Built to help people
love their work.
A young sapling bent early never grows straight — it never reaches the potential written into it. Career paths found through trial and chance carry the same cost. workin exists to help people find the right direction early, grow toward it with purpose, and arrive at work they genuinely love.
A pathway for everyone.
workin is not a job board. It's not a recruitment agency. It's a career matching platform built on real industry research — one that gets smarter with every person who uses it.
The goal is a New Zealand where fewer people drift into the wrong career, more people find work built for the way they think, and critical industries have the workforce they need to keep the country running.
Because everyone deserves work they love.
You can't choose a career you've never seen.
The more time I spent working with New Zealand's essential industries, the more obvious the problem became. Industries continue to face critical workforce shortages, while many young people remain unaware of the opportunities right in front of them. The gap isn't a lack of jobs or a lack of talent. It's a lack of connection between the two.
Too often, career choices are shaped by chance. If you don't know someone in an industry, you may never discover it exists.
workin was created to change that. By combining career exploration, real industry insights and science-based matching, workin helps people discover pathways that fit who they are — and connect with industries that need their skills.
I believe that when people can see what work is really like, they make better career decisions. Sometimes the right career isn't out of reach — it's simply out of sight.
Simon Holbrook
Founder · workin.
Connect on LinkedIn ↗
New Zealand's workforce is facing a perfect storm.
Demand for skilled people across NZ's critical industries far outstrips supply — while the traditional tools for attracting people to these careers are failing.
Only 6% of young people enter trades, compared to 55% entering higher education. Vocational and critical-industry careers are not being marketed to the people most suited to them.
In 2025, 30,000 Kiwis aged 18–30 left New Zealand — 40% of all Kiwis departing. This is hollowing out critical-industry pipelines at exactly the moment they need to grow.
New Zealand's annual churn rate is 30.4%. Dissatisfied workers, career missteps and poor matching strip productivity from the economy every year. Stickier careers start with better matching.
The prime working-age population (15–64) will reduce by 6% by 2031. Industries with already-thin pipelines face a compounding crisis without proactive workforce development starting now.
Ready to find where you fit?
Take the workin Career Match — free, three minutes, and built on real NZ industry research. Find out which of NZ's critical industries is built for the way you think and work.
Start Career Match