Introduction to finding work

Many of our international students have asked us for a guide as to which employers recruit international staff.

This question is relatively difficult to answer. All European Economic Area nationals (this includes most countries in Europe) have a right to work in the UK and companies will choose the best person for the job depending on experience, language capabilities, skills and qualifications. If you are an EEA national, you may apply to what ever company is of interest to you.

The situation is different for non-EEA nationals where, for most types of employment in the UK, the individual applies for a Tier 2 General visa and in order to do this they must have a job offer from an employer who is licensed Tier 2 sponser (UKBA list of licensed sponsors) The employer issues a certificate of sponsorship in support of the individual's application for Tier 2 General. The job the individual is being employed to do should either be on the UKBA List of Shortage Occupations or the employer can show that there was no suitably qualified resident worker available because the Resident Labour Market Test was completed at the point of recruitment.  

Finding work

There are many places to search for jobs, for general information visit our job hunting resources.

In this section you can find out about resources to help international students with job hunting and networking:

• International Graduate Jobs - Graduate Prospects and The Careers Group, University of London are working in partnership to bring you International Gradaute Jobs.
• Read Case Studies of international alumni to see how they found their jobs.
• The Prospects website has a country specific information section (follow the links at: www.prospects.ac.uk).
• Our JOBSonline vacancy service advertises graduate jobs, work placements, vacation placements, part-time jobs and volunteering opportunities. Use the 'Refine Vacancy Search' facility on the vacancy search page to enter the employer 'Employer name' and look for any related job vacancies.
• GRADChina guide
• Important news - Fraudulent job offers

>>Further resources