Just landed in UK, some questions?

[Lewis]

Hi All,

In London from overseas and ready to start working. So far have only been applying through jobserve. Is it worth going and meeting the actual recruitement agents?

Jobserve is fine, I always start there. I personally only apply if it's with a large agency as there is less risk of non-payment etc. and they are slightly less likely to be fishing for CVs. Just checkout the agency web site if you don't know the names and you'll be able to get a good indication of whether they are decent or not by the quality of the site. Once you have applied for a few you'll get more calls from people in the same agency as your CV gets passed around. Keep track of what you've applied for and who you've spoken to. Meeting agents is a waste of your time in my opinion. I've never meet mine until contracts needed signing and sometimes not even then, plus I have never used the same agent more than once in 10 yrs (not through choice, it's just the nature of the game). If you get no reply from an agent and you really want the role you can call the agent to confirm your CV got through as sometimes Jobserve fails to send (I've heard) but expect a lot of agents to just ignore your mails if you are not ideal.

[2uk]

Hi All,

In London from overseas and ready to start working. So far have only been applying through jobserve. Is it worth going and meeting the actual recruitement agents?

Nope , no questions about your landing.

[sli_gryn]

This is a local country for local people. We'll have no trouble here!

[sli_gryn]

jobserve seemed to do really well, but also try http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/ for a bit of a guide (don't know what others think of it, but helps get an idea of an average rate)

also, have u got urself involved in an 'overseas work experience company' like myoe.com.au? they help out by giving you a free office space, just hit you up for a payment plan once you've got the contract.

enjoy!

[buffdaddy]

Hi All,

In London from overseas and ready to start working. So far have only been applying through jobserve. Is it worth going and meeting the actual recruitement agents?

Mate!

Speaking from experience, the first contract will be hard to nail. Two reasons, firstly u will have no UK experience (which means a lot here for some reason), secondly you will have no contracting experience since its not big down under.

It took me 3-4 weeks, which is quite a bit in the current market.

U will need to make compromises. Mine were a daily rate of £100 less than what i am worth now and a commute out of london of 1 hour 30 mins. Now that i am established, i can nail a contract in the city in less than a week.

Once u get established, they call u, all u need to do is post ur CV on a few boards about two weeks before ur current gig ends.

Newbies from abroad seem to be easy money for some agents, its just the way the world goes around, but hey u need the £££ when u first land. Don't look for a contract of more than 3 months...that way u can renew it with a larger rate!

[buffdaddy]

jobserve seemed to do really well, but also try http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/ for a bit of a guide (don't know what others think of it, but helps get an idea of an average rate)

also, have u got urself involved in an 'overseas work experience company' like myoe.com.au? they help out by giving you a free office space, just hit you up for a payment plan once you've got the contract.

enjoy!

be wary of companies like this. They don't even help in finding u a job. and they charge ridiculously large cuts ( i have heard as large as 15%). So ur take home after tax will be effectively halved

[yamamma]

Thanks for your help guys, im sure ill get there thnx in no small part to everyone's advice

[grafter]

depends if your name ends in "ski" or not really

awesome

my partners name ends in "ski" so I find that offensive.

[fridge]

Jobserve is fine, I always start there. I personally only apply if it's with a large agency as there is less risk of non-payment etc. and they are slightly less likely to be fishing for CVs. Just checkout the agency web site if you don't know the names and you'll be able to get a good indication of whether they are decent or not by the quality of the site. Once you have applied for a few you'll get more calls from people in the same agency as your CV gets passed around. Keep track of what you've applied for and who you've spoken to. Meeting agents is a waste of your time in my opinion. I've never meet mine until contracts needed signing and sometimes not even then, plus I have never used the same agent more than once in 10 yrs (not through choice, it's just the nature of the game). If you get no reply from an agent and you really want the role you can call the agent to confirm your CV got through as sometimes Jobserve fails to send (I've heard) but expect a lot of agents to just ignore your mails if you are not ideal.

I always start with the jobserve site.Just watch out for the tax man though as you may have probs with the ir35 s***e here.Good luck though.

[autodial]

Well then fack off back to Australia you feckin toss pot. What Oz not good enough for you?

What is it with these immigrants!

Your family from Oz then?