# Jobs in UK



## HannahH (Mar 30, 2011)

What is the job situation looking like for foreigners in the UK. My husband and are are planning on coming to the UK in about 6 months, he is Vietnamese and i am English.....


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

HannahH said:


> What is the job situation looking like for foreigners in the UK. My husband and are are planning on coming to the UK in about 6 months, he is Vietnamese and i am English.....


Unemployment, government spending cuts, austerity measures.........


Jo xxx


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## laurensciacca (Mar 16, 2011)

*How to apply for jobs in advance?*

I'm curious about the job market as well.
Im an australian moving to the uk in August and have been told by my visa consultant i need to line up interviews and show communication with potential employers.

But i dont know how to go about doing that when im not going to actually be in the country until August. Im not a professional but i have had 8 years experience in customer service/call centres/power companies/photography store/hardware store etc.

Are there any good 'Looking for work' Type websites

Has anyone else been in the same situation?


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

laurensciacca said:


> I'm curious about the job market as well.
> Im an australian moving to the uk in August and have been told by my visa consultant i need to line up interviews and show communication with potential employers.
> 
> But i dont know how to go about doing that when im not going to actually be in the country until August. Im not a professional but i have had 8 years experience in customer service/call centres/power companies/photography store/hardware store etc.
> ...


There are job agencies in the UK, mostly they're either local to the area in which you're looking or job specific, so its difficult to advise. I think this one may help?????????? Find Jobs. Build a Better Career. Find Your Calling. | Monster.co.uk

Jo xxx


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Monster and Stepstone are the two big job sites for the UK and Europe. Only problem is that many, if not most, of the jobs posted there are listed as being for those who already have work authorization (work permits) and generally if you will need a work sponsor, they'll ignore anything you send them.

If you are going to have a work permit (say, due to being on a spouse visa) then be very sure you include that on your CV. You should also mention - at least in the cover letter/e-mail - when you will be arriving in the UK and thus can make yourself available for interviews. (No one is going to hire someone sight unseen these days.) For your visa application, it can really help if you have even one response from an employer saying "give us a call after you arrive."
Cheers,
Bev


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## brentdaaron (Apr 6, 2011)

Do you know online jobs site ? thanks. like for me working only at home.


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## GillianF (Mar 7, 2010)

Hi 

Bev is absolutely right, you will need to indicate your work permit status on your CV or you won’t even be considered for an interview. And although most employers will not consider candidates from abroad there is a lot of useful preparation you can do while still in your home country that can speed up your job hunt when you arrive. The average job search takes 3 – 6 months, so it makes sense to do anything you can to cut that time down, especially as the UK is an expensive place to be if you are not working:

1. Research what sort of jobs are available online. As well as looking at the main job boards mentioned above (also try simplyhired.co.uk as it aggregates vacancies from a lot of other places), look for ones that may specialise in your field of work - Google ‘job board’ or ‘job site’ followed by the type of work you are looking for, e.g., job site call centre.
2. Research the requirements of UK employers – they may require references, or proof of previous experience and education that you will need to get while in your home country.
3. If you find an employer you are particularly interested in working for you can do a lot of research on them while still in your home country. 
4. Get your CV into a format that is suitable for the UK as cv/resume formats vary from country to country. There are a lot of books and online sites giving information on this.
5. It may also be worth setting up what is called an ‘informational interview’, i.e., an informal conversation with a potential employer or a recruitment consultant. Expect these to be brief, but they can really help to give you some insight into how marketable your skills are and where you should look when you arrive. 

Hannah – the job situation depends mostly on visa status and the persons qualifications/experience in whatever field they work in.

Kind regards
Gillian


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## peppera-ann- (Feb 4, 2008)

I have been in the UK for a year come May-
My husband is a British born citizen- I luckily got a job with in a month of coming to the UK- however, my husband (this is his home) is still unemployed and has been since I have been here.
I am on a contract temp basis that was renewed untill December 31st....have been looking and looking. There are (we are in the North East of England) loads of jobs for cleaners, sandwich makers and if you have a drivers lic.- courier jobs. The job market is not strong, and most people dont see it getting any stronger. The fees for university are no longer going to be capped at a low rate, so that means even more young adults in the job search- 

There are as in any country (bad economy) people with degrees working at fast food places and cleaning up litter. Hopefully you and your partner have one of the skills that are desirable! I thought that as a General Manager of a hotel would have no problems getting employment, boy was I wrong...But again that may just be up North! Good Luck in your search!


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## joantovar (Jul 29, 2010)

Best thing to do is to get any job you can possible get and till you get settle with things like NI number proof of address phone etc.


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## All good (Feb 27, 2010)

*...*

Well I have been looking at jobs in London for about 2 months now, and personally I don't see much of a shortage. 

Even when I do internal searches just through my company there are about 12 jobs a week opening up in Britain.

I see lots of work in London, but then again, when I am searching normal job sites, I am looking at very generic jobs like sales. 

Wages seem okay, a little low compared to Australia but then again Australia is very expensive to live.

So what I have seen from an outsiders view, there are jobs there, you just may need to take "anything" that pays reasonably well to get in, then worry about your career later.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

All good said:


> Well I have been looking at jobs in London for about 2 months now, and personally I don't see much of a shortage.
> 
> Even when I do internal searches just through my company there are about 12 jobs a week opening up in Britain.
> 
> ...


Yes, there are jobs but how many apply? It's now common to find dozens, even hundreds of people applying for each vacancy. London certainly has more jobs but so is competition.
Generally, it's very tough to land any job in UK.


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## Danica30 (Jan 11, 2011)

I have been here less than a month, the jobs are there no doubt, but so far I have seen a trend on the things working against me...

- I have 4 degrees including a PhD and 3 years postdoctoral experience, recruiters wont even look at my CV because i don't "industry experience"

- even if the job will take into consideration my postdoc, they wont look at me because its not "UK experience"

At this point there is nothing I can do to get around those 2, so I will just keep checking and still have hope to get something eventually. I want to go into industry but point #1 will work against me, which leaves me with mostly academic positions, which i don't mind but if I had the choice I wouldn't take up...


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## ClaytonP (Apr 15, 2011)

If you need to line up a job before moving to the UK I definitely recommend joining Workgateways. The whole purpose of their company is to help people immigrate to the UK and get jobs lined up. They arrange signing up with agencies and getting your CV fixed up, etc.


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## Danica30 (Jan 11, 2011)

and also if you do apply for any jobs online through recruiting agencies, make sure to follow up the application with a phone call to the recruiter whose name appears on the page. I discovered that the recruiters cant be bother to check all the CVs submitted, one recruiter sent me a letter saying i was not qualified for the job, i called him just to get clarification and he told me to email him the said CV so he could tell me why he didn't accept it...in other words he had no idea who I was or what my CV said but had email me telling me i wasn't qualified for the said job.


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## Tif (Apr 28, 2011)

HannahH said:


> What is the job situation looking like for foreigners in the UK. My husband and are are planning on coming to the UK in about 6 months, he is Vietnamese and i am English.....



UK job Market is good..


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

Tif said:


> UK job Market is good..



The UK job market is not good. There is high unemployment and lots of redundancies going on

Jo xxx


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## Danica30 (Jan 11, 2011)

just wanted to say i got my first job, through a recruiting agency. Went for the interview and got job offer the next day and I start i 2 wks. So not all hope is lost for those that are job hunting.


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## kingrulzuk (Jan 19, 2010)

IM SORRY TO SAY THIS BUT THERE ARE NO MUCH JOBS IN SCOTLAND AS THERE WARE B4

but site will help to find jobs in local Find a job now : Directgov - Employment

HOPE IT HELPS


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## ClaytonP (Apr 15, 2011)

If you go with a recruitment agency, you can line up a job from your home country. It might cost you some money, but will provide some sense of security so you don't end up going there and ending up unemployed.


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## Johnfromoz (Oct 20, 2010)

Danica30 said:


> - even if the job will take into consideration my postdoc, they wont look at me because its not "UK experience"
> 
> At this point there is nothing I can do to get around those 2, so I will just keep checking and still have hope to get something eventually.



Firstly, let me congratulate you on getting a job, as you mentioned in your other post.

Secondly, there are always ways around the lack of UK job experience. The easiest is to start a company in friend's or relative's name and get yourself "employed" by them. This way it is even possible to get an employment history which goes back several years, providing that you buy an existing company. Another is just to ask a friend to "employ" you on a de jure basis which means that if someone calls then all s/he has to do is to confirm that you work for his company.


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## jamiehudson (May 16, 2011)

The main point here is that jobs are more scarce in the smaller, coastal towns - I live in Brighton for example. I have to travel to London for my job and, in retrospect, wouldn't have moved out here if I had known. The jobs in Brighton are mainly in retail and there aren't as many jobs as people! 

In my experience, the quickest agencies to get me work are Reed and Office Angels. I've had no problems with them. 

If you are moving from abroad, head straight for London - perhaps outer London as that will keep the rent down! Sign up with an agency immediately and state clearly that you have a work permit to work in the UK.

As regards Australia - I went recently and yes, the prices were much higher, but the wages were much higher (the result of Keynsian investment on the part of the government - the opposite of the UK's austere measures..). I was having a hard time buying a drink in Adelaide, but my Australian friends and family were living the high life. 

if you come to England expect a fairly hard grind, but once you're used to it you can find ways to budget and to achieve working stability.


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## Weebie (Sep 16, 2009)

Britain is getting better there is no doubt about that. Still will take maybe 2-3 years still to really get going.

Realistically the downturn has now been going for nearly 4 years now.


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## jamiehudson (May 16, 2011)

*Hidden Recession*

I must say it's an odd recession - I work in IT and in 2000 I had a terrible time getting work. It almost seems to have not affected me this time round. I do have one friend who lost his house two years ago and another acquaintance who is an art therapist is struggling to find work so obviously what we're seeing is a shrinking of sectors that are considered 'non-essential'. 

When the dot com bubble burst I was really terrified for my prospects, but it seems this time round that, as people figure out how to make and market their own sites, that the web has become the cheapest way to do business, so it's kind of recession proof really. 

If the budget was anything to go by, the squeeze is on for another 2-3 years at least. It's a repeat of the first time Thatcher got in after a Labour economic disaster - Conservatives just ruthlessly cut funding for the arts, education and health.


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