I have been a silent viewer of this forum for quite some time now. So have decided to contribute a bit.
I arrived in London on 28th Jan. Absolutely no problem at the airport. They did not ask for my XRAY or any other weird questions. In short even less hassle than getting off in India.
Now we all know recession is here. My advise is if you are not the adventurous type and a family man with dependents on your current job, do not come here right now.
I came because I wanted to be here, recession or not. Knowing I could have a hard time finding a job here, I started freelancing work and can at least earn enough for my rent in the little time I devote to it, Rest of the time will be for job search.
If things go really bad for the next two months, I will take up some partime/full time supermarkets kind of job anywhere, just to get along. The point is I am enjoying my stay here even with the cold and wetness
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I am a j2ee/atg developer with over four and half years of experience. I have a couple of certifications with pretty good marks, worth advertising in the resume.
Resume is important. Please don't shy away from showing what you did, how it benefited, your strong points.
Now a day ago, I reformatted, added more details of my past work experience, in general "professionalized" the resume spending a good half day on it and put it on some job sites and begun applying for jobs also. Providing a cover letter for each is a bit of pain.
I got a call for working in Egypt. then Amsterdam. Both of them really pushing me to go to those places, sponsoring my visa and everything. I had to refuse as I don't want to be out of UK much. The Amsterdam guy said that my resume is really great and will be on the lookout for me. They both did not ask me if i have applied anywhere else, or other stupid questions.
I just now got a call from a consultant , he asked me if i applied anywhere bla bla get back to me. Its easy to filter these ones out
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While on the lookout, do try to keep your travel to a minimum here as its expensive and also food can be managed very well under 4 pounds per day. Its great for non vegetarians
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My humble opinion is: for the long run, its not the money you will stay here for, take all this risk right now only if you can really appreciate in your own way or reasons, the life here.
I will keep this thread posted on my success and failures both. Please feel free to ask me any questions about steps after you get the visa and stuff as they are still fresh in my mind.
Try to be positive always
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