I'm considering moving to the UK in two years.

TheDruidWizard

Although most of Europe is struggling to recover, the UK economy is growing stronger and is almost at pre-recession growth.

If the trend continues, it may have under 5% unemployment levels in about two years time.

I'm considering continuing at my job until the beginning of 2016 and then decide to leave to start a new life.

I've been holding off for years as I was constantly hoping that things at home would improve. I do have a job, but it's low paying and there is little chance of progress.

For those of you who have moved to another country or even just a new city, what would be the best procedure in finding work and starting a new life?

PeteEd

What field of work do you intend in looking for?

I moved via an Irish construction firm mainly working in the UK so it was pretty easy for me, been based in Scotland and Bristol for the last 3 years. Miss my family but earnings, opportunities and economic confidence is far above what i could expect at home.

Highly recommend Bristol and Scotland ain't so shabby either.

TheDruidWizard

I mainly work in I.T . I have a BSc in computer science, a HETAC award in web development and have developed my own websites.

I have also worked in manual and automation Quality Assurance testing.

I'm trying to specialise in scripting languages, such as python, sql, php and automation tools like selenium.

I'm trying to build my online portfolio to demonstrate it.

partyguinness

Seriously- don't do it. Go anywhere but the UK. Try Canada, US or Aus.

I have been here 4 years and it's just about the most depressing boring place on earth. It just kills your spirit and turns you into a grey, dull conformist. Everything is mass produced and standardised and no place for individuality

Everything is just such hard work, food is ****, service is ****e and everyone is just trying to rip you off. I could go on.

If you have a zest for life and want to kill it? By all means come over here.:(

ps I have lived in Ireland, US and spent considerable time abroard in Europe and S America and Asia. Unfortunately, I am stuck here with a wife and child.

ancapailldorcha

partyguinness wrote: »

Seriously- don't do it. Go anywhere but the UK. Try Canada, US or Aus.

I have been here 4 years and it's just about the most depressing boring place on earth. It just kills your spirit and turns you into a grey, dull conformist. Everything is mass produced and standardised and no place for individuality

Everything is just such hard work, food is ****, service is ****e and everyone is just trying to rip you off. I could go on.

If you have a zest for life and want to kill it? By all means come over here.:(

ps I have lived in Ireland, US and spent considerable time abroard in Europe and S America and Asia. Unfortunately, I am stuck here with a wife and child.

Sounds like you've got bigger problems than just living in the UK.

OP, I think that this is one of the best countries in the world to live in and moving here was the best thing I've ever done. You can have access to nearly anything you could want depending on where you live and you're close enough to Ireland that you can fly home whenever you want.

TheDruidWizard

What would be the best way to find and secure work?


I have my own amateur website, which I just use to demonstrate my skills with HTML5 & CSS, php and SQL. Which helped a lot with my last job search. I feel it's a lot easier to prove your skills when you have something to show at interviews.

I'm planning on adding to it, by making a few more and creating an online CV site. Which I can also demo a few video captures of QA automation tools like selenium and defect tracking.

What else could I do?

ancapailldorcha

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I strongly recommend:

www.jobs.ac.uk (Best for University posts but some companies use it as well)
www.jobs.nhs.uk (If you have a degree in Biomedical Science)
www.newscientistjobs.com

Also worth a look:

www.indeed.co.uk
www.jobs.co.uk
www.totaljobs.com (Infested with recruitment agencies)
www.jobsite.co.uk
www.reed.co.uk
www.fish4.co.uk
www.monster.co.uk

That should help.

It sounds to me like you've given yourself quite an advantage with that website. You could do things like linking it in your email signature. As far as I'm aware, IT is still fairly healthy in terms of opportunity but it's not my area so take that with a pinch of salt.

seachto7

partyguinness wrote: »

Seriously- don't do it. Go anywhere but the UK. Try Canada, US or Aus.

I have been here 4 years and it's just about the most depressing boring place on earth. It just kills your spirit and turns you into a grey, dull conformist. Everything is mass produced and standardised and no place for individuality

Everything is just such hard work, food is ****, service is ****e and everyone is just trying to rip you off. I could go on.

If you have a zest for life and want to kill it? By all means come over here.:(

ps I have lived in Ireland, US and spent considerable time abroard in Europe and S America and Asia. Unfortunately, I am stuck here with a wife and child.

Sounds like the problem is you. Nobody is to blame for your unhappiness but yourself, and only you can change that.

TheDruidWizard

Thanks a lot for the job links ancapailldorcha.

I'll try and look at some of them and hopefully the agents and immigration authorities can give me advice on how to get myself sorted.

ancapailldorcha

No worries. I'd take employment statistics with a pinch of salt as people on zero hours contracts are considered employed and therefore not included in the percentage unemployed statistic.

TheDruidWizard

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I'd take employment statistics with a pinch of salt as people on zero hours contracts are considered employed and therefore not included in the percentage unemployed statistic.

The same can be said about Ireland, with people on low-paid jobs and employment and educational schemes and many more just leaving the country.

However with Ireland's unemployment rate 11.7% against the UK currently at 6.9% and a overall much stronger economy and growth rate and potential, I think I'll definitely take my chances.

ancapailldorcha

Fair point, just wanted to make that clear. Of course the UK has always had a much stronger economy so your chance of getting work here is substantially greater, especially if you're not looking for work in IT.

partyguinness

Set up a comprehensive Linkedin profile. They seem to love it over here. Jobs are also advertised.

Frank Lee Midere

TheDruidWizard wrote: »

The same can be said about Ireland, with people on low-paid jobs and employment and educational schemes and many more just leaving the country.

However with Ireland's unemployment rate 11.7% against the UK currently at 6.9% and a overall much stronger economy and growth rate and potential, I think I'll definitely take my chances.

What should matter to you is the employment in your area (IT) not the general level. Frankly I tend to avoid booms where possible as everything is going up in price.

Word to the wise. Don't go to London. Try Bristol which is great.

Long Gone

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

What should matter to you is the employment in your area (IT) not the general level. Frankly I tend to avoid booms where possible as everything is going up in price.

Word to the wise. Don't go to London. Try Bristol which is great.

I wouldn't dream of living in a isolated backwater like Bristol - (particularly not St. Pauls..... !)

London/Home Counties/Midlands is where it's at - I've got the best of both worlds - Far enough out from London that house prices are affordable and I can live in a proper village community, and near enough that I can get into Euston station in 45 minutes. There's a lot to be said for having the option of commuting to work in central London if necessary - Hugely improves your employment options.

enda1

Long Gone wrote: »

I wouldn't dream of living in a isolated backwater like Bristol - (particularly not St. Pauls..... !)

London/Home Counties/Midlands is where it's at - I've got the best of both worlds - Far enough out from London that house prices are affordable and I can live in a proper village community, and near enough that I can get into Euston station in 45 minutes. There's a lot to be said for having the option of commuting to work in central London if necessary - Hugely improves your employment options.

I'd choose Bristol before a Home Counties village a thousand times over.

ancapailldorcha

enda1 wrote: »

I'd choose Bristol before a Home Counties village a thousand times over.

Any particular reason? I've lived in Oxford, Manchester and now, Brighton so I'm quite interested to know why you'd say that.

Long Gone

Like I've said before, there's everything to be said for being within reasonable commuting distance of London - Hugely increases your job options. I spent years living in Paddington and working in the city and thouroughly enjoyed it - Brilliant dynamic, boozy culture with so much business done during lunchtime/afternoon sessions down the pub. As an Irishman London is my spiritual home in England ( Remembe the old joke ? - If they give us back Northern Ireland we'll give them back London ! ) - I would never move beyond commuting distance from London.

enda1

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Any particular reason? I've lived in Oxford, Manchester and now, Brighton so I'm quite interested to know why you'd say that.

Well I've lived in London and loved it. I've lived in a Home Counties commuter town/village and hated it.
I now live in Jericho in Oxford and love it.

Just don't like dealing with the small town syndrome and uniformity you get in small towns and villages, especially so in the Home counties.

Bristol has a great vibe about it. It's happening, there is more or less everything and a good cultural dynamic feel.

NoCrackHaving

Moving to a Home counties village is the equivalent of moving to rural Laois or Longford if you were working in Dublin. Along with small towns comes all the small town attitudes, the thought of living in a Tory loving, bowls on the green town is pretty ****ing unappealing, give me Bristol any day over Surrey or Hertfordshire..

Long Gone

NoCrackHaving wrote: »

Moving to a Home counties village is the equivalent of moving to rural Laois or Longford if you were working in Dublin. Along with small towns comes all the small town attitudes, the thought of living in a Tory loving, bowls on the green town is pretty ****ing unappealing, give me Bristol any day over Surrey or Hertfordshire..

Ah go on outta dat ! - No comparison whatsoever with Laois, Longford or Ballysnot. Nothing wrong with a game of bowls or cricket followed by a few pints of Bitter ! Doesn't make you any less Irish. Despite the fact that I hate Tories worse than I hate rats I socialise with the "village elders" where I have my house. They're a bunch of posh boys but they're always up for a good drinking session. The Chairman of the parish council is a personal friend of mine. He has strong Irish connections - He used to be a Tory but he's recently defected to UKIP !

Bristol is an isolated backwater - You need to be within commuting distance to London !

ancapailldorcha

I'm in the home counties and I love it. Not sure if Brighton counts though.

Long Gone

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I'm in the home counties and I love it. Not sure if Brighton counts though.

I think it does. The Home Counties are Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertforshire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and East and West Sussex. God's own country - There was a time when I wouldn't even consider living outside the M25, as you get older the hassles of living in greater London exceed the advantages. Too many crazies in London now.

ancapailldorcha

Long Gone wrote: »

I think it does. The Home Counties are Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertforshire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and East and West Sussex. God's own country - There was a time when I wouldn't even consider living outside the M25, as you get older the hassles of living in greater London exceed the advantages. Too many crazies in London now.

High praise indeed. What makes you so fond of the area? Brighton's very different and I've yet to visit any of the places you've mentioned.

NoCrackHaving

Long Gone wrote: »

Ah go on outta dat ! - No comparison whatsoever with Laois, Longford or Ballysnot. Nothing wrong with a game of bowls or cricket followed by a few pints of Bitter ! Doesn't make you any less Irish. Despite the fact that I hate Tories worse than I hate rats I socialise with the "village elders" where I have my house. They're a bunch of posh boys but they're always up for a good drinking session. The Chairman of the parish council is a personal friend of mine. He has strong Irish connections - He used to be a Tory but he's recently defected to UKIP !

Bristol is an isolated backwater - You need to be within commuting distance to London !

Game of cricket followed by drinking sessions with UKIP members? Yeah I think we have very different ideas of what constitutes a good place to live.

Different strokes I guess.

Jack B. Badd

Right, let's get this thread back on topic please.

Thank you,
Jack

Long Gone

O.K. I think for most of us who moved to the UK the biggest factor in determining where we moved to initially was work. As your career develops then moving jobs may involve a move to a different location. When you start having family that also influences your decisions as to where you want to and where you can live. One point I would make is that you get some morons in the UK like anywhere else (God knows we have enough in Ireland), but in general I've always found English people everywhere in the country to be very fair minded and welcoming. For job opportunities I still believe that living within commuting distance to London is a must.

TheDruidWizard

The UK's unemployment rate is now currently down to 6.6% and its economy is continuing to grow.

Ireland's unemployment rate has unfortunately stagnated a bit in the past month with a still high rate of 11.7%

All the more reason to considering moving I think.

partyguinness

I live in England and the closer you get to London, the angrier the people get...I have spent time in Bucks and you will find a lot of obnoxious City types blowing in for the weekend and making a lot of noise.

Recommending London is inevitable. If you were English and looking to move to Ireland, most people would steer you toward Dublin..not sure about comparing the Home Counties to rural Laois and Longford though...

I have nothing against Home Counties but jaysus I defo do not want to be anywhere near Laois/Longford...

ancapailldorcha

partyguinness wrote: »

I live in England and the closer you get to London, the angrier the people get...I have spent time in Bucks and you will find a lot of obnoxious City types blowing in for the weekend and making a lot of noise.

Recommending London is inevitable. If you were English and looking to move to Ireland, most people would steer you toward Dublin..not sure about comparing the Home Counties to rural Laois and Longford though...

I have nothing against Home Counties but jaysus I defo do not want to be anywhere near Laois/Longford...

Brighton is the wayward child of the UK so I'm not really in a position to comment on the attitude of the Home Counties in general. Didn't notice much anger when I was living and working in Oxfordshire though.

partyguinness

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Brighton is the wayward child of the UK so I'm not really in a position to comment on the attitude of the Home Counties in general. Didn't notice much anger when I was living and working in Oxfordshire though.

I have heard that Brighton is good laugh with a great buzz. Admittedly I have never been.

Most seaside resorts in the UK are complete and utter kips but Brighton is close enough (and expensive)to London to attract the right buzz. A thriving gay artsy community...which is always a good sign for a town.

ancapailldorcha

partyguinness wrote: »

I have heard that Brighton is good laugh with a great buzz. Admittedly I have never been.

Most seaside resorts in the UK are complete and utter kips but Brighton is close enough (and expensive)to London to attract the right buzz. A thriving gay artsy community...which is always a good sign for a town.

Spot on. They've a bit too enthusiastic about the Greens though. Traffic is terribly congested and getting a parking permit takes a year. They voted in the only Green MP in the country (Caroline Lucas).

questionmark?

Long Gone wrote: »

I wouldn't dream of living in a isolated backwater like Bristol - (particularly not St. Pauls..... !)

Bristol an isolated backwater

Rail connections all over the UK, one of the busiest airports in the country, an unemployment rate of circa 4%, recognized as one the best cities in the UK to live in, all the big finance firms have a base here not to mention the IT/Media sector, home of British aviation etc...

I've lived in a few cities and I can tell you this is a good city to live in. The city is booming!

tomaussie

What about Edinburgh ?

Fysh

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r3nu4l

TheDruidWizard wrote: »

What else could I do?

partyguinness wrote: »

Set up a comprehensive Linkedin profile. They seem to love it over here. Jobs are also advertised.

Bingo! LinkedIn is an incredible tool for finding jobs, absolutely brilliant and I can't recommend it enough.

Learn how to use it effectively though.

1. Set up a profile that has keywords related to the jobs you want. Make sure you list the languages you've learned and any CMS you have used. Link to examples of your work. Make sure there are no typos in your profile page (treat it like a CV).
2. Join groups related to the field of work you are interested in. Most groups have a jobs board but that's not the only way to find jobs. Start posting in those groups, either with questions or with answers to questions (WARNING: Don't bullsh1t any answers - you will be called on it and if any recruiters are reading the threads, they are less likely to start calling you).
3. There are general jobs advertised on LinkedIn that you can search through too but don't forget about the jobs in the groups as well.
4. Link up with Recruiters because they often post their latest vacancies in their feed and that will show up on your newsfeed as soon as it's posted. Don't worry about them not accepting your request to connect. You could have the name Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Che Guevara, Adolf Hitler or Atilla the Hun and they would connect with you :pac:

How will it help?
Recruiters LOVE LinkedIn, it's a massive database of potential talent and the mine it and milk it constantly.
Employers love it, when I was recruiting people to my team (medical writing) I was constantly using LinkedIn to find decent talent.

It's very possible to get a job without using LinkedIn but definitely invest the time because it's another angle that has plenty of decent advantages.

Playboy

I would echo the Linkedin advice, I get tons of job opportunities through there.

If you work in IT then London is the place to be, you will never be out of work and there is huge potential for career advancement. Might be worth setting up your own company and giving contracting a go once you get here, lots of money to be made if you can handle the risk of suddenly being out of work!

The government are trying to push Birmingham as a new hub for IT start-ups to compete with Old Street/Shoreditch. Personally I dont work in that sector, I stay with the big corporates as work is easy to come by, conditions are good and money is good. IF you go down the start-up route then it may be a nicer working environment, more potential or big success but work is likely harder to come by and money wont be anywhere near as good in the short term.

I have been to Bristol quite a lot as a bank I used to work for had a big presence down there. I quite liked it but I wouldn't recommend it as a first stab at the UK purely from an employment perspective. I have managed to avoid moving out to the home counties, it has been touch and go recently as I have to move but I couldn't drag myself away from London just yet. If I want to buy a house then unfortunately moving out is my only option in the long run unless the London Housing Market crashes suddenly.

zweton

Playboy wrote: »

I would echo the Linkedin advice, I get tons of job opportunities through there.

If you work in IT then London is the place to be, you will never be out of work and there is huge potential for career advancement. Might be worth setting up your own company and giving contracting a go once you get here, lots of money to be made if you can handle the risk of suddenly being out of work!

The government are trying to push Birmingham as a new hub for IT start-ups to compete with Old Street/Shoreditch. Personally I dont work in that sector, I stay with the big corporates as work is easy to come by, conditions are good and money is good. IF you go down the start-up route then it may be a nicer working environment, more potential or big success but work is likely harder to come by and money wont be anywhere near as good in the short term.

I have been to Bristol quite a lot as a bank I used to work for had a big presence down there. I quite liked it but I wouldn't recommend it as a first stab at the UK purely from an employment perspective. I have managed to avoid moving out to the home counties, it has been touch and go recently as I have to move but I couldn't drag myself away from London just yet. If I want to buy a house then unfortunately moving out is my only option in the long run unless the London Housing Market crashes suddenly.

playboy, what are the best websites to look for i.t jobs in london.

r3nu4l

zweton wrote: »

playboy, what are the best websites to look for i.t jobs in london.

Start with a jobs aggregation site like indeed.co.uk (sample simple search).

Then as well as looking at the jobs on that site, look at the recruitment companies who are advertising the most jobs (or the most relevant to you). go to their website and then contact them....or use LinkedIn to find them

I'm not in IT at all so can't recommend anyone in particular but that's one particular tactic to use with your strategy