Chapter 36: PSW visa is granted

Finally, after 2 months of waiting (1,5 months, if the 2 weeks Christmas holiday is excluded), my Tier-1 Post Study Work visa is granted without any problem. Hopefully, by securing this visa, my graduate job hunting process will be smoother. This visa will be valid for 2 years, so I will have the right to live and work in the UK for the next 2 years. The process of the visa application took quite a long time because I had to submit my biometric data, in which I was required to book and attend an appointment in either post office or UKBA office in Croydon. I opted for UKBA office in Croydon as the biometric data collection in the post office would cost me another GBP 16.2. It was a good choice because I did not spend extra travel costs as I could travel to Croydon by using Oyster card.

Back to my graduate job hunting progress, which has been pretty “quiet” and “slow” for the last 2 months, compare to my job hunting progress before Christmas. So far, I have done online psychometric tests for two companies, telephone interviews with five companies, and face to face interview with two companies. While I am still waiting for the decision to progress into further application stages from five companies, the other four companies have decided not to continue with my application. Among these companies, I believe seven of them are big companies, who typically offer graduate IT scheme, and two of them are small to medium companies with a more specified job position.

Overall, I think the competition for graduate jobs hunting for this year is very tough. Most of my classmates are still struggling without any invitation for interviews. I also received an email from a big cars manufacturer company based in UK regarding the number of applications they received for their graduate IT scheme, which is around 13.500 applications for only 300 offered vacancies. As an alternative solution, I suppose there should be hidden vacancies that most graduates need to consider as well in their graduate jobs hunting process. For instance, graduate vacancies on the Brunel University PCC website, vacancies on the Job Center Plus website, or perhaps vacancies in local newspapers. Also, it might be useful to setup daily email alerts for specific job search terms in some jobs website, such as Jobserve, ITJobBoard, or CV-Library.

Chapter 35: PSW visa application

Merry Christmas 2011 and Happy New Year 2012 to my blog readers. I know it’s a little bit late for those wishes, but a hectic schedule has forced me to stay aside from updating my blog. For this post, I’m gonna share my experience (and also some experience from my friends, who are in the same situation as me) regarding the application for the Tier 1 Post Study Work visa application. As I already mentioned before, I need this visa to continue my mission in hunting for graduate jobs in the UK.

I finally sent my PSW visa application on 22nd December 2011, a day after I obtained my original study certificate from Brunel University. Most students thought that they can only apply for the PSW visa after they obtained this original study certificate, but then I figured out that this is not true. I met my previous flat mate Kingsley on 11th December 2011, when he told me that he already sent his application as soon as Brunel announced our study result on 18th November 2011 by using only the original academic letter from Brunel without the original study certificate. However, according to a rumor that I heard, this way of applying is risky; therefore, it is more recommended to apply by using the original study certificate. Nonetheless, I cannot verify the validity of this rumor, as Kingsley’s application is yet to be accepted or rejected (but I personally think that his application will be accepted).

The other issue regarding PSW visa application is the unavailability of premium (in-person) service. Initially, I wanted to apply by using this service, even though it costs 300 pound more than the standard service by post. This is because I thought that I already wasted 1 month of my job hunting time as I should have already applied for the PSW visa in November (like what Kingsley did). Regarding this matter, I personally think that the UKBA shut this premium service with a purpose of avoiding long queue in their office.

For the requirements of the PSW visa application, there are six documents that should be prepared: the PSW visa application form, the original passport, two copies of recent photographs with grey background (this is very important as I initially wanted to submit photographs with white background), original copies of bank statements with the proof of GBP 800 fund maintenance for the period of 90 days before the PSW visa application date, the original academic letter from university, and the original study certificate. Another important thing to note is regarding the inclusion of applicant’s name, DOB, and nationality behind each photograph. Regarding the payment, it is important to note that even though the PSW visa application is made by post, the applicant is allowed to pay by using debit card. Before I met and talked with Kingsley, I did not aware about this condition and decided to buy postal orders as my payment method, which cost me extra charge of GBP 35. Nevertheless, I am not sure about the flexibility of the other type of payment, such as bank draft or credit card. It is also important to write applicant’s name, DOB, and nationality behind each postal orders, to ensure the payee name is ‘Home Office’, and the postal orders must be crossed. I did a mistake regarding this matter because I was in a hurry on that day. I just hope the consequence will not be severe for me and UKBA can still process and accept my PSW visa application.

Chapter 34: Phone Interviews

After approximately three months of graduate jobs hunting process, I somehow start to feel a little bit tedious. Nonetheless, I guess it is normal for job hunters like me and there is nothing I can do about it other than keep trying and applying. So far, I think I have sent hundreds of jobs applications (not sure about the exact number, perhaps around 300). Some agents from various recruitment agencies across the UK already called me. The common questions they ask me are usually related to job location, expected salary, visa status, availability, and IT skill. Few of them gave me initial offer of jobs, but then they never really confirmed their offer.

On the other hand, some of my jobs applications for big companies were able to progress further to the phone interview stage. Until now, I have done phone interviews with 5 different big companies. The first company is an investment bank, which is originally based in the USA. The application was for a graduate software developer position. After preparing my answers for competency-based questions, I was so nervous that I could not sleep the day before the interview. The phone interview was on Monday morning and I can fairly say that I did not prepare well-enough, especially for technical IT questions; hence, as I predicted before, they directly informed me the rejection on the next day. The second company is a well-known shoes company, which is based in Germany. I was happy with my performance for this phone interview, but they are yet to inform me the result. The third company is the biggest telecommunication company in the UK. I remember that I had to do a kind of logical tests, which are quite complicated. I managed to pass those tests and also well-prepared for the phone interview. However, the result was not good as they also decided not to progress further with my application. The fourth company is also an investment bank, which is originally based in Swiss. Nevertheless, the position is not based in the UK and they are also yet to inform me the result (although I believe I had failed as they previously mentioned their assessment center stage should took place on early December). The last company to offer me a phone interview last Wednesday is a defense electronic supplier company, which is originally based in France. Regrettably, they directly decided not to progress further because of my current visa status, which is still on student visa, even though I had explained to them that I will get my post-study work visa by next Friday.

Two lessons can be learned from my approach to the phone interview stage. First, I am looking forward to apply for my post-study work visa as soon as I obtain my study certificate on 21st December by using the premium service to avoid another unreasonable rejection because of this matter. Second, some interview questions among those companies are similar with each other, which somehow makes my preparation become slightly easier. For instance, the questions regarding company profile, teamwork experience, problem solving experience, IT interest points, extra-curricular activities, strength & weaknesses, skills that can be contributed to the position and/or company, and the motivation behind the application for the position and/or company.

Chapter 33: Graduate Jobs Hunting

I believe that now is the right time for me to start posting blogs related to my after-study experience. I am aware that there are 3 new student bloggers for Brunel International: one of them is a student, who enrolled in the same course as I did before; another one is a professional blogger (as shown from her blog contents); and another one is just a new blogger, who looks very excited with her new life as a student in Brunel (as she wrote almost all her experiences during her first month in a single post). It was so exciting and fun to read what they have written, but I am also eagerly curious to read their next blog posts.

At the moment, I am still waiting for my study result. Everything seems a little bit confusing, as our initial study guide stated that we would have already received our dissertation feedback on 21st October 2011. However, a week after that date passed, there was still no confirmation from our school. This situation forced some students to ask for confirmation from the module leader, in which we were then informed that our result will be officially released after the meeting of the board of examiners on 17th November 2011.

Meanwhile, I am also actively applying for some graduate jobs and part-time jobs. This is a quite tough process. Initially, I went to some recruitment agencies in Uxbridge, but in the end I personally felt that they were not so helpful. Therefore, I decided to start applying online, either directly on the company’s website or through specific websites, such as Totaljobs, Reed, Fish4Jobs, CWJobs, ElanIT, and Inside-Careers, that contains complete vacancies databases. On the other hand, I also applied for graduate jobs vacancies in big companies based on their nearest upcoming deadlines on the TargetJobs website.

So far, after more than 100 applications that I’ve sent, there is only 1 big company invited me for a phone interview this upcoming Monday. I’m not sure what are the reasons behind the refusal or reluctance of companies to progress my application, but I suspect two issues regarding my current visa scheme and my business-English language skill. Meanwhile, if I still need much time to keep applying for jobs like what I have done so far, I have to find a part-time or a temporary job to support my daily living expenses. After searching through the same jobs websites, such as Totaljobs and Reed, I finally found a very helpful jobs board provided by Brunel PCC, in which make it easier for graduates or students to search for part-time jobs from multiple websites at once.