Applying for jobs in UK

in Find a job

Where to start?

The job market in the UK, and specifically London and the South East, is extremely competitive and the demand for jobs is far greater than the supply of vacancies.
It is important to be proactive in your job search to create opportunities for yourself.  This often involves perseverance, determination and a professional approach at all times.
Due to the numbers of candidates applying, you may not get a response from applications if you are not considered suitable. Rejection is a part of the recruitment process and you must learn to deal with it and not let it deter you from future applications.

To limit possible rejection, it is important that you are realistic in your job search.
As there are more applicants than jobs, the selection criteria are often high with employers expecting good qualifications, fluency or very good levels of English and often relevant work experience.  If you cannot offer all of these to start with, you may be advised to lower your own job search criteria in order to build your skills or knowledge. This is extremely relevant if you are not a native English speaker and are looking for your first appointment in the UK.
If your level of English is not fluent initially, you may need to consider retail, catering or hospitality roles which do not require the same levels of fluency. This will give you flexibility to undertake English language courses and time to practise your language skills.
You can then re-apply for your first choice sector of work once you have reached the required standards.

There are three main options available for finding a job in the UK;

  1. Applying to a company directly – either a specific advertisement or speculatively
  2. Using a recruitment agency – ideally one suited to your chosen sector of work
  3. Using a jobsite specifically for recruitment – usually an independent website.

For all three options, you will need an up to date CV (please see CV Advice for further information on how to prepare this).

In general, your CV should be relevant to the type of work for which you are applying.  This is particularly so in the case of online applications.
Agencies and jobsites search for CV’s based on date (where the most recently uploaded CV’s will be listed first) and relevance (where the CV’s which contain the most relevant keywords will be listed first).
It is clearly beneficial for your CV to be viewed at the top of the list so you must consider both of these criteria to be successful.
Make sure you update your CV regularly on your chosen sites and include repetitions of keywords in your CV.
For example, if you are applying for work as a secretary, make sure you include the word ‘secretary’ in your CV, ideally four or five times logically within the text so that an agency or site conducting a secretarial search will find it easily.

Which agencies to use?

It is important to choose an agency carefully to ensure that they can provide the service you need in a professional way.  The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (www.rec.uk.com) has a useful Agency Finder tool which lists its member agencies by sector of work specialisation.  It is important that you register with agencies which can supply the type of work you need.  A secretarial specialist will not be able to supply you with catering opportunities and vice versa.

If you are a non native English speaker, you may wish to make use of your language abilities and there are also agencies which specialise in multilingual appointments but remember that you WILL need a strong knowledge of English as well as your mother-tongue language.  All agencies registered on the REC website have signed up to a code of conduct and best practice which should result in higher standards of service and professionalism.

There are many agency directory sites to use, for example, www.agencycentral.co.uk which also list agencies according to their specialisations.

Agencies in the UK do not charge candidates for finding them work; they receive a fee from the companies where they place them.  This may be on a temporary, permanent or contract basis.  They are under no obligation to provide you with work, even if you are registered with them though it is clearly in their interests to place as many people as possible so they will obviously try and help you if you meet their criteria.

It is advisable to be selective about your choice of agencies, perhaps limiting yourself to between three and five initially. Be professional at all times and try to build a good rapport with the consultants at those agencies.  Add more agencies as you need to broaden your search.  The more of the job market you can cover, the more likely you are to be successful though remember to limit your applications to those jobs for which you meet the criteria.  There is nothing to be gained from attracting unnecessary rejection.

Which jobsites to use?

There are hundreds of jobsites, agency websites and recruitment directories available and choosing the right ones can be daunting.  The easiest way to start is by asking for a recommendation from a personal contact who has already secured work in your chosen sector.

If this is not possible, use a search engine like Google to identify those which offer recruitment services in your chosen sector.  Follow the advice above, remembering to consider the date and relevance elements for managing your online applications and you should get a better response.

Here are a few guidelines about some of the larger sites to get you started.

Good luck in your job search!

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