Getting a first job?
 

Hello again everyone,

I've been browsing UK job sites for a bit, and I'm getting increasingly concerned about whether or not I'll be able to find my first job upon graduating if I do my masters degree here in th states. I won't have any contacts or networks in place and all the experience I have would be in American journalism. Would this be a bad thing? I feel like companies would rather hire people with at least some qualifications from the UK....

Re: Getting a first job?
 

Not necessarily. Unlike the US the UK job market leans more toward experience, rather than qualifications. That's not to say one doesn't need degrees etc for jobs, just that generally employers will take into account what type of experience someone has. Whereas I've noticed in the US that often you can't even get past HR for an interview if you don't have a degree, even though you may have years and years experience in the field.

I also don't think networking is so big in the UK either. I've often found here that it's who you know, rather than what you know, that gets your foot in the door.

Anyway hopefully some recent returnees will pop into this thread and share how it's been for them.

Re: Getting a first job?
 

Thank you so much Sue!

I'd read similar things, but didn't dare hold out for the hope that I wouldn't need an entire slew of people who knew me from childhood to vouch for me. It very much is a "who you know" situation when it comes to American journalism, whereas I'd heard of a girl who went to England one summer, and literally knocked on doors until she got an internship (paid at that) in our field. I was thoroughly impressed, but I figured she was just more well connected some how...

This makes me feel an awful lot better. I was beginning to think I'd wind up ruining my chances of actually leaving if I did my masters here!

Re: Getting a first job?
 

My son went back and knocked on doors till he got into a graduate program. he got the job within a couple months of being back and started another month later. Other than that he signed up with temp agencies and worked that way, he even ended up doing the ID passes for the local college for a month when the new term started.
The thing he was missing according to the temp agencies that would have made it a lot easier for him was actual written references from people in the US, his old bosses and professors would have helped, ones that had email and phone contact info on. He also had to prove his time working at one job, luckily I'm a pack rat and had three years of pay stubs still in the closet and mailed them to him.