is it imperative to be qualfied in a particular subject to work in london?

Cubanista

hey,


so i want to move and work in London in the near future, but i currently work in a crappy sales job and I'm not qualified in anything particular.


would it be possible to find work in London (if i look and beg hard enough) without superior knowledge or skill in a particular type of work?


i hear people say it's expensive in London to live (obviously) but many people still seem to manage it without having good jobs. i just can't stand it where i live because interesting jobs are hard to come by and it's always the same kind of low paid work, whereas in London it's so expansive and diverse, that there are many kinds of interesting jobs.


is this possible or should i try to get qualified in something before i go?


thanks,


cubanista

agrinnall

The question you have to ask yourself is "can I get a job that pays enough for me to live in London?". The answer to that depends to some extent on what living standard you expect to have, but there's no doubt that you will need quite a lot more money to live at the same standard in London than you would in most other parts of the UK.

Your problem is likely to be that low paying jobs just won't pay that much more in London, the jobs that will pay more are those where the employer needs to attract good people, and the chances are that most of those will require either good experience or a suitable qualification, or most likely both.

pmd123

Alternately, if you are confident in your abilities, and wouldn't mind living in a rented room for a year or two, you could find an entry level role and look to work your way up, with the hope that a couple of years bring a couple of promotions and decent pay rises.

Sharon87

Working in London in a low paid job I feel is worse than working anywhere else in a low paid job.

If you were lucky enough to get a 35 hour contract on say minimum wage, you will be earning £227.50 a week. Equivilant to £11830 a year BEFORE tax. To live in London in a house share costs upwards from £500 a month -and if you're lucky that includes bills, plus £100-£160 for travel a month - unless you're lucky to find a house and job close by or just use buses (£3/day there and back, or a monthly bus pass). Then think about how much money you have left...

You will receive £927.63 after tax on that figure, which is barely enough to survive on in London, even living in a house share in zone 3 or 4.

If you're bored of your town, there are plenty of other places in the UK you can work. Or you could live somewhere near London, which has easy access to visit every weekend, and where the rents are much lower.

PS. A lot of people on low incomes are being evicted from their homes because rents have increased and they can't afford to live their anymore, so it's really hard to live in London on a low income. I tried it after uni, got into debt. But now I'm making my way up the career ladder and I'm still living in a house share!

sangie595

Cubanista wrote: »

hey,


so i want to move and work in London in the near future, but i currently work in a crappy sales job and I'm not qualified in anything particular.


would it be possible to find work in London (if i look and beg hard enough) without superior knowledge or skill in a particular type of work?


i hear people say it's expensive in London to live (obviously) but many people still seem to manage it without having good jobs. i just can't stand it where i live because interesting jobs are hard to come by and it's always the same kind of low paid work, whereas in London it's so expansive and diverse, that there are many kinds of interesting jobs.


is this possible or should i try to get qualified in something before i go?


thanks,


cubanista

But a month ago you were moving north to Leeds or Manchester!


It's really easy to blame your location for your lack of progress, and it is certainly true that some places may lack well-paid and interesting work. But actually, if you lack skills and experience it pretty much doesn't matter where you go - you are going to be on the bottom of the ladder and competing against an awful lot of other people for jobs at the bottom of the ladder.


Take a look at where you are now - living at home with your parents, a low paid job that doesn't interest you, no qualifications, limited experience and no savings. Moving won't fix this - you will just have a low paid job that doesn't interest you (if you have a job at all), no qualifications, limited experience, no savings and a lot of bills!

KILL_BILL

London is very expensive to live in thats why a very high proportion commute very day and spend anything up to 3 hours or more on trains to do so.

I_Can_Haz_Job?

I've lived and worked in London since 2007 and would gladly sell my soul to leave. I take home £1700 a month of which £800 goes on a bedsit an hour away from work. I pay £178 a month on a season ticket for the tube and another £120 on a storage unit to keep stuff in as my flat is literally a bed, microwave and a toilet and shower. I have a relatively decent enough income in a job that a do love, but I'm looking for work up North where I have a chance to live somewhere with more than one room by the time I'm 40.

London is fab but when you live here, you can't afford to do any of the groovy, touristy things. Plus, days like this when the temperature is 35 degrees...on the tube? Forget about it. It makes you a nasty person too, after a few years. A lady fainted on my tube the other day, due to the heat, all but me and another woman in my carriage helped her. Everyone else zones in on Candy Crush and ignores whatever is going on.

Quite happy to say I despise London now and would gladly leave on the next train out.

agrinnall

I_Can_Haz_Job? wrote: »

London is fab but when you live here, you can't afford to do any of the groovy, touristy things. Plus, days like this when the temperature is 35 degrees...on the tube? Forget about it. It makes you a nasty person too, after a few years. A lady fainted on my tube the other day, due to the heat, all but me and another woman in my carriage helped her. Everyone else zones in on Candy Crush and ignores whatever is going on.

Quite happy to say I despise London now and would gladly leave on the next train out.

The bit I've bolded is what I found, I like to visit London for a few days and spend the time doing all that stuff that is on offer, but living there was just a drudge of working and travelling to and from work, with down time spent in a fairly unpleasant room. I'm not sure how much you would need to be earning to actually enjoy living in London but I was on a lot more than you are and it was nowhere near enough. Moving away was one of my more sensible decisions.

PS I think (or at least , hope) that you meant to say "...nobody but me and another woman...)

[Deleted User]

No decent qualifications or good employment history, but you want an 'interesting job'. You must be a Millennial

Sorry, if you move to London, you'll probably end up earning the same for a crappy job, but paying a lot more in living costs. All the 'cool interesting jobs' are done by people with qualifications or a good past working history.

It's days like this I really don't miss commuting to Paddington, that train and tube were nasty on hot days.

Jacare

What I've found is having a good degree (or any degree from a respected university) will open doors in London. A wealth of experience, luck and charisma will do the same, but you need something that makes you worth hiring. At least for the 'interesting' jobs.

Build your contacts, work hard, and be persistent. Who knows, you may strike lucky. Don't fall into the trap of thinking a decent(ish) wage for outside of London will be enough to enjoy yourself on. I do earn considerably more for my line of work than I would outside of London, but the difference is I could afford a fairly decent flat (renting) in my home town on my old wage, here I can just about afford a decent room south of the Thames.

I enjoy my life in London, but I never enjoyed the touristy things even as a day tripper. Even then I'll probably leave here by the time I'm 32. I love it, but I do want to work somewhere where my options are more than buy a tiny little "studio" flat, or commute in from the deepest, darkest corners of Kent.

t0rt0ise

I live in London and I love it. I was working full time until last month but have had enough and have just been offered a 15 hour a week job which will pay enough for me to live off. I have enough savings for holidays and extras. You do need to want to live in London in order to be okay about not having as much spare cash as you would have in any other part of the country but if you want to live here then just do it.