Opportunities in London?

[MusicNerd]

i know this is totally random, but i'm basically asking around everywhere to hear from as many folks as possible. and considering there are lots of cool folks here from all over, i figured it couldn't hurt to ask here!

long story short, i'm graduating college in May (only one more semester, yay! ) and for the sake of my own mental health, i have no desire to go to grad school straightaway after i graduate (i wanna take at least a year or two off from school)-- but i do have a very strong desire to live and work in London sometime in the near future after i graduate (ideally starting sometime in 2016/2017). i studied abroad there last semester and became one of those American exchange student weirdos who fell so madly in love with the city they studied in that they wanna go back to live and work there for a while... whoops

i tried looking into inheriting citizenship from my great-grandfather on my dad's side of the family who's from a European country, so that I could acquire dual citizenship with the EU (which would help with the job process), but in a nutshell i wouldn't even be able to start that process until 2018 because my city's consulate is kinda the worst about this stuff.

so now, i've been trying to figure out what the best way would be for me to get back there as an American citizen (and mind you, as one who's nowhere near wealthy enough to acquire a Tier 1 entrepreneurial visa that's only good for folks who have quite a lot of dollars to spend on a startup) -- and considering immigration seems to be getting stricter over there for non-EU citizens, and since most employers over there prioritize British and EU citizens in the job hiring process (due to the way visas and sponsorship and such are set up), my chances of getting over there via any other route besides grad school are looking slimmer and slimmer.

so, does anyone have any recommendations of how to navigate job searching abroad/internship opportunities/programs in the UK/helpful resources and blogs about this stuff/techniques on hiding in a British friend's suitcase/literally any piece of advice on how to handle this as an American?

tl;dr - i'm a hopeless yank trying to find my way back across the pond without going the grad school route? help, please?? any advice is appreciated!

[Heather]

You know, I'd just go ahead and apply for those jobs. If you don't apply, you can't even be considered, after all!

Here are some other avenues you may want to look into:
• http://www.ccusa.com/Programs/WorkExchangeUK.aspx
• http://jobs.goabroad.com/search/england ... s-abroad-1
• http://london.usembassy.gov/eca/

[MusicNerd]

yeah, fair enough. i also scheduled an appointment with my school's career services office, so hopefully they can help, too. thanks for the links, Heather!

[Redskies]

You're right that immigration job regulations have got trickier, so I'd suggest lots of researching and applying for exchange programmes (eg Fulbright), work/training programmes, scholarships and internships that are specifically available to you as a young American/non-EU person.

Another possible route - though you'd want to be very careful with the details of the exact pathway and your eligibility - would be to get a job in the US with a company that has offices and staff in London and then get a transfer to London. It can be possible to do that with the intention from the outset on your side and the company's for you to transfer fairly soon after joining.

[MusicNerd]

hey Redskies! yeah, for sure. i've already done way too much scrambling around the Home Office website and other sources looking at visa and immigration information. it's gonna be pretty tough to get back there but yeah, i'm definitely gonna take you up on those suggestions, so thank you!

i also just talked with my school's career services and they were actually super helpful (that sadly surprised me lol)! so yeah, i've got a lot of work cut out for me, but hopefully it works out. we'll see

[MusicNerd]

I sent in my first uk job application last night and it was so exciting! I may or may not have screwed up the name of the company in my cover letter from it being 2 AM, but hey-- I turned one in finally!! I used British spellings in my cover letters and cv and formatted my cv in the UK-style, I was so proud of myself! haha

[Redskies]

Yay!