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Tara2117
Joined: 14 Aug 2006
Posts: 89
Location: Gunma, Japan
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 Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 4:22 pm Post subject: Americans in the UK... |
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Hi guys,
I usually hang out over on the Japan forum, but I'm thinking long-term about my future, and am interested in the personal experiences of others.
To make it short and sweet: I am American. My boyfriend is British. I now live and work in Japan, but wouldn't mind settling down in the UK someday in the future. IF we were to get married, I have no idea what I would be qualified to do in the UK.
I have two B.A. degrees, neither of which is good for much unless I go on to grad school. I am now teaching ESL in Japan, but don't actually have a teaching degree. I am working on the assumption that if I move to the UK, I will be married to a UK citizen, and thus get a residency visa.
Anyway, I would like to hear the stories of any Americans who now, or have previously, lived and worked in the UK for an extended amount of time. What kind of work do/did you do, and how did you go about finding your job? |
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spiral78
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 11534
Location: On a Short Leash
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| Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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My American friend who married a British citizen has worked in translations (Italian/English) for years, specifically for the pharmaceutical industry. However, that's what her MA and most earlier job experience is in, so she had specialist quals to market when she relocated to the UK.
Probably not a very useful story for you, I'm afraid...
How's your Japanese? 
Anything else you can market in addition to being a native speaker of English, which as you are clearly aware, isn't a big advantage in the UK.
For what it's worth, my friend's been in London for 10 years now and is very happy with living in the UK in general:) |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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| Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 7:21 am Post subject: |
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Forget about EFL or ESL. Minimum wage and no job security. Many jobs are temporay and'or part-time. Conside mainstream teaching but for that you would probaly need to do teacher training - perhaps a PGCE.
Contact the General Teaching Council (England) or the GTC (Scotland) Theyt will advice you on certification routes.Not sure of what equivalents are for N. Ireland and Wales.
Remember that for any job working with children in UKofGB&NI you have to prove with documents that you have no police record in all countries that youi have lived in. Get one from Japan and other countries BEFORE leaving/. |
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TheLongWayHome
Joined: 07 Jun 2006
Posts: 1016
Location: San Luis Piojosi
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| Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 4:02 am Post subject: Re: Americans in the UK... |
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| Tara2117 wrote: |
To make it short and sweet: I am American. My boyfriend is British. I now live and work in Japan, but wouldn't mind settling down in the UK someday in the future. IF we were to get married, I have no idea what I would be qualified to do in the UK. |
As scot47 says, forget tefl. Bear in mind that you'll need to make at least 50,000 pounds a year between you to live more or less well in that country. |
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Tara2117
Joined: 14 Aug 2006
Posts: 89
Location: Gunma, Japan
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| Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:30 pm Post subject: |
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| MOD EDIT I want to hear from people who have actually gotten jobs there. How they went about finding their jobs, what obstacles they faced, etc. Sorry if I wasn't clear on that. |
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coledavis
Joined: 21 Jun 2003
Posts: 1838
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| Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 9:38 pm Post subject: Re: Americans in the UK... |
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| Tara2117 wrote: |
To make it short and sweet: I am American. My boyfriend is British. I now live and work in Japan, but wouldn't mind settling down in the UK someday in the future. IF we were to get married, I have no idea what I would be qualified to do in the UK.
I have two B.A. degrees, neither of which is good for much unless I go on to grad school. I am now teaching ESL in Japan, but don't actually have a teaching degree. I am working on the assumption that if I move to the UK, I will be married to a UK citizen, and thus get a residency visa.
Anyway, I would like to hear the stories of any Americans who now, or have previously, lived and worked in the UK for an extended amount of time. What kind of work do/did you do, and how did you go about finding your job? |
Actually, you're making a couple of wrong assumptions to start with. Depending on the degrees, they might be of use without a higher degree.
Also, you don't need a teaching degree unless you want to teach primary school kids; teachers at secondary schools (high schools in Am.lang.) do a postgraduate one-year certificate on top of their B.A.
Tell us what your degrees are in. Then some solid advice could be given.
www.careersteer.org
free career test for helping people with career choices |
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doner
Joined: 21 Jan 2010
Posts: 179
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| Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 2:20 pm Post subject: |
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bar work
cleaning |
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coledavis
Joined: 21 Jun 2003
Posts: 1838
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| Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 12:37 pm Post subject: Re: Americans in the UK... |
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| TheLongWayHome wrote: |
| Tara2117 wrote: |
To make it short and sweet: I am American. My boyfriend is British. I now live and work in Japan, but wouldn't mind settling down in the UK someday in the future. IF we were to get married, I have no idea what I would be qualified to do in the UK. |
As scot47 says, forget tefl. Bear in mind that you'll need to make at least 50,000 pounds a year between you to live more or less well in that country. |
It depends upon where you are in the UK and what your expectations are. I think - when the recession lifts - that the pair of you can get very very ordinary (subgraduate) jobs and earn 30-40K and get by ok. If one or both of you can end up with graduate jobs, then 50k is achievable, maybe more.
Bar work and cleaning are of course make-do jobs, which would push you down to 20K or less. Although do note that chains of pubs such as Wetherspoons have a career route for able people.
If you are going the (relatively) easy access route, then I would look for work in a bookmakers (betting shop). They like to have intelligent people, as there is a career route in the gambling industry. Re access: there are 'bookies' in most main streets, thousands in London. As they typically work from the afternoons into the evenings, you could even do a morning's teaching if you really want to scrape up the readies.
Or do bar work and do some teaching in the day. |
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khmerhit
Joined: 31 May 2003
Posts: 1874
Location: Reverse Culture Shock Unit
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| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:52 pm Post subject: |
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UK is expensive. Lots of opportunities though, and the peeps are great for the most part. Takes a lifetime to figure them out, though. When you get burned out or whatever, you can go to
C A M B O D I A
try it and see  |
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stillnosheep
Joined: 01 Mar 2004
Posts: 2068
Location: eslcafe
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| Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 11:19 pm Post subject: |
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Glad to hear that you are still enjoying Cambodia kmherhit!
TEFLing UK definitely worth a miss; bookmaking sounds promising.  |
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Tara2117
Joined: 14 Aug 2006
Posts: 89
Location: Gunma, Japan
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| Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2012 7:32 pm Post subject: |
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Wow, I made this post ages ago... guess the email notifications never got to me! In response to the question of my degrees, they are in psychology and sociology. Like I said, pretty useless...
I'm particularly worried about even getting a spousal visa in the first place, with the new, stricter rules... it just seems impossible. |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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