According to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the UK, India sent the highest number of international students to the UK with 1,27,731 study visas granted last year. This was a monumental increase of 273% from the year prior.
When international students first step foot in the UK, the starry-eyed students are welcomed into a professional and academic environment that places immense value on skills. As students dive deeper into their academic commitments, their degree becomes the ticket to graduate jobs.
Despite the cost of living crisis and the distress around global layoffs, the UK job market is looking robust, with a sizable number of employers still actively hiring: still publishing new roles, interviewing, and extending offers. Employability outcomes and job prospects are obviously the number one factor for most international students’ decision to study abroad. It is hardly surprising that every student dreams of being able to work in the UK.
If one requires to do some job hunting in the UK, there are five exercises Indian students should perform:
The first exercise is understanding the hiring practices and trends of the country. The UK employers' hiring mindset is heavily driven by a “proof of work” ideology, so academic degrees alone can get a foot in the door, but they don’t land jobs. It’s important that international students, therefore, know that it is their skills more than the colour of their passport or the grades on their transcripts that can help them land a job in the country upon graduating.
The second exercise on every Indian student’s agenda should be honing their soft skills. Soft skills are interpersonal and transferable skills like teamwork, communication, problem-solving, crisis management, time management, etc. Coming from the experience and exposure to the Indian job market that relies heavily on the academic credentials of candidates, it is even more important for Indian students to build up the “skills” section in their resume. This is why working in part-time jobs or internships while studying can be such an enriching and game-changing learning experience. Soft skills — irrespective of the job you are applying for — are universally valuable for employers.
Gaining work experience in any form, whether through formal internships, zero-hour contracts working as campus ambassadors for brands or businesses, or short projects or work shadowing opportunities, can be a stepping stone to a full-time role upon graduating.
And third, the tricky part in the UK job market isn’t your qualification for the job, but rather the timing. The UK job market is fairly open…we know history and sociology students now working in the financial (tax and audit) sectors in graduate roles. Your career path isn’t limited to the margins of your degree. But students need to build their time management muscles for the application process. When international students first arrive in the UK, they are already running behind…this sense of urgency should motivate you, rather than stress you out.
This brings us to the fourth exercise: Practice. Once you have understood the job market and the application process, prepare for each step. Do dummy case studies, practise psychometric tests and aptitude tests online, participate in group exercises.
And finally, understand that when you build a career, challenges and rejections are inevitable. Your armour against the rejections is information, complemented by your resilience. Don’t let rejections bring you down. Job hunting requires you to have a thick skin.
For students looking to work in the UK, the two most feasible visa options are the Skilled Worker Visa and the Graduate Route Visa. Under the former, an employer sponsors you, while the latter is a visa you can apply for on your own. In both cases, as you will see upon diving deeper into the job market, you need to start applying to opportunities and roles almost as soon as you step foot in the UK.
Student Circus is a job search platform aimed at international students, and we have seen 70,000 international students take the reins of their careers in their hands by signing up to the platform, browsing through visa-enabled jobs and incorporating our career guidance in their applications.
Even so, several international students enter the game too late. With job applications closing on a rolling basis, there’s definitely some first-mover advantage, so the next big challenge in the employability sphere in the international graduate market is informing students about these timelines.
The author is the Co-founder and Director of Student Circus, UK.
(The Free Press Journal publishes articles by study abroad consultants, Consulates, foreign universities, international students, and much more every Saturday to give its readers a glimpse of the world of overseas education.)
