Advice from those who were able to get hired !

Hello People !

I've been here for over a year now. Currently living in Basingstoke, a pretty slow and boring town about an hour away from London. Finding a job has been a nightmare since I've landed and although I haven't given up, I'm finding it very frustrating, wondering what I'm doing wrong and what else could be affecting it, besides the job market.

I'm a college graduate, computer science, Rutgers U. Experience include QA, Development, Tech Support (for the techs here), but also teaching and training.

Had my CV changed so many times in so many attempts to improve it and rewrite it to match different requirements and the general work attitude here, but the rejection rate is seriously bad. I'm at the point where I don't mind doing something else, like a temp job or retail, at least until I find a job. Doing something, I mean, I go crazy in the house - and if you've been to Basingstoke, you'll know what I'm talking about.

But it feels like in some cases, at least, if my resume gets read, it's immediate rejection. With all the foreigners here, with all the immigration coming from Eastern Europe, I thought there would be no attitude against Americans. That changed a few times (disregarding personal attacks) in at least 2 job interviews - one for large British company, where as soon as the interviewer realized where I was from, he responded with an "oh, I see" and rushed to finish the interview. Legal or not of course, didn't want to be working with such people anyway.

I've applied for retail jobs - one for BP (literally a shop assistant) yet got rejected the day after. And not to be angry - I would really like to see the neck tattooed professor who will get hired. It's rejection after rejection, for jobs I'm capable of doing, both tech and non tech. Sometimes it seems like the only reason is "oh he's american + (we don't like them, he's going to run away, fill in the blank)

Anyway this sounds like rant but I'm trying to be positive and any experience and good advice could help.

Oh yeah - forgot to mention - I have an EU passport, so working permit is not the problem.

Hi aircake.  Welcome to UKY!

Sorry to hear that you're struggling to find a job. It unfortunately is still a difficult time to get a job.  I don't know much about your field, but in mine it seems the bare minimum these days has somehow become a Master's degree.  Could you do any (free) online courses to develop your skills further and stay current while you're looking for work?

What might be helpful is getting in touch with various recruitment agencies that specialise in your area (IT?).  Perhaps you can secure some contract work through one.  Once you've got a bit of relevant UK work experience it will be easier to get a job in the future.

Also, to keep yourself from going nuts, maybe check meetup.com to see if there are any groups that interest you in/around Basingstoke.  Best of luck!

Hi PickledSakura:

I am in IT - I'm actually taking a course - that's the positive side of things, you get to have time and study. With the recruitment agencies, ah that's a nightmare as well. Don't know, maybe it's a Basingstoke thing. People are impatient on the phone, looking to get rid of you. I caught them red handed. Other agencies email and call occasionally, but it seems like in many cases, these are calls that only benefit one side, the caller. I'm always cooperative and I send my resume over, after I even tailor it to what they ask, and in most cases if not all, you never hear from them, even if it's just to say no.

With the temp - I have actually, but again, not much luck so far

The meetups - that's a great idea. I'll try that

Thanks !

aircake - oh no...I am moving to the basingstoke area in 4 months (husband's job transfer) and most likely will be looking for full time employment as well... I'm extremely nervous about not having a job....

@dtowngirl: Yeeehaaow, most exciting news I've heard all day !

Hi there aircake,

I'm a fellow RU grad, many moons ago.  Like you, I have an EU passport and hope someday to work in the UK.  On the support front, have you looked into the Rutgers Club of London?  Are they active?  The best advice I can give you is to treat each day as an adventure.  Continue to move forward; don't get mired in the what-ifs and self doubt.  Take a deep breath and listen to your gut.  All the best!

Yeah, this has put us round the bend too.  We have been here 10 months and no luck for either of us.  My partner is EU (but studied in the US) and at least gets called, and typically gets pretty far in the process, but there is ALWAYS a gotcha! in the interview process that you just can't predict or practice for.  Hell, I don't even get called anymore and I have a masters degree in Economics and blue chip corporate experience with a well-known British brand.

Is it really because we came from the US?  What is the problem here?  Are folks intimidated that we will show them up?  That we will leave after 5 months?  And if there is this level of pushback about something as simple as nationality, how bad is the workplace going to be?  I've even worked here before (15 years ago) and it was fine in an office, but the world has certainly changed since then.

I do take some comfort from a Scottish friend who is a Snr Business Analyst who has been unemployed since June when his contract ended and is also complaining about the recruiters and interview process etc.  Maybe it isn't the US thing, but I don't think it is helping any!

We agreed to give this until March and then head back to the US if something doesn't hit for one of us because as much as we would like to stay here, there is no point if nothing has happened after 15 months.  In the meantime I try and corral my job searching to certain hours and do it and forget it and go work on other projects after.  Its been really hard to keep the chin up and keep going, to see the jobs you could do and to keep tailoring a resume and cover letters, that I will agree on.  I like to think that should any of these people have been in the reverse situation to us, they would have at least been granted courtesy and interest in the US, and not suspicion and derision.

It's tough -- very tough.  I had similar disappointments when I first came over (long ago) and never really managed to get a professional level job.
 
On another forum, a master's level US student was asking what professional UK forums she should subscribe to in order to enhance her chances of getting a job over here.  And she has no EU connections at all.  It's so depressing.

One thought - have you made obvious on your resume/CV that you are an EU citizen/have permission to work in the UK? If not, that could be one reason for being looked over.

Is it really because we came from the US?  What is the problem here?  Are folks intimidated that we will show them up?  That we will leave after 5 months?  And if there is this level of pushback about something as simple as nationality, how bad is the workplace going to be?  I've even worked here before (15 years ago) and it was fine in an office, but the world has certainly changed since then.

Do either of you, or aircake have any recent UK work experience yet?

Often this is the main hurdle that people here on UK-Y have found they've had to overcome. It may not be the fact that you are American (or EU), but more that you don't have much experience of working in the UK yet... so the companies may well go with people who already have established work history in the UK and who will be familiar with current work practices.

One option is to try volunteer work first/while you are job hunting to build up some current UK work experience,.

You do need to be prepared for it to take a while though (months/years) and for lots of rejection. My dad was looking for work back in the early 90s after being made redundant and although he applied for hundreds of jobs, it took him about 3 years to find a job (other than a month-long Christmas temp job at a store) - he ended up being a stay-at-home dad to my little brother while my mum went out to work instead.

I do take some comfort from a Scottish friend who is a Snr Business Analyst who has been unemployed since June when his contract ended and is also complaining about the recruiters and interview process etc.  Maybe it isn't the US thing, but I don't think it is helping any!

It may have improved a little now, but between 2008 and 2010, in the middle of the recession, it took me 2 years and 3 months to find a graduate job in the UK. I'm a British citizen, born and raised in the UK, with masters degrees in physics and geophysics and I was looking for jobs in the physics/geophysics field (which is on the Tier 2 shortage list). So, it should (in theory) have been easy... yet I still couldn't find anything at all. No one wanted to hire recent graduates, and so all the jobs required either PhDs or 10 years experience in the field (I had neither).

In 2 years I had a total of only 2 job interviews... both for the same position at the same company (I reapplied for the next recruitment round when I just missed out on the job the first time), which is the job I now have (but didn't start it until 2 years after I first applied). And actually, when I applied, apparently there were over 400 applicants... and only about 20 vacancies.

I was very lucky in that my old vacation employer in retail re-hired me just before the recession hit and put me on a permanent contract while I was looking for graduate jobs - if I had only been on a temporary contract I would have been let go a few weeks later and completely unemployed for those 2 years.

I'll be honest though - because I did already have the retail job, I didn't put as much effort into the job hunt as I could have (I didn't need ANY job, I needed one in my chosen career field). Having said that, I did spend hours one night searching through over 500 science jobs online and did not find a single position I was qualified to apply for - they were all either in the  Biology field or were senior positions that required a PhD/10 years experience.

Just before I got my current job, I was on the verge of either applying for a PGCE (teacher training) to become a Physics teacher (the government would have given me a £9,000 busary just to do it) or moving to Australia for a year on a Working Holiday visa .

Yeah, my British husband and his masters degree are stuck in a horrible job because no one is really hiring. There are a couple of things that you should know about the UK process before you get too frustrated though:

1) They are legally required to advertise all vacancies, but more often than not they already know who they are going to hire. You may be perfectly qualified for a job but won't get it because the recruitment process is just a pantomime that needs to be completed before they can give the job to the person they always intended to give it to.

2) There is a pervasive "box-ticking" mentality that means they won't hire anyone who  doesn't have the exact experience or qualification they are looking for. If you don't have absolutely everything on the job specification, you probably won't get hired even if you could easily do the job.

So essentially, it's not you, it's them. And it's not because you're American, everyone falls foul of this. My husband has been to three interviews where he ticked every box for the job and got on really well with the interviewers but wasn't hired because they already had someone for the job. It's a ridiculous system.

Have you thought about joining the BSC , the Chartered Institute for IT or something similar?

I find these professional institutes are very good for careers, networking, different courses, etc.  

Also, as said above volunteering is always a good way to get some UK experience as well.  

Good luck!

2) There is a pervasive "box-ticking" mentality that means they won't hire anyone who  doesn't have the exact experience or qualification they are looking for. If you don't have absolutely everything on the job specification, you probably won't get hired even if you could easily do the job.

Ah, yes - exactly.

My company has a sifting process before they even get to the interview stage. You might be totally qualified for the job, but if, on the application form, you don't meet or address every point they are looking for, you will be automatically rejected.

I'm a meteorologist and a lot of people who apply for my job do the Meteorology masters program at either Reading or Birmingham university - it's basically the 'way in' to becoming a meteorologist. However, after I got the job and I was training, my flatmate said that all 24 people on her meteorology masters course applied for the job. They were all qualified for it, but only 2 got an interview and only she got the job... presumably because the other applicants didn't format their applications in a way that would have gotten them through the sift.

Are you looking in the City?

It took me 9 months to get a job in the UK and I only had a few interviews. It got so frustrating. I periodically took time off my job search because it just gets so annoying. I avoided the search by taking driving lessons - I figured if I wasn't going to be working I might as we'll be productive and get my UK licence (even though we live in London and don't have a car).

The first job I got was only temporary (a few weeks) but it really helped my job search. It also helped to get out there and meet new people. A lot of the people I worked with were in the same position as me (not UK/EU citizens struggling to find for their first job in the UK) and it was nice to realise I wasn't the only one having a tough time finding work.

A further month or so later I got a job, temporary again but for 6 months this time, at a company that I absolutely adore. There were 200+ applicants for the role and I was very happy to be offered the job even though it was an entry level, fixed-term contract role.

After that contract was up another manager in the company created a role for me to stay on and I've been at the company for over a year now. I know most everyone in the 80-person office and I'm asked to help on various projects/holiday cover. Even though I still don't have a permanent role, I've picked up new skills, shown I'm dependable and in some situations, I'm the one to go to with questions.

It is frustrating getting rejected and I think a lot of people on here can relate when they move to the UK, but once you get your first job in the UK, it's almost guaranteed to be a lot easier. You'll get there. It just takes time.

Are you looking to work in Basingstoke or in London?