Working in the UK : Finding a job

Working in the UK after your studies can provide many benefits to your future career, enabling you to gain overseas experience, skills and cultural knowledge that will help you stand out in the global employment market.

The UK graduate job market has many opportunities, but is also very competitive. As an international student you will need to participate in a range of activities in order to increase your attractiveness to employers. UK organisations value:

• work experience, which could include part-time work, voluntary work, summer placements, one-year industrial placements or internships;
• involvement in extracurricular activities such as student societies on campus, sporting clubs and student union committee work;
• active participation in academic activities, e.g. leading a group project or being a student representative for your course.

There are two primary routes for gaining graduate employment in the UK, which are graduate schemes or direct entry into a job after graduation.

Graduate schemes

A graduate scheme is offered by large organisations as the entry route for new graduates. These organisations can be private companies, public sector organisations or charities. Many employers will accept graduates from any degree discipline onto their schemes with the emphasis being more on grades, competencies and experience. However, some career areas may require a specific degree specialisation, e.g. engineering.

On entry to a graduate scheme, you will be an employee of the company and will receive the appropriate salary and benefits for the role. Schemes usually last two or three years, during which time graduates undertake a mixture of training and work in their field. This may include:

• placements in different departments within the company;
• studying for professional qualifications;
• career support through a mentor, buddy or manager.

There are many more graduates than graduate training scheme positions so competition is intense.

There may be some professions which have a specific training route, for example, law, teaching and accountancy. Even if you have qualifications that entitle you to practise in these fields in your home country, you will need to ensure your qualifications are transferable for work in the UK.

Direct entry

Upon graduation, you may be able to apply for a position that does not form part of a graduate scheme. This is known as direct entry and may occur because the:

• employer is a small company;
• role requires specialist skills;
• position arises outside of the main graduate recruitment cycle;
• company requires an experienced professional.

Direct entry roles can occur at any time of year; however, employers would expect you to start straight after the recruitment process, so these positions would be unsuitable to apply for if you are still in the process of completing your degree.

Job-hunting resources

The graduates who are most successful at finding work in the UK are those who are most proactive. Your university careers centre will have a number of resources to help in the process, so you should familiarise yourself with their services as soon as you arrive in the UK. These resources include:

• careers fairs - many employers come onto campus on one day to promote their graduate programmes. These fairs are for information only, not direct recruitment (see recruitment process);
• employer presentations - individual employers talk about their own company schemes;
• skills sessions or programmes - employers run workshops to develop skills for employment;
• online vacancy lists - many careers centres advertise graduate roles on their websites;
• networking opportunities - attend employer talks and recruitment fairs to find out about jobs and make contacts with potential employers.

Other job-hunting resources include:

• graduate job search and list of graduate employers;
• other job portals, e.g. Monster ;
• national and local press;
• graduate job directories, e.g. The GET Directory, Target Graduate Jobs , Inside Careers and The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers , available from your careers service or online;
• making speculative applications to employers of interest - send a CV and covering letter to target an employer that has not advertised a vacancy;
• joining a professional body relevant to your career area - they may provide an online vacancy listing, databases of member organisations and events for students to attend.

Using multiple approaches and sources of information to research the market and then target particular employers will give you the best chance of success.

For more information see job hunting.