Getting a job in England as a foreigner

Every time I go home and meet a long seen friend I always get the question:

What is it like to live and work in England? What kind of job did you get and how?

So, I believe I owe those who I gave a lousy ”Fine”, an informative, satisfying answer:)

How to get started looking for a job if it’s your first time in the UK?

It really depends on the area – small town / major city or London is also a whole different category – so I’m going to write about my own experiences in Newcastle upon Tyne (North East England, Tyne and Wear county) which is a mid-sized UK city. That’s how I started:

Sort out your accommodation in advance. You should not come without a place to live at (and hotels are pretty expensive:) ). Many of us live here already, so if you have no one to help you out you can always post a classified local ad online, or do a little research. Getting a place is not more than a matter of a couple of emails and some time invested. Blogs, forums, community sites, possible support of like-minded fellas like myself with contact numbers of landlords who own dozens of properties to let… I also recommend flat shares for the adventurous. They are inexpensive and living with other foreigners can give a good boost for your English language skills.
Without permanent address no employer is going to deal with you. That is bottom line.

After you arrived to the country start up with the followings:

1. Mobile phone number: Every employer requires it, without one you won’t be able to register, apply for anything. What I’d suggest to buy is a “pay as you go” SIM card (top up SIM card). Contract is not needed, you enter a shop, get a number usually with £5 airtime. That’s it. And you better memorize your number – you gonna write it down a few times.
2. Good to know how does a real ”job application form” look like. Filling in one is required by almost every job offer. However it is essential to have a well-written CV, the majority of the employers will torture you with a 5-6 pages long application form loaded with the weirdest questions. You will need to remember dates, previous employers, education, references, etc… Here’s a good sample application form from Primark.
3. What I also suggest for newbies: go to a recruitment agency. There are many out there. I tell you in a nutshell how do they work: You go to one of their branches, register (or get an appointment to come back register). In a few days or sometimes even on the same day they call you back or text you about available work. I worked after 3 days of my arrival in a hospital’s catering wards with nurses serving and preparing meals:).
   Here’s a list of agencies I trust and I also worked for:
   
   Bluarrow: catering, office jobs, industrial work. A genuine name among recruitment agencies, very trustworthy. I worked for over a year for them permanently and doing temp jobs in dozens of roles. I can only recommend them.
   
   Primetime: They are famous for their many Polish, Eastern European employees. Mostly providing warehouse jobs in our area, many of them paying excellent rates. I only worked for them occasionally, though. One negative thing worth mentioning: they used to have some issues with Home Office certificates and was something wrong with tax handling at the branch so it really undermined their reputation and trust. However it was just one office out of the many nationwide.
   
   Pertemps: Excellent company, I am currently working with them right now. Last time I worked at a Lawyers’ Seminar as a host, giving out flyers, badges, etc. It was a 1 day job but I had worked at a printing house, at supermarkets through them. They select candidates for many kind of positions from catering to clerical (office) work. Well recommended by me.
   
   Randstad: Decent agency. I had a call center job offer from them but unfortunately I failed at the 2nd level interview. In spite of that, I still recommend it. They were helpful, responsive with good credits. They offer lots of driver jobs and often have sales and call center vacancies available in the UK.
   
4. Another option if you didn’t want to go to recruitment agencies: Jobcentre / Jobcentre Plus. Well, the English job-seekers scheme is not that disappointing like the Hungarian. Modern, works well, and very organized in my opinion. You walk in, you whether ask someone in charge about how to get started or just walk up to a free to use computer station and do a jobsearch, print the information out or even call the employers also without any charge.
5. When you through all that it is time to open a bank account because 99% of the employers will only pay via your bank account. Sometimes they give you a salary cheque. But cashing that will cost you extra because moneyshops will always take commission. To get a bank account you need a proof of address. It can be an utility bill or a signed/stamped/company headed letter from your employer. You will need your passport/national ID too (some of the banks do not like the last one, they prefer passports so you better have that).
6. Tax ID and National Insurance application is next but that’s a larger topic so I might write about that in a future post.

One more TOP tip: As soon as you arrived and settled in PUT an online ad to one of the FREE classifieds website that you are looking for a job in a given field. Vivastreet or gumtree are good places. You never know – someone might just looking for exactly what you have to offer. Actually, you can do this from abroad too. Mention your language skills! That might be something unique, especially if you are coming from a small country (like me).

I hope you received some useful information here. I am looking forward to any constructive comment, reply or just add anything, if I missed something. I’d be expecting comments from visitors who have UK experience. Any questions from job seekers, people who planning the next step abroad also welcome. Basically anyone who is interested in UK jobs and coming to the United Kingdom from abroad.

The purpose of this post is to complement the regarding information already available online in this topic. To make those hard first steps easier. They were rough for some of us. Rough… I could tell you though stories, sometimes UK life was like an “Off-Road Challenge”. :)