Building a business and a life

Hi I'm Ying living now in Auckland New Zealand and I originally from Thailand.

I first thought about living in New Zealand when I would like to continue my post grad study to do my Master degree. I was looking for a course that combined business and engineering skills because I’m, I'm from an engineering background.

After doing lots of research courses at university I found that the Master of engineering management at the Auckland University, that was the course that I'm looking for, and one fact is I'm gay and New Zealand is a good place you can, like they offer the same sex marriage, they offer every like opportunity for you and your partner, as - even you are gay or not (laugh)

So I decide to come here in 2010.

At that time international student wasn't allowed to join the course as I needed to find a host company to work a project with, and I still needed to pass IELTS because I was an international student. So it's quite hard for me to take IELTS to get the criteria that they wanted, so you know I took four times and I got the last time just before the Uni start, like probably two weeks, and I was lucky to meet with a company named Koves Plastics in Onehunga, and then I got a place to secure in the Auckland University.

During my Masters study I got an opportunity to meet with new friends, classmate and build my networks. After I graduate I got a year open work visa which I could apply a job.

Finally I got a job as a process improvement engineer, so it was a skilled migrant so I can apply for residency. My partner Saro she also came in 2012 so I include her in my application, and after that we both got residency which has made our life much better.

We also started our business together last year - so we started Sheepy Chill, so when my spare time I'm mostly looking about business and how to make things better, and she looks after all design, and sometimes when we have time we go to a craft market to sell our product.

So I think I made a right choice to choose New Zealand, and we pretty much enjoy what we are doing and having what New Zealand to offer now, and in the fact that they also support my partner which has made my life much complete to be here.