Working in the UK
The regularly scheduled weblog is being interrupted for an urgent personal request for help. If you know anything about getting UK work permits, please read on.
As many of you know, I’m graduating in September with an MSc HCI. I was planning to stay in the UK with my partner, Janine, and work for a year while she finishes her master’s degree. This plan was hinging on a the Science and Technology Graduate Programme which I recently learned will be delayed until 2005. I know about the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme, but unfortunately I’m just a few months short of the minimum 5 years of graduate level experience and way under the minimum 70,000 US salary mark (this number is based on the minimum 40,000 GBP specified in the application and the current conversion rate).
So now I’m trying to determine if I have any other options. As far as I can see, unless I’m Japanese, an entrepreneur, entertainer, innovator, investor, a doctor or a dentist, a representative of an overseas newspaper, a sportsperson, a voluntary worker or a working holidaymaker, I’m up the creek.
Are there any readers who can offer advice on the contrary? Your help is greatly appreciated.
Go back to the top of this entry ↑
Comments
You seem to have a couple options in your list that could be used. Entrepreneur, innovator, and representative of overseas newspaper could still be options depending how this are defined and judged. Starting your own company, would takes a lot of legal work, I guess, but it could be done. Innovator in HCI could be an option with some work. New representative could depend on the size of the publication and how publication is defined.
Having case study type articles on HCI practices in international organizations seems like it would have a decent audience and need in a publication. How receptive are companies in the UK and Europe to user experience, interaction design, and/or HCI? How is this different than the U.S.A.? Does company size or international reach of the company matter? Answers to these questions would make good business publication reading or design publication.
Don’t give up hope.
vanderwal on 18 Jul 04
Hi Thomas. Yes, those options sound possible, but I currently don’t qualify for any of them. Both the entrepreneur and innovator programmes required that I start a company and hire people, which I’m in no position to do.
I could be a representative of an overseas newspaper or media organization, but I’m not. This could potentially change (does any U.S. news organization want to hire a technology reporter in London?!), but it’s extremely unlikely. I’m a web developer and interaction designer by trade, not a writer.
I can’t give up hope, at least not yet. After living with Janine for the past five months, I don’t want to think about what it would be like for us not to be together.
Joshua on 18 Jul 04
“As far as I can see, unless I’m.. an entertainer..”
heh.. buy a guitar and tell them you’re a street musician..
demonsurfer on 20 Jul 04
I called the Home Office and they told me I’m also eligible for the Training and Work Experience scheme.
The only catch with this program is that “The person must be additional to your normal staffing requirements. They must not be filling a position that would otherwise be filled by a ‘resident worker’.”
In other words, it should be a job outside a companies normal realm of hiring and created specifically for someone from abroad. It sound feasible, but it’s unrealistic. Why would a company create a position for an interaction designer or web developer from abroad?
Nothing comes to my mind either. *sigh*
Joshua on 21 Jul 04
Two possibilites that you might want to check, though neither one is easy:
1) Find a transnational company with a UK presence, either US-based or based in a country with easy-to-get work permits (I have friend from Spain working in the NYC offices of Duetsche Bank on a permit from some other country that they have a presence in). Obviously finding a company that is hiring for the UK office for your field is challenging, but not necesssarily impossible. Off the top of my head, I know that the Financial Times frequently sends folks from the US office to the UK for a year or more. Be creative in the companies that you check…
2) Try an NGO. I know that working in the UN offices in Vienna is (or was 2 years ago) considered to be a nice back door to an Austrian work permit.
Third option that just came to mind would be trying to get a Fulbright scholarship, but I don’t know how the timing of that would work out for you…and you’re trying to get out of the Academy. You might also want to try to get in touch with Justin Hall (www.links.net)—he has a lot of experience in working overseas for extended periods of time as a free-lance journalist and might be able to give you some tips — Japan is notorious for their difficulty re work permits but he managed to finangle one there, for example.
Hope this helps.
Norman on 21 Jul 04
Hello Joshua,
and everybody else contributing to your page. I am also looking for information about working in the UK. Hope you dont mind me butting into your conversation here (for my own benefit :)). I am a young 47 year old south african women, divorced and dying to travel. I do have the money to buy a ticket and support myself for a while but would also like to work in between. I obviously do not qualify for the working holiday thing, and cant seem to find any other way to get a work permit. Any suggestions? I have a partner (not married) with a European passport but South African residency also considering to work in Britian. I certainly do not want to get married just to be able to work in Britian. I had my own software training company which I sold when I got divorced and also have a public relations qualification. I am a poet and writer with minor publications in small company newsletters and other publications but nothing that would qualify me as an earning writer. Any suggestions?
Willemien Theron on 25 Jul 04
Or you can move back to the states and get settled in your new career while she finishes her degree.
Anonymous on 26 Jul 04
Hi Joshua,
If we can get funding (and I’m hoping we’ll know before end August) we’ll need a programmer for a year or 18 months. I’m not sure if you could slide in under the training & work experience umbrella, but it’s worth a try. Give us a yell in Aug if you’re still stuck. You have my email address.
Lynn & Kizzie-dog on 30 Jul 04
The science and technology graduate program is launching after all. Unfortunately, only those with degrees listed on the course list (PDF) are eligible. Predictably, it doesn’t include HCI. Blimey.
Joshua on 1 Aug 04
The Science and Technology Graduate Programme was initially expected to be in late 2005, but now they are going to launch it in October 2004.
mervin xavier on 11 Aug 04