Candidates from outside the UK

Advice for Overseas candidates:

 

• You will need a visa and national insurance number before you can start working in the UK. You will need to secure a visa before we can send out your CV for any jobs, but you can obtain your National Insurance number on arrival. For more details on this visit directgov.co.uk.

• Sponsorship is very difficult to secure and is reserved for very senior candidates with specialist skill-sets.

• We will need to meet you in person before we can send you on interviews, but we can talk over the phone before you visit/arrive to help get the ball rolling.

• Salaries in London are not the direct equivalent to the exchange rate, as every market pays differently. Please have a look at our salary survey for an indication of what you can expect to be paid. 

• It will be harder for you to secure a role in London than someone who has direct experience here, so think about leveraging your skill-set in a market you know rather than trying to change career entirely.

• If you have a two-year visa, you may want to focus on freelance and contract roles, as companies will be less keen to employ you full-time if they know you will be leaving. We can put you on our payroll and take care of all your tax and national insurance contributions, so you don't need to worry about getting your head around the UK tax system. 

• The areas which will be most open to hiring candidates without direct UK experience are roles in project management, agency-side account management, and less often roles where in-depth UK consumer understanding is required, such as clientside roles, or agency-side planning and insight. 

• If English is not your first language, we advise you to take a qualification in Business English before you arrive, so that you know the jargon.

• It is a good idea to put together a portfolio of your work including case studies, so that when you interview with people who won't know the brands or campaigns you've worked on you can show them as well as tell them.

• In the UK, recruitment agencies have terms of business with our clients which specify that we represent every candidate whose CV we send them for the following 12 months. This is an active period on our part, so we make sure you are considered for all roles you are suitable for in this time. Other recruiters cannot send your CV there again during this time, even for different roles to those we’ve sent you for. Similarly, if you send your CV direct to any agencies, or through friends, we won't be able to send your CV there again. So make sure to keep a list of every agency your CV has been sent to and who sent it there.