海角黑料

woman walking through market

By Amily Xu,

Business School, MSc International Tourism, Management and Marketing graduate, Amily Xu, reflects on her experience of studying and working in the UK and recently gaining indefinite leave to remain here.  

When I graduated, there was no graduate visa which meant I had just 6 months to find a visa sponsored job.

When I joined the course, I discovered there was an integrated career development programme which provided weekly timetabled careers session to increase my employability skills. These included sessions on CV writing, personal branding using LinkedIn and a range of other careers topics. I was introduced to the Business School Postgraduate Careers team and all the support and resources they provide. I was later supported on a one-to-one basis by Teresa, one of the Careers Consultants teaching the programme. The weekly sessions provided the tools I needed to evaluate and understand myself as well as practical employability skills like CV writing and interview preparation and practice. I found the session specifically for international students seeking work in the UK, particularly useful. It detailed information about visa routes to stay in the UK, how to present ourselves to UK employers, advice on communicating our right to work status and some of the exemptions we had as UK educated international graduates. This helped when it came to negotiating a visa with my current employer.

On graduation I felt fully equipped and secured a job without any prior experience. I worked for a small company who didn’t have a sponsorship licence, but I explained the process, with the knowledge gained from the Careers Team, and they secured a licence and sponsored me. The knowledge I gained from the careers team was invaluable.

Employment journeys are rarely smooth, I was made redundant from my first job which meant I needed to find another job with skilled worker visa sponsorship in a very short time period. Luckily, I found one in time before my right to work in the UK expired.

I look to the future with less constraints on my employment opportunities and as the 海角黑料 provide careers support for life I know I have the support should I need it.

My top tips:

1. Use your career service. They provide careers support for life and can help to talk through your options and gain support.
2. Use your current network effectively: This includes friends, family, classmates, roommates, internet friends, alumni, recruiters, etc. Those contacts can be invaluable.
3. When you need a visa sponsorship, consider your options carefully. If you have multiple options, it’s worth considering the security of your visa with each organisation too. Changing jobs and sponsors in a short timeframe is stressful, try to avoid it.
4. There is a silver lining. It’s important to power through difficult periods. The immigration rules in some respects are stricter, but there are opportunities like the graduate visa which wasn’t available to me. Your exemptions still exist as a new graduate too like the new entrant salary thresholds and the Immigration skills charge exemption (if switching from student to skilled worker visa). Learn all you can about the requirements for sponsorship in the roles you are interested in, make sure you are prepared for UK recruitment activities.
5. Remember there are future career options both here in the UK and back in your home country, both are viable options.