ArabellaTurner

Hi,

Does anyone have any advice or tips on how to get a job in the UK from overseas? I'm in Australia and would really like to avoid flying back for job interviews if at all possible, as obviously this is time consuming, expensive and potentially quite difficult to manage with timing interviews. And given I'm so far away, I think I'd only really be able to do this once so if I had to go down this route I'd need to be pretty confident I'd get the job.

If you have done this route, I would love to hear from you and how you went about it. I know Skype interviews are a thing these days but I've been hearing that a lot of companies still like to interview in person. Especially if you have any good agency contacts or anything like that. I have a few places I'd like to move to ideally but right now I'd go anywhere within two or three hours of Birmingham (which is quite a lot of places) really to get back into the country.

We do have some savings but to save complications and extra paperwork we ideally want to just go down the Category A route if possible.

There is also a chance an old employer may be able to give me work but I haven't approached them yet and again I'd rather work elsewhere as going back there would be a step backwards.

Pulaski

You may find that many employers will entirely ignore you until you have an addres in the UK. Do you have family, or a friend you can trust, who's address you can borrow? You can also get a "local" VoIP phone number and have it ring on your mobile phone .... though obviously that would likely ring in the middle of the night in Australia.

ArabellaTurner

I can put my parents' address on any application, that won't be an issue and it's likely to be where I'm living for the first few weeks.

Don't think I'd want to put a UK number on my phone though :/ Mostly because I'm unlikely to be coherent if they call in the afternoon as I'll be woken up! I guess I could though for those few hours where it'd be convenient.

evets

After I had spent a year on a WHV, a number of years back, and returning back to Scotland, parents house, then applying for jobs in London.

Recruiters are not interested as they want you to be available for an interview immediately. I still do not understand this as very few jobs come up that they ask you to come in that day. I can only vaguely remember one, which is my current position.

Apply from Australia is going to be much more difficult, and as you note very expensive. Say you got offered 3 or 4 interviews in a month. Looking at upto to $10k in flights and possible accommodation.

As for being confident in getting the job, this is a tough call as you may think you are the ideal candidate but it would all depend on your connection with the people interviewing you. Most interviews these days have at last 2 stages, possibly 3 depending on the role. Again would work out expensive and time consuming for you as they may take place over 2 or 3 weeks.

You have not mentioned what line of work you are in. This can make a big difference to your employment prospects and employers wanting to take a chance on you.

ArabellaTurner

I'm currently working as an administration assistant for a Not-For-Profit organisation however, in a previous life I was an EFL teacher. I'm thinking I might have a bit more luck with Skype interviews if I go for a job as an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher because I imagine they're more common.

Also, we have around 30,000 GBP in savings (depending on the exchange rate, at the moment they're more favourable!). If my job in Australia already meets the financial requirement without having to take these savings into account, what does that mean for my job requirements in the UK? I know we're getting into nuances here but does it still mean that I would need to be earning roughly 13,000 or does it change that?