UK (or London) Jobs
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- funkage
Good day gents,
I'm heading up to London somewhere in October to try my luck with landing a job. You know, the whole 'change-of-environment' thing. I've been looking around creativepool and job opportunities seem decent, but I'd be glad to have feedback from the ground.
What's the job market like for a front-end developer and what's an employer's stand on employing a foreigner? I've 3 years of digital experience under my belt and dealt with brands like Sony and Citroën. I welcome start-ups or small cosy agencies.
Thank you in advance for your input!
- OBBTKN0
You´ve got mail ;)
- joshtrix0
Stay off creativepool, it's a waste of time. Best thing is to either contact the companies you like directly, or sign up with some recruiters such as purple, digital gurus, major players etc.
Depending on your skillsets, I think the front end dev market is pretty boyant right now. If you post your folio I might be able to recommend a few companies.
- funkage0
Thanks for the offer josh, but I haven't compiled my folio. Been meaning to do so before I head over but I've been pulling 14- to 16-hour days this month. In a nutshell, I'm an AS3 developer turned HTML/CSS/JS developer.
- Leigh0
Cogs is a very good recruitment agent for flash devs.
They source a lot for AKQA
- blackspade0
There is a shit load of work in London, hope that helps.
- maikel0
being a foreigner myself I will tell you there's a notorious line between foreigner as in american/aussie or 'just another fucking migrant' as in anything whose first language is not english.
other than that, with a good folio and a bit of patience there are plenty of opportunities.
save a few quid or make a few friends and london is expensive, and bear in mind that by november pretty much half of the local population is obsessed with christmas season and nothing much happens till february.
no sure if october is the best month to land here... anyway plenty of agencies will need extra cover for the said christmas season craze.
my two and a half cents
- goldieboy0
I've heard that there's plenty of front-end devs jobs full-time and freelance knocking around the streets of London.
Sadly, you're from 'Booms, Awesomeville'. Londoners really dislike Awesomevillians :P
Depends where you are coming from (EU out of EU?) will depend on how long you can work here for.
Good luck and look-out for London drinks when you arrive!
- Continuity0
'... and bear in mind that by november pretty much half of the local population is obsessed with christmas season and nothing much happens till february.
QFT.
I landed in London in October last year, and it was seriously difficult to get an interview because of the timing. And, well, also because I'm not an EU citizen, so I ended up having to go back to Canada.
The best time to try this would be March to end of June, or 1st Sept to mid-/late-November.
- so how long did you last then? did you end up moving back in the Spring and making it happen?Douglas
- Nah, sadly, mostly because my finances wouldn't support that :(
Continuity
- honest0
you got work samples?
- chrisRG0
As @blackspade said, there is a shit load of work in London right now.
But you gotta have an online portfolio.
Don't worry about being a foreign, I am Brazilian/Italian and I haven't got any issue with that, people are not interested where you come from they just want you to be good on what you want, and always be nice to everyone, wil help a lot ;)
Of course you're an EU citizen, right? Otherwise things would get a bit harder, I've been listening a lot about the T1 cut.
If you need any help feel free to drop me a line.
- 'a bit harder' is a bit of an understatement. ¬_¬Continuity
- lol... i told english is not my first language. there's no such thing as 'bit harder'?chrisRG
- Sure there, but I think in this context, I would have gone with, 'rather quite difficult, indeed.' :DContinuity
- :-)chrisRG
- funkage0
Thanks for the input and kind offers so far guys. Well, I'm actually from Singapore (we're not part of China, for the uninitiated) and English is my first language (if that's a real problem). My biggest concern is the visa/permit part. I don't mind taking the year-end as a holiday and doing a little freelance here and there—haven't had a vacation in 3 years. The point really is the change in environment.
- chrisRG0
Good lucky. Hope you'll sort everything out easily.
Visa/citizenship is getting very strange over here.
First the cuts on the T1/2 and now (if approved) immigrants wont be able to ask for the 5yrs UK residence citizenship anymore.
- flashbender0
"I don't mind taking the year-end as a holiday and doing a little freelance here and there"
If you want to freelance for legit places they are still going to need to see proof that you can legally work here.
Tier 1 and 2 are royally fucked right now and most likely will continue that way for a while still.
- funkage0
Bump!
So... I'm actively looking for job opportunities. Sent out a few a applications, got two responses and still waiting for developments on those. Still looking around and probably intensify the job hunt.
Meanwhile, anyone know where else I can look? Been through Cogs Agency, itsnicethat's job-board, and currently hitting up individual agencies directly.
Or... anyone looking to hire a front-end developer from Singapore? :D