My husband and I came to the UK last September because I started my PhD here. My husband was a web developer for 3 years in Sri Lanka. We've been applying for web developer jobs that aligns with his experience but we haven't even been called for an interview yet. He's now working in Amazon part time as a yard marshall, we're financially struggling and getting frustrated because we haven't heard back from anyone. Can someone tell me if there's something we can do to improve his chances? We're new to this country and culture so anything would help at this point!
Make it really clear in the CV that he is resident in the UK and presumably doesn’t need sponsorship. I advertise positions in my teams that I need UK residents only, onsite certain days etc and no sponsorship available and I still will be inundated with applications from India etc looking for UK roles. I’d be worried he’s beings sifted out this way incorrectly. However, the kind of role you are describing is also largely off shored in the more junior roles.
As someone whose wife is a non-UK/non-EU national this was exactly my first thought.
Highlight that on the CV, covering letter and to the recruiter if you're going through an agency. 'Full right to work in the UK' or words to that effect, from memory we used to send recruiters/HR a scan of the front of her BRP.
Thanks so much for the tip!
Off topic, but which way did your wife go for her BRP?
My wife has a BRC and it seems to be an absolute pain to get any employer to believe it’s a legitimate document because they’re so accustomed to BRP’s (and nobody wants to check a share code.)
It was a BRP as she was on a spousal visa, I don't believe we had the option of a BRC. To be absolutely honest I've never heard of a BRC either!
The latter part of your comment is slightly concerning (although I am absolutely not surprised and I have my cynical ideas as to why the Government has decided to move away from physical BRPs) as obviously in just over 6 months time it will all be share code based.
Everyone should be checking share codes now, BRP’s are no longer acceptable as proof food right to work
How would someone in this position show that he doesn't need sponsorship? Is it ok to mention it explicitly in the summary section? Thanks
Absolutely , if it was me I would have this highlighted near the very top with contact details and in bold. UK Resident and type of Visa held etc.
Agree, and immediate availability
Immediate availability got me a job. Its a big differentiator if they don't need to potentially wait 3 months to bring you on board.
And add “Sponsorship not required” for good measure. Don’t rest on a hiring managers knowledge of sponsorship alone, spell it out.
This would be something mentioned in the summary section first and foremost, especially when applying for jobs in the UK. Also it is a harsh job market here IT-wise, if he has a link to his portfolio this will help hugely.
Thank you for your reply. We have mentioned our UK address on the very top, should it be more clearer? Maybe mention it in the summary?
It's the single most important piece of information.
I put the information in multiple places on my CV.
Right at top: "Name" US Citizen with Resident Visa
Summary: "Recently moved to the UK with right to work, immediately available and open to relocation within (region)"
Additional information: Family Visa
I’d put it before the summary - name, contact details underneath and then bolded underneath that UK Resident - Right to work and as suggested availability. Then the summary which you can expand the visa info in. You need to catch the eye. I review hundreds of CVs per year and I only read the summaries of those I’m interested in after looking at work experience and qualifications etc.
Thanks so much!
I would go so as far as mentioning no sponsorship required on cover letter/resume just to make it really clear.
If he's not getting callbacks - then it could be his CV. It might need a review and to see if he's applying for the right jobs.
Does he have an up-to-date linkedin profile?
Tbh as a web dev he should just be contacting recruiters directly and looking to get a role through them. They'll get him interviews easily.
That all depends on the calibre of the candidate (their CV, depth of knowledge, how they present themselves, communication skills).
A recruiter will not have an interest in dealing with a low quality dev candidate at present.
Perhaps, but at the worst case they'll have a conversation with a few recruiters and know where they stand, compared to right now where they have zero feedback.
Thank you we will give that a try!
I think the point is, recruiters are going to be pretty unlikely to dedicate some time to speak with someone they may view as unplaceable.
If the fundamentals aren't there (skills match, CV quality), it's not worth a recruiters time.
And an experienced and good recruiter knows that you have to speak with someone to really understand where they fit in the market.
People new to the market, such as school leavers and graduates, can work well with recruiters, so why not this gentleman?
He should establish a working relationship with recruiters so he can get some help understanding the market and what they think of his CV etc
Depends, recruiters get flooded with CV's from south asia and they generally aren't folk they can charge a fee to place.
Sure, I’m an HR consultant and am aware that this happens. They’re easy to separate out because those applicants aren’t even in the country. The OP is in the U.K. Her husband should call around and even go and meet some recruiters in person. He’s exactly the sort of applicant who can really benefit from establishing a good relationship with a recruiter to help market him. The fact that he’s not from the U.K. shouldn’t deter him, in fact the opposite. Prejudice is alive and well and he needs to throw everything at it and knock on as many doors as possible and network so that he reaches those of us out there who will look beyond his name and where he studied
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11d
🤣 sure
Thank you for your reply. Yes his linkedin is up to date. I too feel like his CV might need some adjustments. Would you be able to review it if I upload it here? Thanks in advance!
Use Resume.io, cheap and easy
I've not been a web-dev for 20 years so probably someone else is better qualified. You want to make sure it's structured over at most 2 pages, has a short 'intro' at the top (1 paragraph), job history focusing on achievements, skills section, simply formatted with no spelling or grammatical mistakes.
Does he have a portfolio?
For web devs it’s usually advisable for their CV to link out to a portfolio of work they have completed, like a lookbook of his best work. Has he included this in both his LinkedIn and CV?
I am English but work for an Indian company in the UK. As others say, be very clear about visa status, I see many applications from overseas despite the adverts stating no sponsorship.
I can confirm that Indian CVs are quite different to a UK national’s one. I still can’t get over the fact that some actually include father and mother’s name and a signed promise that everything is truthful.
Is it true that Indian companies in the UK are involved in bringing in low quality workers from India over UK/EU candidates?
Don't know where you heard about this, but what would the rationale be? Generally companies in the UK look to outsource to India to pay employees less. What benefit would they get to justify paying (sponsorship, larger wages) to bring "low quality workers" to the UK instead?
I don’t know but its happening. Maybe they can be hired at lower wages since so many are desperate to get out of India (just look at the UK visa forum). Also the visible increase in the Indian population in the Midlands (home to Indian owned businesses like JLR and TATA). Would be good to hear from people working there. I can’t for a moment believe that every single vacancy being filled by an Indian in these companies could not find a UK or European alternative candidate.
Yes many of my friends from India are working like this. But mostly experienced ones
The majority of Indian CVs I see are MSc (mainly, a few Batchelor degrees) engineering students who can get a study visa and then have 2 years (I think) after graduating to find a job in that field before the visa expires and the dream dies. Getting a job in the field is the key for them.
What programming languages does he know?
Web developers are ten a penny so it will be hard to get a job as (presumably) he will be on a visa that is tied to your phd, and companies would rather invest in people who are in the country long term.
I’d advise looking at contracting (inside or outside ir35), applying for fixed term contracts or if he can apply for software engineer jobs rather than web developer jobs, as they are far more candidate scarce markets. As long as he has the skills ofc
Fortran, COBOL, Turbo Pascal, LOGO, Assembly.
All the latest and greatest ones.
COBOL programming is pretty wild pay though.
What stacks/languages would you associate with SW and what with WD?
WD: html, css, vanilla JavaScript
SW: virtually anything else
If starting out though I’d avoid anything embedded and just go for .NET, python, full stack JavaScript and try to move into devops as early as possible.
I’m not technical though so might have missed a few off the WD as I haven’t worked any WD roles in years, I’m just a recruiter
Thanks. I see you were referring to Web Dev as Front-End, and you're right — that market is Bootcamp territory with everyone and their dog experts.
Yea front end web dev. You can get front end JavaScript SW Engineers that are good in react or Angular though which are still in high demand
This is not true at all, software engineer and web developer are literally interchangeable terms, you could be writing software for the web in literally any language
It needs to be more specific what kind of web developer, front-end / backend / devops?
Every company has their own terminology
Yea whilst you may be right, a Web Developer job title generally refers to people doing html, css etc.
it's an incredibly loose term and I've seen it used to describe back-end developer in multiple companies throughout the UK
To be fair, UK companies have offshored a lot of the web development roles to places like India and Sri Lanka.
Can your husband think about what is differentiating about an onshore role, and highlight the skills he specifically has in that area, perhaps tailor the CV towards this?
I’ve seen first hand how a majority of web development roles have been outsourced, and off shored, to India. Unfortunately your husband will struggle to find a company whose bread and butter isn’t in web development.
The best he can do is target digital marketing companies that do web development and most likely they will hire him. But what’s also important is that he doesn’t short change himself, i.e. take a salary cut.
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13d
You have poor comprehension skills
Three points.
One - Web dev is probably the most saturated dev role that exists
Two - unless he has a God tier level of experience without residency no one is going to be interested
Three - companies struggle to quantify foreign experience unless they are massive companies
The best thing he can do is learn another language/type of development and go in junior.
The alternative is to try and do some contracting, if he goes in at a competitive rate he has a decent chance of landing a few which could turn perm or at least pad the cv but again I don't know how that will work with visa etc
This. I’m an IT recruiter and the best thing to do is to heavily research emerging markets, upskill and start as junior again. Better chance of getting a role as these are the roles which are hiring.
Examples of emerging technology: HR IT (Workday for example), ServiceNow, SAP (niche areas within SAP, research emerging areas), Automation, ITSM, ServiceNow (serviceNow is very in demand. Some certifications and a boot camp would garuantee you a role)
How is the demand for specifically Workday Certified folks? Has there been an uptick in the requirement for such roles?. I have good opportunities to pick up some workday skills at work apart from my software dev role but it always feels like you will be limited to just workday/sap any other vendor…
It’s in high demand, depends where you look geographically though. US is a great market, so is Germany and southern Europe. UK market is a little more saturated but still demand.
You will absolutely be limited to Workday, but that’s what a specialist is and how you get picked out by hiring managers. Having said that, workday is a huge application with many nuances and areas to focus on.
This is an interesting insight. I would have thought Web dev (react) would still outnumber these skillsets 10 fold.
I would say if someone wants to re-train python is the way to go....
I have six years of python experience and have only had responses from people looking for my kotlin or JS background for almost a year now. I wouldn't say it's great.
What industry are you applying to? In financial services, python is fast becoming the most popular technology skillset
There are a couple of things here: 1. Unless your husband worked for a big name tech company (Google, Amazon, etc.), recruiters will always prioritise people with UK experience. 2. The market for developers is really bad at the moment. 3. You haven’t specified if your husband would need visa sponsorship. If he does, I hate to break this to you but companies will not even consider such applicants. If he doesn’t, make sure you indicate it on the CV.
The market for developers is alright at the moment.
You just have to have experience and interview well, same as always.
Yes, wages haven't tracked inflation... but no one's wages are really better off...
Bad market for developers is about probably what’s considered normal for other industries. We’ve just had it pretty good for the last few years.
From a recruiter point of view, unless your husband worked for some big, established tech companies in Sri Lanka, his work experience counts for pretty much nothing.
I see loads of CVs with 100% offshore experience with places that barely register on Google if at all and it’s not really worth my time to investigate further.
Web Dev jobs are hard to come by.
Web developers are incredibly common and can usually work remotely. Tbh he would have a better chance getting hired by a UK employer if he was still living in Sri Lanka where they could have him work remotely and pay him significantly less than they would have to pay him in the UK.
As a fellow Sri Lankan who lived in the UK on and off over 30 years (now retired in Sri Lanka), all I can say is there has been a huge bandwagon effect after the Sri Lankan economic collapse of people moving or trying to move to the UK by sending one spouse to do a higher education course and the other trying to find work. Unfortunately most end up in very low wage jobs and a reduced quality of life simply through not having done enough research before they came over and because their skillset is not meeting UK requirements. I know a few who had to suck it up and leave but the majority cannot go back due to ‘loss of face’ and having sold up everything before coming in.
I know it’s rude, but for someone purportedly doing a PhD, did you not do any research before coming in?
I chose to come to the UK because of medical reasons, which is also why I didn't want to come by myself. Unfortunately all the people I asked about getting a job in the UK said and I quote that a software engineer (his previous job was titled as software engineer but his work was more in web development) can get a job easily here. Now I just feel guilty for dragging him here with me. To clarify I am not one of those people who came for higher education to get out of the country, this was always my plan and bringing my husband with me had to happen because of my medical condition.
I don't understand why you would choose the UK for medical reasons. Or is it simply to pay £470 per year and use the NHS?
Last I checked, it was £776 per person per year, so combined, they're likely paying £1552 a year. Not a small amount at all. Although, saying they came here for medical reasons and not for the education for which they are granted stay in the UK doesn't look great.
It could well be that OP had a few different options and chose the UK because we have the best medical care out of the options. That's fair. I've lived abroad and since returning to the UK I've had cancer. If I were to move back abroad again (possible), I would only choose a country with good public health care, just in case. When you're choosing where to live, stuff like that matters.
It does but it comes across as if that was their primary concern. Which if that's the case, then they're here on false pretences and to take advantage of what is in effect, low cost healthcare even accounting for the surcharge.
A surcharge in which the money put in, is wiped out instantly in most cases of treatment.
To be brutally honest based on this reply you are here for the wrong reasons and taking the place of someone who actually isn’t abusing the system for “medical reasons”. You’ve made your bed now lie in it
The people you asked had outdated information. It was easy to find a SWE job in the uk a few years ago, but nowadays it’s extremely competitive. There is zero chance he can get a job that pays anything decent without any UK experience or big tech experience.
He might be able to get a job somewhere for £25-30k (assuming London, £20-25 elsewhere) but I’m not sure that would improve your situation much
£20-25 a year salary? Christ, I know cost of living hit hard, but still... (/s)
Web development is so oversaturated right now im not too surprised.
Whilst I haven't dealt with too many Sri Lankan CV's, I have seen plenty from India and Pakistian.
As a common, the formatting tends to be horrible. Very cluttered. Inconsistent style. Plastered with certifications (AWS, K8S, etc) that no employer gives a damn about.
Take a look at the CV as the first port of call.
What’s the visa situation. You need to make this clear.
As someone who recently recruited (and hired) two web developers - For some reason there is a massive amount of south asian web developers recently arrived to the country on student visas, recent grad visas, or dependent of student visas and I'm not entirely sure why as the demand for that role has been pretty low for years, and made worse as people have moved on to using dedicated tools like Shopify or Webflow instead of building their own solution. On top of that, people hiring a webdev role are looking for a good portfolio of work, and the average South Asian website does not look very good to the Western eye. Finally of course, even if your husband mentions that he doesn't need sponsorship, there's a ticking clock on your own visa program that means companies know that either they're going to lose him after they've invested years into his development, or have to cough up to cover the sponsorship themselves. So it's a lot of uphill battles to overcome.
Firms don't consider 3 YOE outside the west equivalent to European/ Western countries
Probably need to look for entry level job
Has he got a Linkedin account, has he updated his job titles and experience, has he opened his account to be contacted by recruiters?
Personally every job I've ever had has come from a recruiter contacting me on Linkedin (I work in ecommerce, so a similar field as your husband).
Not a guarantee but adopt an English first name like Kevin and put that on his resume instead, companies could assume he'll need visa paperwork or sponsorship done and are rejecting him immediately for that reasons
But wouldn't that be a problem later during interview? I am also an international graduate looking for jobs .
Not really, Many anglicise their name, such as my Polish friend calls himself Martin, even though his name is Marcin. It's accepted.
What about your last name though? Is it legal? (although, even if it were, applying under a different last name would look shady, and it will come up soon anyway if you're selected for an interview and they need to do background checks on you).
It's completely legal. In the UK you do not have a "legal name" you can call yourself whatever you want as long as you aren't misrepresenting yourself as specifically somebody else.
My name is English but rare. EVERY BOODY TIME, I have to spell it.
Plenty of British people have foreign-sounding surnames.. even our Prime Minister. I think if you Anglicize the first name, most people would just think a parent comes from overseas or something.
He's white though
No. In the UK you can go by any name you like.
The UK has an issue with ghosting and people who post jobs that they have no intention of employing someone for. The just do it to meet a quota
For someone who has never worked in the UK before, he is facing a few roadblocks. Problem no 1 is that he can’t provide professional UK references if needed.
I have a friend from India who got a nice job quickly by knowing how to system worked: he first took a customer service job in a large corporate company, after one year he applied INTERNALLY for a job that matched his CV, and he got the job.
A lot of companies do not want to sponsor a person if they’re not eligible to work here or have a work visa for a long time. It’s easier to hire someone who’s born here on in the EU. Plus anything that involves a “service” is easily outsourced to other Asian countries now and all done by emails etc on low rates as they don’t need to pay UK salaries.
Recruiter here, unfortunately at the moment the job market is really competitive.
The issue he will have applying direct is that he will be up against multiple applicants with UK experience.
It’s unlikely any recruiter will be able to assist as especially within web development the fees paid to agencies by companies can be very high.
Without specific UK experience or if he worked for a multinational corporation he may struggle for a while.
Also include full UK right to work no sponsorship required on the CV if this is the case as it may help
Plus the fact employers its a buyers market for them as buyer.
Most likely the CV needs to be "westernised".
Does it mention something like ">X years of experience" working with a technology anywhere on the CV? That is seen negatively here as it could be viewed as being stagnant.
Get a local CV coach, I think there are some free ones but you'll need someone who is familiar with the tech industry to give you a hand!
He hasn't got a permanent visa. This is the problem.
Also, how is his English? As good as yours?
Now nobody asked this but how well can he communicate in English both spoken and written?
What does the resume look like? There is a resume sub that will give feedback for free! You post it and state what you are looking for field wise and you’ll get a lot of input.
No point I am also in the same boat , trying since January. Mentioned in my resume that I have right to work and everything I have 6.5 years of experience still the same.
I am also a web developer. I would suggest get referral and also ask your husband to start learning some backend as well and apply for fullstack developer.
I hope he gets the job soon.
Firstly good luck to him ! Not an expert but I do hire Web devs for a small UK business. Here is what I would be thinking (and what my hr colleagues would be screening before the application even got to me).
Are they able to work in the UK? (most companies can't afford the expense of funding a visa) Are they local to the office (we do 3 days in the office per week) Did they research the company / do a good cover letter in good English and not just rely on chstgpt ? (everyone needs to be able to communicate well ) Then for me - I don't really look at cvs - for example I have no formal education (not even gcses) yet I'm a solutions Architect/lead developer so it really only provides me with links to actual work. I usually expect to see a portfolio of work - maybe hosted on netlify with open github repos I can look at (free to do this) ideally explaining what you were trying to achieve. These need to be a bit more complex than just simple tutorials
Let me know if you have any questions - I'm afraid we aren't hiring at the mo
Thank you very much. This helps a lot.
Market is quite saturated as it was quite easy to get yourself into coding/still is, so jobs are there but you have a lot of CVs to go through…
Make your residency status clear on your CV if you don't need sponsorship, that should be a big help
Because of costs, many people use web developers from abroad, because they are cheaper, than in the UK.
Wait in the queue, darling. The UK tech sector is been struggling for a while since the pandemic. Brexit, skyrocketing costs, mass layoffs and a dumb government didn't help either. Also, if your husband has not got his residence permit yet, the discussion is moot.
Does his name sound foreign from a British perspective? Anglicise it if you can. In theory recruiters don't discriminate on the basis of names but in reality they do.
I have Asian friends who have to do this, and the results are very worrying, they almost always get responses with their 'english' name.
That's awful!
I came here to say this!
There's so little details here beyond 'he's applied and it wasn't successful', that it's hard to say much of anything.
I worry for the quality of PHDs being churned out nowadays
If he is mentioning that he is here on your visa while you are studying that may also put recruiters off. I recruited somebody that was here because his wife was studying, he was let go in his probation because he wasn’t putting in the hard work and too busy helping his wife with her degree, it was just a temporary income to him which won’t wash when there are plenty of candidates out there.
Recruitment in this country is utter bullshit. Everyone claims they "have so many enquiries that they can't provide feedback to applicants". It's rude and just ignorant. If someone takes the time to apply for a vacancy, the company should have to respond at the very least.
Only thing I can suggest is getting his CV and cover letter looked at to see if there's anything missing, it's too messy, doesn't have the right "buzzwords".
It sucks and trying to get a job here can be really soul destroying at the best of times. He's not alone though, our recruitment practices are just terrible.
I do agree it's bullshit but often there really are too many cvs.
I am hiring multiple positions at the moment between 60-100k and each of those had a few thousand applicants.
There is no way my hr and internal recruiters have the ability to offer custom feedback more than the senior exec said any CV without x gets binned etc
There is also no way my company is going to allow me the time to respond to all of these as the person who can explain why.
It is shit but in the last few years the number of applicants for roles has just exploded.
Buzzwords are key & are specific to each industry.
Thank you very much. That helps.
And its so easy with ATS systems used in most recruitment roles to set up an auto email at least that says something like "unfortunately you have not been successful at this time, this will usually be for one of the following reasons..." even if you do have so many people that responding individually to everyone would be a full time job in itself.
He needs to be different, standing out, show how it can fit and most importantly add value. Keep learning and develop a portfolio.
What’s his CV like?
I’ve seen CVs in the past that are 10 pages long listing every project that someone worked on. These will ignored.
You can always post it on here with information hidden for people you give opinions on if you like.
Get him to get in touch with recruiters, ideally through Linkedin. He'll have interviews in no time.
Find adverts for jobs in your field, add the recruitment consultant on LinkedIn. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is current and banging. Make contact with the recruitment guys and let them do the work for you.
I don't know about your husband's experience or where he's worked, but what employers expect from a CV/résumé differs from country to country. It could be something as simple as he's sending far too much information. Also check whether there's a form to complete for each job. A lot of the time, employers don't want a CV and covering letter; they want all the info on their form.
It maybe that he has extensive experience in other countries that doesn't translate well into what's needed in the UK job market. He might need to focus on different areas of his qualifications and experience.
He might be wise to find a recruitment firm working within the sector. They'll be able to tell him where he's going wrong. It's worth saying, though, that the jobs market in the UK is crap at the moment and the pay to cost of living ratio is absolutely terrible.
I'm assuming your husband has the right to work here btw. If he's hoping for sponsorship he'll really struggle.
Most pure webdev roles for companies have been outsourced to India or other areas to save cost, there is a market for pure Web Dev in the UK but its normally freelance, and there is quite a lot of competition.
Your husband would be better training in frontend frameworks, such as React, or Angular. Or backend languages such as C#, Python or Java, as it will be much easier for him to get a job.
TLDR; Web Dev roles in the UK are mainly freelance these days, husband will need to become a frontend developer or backend developer to find a suitable job.
Have you tried freelance sites like fiverr?
there’s a software company called EXL that has a unit in belfast check it out!
Apologies if this has already been mentioned. In my experience doing a lot of hiring both in the Indian sub-continent and in the UK with candidates from the Indian sub-continent, there is a notable difference in the style and content of CVs between the ‘norm’ from the UK. IN MY EXPERIENCE, CVs from the sub-continent tend to be much more flamboyant and stylised than what is expected here- with included photographs, multiple fonts, and more in-depth personal information than people expect to see here in the UK. This may not be the case with your husbands, but it might be worth either paying someone local to review the CV or simply reviewing good, local CV formats and adjusting. Keep it simple and stick to the data. And GOOD LUCK!
It's very bad at the moment. I think so unemployment is around 10%
Have you considered the automotive giants in the uk? JLR / Rolls Royce / Aston Martin
There are loads of low cost courses on places like Udemy that teach web development, therefore now the market is over saturated.
It's a tough job market at the moment. I was on a recruitment panel for an IT support role and saw 20-30 software engineers applying for it, loads of people with masters and 1 or 2 phds.
I wouldn't look at web development anymore. Somebody with zero knowledge can build a website in 5 mins. If I was looking for a career in IT, I would go down the server admin route and learn Linux.
My honest advise would be to put an English name on his CV. It’s not that every recruiters a racists or anything, but rather theirs an unconscious bias and have an English name would help you over come that. Other then that if he’s done coding in web development he could try to expand his skills set and get a few certifications and apply to broader jobs in IT. Gettingnew certifications can take any where from 3 to 6 months.
Linkedin. Get him Infront of a recruiter. I have contacts of good recruiters in east midlands.
Unfortunately I am not hiring atm but I know plenty of places that are.
Hi, Thank you for your reply. I'm currently based in Surrey. But anything helps at this point. Could you please let me know some recruiters?
Ah Surrey well out of my area. Check LinkedIn for local recruiters. Theres also often development networking events. Go to one.
The biggest tip I can give anyone looking for work, is don't wait for a response, once you have applied. Find out who the manager, or head of HR is, or whoever is responsible for the interviewing/hiring process and try to go and speak with them. Remember to leave your name if they are unavailable. Not only does this show a proactive approach to gaining employment, but if you do get to have a chat with whoever is responsible for hiring, when they get to your CV to arrange interviews, they will likely remember you. This can only be a positive, as the interview will likely be much more relaxed and friendly, as a result. Good luck!
I’m sorry to hear about your downfall honestly. He is a man who is doing the best he can with what is presented, I truly wish y’all the best.
He loves you
Make sure it states he can speak English has the right to work in the UK ect
I'm of Indian descent. I have to place British Citizen right next to my name in the CV. As recruiters will assume by my name that I'm not from the UK. Once I did this, I started to get call backs ect
I've re-written cvs and helped people get jobs. feel free to send to: al arthur @ ymail. com. bear in mind, in the UK, its only partly about performance/capability. you really have to immerse yourself in the lifestyle/culture to progress to your abilities. start watching: It aint half hot mum, Faulty Towers, The Life of Brian, The Two Ronnies, Eastenders, Gogglebox to understand British people.
Use a western sounding version of his name on the application and CV. Remove his picture from LinkedIn and hide anything implying he might need a visa.
Honestly the IT market is so over saturated in the UK, thank the tories...
I applied for a few Webdev roles a few years ago and got very little interest, was probably overqualified tbf but it is a saturated market. Try to increase his skillset by doing some online courses and qualifications if possible.
What online courses and qualifications do you reccommend? I always thought those kind of courses were looked down on
Anything relevant might help. Some useful stuff is SQL, PHP, Python, C# just look at what jobs are out there and what you’re applying for. Research what the companies do etc
I am also a web developer and I work as a security guard. In UK like a third of people have degrees so it doesnt mean much. He would be better off learning a trade.
Don't use his name, put James.or John on the CV then you will get an interview
Hey, I work in career consulting and I know it's a tough time. If you want, happy to review his CV and LinkedIn and provide pointers (at no cost)! Shoot me a message
Set up a strong LinkedIn profile and mark it as Open to Work for Recruiters. Make sure all qualifications and experience is listed, and get specific, so he appears in more tailored searches. Stay active on there and keep an eye out for Recruitment in Mail
Britishfy the first name, use middle name or alternatively one of the last names if it sounds more "canon". Look up a web page that scores your CV, aim for a 90% or higher (yes, this will make it look like everyone else's, boring language, pet terms and all that, I know is nonsense but it will pass HR filters that way). Basically tell HR what they want to read, instead of an original piece of work.
The job market has been shit for well over a year. Many people going for the same role. Assuming he does not need sponsorship and his cv is ok, maybe he needs to apply for more roles each day
A sensitive topic, but make sure he uses a British first name on the CV, with email address reflecting this. He can still provide his legal first name if he gets a job. And as others mentioned, make sure that his right to work status and UK town/county location info are mentioned on the CV, the higher on the page the better.
Use a "stage name" if your own name is long and or hard to pronounce. I've seen recruitment teams not want to call someone because of fear of getting it wrong, along with straight out bias. I use an English first name for my CV, then tell them my legal name once I'm in.
ATS
Hello, firstly it’s a tough market so it’s not easy for anyone applying. I know it’s gruelling especially as you’re new here but have faith, his skills are valuable and he’ll find a job.
It’s probably a mixture of things e.g. CV, his approach to applications, general market savvy etc.
I work in banking and tech in a senior role and I’m more than happy to review his CV and give him some pointers if you’d like. 😊
My parents also moved here over 20 years ago from South Asia with us and really struggled to find ways into the UK job market. Now 20 years later both their children have graduated and have their own lives, so have faith it will get easier!
Lots of good advice already, better Linkedin profile, reaching out to recruiters proactively and a good CV review are all sensible steps. The advice to highlight right to work is excellent.
A suggestion that can be unsavoury but I have heard is effective is Anglicanising his name. There is a bias in some quarters of recruitment against names from different cultures. You could very reasonably say that he shouldn't work for people that carry these prejudices but principles often struggle against the need to pay the bills and put food on the table.
I would make sure there is a clear narrative in his bio/introduction about why he relocated to the UK, that he has taken a warehouse job while he looks for a more suitable role, and that he has brushed up his language skills and learned more about the culture in this role.
Work ethic is a great selling point and employers are practically spammed with applications from non uk residents who think they can somehow pretend to be in the UK and work remote, so firming up the UK resident bit is important too.
Good luck to you both.
Foreigners really need to learn that the UK is hostile and run by far right racists. You should leave and go to a more welcoming country where your skills will be valued.
This is a sad reality.
So no you are doing nothing wrong just companies in the uk like to ignore everyone then complain they can’t find workers welcome to the uk where the business man pretends to be a victim for attention all the time
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