Job searching

Do try and look after your physical and mental health - hydrate, a fast-paced walk everyday, decent diet.

Too, I think as an immigrant you are in a vulnerable position as far as emotional stress/abuse is concerned....and I don't mean this like anyone's spouse is an evil bastard....just that it is easy for the native spouse to not fully grasp the challenges. So, "Hi hun, I'm home...any luck with the job search?" as well-meaning as it may be, can make the vulnerable immigrant feel a bit of a failure.

"You know, hun, my cousin Gemma applied for two openings and got offered both.." can be meant helpfully, but can be tough on someone who just got back a rejection letter.

"You know, maybe you should just drop back and take anything to get in the door," sounds prudent, and can be, it may even be a necessity -  but one has to remember that entry level jobs are often the most hard fought for, with the highest volume of applicants....and often these positions nullify experiential/educational advantages.

I will agree with the posters above that keeping a positive attitude is important, but just look after the physical and mental basics during this time of huge adjustment.

Thanks!!!  My husband was a transplant to the town we are in now and came here with no friends or job. He thinks he gets my situation but I don't think he does truly. And your right some days I do feel like a failure. But after all this advice here I am feeling better.

I have two years management experience at Starbucks and my local store is hiring so I think I'm going to go apply. The hardest thing is my husband knows how much I want a {decent} job, and sitting in the house isn't my thing. Back in America if I wasn't working at Starbucks , I was at my other part-time job that I actually loved, or partaking in a few young professional boards. I just don't do idle well. So he's not wanting me to give up on finding a good job.  Which is great, I love his attitude but I feel like I will be a failure (which is all in my head, he's the most supportive man I could have so I know he wouldn't look at me that way).

I have a few appointments set up for recruiters this week and next. And, I passed through two exams for a position at Santanders.. So maybe that will bring something!

And to clarify, I don't want people to think I'm a snob who doesn't want an entry level job. I will take anything, and working directly with people is one of my favourite things. My fear is that I'll settle a bit like I did in America because it became comfortable. I couldn't find a job in my field so I took a retail management job, hated it but because I knew I was eventually moving never looked for more.  Which comes back to me, I know. I just want to push myself more here.

I'm going through this now. I haven't really signed up for an agency yet, because I was also trying to reinvent myself and do something new but this kind of resulted in me getting pushed towards marketing and sales, which I'm not sure I'm into. So, I'm kind of falling back on my old industry (higher education administration) and applying to jobs within that sector. It's only been a few weeks, but I told myself I'll try to go for agency work if I can't even get anyone to call me in for an interview and see if they can help. I've retooled my CV what feels like a bunch of times in hopes of making it more attractive and readable and less clunky.

Do most companies tend to ignore you entirely if they're not interested? Or do they at least tell you they're not interested?

My family here also seems to think I won't have any troubles getting a job, but clearly, this is not entirely true...

Do most companies tend to ignore you entirely if they're not interested? Or do they at least tell you they're not interested?

My family here also seems to think I won't have any troubles getting a job, but clearly, this is not entirely true...

Hey,
It really depends on the company. If they know they're going to get a lot of interest many of them put a disclaimer saying if you aren't contacted within
X days you have not been successful. The only company I applied for that sent 'thanks for applying but we're not interested' emails was Molson Coors.

Something that really helps when applying is make sure your cover letter and CV hits on all the key points in the job description, this is important because US qualifications aren't necessarily the same as UK qualifications. You'll want to research and see what the equivalent UK qualifications are to your US ones and that may need some explanation. (Sorry if you are already doing this.)

Yeah I've seen the 'if you haven't heard from us in X-days, sorry' which is totally fine for me. I've gotten two emails that said, 'no thanks' basically, and I'm trying to figure out how to really make sure my cover letter and CV are hitting all the points. I modify it for each job I apply for, but I think I am struggling somewhat because my entire background is in higher education administrative/clerical work (somewhat fairly specialized, at that) and it seems trying to switch out of it is kind of... unlikely or difficult.

I may just go for an agency to help get started and get placed somewhere to even have a starting point, but I had really hoped to find something else.

By qualification equivalency, do you mean like my degrees and stuff? I did have my degrees assessed by UK NARIC and they deemed it equivalent to UK standard.... :/

By agency, do you mean a recruitment office?  They are essentially headhunters.  I find them the most effective way to get a job here.

Sometimes you have to get creative when you are applying outside your usual field. You need to think of how some tasks/projects you have done in previous positions could be applicable to the one you are applying for specifically ones that are examples of what they want. Not making anything up, but thinking outside the box.

Yeah, degrees and other qualifications like NVQs, etc. You may want to include an explanation on how your degree is the same as XYZ and you were told this by UK NARIC.

I'm going through this now. I haven't really signed up for an agency yet, because I was also trying to reinvent myself and do something new but this kind of resulted in me getting pushed towards marketing and sales, which I'm not sure I'm into. So, I'm kind of falling back on my old industry (higher education administration) and applying to jobs within that sector. It's only been a few weeks, but I told myself I'll try to go for agency work if I can't even get anyone to call me in for an interview and see if they can help. I've retooled my CV what feels like a bunch of times in hopes of making it more attractive and readable and less clunky.

Do most companies tend to ignore you entirely if they're not interested? Or do they at least tell you they're not interested?

My family here also seems to think I won't have any troubles getting a job, but clearly, this is not entirely true...

In my experience they just told me not interested. However I did accept a position Friday. Started Monday. So that has been very nice!


But that being said.. I also took a position lower than what I wanted in pay. In hopes of getting in bworking well and either getting a promotion in due time or taking this new experience elsewhere.

For degree and grade equivalents, I just googled and put them in parenthesis on my CV next to each qualification/grade. My employers were fine with it. For instance, for my magma cum laude in law school, I just googled around and said it was approximately equivalent to a first in the UK uni system.

I think you'll get more responses once you get some UK experience in any job. I did a brief work experience before I started my masters and worked retail part time while I was getting my masters and found work pretty quickly (less than a month) after I started looking in earnest in my field. I think it was definitely comforting to potential employers to see some UK work on my CV, even if it was totally irrelevant to the position I was applying for.


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It took me AGES to find a job - a good 10 months, as it did my partner.  He got his job via a recruiter who saw his CV on some site or another and he was hired on the spot at his interview (actually, he got two offers all of a sudden after months of interviewing and not getting this or that) for a smaller tech-related company.  The pay was a bit low, but the company is growing and a year and a half later he loves his job, is very good at it, and now has other recruiters calling him weekly for other jobs at double what he was making.  His salary was adjusted once after the first three months and again for this year.

I found a FTC maternity cover role on LinkedIn and went through the process quite quickly, but for a big behemoth FTSE level company.  I've been there almost a year and a half, on the same contract, but will be departing (potentially) in July (who knows with that place).  I am in an extremely competitive field and while my pay is very good and I got all the goodies that go with the FT role, my initial search and reaching out to specific recruiters (with recommendations even!) for a new role has been frustrating to say the least.  I didnt go to this school or that school or work for this consultancy or that etc.  I have two well known brands on my resume but apparently that isn't enough when a recruiter can find an exact fit for the client from the pools of thousands.

All I can say is that 1) its a tick box culture here and 2) keep plugging away.  When it got to be too much for us we left town for a little bit. If that isnt possible then find another way to disconnect completely from the search - maybe a short day trip or an interesting walk or something nearby.  If you want to take a part time job for the pocket cash and social aspect, there is nothing wrong with that, if you promise yourself that is all it is for.  It can be very easy to let days slip past when the job search puts you in a funk, with nothing else to look forward to fill your time.  Action tends to beget action and results!

Omg I feel like it's been ages since I've been plugged back into this forum. Sorry for checking out for a while. Since I last posted, it's kind of been a bizarre whirlwind!

Even though I didn't have a great start, with no responses to my several applications--even with personalized cover letters and all!--I started to go after other positions that were in what I considered a dream field jump (in the games industry). I managed to get invited to interview for two different positions, and ended up being offered a position at a really cool studio! I've been there for 5 weeks now, on a 6 month contract, but hoping they will choose to extend.

I'm not totally sure how this contract stuff really works or anything (because I think it's something like you get higher pay but no benefits?), so if anyone has insights on that stuff, would be good to learn it!

Thanks again for being an amazing community!


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Omg I feel like it's been ages since I've been plugged back into this forum. Sorry for checking out for a while. Since I last posted, it's kind of been a bizarre whirlwind!

Even though I didn't have a great start, with no responses to my several applications--even with personalized cover letters and all!--I started to go after other positions that were in what I considered a dream field jump (in the games industry). I managed to get invited to interview for two different positions, and ended up being offered a position at a really cool studio! I've been there for 5 weeks now, on a 6 month contract, but hoping they will choose to extend.

I'm not totally sure how this contract stuff really works or anything (because I think it's something like you get higher pay but no benefits?), so if anyone has insights on that stuff, would be good to learn it!

Thanks again for being an amazing community!

Woohoo! Congrats girlwithapuck!

Woohoo! Congrats girlwithapuck!

Thank you! I'm really pleased. It couldn't have worked out better, to tell you the truth. I got damn lucky. The job offer came about 10 weeks after being in the UK *and* to put icing on the cake, it was the same company that hired DH, so.......we work together, which is funny but cool!

Omg I feel like it's been ages since I've been plugged back into this forum. Sorry for checking out for a while. Since I last posted, it's kind of been a bizarre whirlwind!

Even though I didn't have a great start, with no responses to my several applications--even with personalized cover letters and all!--I started to go after other positions that were in what I considered a dream field jump (in the games industry). I managed to get invited to interview for two different positions, and ended up being offered a position at a really cool studio! I've been there for 5 weeks now, on a 6 month contract, but hoping they will choose to extend.

I'm not totally sure how this contract stuff really works or anything (because I think it's something like you get higher pay but no benefits?), so if anyone has insights on that stuff, would be good to learn it!

Thanks again for being an amazing community!


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Great you found a job! 

Beware,  there's lots of ways you can do contracting wrong, so you need to pay attention.

There's a great forum at contractoruk, I'd start there.

Great you found a job! 

Beware,  there's lots of ways you can do contracting wrong, so you need to pay attention.

There's a great forum at contractoruk, I'd start there.

Thanks! Ack! What do you mean I can do it wrong? :/ hahah, oh man, I'm still trying to figure out what it all means. All I know is I'm on a 6 month contract and it seems no one is claiming me as their employee (based on reading the contract and all its confusing language)... I'll see what I can find on that site. Thank you!

That's most likely because you are the employer! 

Talk to a an accountant sooner rather than later.