffees is acceptable, but a whole shift, or even a few hours, would likely be employment, and employment has to be paid.

The minimum wage when you are starting out

From 1 April 2026 the adult minimum wage is $23.95 an hour, and the starting-out and training minimum wages are both $19.16 an hour. The starting-out rate can only be paid if you are:

• 16 or 17, and have not yet worked for your current employer for 6 continuous months
• 18 or 19, have been paid a specified benefit continuously for 6 months or more, and have not worked for one employer for 6 continuous months since the benefit started
• 16 to 19, and doing industry training worth at least 40 credits a year

The training rate is for people 20 or over doing at least 60 credits a year of formal industry training, such as an apprenticeship. Otherwise, from 20 the adult rate applies from your first hour. There is no minimum wage for employees under 16, and under-16s must work outside school hours and not between 10 at night and 6 in the morning.

Tax codes and your student loan

Fill in your tax code declaration (IR330) on day one. Without it, your employer must deduct tax at the non-notified rate of 45%. For your main job the code is usually:

• M, the standard code for your main income, or
• ME, if you are a New Zealand tax resident with annual net income between $24,000 and $70,000, and neither you nor your partner receives Working for Families (and you do not receive a main benefit or NZ Super). It gives you the independent earner tax credit through your pay.

Add SL (M SL or ME SL) if you have a New Zealand student loan. A second job uses a secondary code (SB, S, SH, ST or SA, depending on your annual income), again with SL if you have a loan. The IR330's flowcharts help, and Inland Revenue says choosing the right code helps you avoid a bill at the end of the tax year.

Student loan repayments start once you earn over Inland Revenue's repayment threshold of $24,128 a year, which from 1 April 2026 is $464 a week or $928 a fortnight. In your main job, 12% of every dollar over the threshold goes to your loan; in a secondary job, 12% of every dollar does. If you are studying full-time and expect your income from all sources to stay under the annual threshold, you may qualify for a repayment deduction exemption.

KiwiSaver on your first job

If you are aged 18 to 65, eligible and not already a member, your employer must automatically enrol you in KiwiSaver when you start a new job. From 1 April 2026 the default is 3.5% of your pay from you, matched by 3.5% from your employer, rising to 4% each from 1 April 2028. You can choose 3.5%, 4%, 6%, 8% or 10%.

• Opting out: if you were automatically enrolled, you can opt out from day 14 to day 56 of starting work, and you have to do it again at every new job.
• Aged 16 or 17: if you are a member, you qualify for employer contributions of 3.5% of your pay from 1 April 2026.
• The government contribution: from age 16, the government adds 25 cents for each dollar you contribute between 1 July and 30 June, up to $260.72, which takes $1,042.86 of your own money. You do not qualify if your taxable income is over $180,000.

Your first week: the paperwork

• A written employment agreement. Every employee must have one. Your employer should give you a copy and time to read it and get advice before you start work. A 90-day trial period is not valid unless you sign the agreement before you start.
• An IRD number. If you do not have one, apply free through myIR, then take your original ID to an AA Driver Licensing Agent within 20 days. Online applications get the number within 10 working days, and you keep it for life.
• A bank account in your own name. An employer needs your account number, never your banking password. The job scams guide covers the other warning signs.
• A check of your first pay against your agreement: the hourly rate, hours paid, tax code, and KiwiSaver and student loan deductions.