Getting a Job overseas?

Question

Hello,

My girlfriend's parents live in England and she would like to move there to be closer to her family. We have lived together for two years. I graduated from an Ivy league school and have almost a year experience at a medical device company as an data/ financial analyst. It seems a little intriguing to me to perhaps look for work in England. I heard that in the North Eastern united states employers are more saturated with an opportunity to hire ivy league graduates. I would think that internationally employers have less of an opportunity to find young people with an ivy league education. I majored in Business Economics. How does one start looking for a job overseas, also I have heard it is better to look for a company that is based in the country you are looking to work in and that American firms don't usually send American workers over seas, unless it is for a management position? How would the interview process work as well? Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Well, Alun is right, as always.

For that reason, many people try to take the option you have put down as unviable, i. e. finding an American company you can work for in England. Apart from the fact that you don't believe there's a chance for that - it also comes with a lot of difficulties (e. g. problems concerning health insurance, problems concerning pensions (US/UK???), possible double taxation, etc. etc.), but you'll know more about that than I do.

Still, best to do a double strategy: talk to the embassy, as Alun suggested, and at the same time talk to people in the US who might have knowledge/experiences concerning working for an American company abroad.

Answer 2

It is most unlikely that you would get a work visa for the UK.

We are part of the European Community (27 countries) and in the same way that a British or European person would find it almost impossible to get a job in the USA, we tend not to give work permits out to persons outside the EC.

That said, there are exceptions where we have specific vacancies which we cannot fill - give the British Embassy in Washington DC a call and they'll happily help you.

Does this help, please?

Alun Hill MCIJ, UK Journalist and Broadcaster