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Working After Your Studies
Many students choose to stay in the UK after their studies to work, sometimes to gain experience and sometimes with a view to staying here for a longer period. If you are an overseas student there are various ways you may be able to stay in the UK to work, but this depends on many factors including what sort of leave you have (e.g. whether you have been in the UK with a student visa), what qualifications you have, and what you want to do next in the UK and for how long.
This section contains information for international students on work visas for the UK, including changes in 2012 and how these will affect international students.
Current Work Visas in the UK
The Careers Service department with individual universties can provide general visa information
relevant to all international students with a particular focus upon how work visas affect UK job hunting and
employers. For visa advice specific to your own situation, and to find out the latest regulations check the
UK Border Agency (UKBA) and UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) websites.
You can read more on Visas here..
Changes in 2012 - What is happening with work visas for the UK?
The UK Border Agency has announced the closure of the Post Study Work Visa from April 2012 which is currently available to international graduates in the UK. This closure, however, will also be accompanied by the relaxing of requirements for an alternative visa route - the Tier 2 employer sponsored work visa. This will allow continued opportunities for international students to gain graduate level employment in the UK under this visa.
The concessions or relaxed requirements announced by the UK Border Agency will be that:
There will not be a limit on the numbers of students able to switch from student visa to Tier 2
(students switching to Tier 2 will not affect a company's visa quotas)
Employers sponsoring switching students will not be required to meet the Resident Labour Market Test -
the need to demonstrate that they could not recruit a UK or EEA national for the job. (Although other
requirements for the visa will still apply such as minimum salary levels). Please note that the specific
guidelines are yet to be confirmed by the UK Border Agency
How will the changes affect international students?
The main impact for students graduating in 2012 onwards will be a need to research the graduate job market in the UK, ensure you have the required skills and qualities sought by the employer and apply early.
Given what has been announced so far, the changes suggest:
The Tier 2 route has always been used by UK graduate employers, alongside the post-study work visa.
It is anticipated that more graduate employers will now be able to utilise this route and the concessions from 2012.
In the past the main barrier to more graduate employers using Tier 2 has been the need to pass the resident
labour market test. Relaxing this requirement will be an asset to graduate employers who are on the Sponsor
Register and therefore able to use the Tier 2 route.
There are currently around 20,000 employers on the Sponsor Register in the UK. This is available on the
UKBA website, enabling students to target their applications to these firms. It is also possible for firms to
get onto the Register although this takes time / costs money.
Another barrier to recruiters in 2010 was the new cap, or limit, on numbers of Tier 2 visas that UK employers
faced. There will not be a limit on the numbers of graduating international students transferring to Tier
2 from within the UK.
To take advantage of these concessions:
You will have to find a graduate job offer with a sponsoring employer before your student visa expires.
Although graduate employers hire all year round, some popular graduate programmes have a long recruitment
cycle, so you will need to begin your graduate job hunting early in the final year of study if you are to
maximise your chances of success with particular firms. Some closing dates are October / November.
Pay attention to how UK graduate employers recruit, and in particular the skills and qualities sought on
applications to ensure you are in a position to apply early. Focus upon ensuring your language ability is
proficient for job applications and selection processes with employers. See The UK graduate job market section
for more information.
The Tier 2 visa currently also requires a minimum salary of £20,000 for the position. This may reinforce the
need to ensure that you have a range of employability skills on offer, and apply early in order to secure a
position that pays this salary. The average graduate starting salary for Manchester graduates is around
£20,000 (Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). To explore the UK job market for your preferred career,
starting salaries and how employers typically recruit, see our careers sector pages and the Prospects website.
Some Useful Links..
Making your pg degree work to your advantage
Marketing your Masters to employers
For graduate level jobs or higher, you can make your postgraduate (pg) degree work to your advantage. However, it’s not just a case
of adding the qualification to your CV and assuming that employers will realise the value of your postgraduate degree -
you need to market the benefits to an employer.
A recent report from the Council for Industry and Higher Education, on what businesses think of postgraduates,
makes it clear that for employers, "a postgraduate degree in itself isn’t an indicator of a high calibre candidate or one
who has leadership potential".
This doesn’t mean that employers think that all postgraduates are low calibre candidates, without leadership potential!
It’s just that, along with any other candidate, you have to give them evidence of your suitability and
potential – simply saying you’re a postgraduate doesn’t convince them. This page will help you think about:
If you are applying for jobs using the knowledge or technical skills from your Masters, of course these will be relevant to the employer.
What will set you apart from other similarly qualified postgraduates is being able to demonstrate an increase in personal capability through your pg degree.
So, instead of jumping straight to descriptions of modules or projects undertaken, step back and think of how you have changed over the course of your postgraduate experience:
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What challenges have you overcome? This could be coursework or project work, but also personal challenges.
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What have you done for the first time? What have you learnt about yourself? What new strengths have you discovered?
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In what ways has it been tougher than the final year of your undergraduate degree, or your previous job?
These achievements are often the key to the real benefits of postgraduate study, whether to you personally or to a potential employer.
Pick out what the employer will value:
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Highlight keywords in job adverts. Don't dismiss terms which sound like HR jargon (innovation, team player, results-driven,
great at building relationships). They're often pulled directly from the criteria they will use to select interviewees.
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Talk to employers at careers or networking events. Ask about their most successful employees: what do they do which makes them stand out?
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Investigate employers' websites. Any careers section should give you clues but also look at their "About Us" sections -
mission and vision statements tell you where they think they're going and what they'll need from employees to get them there.
For private sector organisations, an "Investor Relations" or similar section can give you clues about their future direction
and who they will need as employees.
Once you know what they want, you can present employers with evidence to show you understand what they need, and that you can meet that need even if they don’t specifically say they’re looking for a postgraduate.
The employer's first impression is that postgraduates are only bothered about "what can you do for me,
because I'm special?" No wonder their hearts sink when a postgraduate approaches, but you can change that by:
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Asking questions about what the employer is looking for
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Showing an interest in the employer
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Finding common ground where you can offer something they value
Hook them first with your enthusiasm for the work, your interpersonal skills, your relevant knowledge and experience. Then when you tell them that you've also studied or researched at postgraduate level, it should come as a welcome added bonus.
Your main emphasis should always be on how you are suitable for a job, particularly your relevant skills and experience. Make it easy for employers to find the evidence of how you meet their requirements and your relevant skills, knowledge and experience.
Depending on how relevant your degree is to the position you are applying for, you can choose where to position it and how much detail to include.
Most employers won't reject you simply because you've got a postgraduate degree, even if they don't actively target postgraduates. Those who advertise for graduates are normally perfectly happy to recruit postgraduates as well.
For jobs where postgraduate qualifications are definitely not needed, you can change the format of your CV so your relevant skills are on the first page and your education and postgraduate degree are on page two of your CV. You could also not mention it in a covering letter.
If you've been a full-time postgraduate student, it's very difficult to hide your postgraduate degree completely, without leaving gaps in your CV or lying, which is definitely not recommended!
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