A question about this goal:
I need advice on how to accomplish this! Like, how do you look for housing and employment once you actually get there... anybody?
2 years ago
Answers:
Hi,
I suppose the jobs depends on what you want and can do. My boyfriend (works in IT) applied for dozens of jobs before we came to London, and eventually he got a job trough a recruitment agency. He had to come to London for two interviews, but if you only want to start looking for a job once you get here, I would advise you to go to a recruitment agency specialized in the area you want to work.
I contacted Hays, one of the departments is specialized in Architecture, and it took them 2 weeks to find me a job. Of course they keep a “slice” of your earnings, but is a quick start because I also tried to send my CV and portfolio on my own and didn’t get any answers…
There are recruitment agencies for every kind of job, and you can also try the job center – http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/JCP/index.html.
About housing… we where lucky because my brother already lived in London, so we stayed there for a week. We found our flat in LOOT – a newspaper where you can find hundreds of flats, bedrooms, houses, and other stuff for sale and rent.
The rents are really expensive, and prepare yourself to pay a deposit, in the same amount of the rent, in the first day you move.
In you luggage don´t forget your passport, your CV (and portfolio), money and lots of sense of humor.
So at first I plan to crash at a hostel or something until I find a job. I do have a BA in Economics, so hopefully I can find something quickly. How much money do you think i need to hold me up until i find something? To find flatshares, is it easier? Do you have to pay that much?
It´s a good idea to stay in an hostel, although I would advise you to book before you arrive. There is a lot to chose from in the internet.
About the money, I would say the more the better… Saying that, you can check the hostel prices on the internet, as for the other stuff: transports (week ticket=13.50£bus or 22£ underground+bus; daily ticket = 3.50£bus, 4.90£ underground+bus, tip:buy an oyster card to top up or to buy weekly passes – https://sales.oystercard.com/oyster/lul/entry.do), food (really expensive eating out – 10-25£ minimum per person, quite cheap buying in supermarkets 2-4£).
You can check flat shares in LOOT, property agencies or in small adds in supermarkets. Prices vary a lot, depending on the area, type of flat/room, location of transports. You can find prices from 50£/week to 150£/week for a room, or 150£/week to 300£/week (or more) for a studio flat. Rooms are normally payed each week and flats are payed per month. The room rate normally includes water, electricity and gas bills, but flats don’t.
So adding all together I would say, to hold on for two months (remember that some jobs are payed weekly, and some monthly), 1200£-1400£ living in a tight budget, and remembering that you have to pay transportation to go to job interviews and to go to work every day, once you get one.
Hope it helps.
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Your answer kindda scared me, haha. But, do you think that in my case (see below), I would not find a job easily? Please tell me if you think I wouldn’t, I would appreciate your honesty if the competition is though:
-BA in Economics (BUT i’m barely 21)
-Fluent in Spanish and French, some Italian
-EU passport (from grandad, only been to Spain twice though)
I am totally scared, but i want to do it. I’m ok if i’m working a crappy job at first while I live at a hostel and look for something better…
Please let me know!
You should stay in a “bedsit” at first (or maybe permanently). As mentioned previously the newpaper “LOOT” is the place to find housing. Housing can be found that is affordable for most any budget. I lived in Londong for 6 years and learned the ropes well. I did it on the budget plan… London is famous for hiring workers “under the table”. You can get many types of jobs this way and will be paid cash. The above answers don’t mention the problem of your “working papers” in a situation like this. A so-called lesser job has the advantage of being accomplished through the under-the-table method. This might include waitressing and/or a little privately owned shop of some sort. I went and asked a guy for an under the table job at his little shop and actually got hired and subsequently paid cash each week. Eventually I got papers. If you find work through one of the agencies referred to in other answers they will take care of your papers for you, but you are still limited in how long you can stay in the country. If you wished to stay in London permanently or semi-permanently and will need papers I could tell you how I accomplished this but it could be considered possibly illegal – depending. You’d have to contact me privately for that info. If you wanted more details on how to do things as I did them please make sure you are in a position to truly need the info, say, already have your flight booked or relate to me that your plans are in an advanced state. I have supplied this info via 43 Things to many people and spent a lot of time and energy trying to help people who turned out were only curious and merely toying with the idea of a move to the UK. Anyway, bon chance.
What’s a bedsit? like a student hostel or something? I think i’m ok with papers, I have a EU passport (from Spain) so I think I can easily get a permit, right? I’ll find out when i get there i suppose, I don’t mind working under-the-table at first. As long as I survive I’ll be super happy. How much money do you estimate I should take with me to hold me up until I find a job?
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A good place to look for housing and a job is Gumtree.com. It’s like the Craigslist of London. My girlfriend got her first job, and we found our first flatshare (where you share a flat) through Gumtree. Of course the jobs were crappy temporary jobs, and now she has a good job. And the flatshare was miserable, because we were living with nutcases. But you have to start somewhere. Once you’re here, you can look around for something better. If you can’t get here quite legally and you’re looking for a job, I suggest you look for a job as a bike messenger (“push bike courier”) or motorcycle courier (if you can get a good bike or motorcycle).
Hey! Thank yoU!!! I have some questions for you though, first: why was it not that cool for you to move? Second, you are able to survive with temporary and crappy jobs right? At least at first? Third, I have a EU passport, I should be ok with that to work right? Thanks!
It was not that cool, because London is not fun a lot of the time. Things here are very expensive, so you have to work all the time to pay for not very much fun. Also, the people here are not nice.
You are able to survive on temporary crappy jobs, yes. Especially if you are in a bedsit or flatshare, and so rent and bills are at a minimum.
You can work on an EU passport (unless you are from Romania or Bulgaria). You can live and work anywhere in the EU with an EU passport.
I think it would be pretty easy to get a job if you have good language skills as there is a lack of linguists in Britain. If you speak English well then your EU passport should mean you won’t need to do unofficial work. If you start temping at a company and they like you, after a while they might offer you a permanent job. Loot as mentioned before is also online (www.loot.com), its best to set the properties search to those appearing that day as cheap places in nice parts of London go quickly – ones that have been advertised for a while usually have something wrong with them.
Bear in mind that you will need to put down a month’s rent as a deposit and pay your rent a month in advance (so in effect you’ll need two months rent straight away)
Timeout is a weekly publication of all the stuff going on in London and they highlight the free things to do.
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