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New expatriate on your shores... help!

  
 
wembley can change in 28 days
11:18 / 02.10.02
Okay, hep cats. My best friend just arrived in England after tromping around europe for a couple of months. She's Canadian with a working holiday visa and a degree in English and Botany. She's also rapidly depleting her funds and looking for advice. Anyone got a lead on a job, or have any caveats? Celeste kicks ass, speaks french and snippets of german, and is not at all too proud to work for Starbucks.

A big snippet from her email:

I am now in Oxford, and here is my problem. There are LOTS of job vacancy
signs in Oxford, including openings at Blackwell's bookstore, Waterstone's
bookstore and WHSmith. Also the Gap (ugh), shoestores, cafes, and lots of
ads online looking for Oxford girls for photography shoots (don't ask, I
assume it's dodgy). Also an opening for a life drawing model for the months
of Oct./Nov. (no indication if naked or not). I just checked out housing
costs, and it looks like rooms in shared houses are between £250-300 per
month (is pcm per calendar month, or what?)or around £50-60 per week. Also
the hostel I'm staying at has a £60 per week charge, and so some people just
stay on there. I'll probably have to do that for the first week or so,
while I'm looking for work etc. The problem is that while I was in London,
I decided that I did not in any way want to live there, so I went to Oxford.
Now that I'm in Oxford, I'm having second thoughts. Living in London
would be expensive and difficult (I've considered the live-in barmaid option
as a cheaper alternative, although I'm a little suspicious of how MANY
positions are open - it can't be that great if no one stays on - do you know
of anyone who's done it, or do you know what's generally said about it?) but
the city itself has LOTS to do and see, so it might be worth having a
semi-crap job to be close to all that. In Oxford I could have a higher
standard of living (like a room to myself for the same cost as a shared one
in London) and the job prospects are better (I REALLY want to work in a
bookstore) but the city itself has fewer attractions if you're not a student
here, and I'm not sure if I might not just spend the whole time stewing in
my own envy of the people who ARE students here. To me, Oxford IS the
university, so it seems kind of wrong just to work here. Still, if they
allow auditors, I would totally love to audit some courses here. Also,
Oxford is a 1.5 hour bus ride from London, and the buses run 24/7, so on
days off I could conceivably see the sights of London. Still, it's not the
same as 'living in London', which I partly just like the sound of because
it's what all the characters in all my favourite books have done. I just
don't know what to do, and the longer I am paralysed by indecision, the more
my money slips away. Advise me, oh experienced one!

Admittedly, part of the problem is simply that I have all these preconceived
notions of what Britain is and what one does there, but I'm having a lot of
trouble overcoming them. It's all that damned reading that's done it.
Also, I'm afraid that part of the reason I'm considering Oxford is because
the chances of getting a bookstore job are better here, but if I decide to
settle in and then I DON'T get a bookstore job, I might regret not having
stayed in London, where at least my crap non-bookstore job might be more
justifiable. Oh, I don't know... I've never had to make such a major
decision before, and I feel like whatever I do, I'm committing myself to
months of it, so it has to be the RIGHT decision.

So there's my dilemma. Also, I was wondering if you could tell me anything
about that National Insurance Number thing. I know that I need one to work,
but can I get a job before I've got one, or do I have to have one first?
How long did it take you to get yours? The problem is that I need an
address in order to get one, and so I'm considering staying at a hostel for
the first little while, just to have a stable address while I wait for my NI
number, and until I'm sure that I have a job. Also, what did you have to do
to get a bank account? One website I saw (why are there no websites for
Canadians in Britain, why is it all Aussies, Kiwis and South Africans?) said
that you had to take every piece of identification you could get your hands
on, including a letter from your bank, while another website said all you
needed was an address, a passport and a letter from your employer. Also,
until you get a bank account, how do you get paid? Will British employers
pay in cash? Can you cash cheques from employers at banks at which you
don't have accounts? I feel so unprepared, I never really did very much
research before I left because I was still thinking about working in France,
and now I'm so at sea it's not even funny.


Ideas? Anyone? Ta!
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
11:25 / 02.10.02
Haven't the foggiest, I'm afraid, but I can tell you that "life model" definately means "in the nudd." It's artistic, tho'.
 
 
illmatic
12:35 / 02.10.02
Quickly - if you're friend goes for the bookstores in Oxford option and does one of the big chains, then she may be able to transfer to a branch London soonish. I'm guessing but they've gotta have a high turnover, right? If she speaks French, and can write it, I'd suggest looking for language tranlation agencies, as the money is likely to be loads better than all the usual service industry crap.
London is cool but crap if you have no money but somehow, we all seem to survive.
 
 
Punji Steak
12:55 / 02.10.02
I've had (non British) people working for me who haven't had a NI number when they started and that was fine. The DSS will sort you out with an interview pretty sharpish at which you will be given one.

To get a bank account, which you will pretty much need when you get a job, it will probably be best to take as much ID as possible.

Remember that though Oxford is famous for its bookshops, so is London, especially Charing Cross Road, and they are often looking for staff. And there are other, independent bookshops, all over the city.

Having said that Oxford is pretty cool, even if you are not a student. Try the Cowley Road for lots of nice record shops, ethnic restaurants, venues and one of the UK's best tattoo places (if that's your sort of thing). Also had a cool anarchist squat cafe down there a few years back. Dunno if it's still there though... Try and avoid going any further and into Blackbird Leys estate though, you'll realise you left the "dreaming spires" a long time ago and that Oxford is not just about students and bicycles! Also a good comic shop at the start of Cowley Road near Magdalene Bridge.

On the other hand, I left Oxford 12 years ago to move to London and I've never thought about going back...
 
 
The Strobe
13:31 / 02.10.02
Also bear in mind that there's the Oxford Tube, buses on the hour (possibly half hour) straight to London. Oxford, though not quite the buzzing metrolops of London, is pretty well connected. And it has great bookshops...
 
 
Baz Auckland
02:03 / 03.10.02
After being a Canadian-in-Britian for 5 months...(ahem)

NI numbers are insane. I arrived in March, went to the office, was told they couldn't talk to me without an appointment, went home, phoned the numbers for almost a week and finally got an appointment for August 25th as that was the soonest they could see me.
A temorary one is given though. They never actually told me I had one; it just started appearing on the letters they sent.

Halifax was the only bank that would give me an account. Everyone else wanted proof of council tax payment, voting records, etc. HSBC are complete and utter bastards. Send her to Halifax. She'll need to have mail from the DSS/NI people to prove her address. A letter from the employer may help.
If you don't have an account, you can cash a cheque at MoneyMart type commission places($$), or in my case, my employer wouldn't even give me a cheque and would only pay me in cash until I got an account set up.

Being in London is a lot of fun and you get the fun of actually living there, plus everywhere in the country is only a few hours away for travelling fun.
If she's unsure, it might be fun to live around. Live in Oxford for a month or two, work, etc. Move to London, live there for a month or two, move to Scotland, etc. etc.

Bar jobs are $4.50(read that as pounds), Starbucks starts at $5, Pret a Manger starts at $6. Bookstores more, but getting a crap job at first ensures that you can pay rent while you look for something better.

WARNING: I had a working holiday visa and found it very hard to get a non-crap job. Most hotels wouldn't hire me as I couldn't commit more than 2 years to them.

I found some interesting temp jobs around the country at..um...hold on....People Bank. (peoplebank.co.uk)
Temping seems to pay more, but I never had the chance to check it out. May be the best bet for better paid, easy to get jobs.

That's all I can think of. Let me know if there's anything else. Oh...and tell her that Stoke Newington is the best place to live in London.
 
 
illmatic
07:30 / 03.10.02
RAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!! to your commnets on Stoke newington - that's a positive Rah by the way, not a negative one. Ahh the fun of living in London, paying £3 for a pint and having lunatics puke on your shoes on the bus. Temping rates here are normally £7.50 - £9 though possibly more if you can type well, or have specific experience to draw on. Depend if you wanna do that whole 9-5 thing. And it can be a bit irregular.
 
 
Kit-Cat Club
12:55 / 03.10.02
Pub work is often a good way to make ends meet while you're trying to find something else. Also - competition for bookshop jobs in Oxford is very very high (all those graduate students desperately trying to make ends meet...) but with the longer Christmas opening hours coming up she might be able to get something with more ease.

If she wants someone to talk to in Oxford I'll be there from this Sunday - pm me and I'll give you my number etc for her...
 
 
Loomis
15:20 / 04.10.02
Live-in pub jobs are a great way to get settled in London, but I wouldn't want to do it for too long. I had one for 3 months when I got here and had a great time. If you can find one centrally located, then you're sorted. Free rent and usually free food (pub stodge), and you can walk everywhere and get to know the place, plus no tube fare to work, and no early starts, and you walk downstairs to work! (though that has its downside)

Downsides are that you'll probably share a room and have no kitchen of your own, so it's a rather transient lifestyle but good for a couple of months. I got about £160 in the hand after food and board for an average of 50 hours, and with only one full day off and another night off, you don't spend much, and you can save up to £100/wk without too much effort. And plenty of mornings and afternoons off to stroll about such a beautiful place while most people are at work.

And pub work is generally easy and fun (for a while ...). As long as the people there are nice and you're in zone 1 or 2, I'd say go or it.
 
 
Loomis
15:28 / 04.10.02
And forget about an NI number. It's not necesary. I went through the hassle of getting one because I'm here long term, but I know people who have worked for 1-2 years without one. Employers just give you a temporary one, and as long as you keep track of them and can call the tax ofice at the end of the year and help them pull them all together, then you're fine. It doesn't affect how much tax you pay.

And another thing about live-in jobs, the day you start you can go to the bank with a letter from the boss confiming regular employment and address, which makes it easier. I went to Barclays and it was fine. But it's all pot luck really. I've heard a million tales about botched attempts. Different branches of the same bank will tell you different stories, so just cross yourself, wank over a sigil, stick a rabbit's foot up your arse and take a punt.
 
  
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