Finding a job in the UK.

Finding a job in the UK can be tricky, especially if you don’t already speak English. I have been looking for a job several times while leaving in the UK The first two jobs I had were great to start and to improve my English and the two last ones were more accurate to my field.

So first, where to find a job: there are different methods. If you don’t speak the language well and need to start somewhere, you can start looking for hospitality jobs. Either by printing your CV and go to every restaurant, café, hotel nearby. This can sound old-school but it works well in this field as the turnover is high. This industry is always looking for someone and if you give your CV to the right person and give them a good impression, no doubt you will hear from them. I met a lot of people who found their first job like this.

Another great way to find a job in hospitality is through an agency. We would call it interim in France. It’s a place where you go, give your CV and availabilities and from there they will call you back to do shifts with their clients. In the beginning, you need to prove that you are reliable especially if you don’t have a lot of experience. But once you get started, you can have a lot of hours and it’s pretty flexible. I did it for about 4 months with a company in Bristol called Blue Arrow. I recommend them; they were very professional and nice. There is the link they also are in different cities in the UK: https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/

The last place to go for hospitality and also for any kind of job is online. You will find job adverts on websites such as gumtree. Be careful there as there are a lot of scams. But it is good for starting jobs as it’s a cheap way to advertise for companies. I found the door to a door sales job in there and there are plenty of them. If you want to give it a go it’s never clear on the job offer. They often advertise as a sales and marketing agency with entry-level opportunities. They contact you really fast and you get interview opportunities for the next day.

To be honest, I had no idea what the job was until I end up in front of a door on my first day. I quite couldn’t believe it but then I decided to give a try. The positive aspect was my level in English, I made such huge progress in the first weeks. I also met a lot of people my age from different countries and I had some fun times.

On the other hand, what you need to know before is that you probably won’t make money or at least not enough to pay your bills. The hours are not ideal, it’s often from 10 am to 10 pm depending on where you go for the day. And the job itself is strange, but some people are friendly I have been invited to people places sometimes for a drink or a coffee. So, I would recommend the experience but be aware of this.

Other online ways to find a job are if you have a company in mind, directly through there website.

• LinkedIn is one of the best places to find a job, I used it a lot you will need to build your profile first. https://www.linkedin.com/
• Indeed also is great, this two are my favorites. https://www.indeed.com/
• In the UK, you can use Totaljobs https://www.totaljobs.com/or CV library https://www.cv-library.co.uk/, I used them less so won’t be able to say much about them.
• Then something else worth doing is researching directly recruitment agency in your field. It’s only starting in France but in the UK and the US, this is kind of the place to look for a job. Lots of companies are not dealing with job searches internally anymore. What’s good about it is that they will be promoting you to the company and tell you everything you need to know before the interview. Meaning You are ready and the company already has a good image of you. I got my last job through https://www.signaturerecruitment.co.uk/ and they were extremely professional, I would recommend. A lot of my friends found jobs through this type of agency. Not only in Bristol but also in London as it is very popular in the country.

The last way to find a job would be through your network. You probably won’t have one when you get there but with the time you will connect with people. You never know, somebody might be at the right place at the right time and could tell you about a future or current opportunity in their workplace. In my article https://elvinechloe.com/meeting-new-people-abroad/, I give some insight on where to meet new people.

I also wanted to mention one of the most important parts of your job research which is your CV. It is your vitrine when you apply for a job. Make sure that you spend enough time working on it. I am not an expert and there are plenty of websites that give you the rules for each country. I won’t talk more about it but just wanted to remind you to spend the time needed on this part.