[Help] Moving to England

[Seid']

Well, for those who see the news, you know that Portugal is very bad and decided to start a new life. I'm 19 years old, 20 in January and I'm thinking of going to England.

Some people know that I was in England in October, but unfortunately very little time, but by the time I was there, LOVED everything, so since then I think of going to live in England.

I was wondering if anyone knows of cheap rooms for rent.

If I go to England, I want go with room and job guaranteed, but only the room was guaranteed is good anyway.

For the first working in England, I want to see if I can find something to support myself, then look for a new job.

I'm thinking of leaving Portugal starting February.

Need your help to get a room cheap.

Thanks for your help

btw, what is the best city to start to live?

btw, sorry my english.

[Stephen]

Good luck mate!

Bit different but I set out travelling last year when I was 19, in Australia now

I'm from a small town in the uk, which was cheapish to live in but not the best for jobs. I'm sure some city dwellers will be along to advise shortly, but

Good luck!!

[Matt]

Do yourself a favour, dont come here. Government is shit. Find somewhere nice in Europe

[Stephen]

Think it's going to be shit wherever he goes really

[Scott]

Do yourself a favour, dont come here. Government is shit. Find somewhere nice in Europe

Most of the people are shit too!

How long were you in England for? Where did you go? I wouldn't want to commit to a decision like that without having spent at least a year in another country, to make sure that it's the right thing for you.

[Jake]

If the opportunity for me to leave England came about I would not be staying here.

[lolsteve]

Tbh asking for guranteed job is ambitious, leaving uni with degree in civil and structural engineering doesnt even gurantee me a job.
In regards to cheap housing go north, its colder, wetter, and the people smell funny but some places are easily half price of southern equivalent

[Ed Doe]

But Steve I think what the guy meant was he wants a job sorted before he moves if possible...

As people have said, I think you'd be best off staying for a year before making up your mind on it. But renting and getting a job are where it starts!

[ozonehostile]

In regards to cheap housing go north, its colder, wetter, and the people smell funny but some places are easily half price of southern equivalent

[Eeyore]

Tbh asking for guranteed job is ambitious, leaving uni with degree in civil and structural engineering doesnt even gurantee me a job.
In regards to cheap housing go north, its colder, wetter, and the people smell funny but some places are easily half price of southern equivalent

Exactly this! Canada is probably the best place to be right now!

[the milkman]

Did you have anywhere in mind you wanted to go city/town wise

[Dum-Dum]

UK is shit!
Most people are arse holes.
The government taxes us who work thousands of pounds a year and then gives it to people who are to lazy to work.
All the skilled jobs are massively over subscribed cos the government made it too easy to go to university and now every fucker has a degree.
All the unskilled jobs are under payed as we have no immigration laws and as such half of Europe is over here working and sending money home (I heard a scary statistic the other day that more than half of Polands working population is in England)

[Niall]

Generally living gets cheaper the further north you go but you may also find that wages will go down. I think you will struggle to get a job before you move out here. Your best bet is to save up enough money to live here for a few months and then as soon as you get here, start job hunting but be warned that a lot of companies, if given the choice would rather employ british citizens due to the fact that they stay put. You find a lot of foreigners that come over here dont stay for that long especially out of the towns.

Alot of people say dont bother with this country but realistically, its not that bad. You could do alot worse with most countries within europe.

[cwspellowe]

All the skilled jobs are massively over subscribed cos the government made it too easy to go to university and now every fucker has a degree.

Erm, i don't think that's the problem. If people are interested in a subject and have the mental capacity, why should they not be allowed to study it?

A degree isn't a meal ticket. It's just a piece of paper that says you learned something.

For example, I'm pretty sure the country would love for all it's trained mechanical engineers to have guaranteed jobs but if society doesn't buy into products, or require them, then more mechanical engineers just aren't needed.

Feel free to go to Uni and study to be a doctor/lawyer/whatever. But if noone needs any more, you can't start working as one and paying yourself.

One of the fundamental problems is that so many schools tell you you won't be successful in life if you don't have a degree. There was a young lad at 17 at the Cablecom training centre in Teesside, studying to be a fibre engineer. There's jobs all over the world in that profession and he's now over in Dubai earning £2k per week tax free with no bills to pay. This career was never even mentioned at school.

Thing is, from what I remember at school, there was a very black and white "you should work in a supermarket, and you should be a lawyer", there was f*ck all real career advice. So everyone with the grades goes to Uni to be a lawyer and then when they graduate they realise most of them have wasted 5 years of their lives when someone who dropped out of school and pursued something they were interested in has a massive headstart in life.

I wish people would stop banding about degrees as the be all and end all. If there's no jobs, tough shit, get any old job and make a start. Even if it's a means to an end. Sick of all these middle class Uni graduates moaning about there being no jobs when there's plenty, they just won't "lower themselves to that level".

f*cking stupid country.

[Niall]

^this man speaks a lot of sense! The schools couldnt give a shit about the students. All they care about is their figures and how many students they send off to college and uni.

[Dum-Dum]

^^^ That is pretty much the point that I was making

The average starting salary for a graduate is still only around £20,000 a year (bear in mind that working for Tesco or the Army will pay that nearly).

I know if I was an employer Id rather have someone with 3 years experience in the field than 3 years doing a degree in a classroom.

[cwspellowe]

^this man speaks a lot of sense! The schools couldnt give a shit about the students. All they care about is their figures and how many students they send off to college and uni.

Presactly.

My school told me I should be a doctor. I wish i'd pursued other options now as I wasted my time at Uni, dropped out when I realised I wasn't interested and regret not looking into modern apprenticeships in a field I was really interested in.

Yes wages would have been crap, but I could have stayed with my parents, had at least a bit of money coming in, learned a LOT in the process, and had a guaranteed job at the end of it. Instead I spent two years at uni, racked up £6k's worth of student loan debt, another £2k or so of credit card/overdraft debt, and learned nothing that I now find useful in life. And the best bit is i'm now paying £60 a month off a student loan that I didn't even really need, just wasted. Oh and had to work part time to pay £300 a month rent in student accommodation when I could have spent 2-3 years living with parents studying an MA.

But yes, schools like figures. Me going to Uni looked good for them. Me going into employment was never an option to them so I only found out about MA's when I was about 22, at which age it's nearly impossible to get on one.

Uni was the biggest mistake I ever made.

[silverzx]

Slightly off topic but think 'cwspellowe' sums up grad's pretty well.

[cwspellowe]

I know, sorry, caught me in a mass debating mood

(giggidy)

[Dum-Dum]

^^^ Modern Apprenticeships are (well they were when i started mine) massively oversubscribed and difficult to get into. Of the Dozen or so i applied for I got interviews for half and got accepted for 2 but they were saying they get 200-500 applicants for one apprenticeship place and most of them dont even get an interview.

[Niall]

Chris, my school were wankers. actually told me if i dont go to uni, i will fail in life. Funny how i left school at 16, now 21 with no huge student debt to pay and earning more than your normal teacher a year with better job prospects. But anyway, going off topic.

If you do move to this country, dont go to uni!!

[Dum-Dum]

Chris, my school were wankers. actually told me if i dont go to uni, i will fail in life. Funny how i left school at 16, now 21 with no huge student debt to pay and earning more than your normal teacher a year with better job prospects. But anyway, going off topic.

If you do move to this country, dont go to uni!!

Mine were pretty much the same. It was "go to uni or youll end up on the tills at Tesco for the rest of your life" and you better do well in your GCSEs etc. Funnily though they seemed to think id have great job prospects even if I went and did the Motorsport engineering degree cos theres sooooo many jobs in motorsport.

I got shit GSCEs as I couldnt be bothered with studying, went to college and got shit grades in a BTEC (equivalent to A levels) and then did the first month of an apprenticeship. Like you I now earn more than a Teacher and have better prospects and TBH the most fun job in the world.

[cwspellowe]

+10000000

I'm on teacher beating wages, uncapped bonus, extensive overtime, and only a 4 day week. Massive employee benefit packages, share save schemes, dental care, the works.

Plus I get a Transit to hoon about in all day. Result.

[Niall]

exactly. Thankfully the government are investing a lot in apprenticeships this year. I know our company is actually recieving a grant from the government for every apprentice they take on. Shame the world is under the impression that uni is the only way to a 6 figure salary.

[Toms306]

Why would you want to come to England? It's cold, wet, expensive, crowded...and full of foreighners! I reckon other places in Europe would be better for jobs, I mean Poland must be short of builders for a start!

[Dum-Dum]

+10000000

I'm on teacher beating wages, uncapped bonus, extensive overtime, and only a 4 day week. Massive employee benefit packages, share save schemes, dental care, the works.

Plus I get a Transit to hoon about in all day. Result.

Yep, £35k a year plus unsociable hours allowance, plus overtime (and Ive been doing double shifts recently for overtime) plus double time on bank holidays, and I work the equivalent of 4 days a week too (6 days on, 4 days off).

Plus getting to go faster than anyone else on the roads, a uniform that attracts lovely drunken ladies and we get a dominoes discount.

Ive gotta show you some of the photos from Christmas eve/early hours of Christmas morning next time I see you

[cwspellowe]

Why would you want to come to England? It's cold, wet, expensive, crowded...and full of foreighners! I reckon other places in Europe would be better for jobs, I mean Poland must be short of builders for a start!

Coming from the man that would probably move to Poland and then COMPLAIN there's not enough builders...

[Stephen]

I agree with you that everyone is pushed into UNi these days. I'm only 20, so did a levels recently and they basically hound you into going to UNi.
I think people are pressured into it so much by the attitude that you won't get anywhere in life if you don't go to UNi.

It's not just the schools though its just a social norm now. All your friends expect you to go to UNi and I think a lot of people go just because its the easy choice at the time, they don't have to pay for it straight away. And it is fun. But mainly because everyone else did it.

I wish I had looked into other options more before doing a levels. When I think that I could of finished an apprenticeship by now, it's rather annoying!

I decided to sack of going to UNi and go travelling instead, which I would recommend to anyone.

Also I'm in Perth, Australia. There's shit loads of jobs. And everything is well paid. Bar workers for example get $28 an hour. And if your prepared to do jobs that people don't want to do as much, like labouring you can earn loads more then that. The miners are on at least $50 an hour

The weathers amazing here and the economy seems decent.

Just need more 306s!

If people want to leave the uk. Come here its awesome

[InkedMuttley]

As has been said previously the people are shit, the weather is shit, the government is shit, in general the UK is shit. I don't know how long you stayed here but I can guarantee that you have probably only sampled the smallest portion of it.

Once you have actually lived here you will find that there is pretty much zero jobs for anyone, I've applied for over 300 jobs in the last year and not just in my local town and I haven't had one interview. Plus you've got the Nazi lady gardens that will give you shit if you do get a job accusing you of stealing our jobs because you will do it for a lot less etc. It's not a nice place to live and it certainly isn't as straight forward as you might think. If you have a trade I'd seriously say Australia is the way to go.

[Kezzieboy]

Hmmm, as much as we all moan (me as much as the next man, except maybe CAR, or Tom), we have a f*cking incredible country, I'd say second only to Scandinavia for standard of living, but that's because nobody here would accept such a left wing system of government (we can only dream eh?).

But I agree with the being pushed into uni thing. I specifically didn't apply, just because the lady gardens were desperate for me to. I was always one of the bright kids at school (7 GCSE A*s, etc), and succeeded despite how shit the school I went to was. But the pressure to go into uni, even though I didn't know what I wanted to do was daft. I ended up doing a Year in Industry (which I'd recommend to anyone), worked for a year, pissed my money up the wall (was being paid £13k despite essentually being an apprenctice/being on work experience), realised full time work is gash, and that I need to get into a job I really love. So I decided to go for automotive, I'd always been into cars (shocker) so now I'm working towards that, by slogging through a Mechanical/Automotive Engineering degree, which is currently all maths :/

But I'm getting paid like 7k a year after I've paid for tuition, between my uni, independent funding (a scholarship scheme, for getting a first class degree in my 1st year) and the government, of which I only have to pay around £3k a year back. I love socialism, I come from a pretty low income background (sub £20k, for what was a house of 7, at one point), and so the government has given me the funding I need to get a job that otherwise would be completely out of reach regardless of my academic ability.

Seid, move to Norway/Sweden/Finland, that's where I want to live!