UK Job Search Notes | 6 Steps to Think Through Before Sending Out Your CV

UK Job Search Notes | 6 Steps to Think Through Before Sending Out Your CV

Things to watch for and tips before you start applying

Hi dreamers, long time no see 🌞 Here's my first update for October. Sorry to keep you waiting!

I just got back to the UK from two weeks of traveling in Europe 😆

After soaking up the sun and the wine, I've recharged and I'm back to grinding away in the British Empire. I'm thinking about putting together some Europe travel tips for you all~

Enough chatter, let's get straight to it!

Before you start applying, get clear on your career goals:

Getting clear: it's an ongoing process of talking with yourself and exploring who you are.

Career direction: there's no single right path. It comes in stages and in levels.

For example: your dream job > stepping stones toward that dream job > lots of hands-on experience and learning in different (or the same) fields

In your 20s, explore a lot, and find out what you like and what you don't

Choosing what you like is one way of taking responsibility for yourself and your future. If even you can't follow your own sense of self and make a choice you're happy with, how can you convince yourself that you can become who you want to be at work, or in life? Sure, work is a way to make a living, but it takes up a huge part of life. I don't think anyone wants to spend their working years miserable, going through the motions like a zombie. Everyone is born with their own sense of self, and no one should be limited by anyone else. Respect other people's opinions, but respect your own heart first.

First, whether you're a student or on a working holiday, use the field you yourself believe in as your starting point, and ask yourself: is this really where my interest lies? Or is there a field you'd like to try, or love, but have never acted on? Of course, getting to do what you love is definitely a privilege. But what I want to say is that instead of seeing it as a privilege, see it as a chance you're consciously giving yourself to try and take on a challenge for the things you love. If you won't even try, that probably means you don't want it that badly, right?

[Step 1] Choose a job category based on your education, experience and the industry you want to enter

Pick your career field and the range of roles, analyze the skills those roles require, then narrow it down by seniority. Here I'm focusing on people just starting out or with no more than five years of work experience.

If you're still a student, you can start looking for opportunities here:

— Graduate scheme

— Placement

— Internship

Graduates can start their job search at these levels:

— Entry-level

— Associate

— Executive

— Assistant

When we're just starting out, what should we look for in a job? I'm asking because when I first started working, these questions never crossed my mind. I just dove headfirst into a job without thinking about its:

— Room for growth

— Future prospects

— What you can learn

— Experience you can take with you

— Network you can build

— Sense of achievement, and the chance to show what you're worth

Looking back now that I've been working for a while, these are the points I'd like to share, so you can go into a job more consciously instead of just blindly doing it. In the long run, I know a job is just my job for this stage, not the ultimate goal of my career. Later on I'll go deeper into these thought processes with you; they're invisible, but they matter a lot.

Know which soft and hard skills you want to gain from a job, and pave the way for your long-term growth: of course, a lot of the time when we start working, we don't know what we want yet. What we can do is try things and learn from mistakes. Good or bad, it's all experience, and as long as our mindset is right, we can learn from it. Hold on to what made you start, and don't just drift along with the crowd. You never know which experience or opportunity will make a difference at some point in the future, good or bad. Whatever seeds you plant now may bear fruit in the days ahead.

[Step 2] Analyze your soft and hard skills

Before others get to know you, get to know yourself well. If you don't understand your own value, how can you convince anyone else that you're valuable? Job hunting and interviewing are really a way of marketing yourself: how will you analyze your strengths and weaknesses and show your value so that a company's HR or a headhunter sees it, and even moves you on to an interview?

There are two kinds of skills:

— Soft skills

— Hard skills

Every industry needs different soft and hard skills, so I'll leave the research to you (there's a useful website at the end to get you started)

[Step 3] Work arrangement

We're lucky that after the pandemic, ways of working have become a lot more flexible. Which arrangement suits you?

— Hybrid: in the office 2–3 days a week

— On site: in the office five days a week

— Remote: fully remote

[Step 4]

Location**

Depending on your work arrangement, you might choose to live closer to the office, or not mind living far away at all. If you want to experience life and find opportunities to grow, you can choose a big city or a major second-tier city, e.g. London, Manchester. If you want a slower-paced country life, you can pick a town in a rural area. Each has its pros and cons; choose based on your stage of life and the standard of living you can afford. Location and work arrangement basically affect each other, so I'd suggest giving them some thought when you apply.

[Step 5] Salary

For your expected salary, look at what you hope to earn and the living cost of the city you choose.

Salary package:

• Most full-time jobs in the UK are paid as an annual salary

• Bonuses a company might offer (using my own experience at Amazon as an example)

  • Sign-on bonus

  • Stock (RSUs)

• Sales jobs may also come with commission, etc.

[Step 6: Company benefits]

Holiday: Under UK government rules, a job with a five-day week comes with 28 days of statutory annual leave: “Most workers who work a 5-day week must receive at least 28 days’ paid annual leave a year. This is the equivalent of 5.6 weeks of holiday.” In my experience at Amazon, I got 25 days of annual leave a year, not including Bank Holidays. Some companies include bank holidays in the offer and some don't, so check for yourself.

Insurance: Travel, dental, medical, commuting, electronics and other kinds of insurance; every company is different.
Pension Plan: the idea is that the company saves for your retirement together with you. The minimum is usually 4–5%, deducted from your pay every month, and the company matches the percentage you choose. For example, if you pay 5% a month, the company pays another 5%, for 10% in total, but you can only withdraw this money once you reach a certain age.

Employee Discount: a discount on the company's own products or services. It varies by company; at Amazon it's a 5–10% discount and a £100 voucher a year. (Honestly a lot less than I expected🫠)

Scheme: Kind of like an allowance: for company events, or travel and hotel costs for attending certain events, the company pays a set amount or the full cost. Every company offers different allowances.

Work laptop & home office setup: The equipment you get may differ slightly by role. I got a computer, an over-ear headset with a mic, a screen protector and a backpack, and the company also subsidized the gear I needed to work from home.

If you've read this far, I hope this helps with your job search! Here's a careers website you can use to research the industry or role you're interested in, the skills it may call for (the soft and hard skills you need), and even the current salary range for the role. Doing some initial research on the industry or role you want to get into not only helps you confirm whether it's the kind of work you want, it's also a way to take responsibility for yourself and avoid too many detours.
Website: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/

Luo La (羅菈)'s pen🖊️ See you next time!