Youth unemployment in London

Recent figures from the Office of National Statistics suggest that youth unemployment in the UK has now hit 1 million. It also seems that foreign workers are getting more jobs than homegrown British talent. As an example, the popular fast food franchise Pret A Manger has at least 2 shops in London that don’t employ any British staff at all.
The number of British-born workers has decreased by 850 people a day at a time when foreign workers has increased by around 495 a day.
Unofficially, the common mentalities behind choosing to employ workers from overseas rather than Brits, appear to include reasons such as a)foreign workers are happier to work for less money than Brits, b) they are harder-working than British people and c) they’re more likely to turn up on time.

Of course this may come as welcome news if you are moving to London from abroad. But what should you do if you’re an out of work Londoner, or are thinking of moving down to London in the near future?

First of all, you need to decide what kind of job you’re willing to do. If you’re a graduate and are happy to wait a while, going through extensive recruitment processes before being employed in the job of your dreams, then this is fine so long as you can afford to do so. But you might be better off making do with what we call survival jobs, which will help keep the bills paid, your CV nicely padded out and hopefully keep you sane whilst you interview for a more appropriate job for you.

Obviously the evidence above makes it sound like if you’re a Brit then you won’t manage to get any type of work. This is a particularly negative slant on a bad situation. There are still jobs out there so long as you don’t mind working for a little while in shops, pubs or restaurants. But if you do manage to secure one of these roles, then don’t blow it by proving to bosses why they should stick to employing foreign workers over Brits. It may not be the job of your dreams, but turning up on time and putting some effort in during working hours are the basics of holding down a job. At least until something better comes along.

How to get a graduate job in London

Many of you will have completed your university degrees this summer and will be heading to London in search of graduate work, but as you may have heard in that refreshingly depressing way the media likes to tell us things… graduate jobs are hard to come by at the moment.

So here are some tips to increase your chances of getting a graduate job in London at the moment – it’s not all doom and gloom we promise!

Your C.V
Seriously, we can’t recommend enough the importance of uploading your C.V to Monster. It is TOTALLY FREE to create a profile and upload your C.V to their database where you will a)get to search for jobs in the industry you’re interested in but even better than this… b) top graduate recruiters use this database to search for the best graduate candidates to fill their positions. Imagine a scenario where a graduate vacancy has become available for a firm that you’re interested in, but the position is never actually advertised because their graduate head-hunters use Monster’s database to handpick candidates that they’re interested in interviewing. Why on earth wouldn’t you want to make yourself available for selection? Upload your C.V now.

Masters Degrees
Ok, this is a difficult one and is definitely not something we would recommend that EVERYONE does because of the sheer expense of Masters degrees and the importance of gaining relevant work experience. But for some professions, it really does pay to have a Masters degree under your belt. Think about it – if you’re applying for a graduate job and you’ve got a 2:1 or even a 1st class honours degree, how many other candidates do you think are applying with identical qualifications to you? Quite possibly hundreds. But the number of candidates with both Bachelors and Masters degrees will be substantially less. Talk to your careers advisors and people within your chosen industry for some advice.

Careers Fairs
Get yourself to some careers fairs. A great one which is coming up is the Guardian’s Graduate Fair which is free and takes place on 19th October, 2010 at the Business and Design Centre in Islington. You can already pre-register if you’re interested.
But this is only one of many careers events.
A great tip for those who have their heart set on working for one specific company, is to find out which career events the company recruiters will be attending. Then make sure you visit the company stand at as many of these events as you possibly can. Get to know the recruiters and make sure you take copies of your C.V with you and are fully prepared for informal interviews. Some may see this as stalking, but it’s an incredibly effective way to get yourself on the company radar!

Get inventive
We’ve thrown this one in for fun really, but some of you will have heard the story of David Rowe, who walked around the streets of London for 5 days wearing a sandwich board which read ‘Job wanted. History Graduate, University of Kent. Interview Me. Prepared to work first month FREE. Then hire or fire me. Thanks for looking, David.’ The stunt reportedly generated over 250 enquiries and he was consequently hired by JCDecaux.
Another similar story involved Alex Kearns (a 23 year old graduate) who was part of the Plinth Project in Trafalgar Square. He stood on top of the plinth for one hour with a sign reading ‘Give me a job’. He has since been hired by a London business consultancy who were impressed with his initiative.

Get some relevant work experience
When you apply for a graduate job, the recruiters aren’t going to just be blown away by your impressive qualifications and extra-curricular activities, they’re often going to require evidence of some relevant work experience within the industry that you’re applying to work in.
If your experience thus far, is a little thin on the ground, then it’s time to get some under your belt, particularly if you’re not doing any sort of work at the moment. Work experience might seem like it’s for kids and the fact that you’re not earning anything can be a little soul-destroying, but it won’t be forever. Make the most of an unpaid internship by learning as much as you can about your chosen profession, expanding your network of contacts (very important in business) and if you’re very impressive you might even be taken on as a permanent member of staff.
An excellent system to use when looking for work experience is the WEXO system.

Move to London
It’s a case of Catch 22 – we understand that. You don’t want to move here until you’ve got a job to pay the bills, but trust us, it’s really difficult to make the most of every available graduate opportunity or to be taken seriously if you don’t actually live in London or in the commutable vicinity. Remember that you can always take a survival job in London to help pay the bills whilst you’re searching for a more serious permanent job.

Follow all of the advice above and you’ll hopefully be setting your alarm for your first day at work in no time at all. Try and remain positive throughout the job-seeking process and don’t let a working day go by without taking a pro-active step (however small) to securing your dream job.

Moving To London From Overseas Checklist

Summer is the time when most people think about moving to London. If you’re moving to London from overseas, you’ll have many more things to consider than the average Brit who can just stick everything in a van and drive a couple of hundred miles. So we’ve compiled the below checklist to give you some ideas of what to think about when you’re planning your move over here. It’s not a very country-specific list, so adjust it depending on where you hail from.

Do it A.S.A.P

• Sort out your visa. For more info about visas, please visit Ukvisas.gov.uk You should normally leave yourself at least a couple of months for a visa to come through, but it could be much longer or shorter depending on your circumstances.
• Write an excellent C.V and upload it for FREE to Monster’s database where employers can search for candidates for their jobs. It’s absolutely free to post your C.V up there, so if you don’t do it you’re really missing a great opportunity.
• Book your tickets. Take a look at current prices using Expedia
• Check that your passport is valid and has more than 6 months left on it

2-3 months to go

• Start looking for somewhere to stay. Sign up with Easyroommate . Use the box below to search for FREE for a room in London.
• If you need to stay in a hostel for a few days before you take up semi-permanent residency somewhere, book a room at Hostelworld which has many affordable, yet comfortable hostels located in Central London.
• Inform your local tax office that you’re planning on leaving the country so that if necessary you have time to fill in a mid-year tax return or possibly even get a tax refund depending on your situation and the tax procedures in your home country.
• You should also

1 month to go

• Find your medical records so that when you register for a doctor on the NHS, they’ll be able to quickly see your medical history. This is especially important if you have an ongoing condition or need regular prescriptions.
• Arrange your travel insurance for your journey. Make sure it covers the value of all your belongings for your trip.
• Give notice on your current accommodation and service contracts such as gym membership, cell phone contracts etc.

1-2 weeks to go

• Find out how to register for postal voting so that you’re able to vote whilst you’re away from home.
• Redirect all mail and inform utility providers of your impending departure.
• Start downsizing your belongings and make lists for packing.
• Have a going away party and say your goodbyes – make sure you have a full list of email addresses and phone numbers!

Graduate Recruitment Survey Results for 2010

The results of a study conducted by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) are hitting the papers today.

The AGR’s Graduate Recruitment Survey for 2010 looks at the competition for graduate jobs in the current economic climate and the qualities that a graduate needs in order to secure a job in today’s market.

Earlier in the year there were some optimistic signs that things were looking up for recent graduates as it was reported by CBI (Confederation of British Industry) that only 6% of firms were operating a graduate recruitment freeze (e.g not hiring graduates) – this was down from 38% in mid-2009. But the AGR are now claiming that compared to mid 2009, there is a 6.9% decrease in graduate vacancies this summer, which is 4 times what they predicted at the beginning of the year.

It seems that with so many graduates from 2008 and 2009 struggling to find work, there is now a backlog of candidates fighting for the same graduate vacancies in what the AGR deem to be a ‘diminishing pool of jobs’. It is thought that around 69 candidates are competing for the same job compared to 49 per vacancy last year.

The result? Recruiters are being forced to tighten up their selection process to ensure that they’re left with the crème de la crème!

Approximately 77.5% of graduate recruiters are now demanding that their candidates possess a minimum of a 2:1 Honours degree. This is compared to 66.7% requiring this from last year.

Over 1/3 of employers are also recognising the need to have relevant work experience in the industry that you want to work in. For more details on how to get relevant work experience, an internship or an entry-level job, please read our article on WEXO .

It’s not all doom and gloom though. Some sectors such as consulting services, insurance, accountancy and construction are anticipating a rise in offered vacancies this year.

To maximise your chances of securing a graduate job this summer, then do two simple things:

1. Upload your CV for free to Monster , so that recruiters can search the database for the best of the best and you can search for positions.

2. If you haven’t already got relevant work experience, then visit WEXO. Work experience isn’t just for 16 year olds. Top employers such as James Caan from the Dragon’s Den uses the WEXO system to recruit and not all positions advertised are unpaid, so do yourself a favour and get one step ahead of the game!