These are a wide range of tools, guides, websites and videos we have created, used and believe are truly valuable for international students and professionals. We receive to financial benefits from any of these endorsements.
Disclaimer: The books we recommend are Amazon Affiliate linked, but we only ever recommend books we have read and believe are useful and helpful.
If you would like to submit a recommendation, send an email to mike@jobreadyenglish.com , we won’t post recommendations to increase traffic or get paid. If we would not use it, we won’t post it.
Below are our recommendations for the most helpful and effective tools when beginning your job search.
Job Vacancies
Sponsor Tier 2: Our own free web application to help international students and professionals easily find Tier 2 sponsors, and receive free email updates twice weekly.
UK Hired: New website from a UCL international student which scrapes and sorts jobs that provide Tier 2 sponsorship. You can see her interview with us here.
Target Jobs: Search hundreds of graduate jobs and sort by whether employers provide a work permit or not.
Student Circus: Going since 2015 the jobs portal designed specifically for international students, you will need to register to get further job information past the page.
The following job’s sites are incredibly useful, but will not provide information about whether a UK company can provide Tier 2 sponsorship. So, you will need to use Sponsor Tier 2, to search and see if they provide sponsorship.
Linkedin: The world’s largest community of professionals, connect with professionals in your industry, follow companies you want to work for and apply directly for jobs using your Linkedin profile.
Linkedin for Students: The official guide to getting hired on Linkedin from Linkedin. If you have no idea how to write and get the most out of your Linkedin profile.
Glassdoor: The global job review and vacancy board, great for researching reviews on companies, seeing employee feedback, and finding out recent interview questions.
Bright Network: Bringing together hundreds of top employers and the best graduates in the UK, a great source for information and career events.
Debut: Great app and talent sourcing network targeted at top graduates, top employers will regularly try and actively target students using the app.
Gradcracker: Website dedicated solely for careers for STEM students (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) , they also have a fantastic Career Centre, full of advice and guides to various big employers and job roles.
Career Guides
Prospects: The government-run career’s help website covering over 400 job roles. Fantastic detail and easy to use.
National Career’s Service: Targeted at people living in England, the slightly less user-friendly but highly comprehensive government-run site, covering over 800 job roles and offering free skills assessments.
International Student Pathfinder: Run by Marvin Nyenyezi a former international student now working in the UK, fantastic information and resources
The Vault: Great general advice site, and one of the oldest online resources for students and professionals.
Wall Street Oasis: Fantastic source of information, advice, and connecting with like-minded individuals who want to pursue careers in investment banking and finance.
The Interview Guys: Hailing from America, one of the best and oldest interview guides which have been visited millions of times. Emphasis on US jobs, but lots to learn here for free.
Prepare 2 Get Ahead: A guide designed by the University of Warwick specifically targeted at Chinese students wanting to study and work in the UK.
Other Websites
UKCISA: The definitive source of official information and advice for international students. The UK Council for International Student Affairs is a government-sponsored organisation providing information and advice on scholarships, visas, studying, and working in the UK.
Wikijobs: One of the oldest job forums, full of advice, guides, and importantly a thriving forum full of students and professionals discussing their experience of big companies’ interviews and assessments.
Student Rooms: The UK’s biggest student community, with a thriving forum. Similar to Wikijobs but more general in nature, as covering a large range of topics that impact students.
Jobscan.co: Scan your CV for free to see how an AI would match your CV to the job you are applying to. Phenomenal resource (thanks to Anastasia from UK Hired for tipping us off!) Free scans to optimise your CV and Linkedin.
Resume.com: One of the leading free CV builders on the internet, clutter-free, and super easy to use User Interface to get your CV built. Built from data from Indeed, the UK’s leading job search site.
Zety: Another free CV builder, but we love Zety’s blog and guides and think it’s some of the best career advice writing online. Lot of thought and love goes into their guides.
Balance Careers – Probably the biggest and most popular careers site globally. Though has a heavy US focus. Balance provides an enormous library of information for anything you want to find out. Targeted at students and professionals.
Farnham Street – A beautiful fountain of information, to become a better thinker and problem solver. Not related to employment, but great for becoming a better and smarter human!
Seth’s Blog – Daily writing and advice from arguably the best marketer in the world. Writer of 30+ books on Marketing. His daily short pieces of advice make us smarter and help us think every day.
Tim Ferriss – The human guinea pig and NY Times best-selling author of 5 books. Tim Ferriss also hosts one of the world’s most popular podcasts, where he deconstructs world class performers. Another resource to learn how to be better and smarter from the best in the world. Highly recommend his speed reading guide to start with.
Books
How to Win Friends and Influence People: The multi-million-copy best selling book from Dale Carnegie, who Warren Buffett credited with changing his life. This timeless classic is our most recommended book for shy people who struggle to make friends and get taken seriously. We re-read this book once a year.
International Student Pathfinder: The only book available solely targeted at International Students who want to work and study in the UK. Fantastic read with compelling facts, case studies and advice written by an international student.
Academic Writing for International Students: An enormously helpful book for students who are not familiar with writing English in an academic context. Easy to follow textbook, and top-rated on Amazon for “English for specific purposes”.
2 Hour Job Search: Lovely book on searching for jobs in the digital age, with an effective plan to research and use digital tools like Linkedin, special mention to the wonderful Hannah Salton career coach extraordinaire.
What colour is my parachute: The long-running career choice guide has been reprinted and updated since 1970! This long book from Richard Nelson Bolles is crammed full of advice and is great for people who really aren’t sure what they should do for a job.
Carla Harris: Strategize to Win: A copy of Carla Harris’ book is given to all new incoming analysts at Morgan Stanley. The current Vice Chairman of Global Wealth Management provides phenomenal advice for graduates in their first job and how to get ahead of the competition.
7 Habits of Highly Effective People: First published in 1989, this comprehensive book gives some of the best life and professional advice available. Stephen Covey’s book is often cited by top entrepreneurs and successful people in the industry.
The War of Art: One of our absolute favourites from Steven Pressfield, we highly recommend any book from Pressfield. Short, just over 100 pages but contains wonderful advice about how to overcome “resistance” and “do the work”. Frequently cited book from many famous artists, authors, and business people.
So good they can’t ignore you: Cal Newport is Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Georgetown University, and also a hell of a writer. We have all his books, but this, “Deep Work” and “Digital Minimalism” have made a deep impression on how we work. We also recommend “How to Become a Straight A Student” for those wanting to exceed at University or College.
Videos
These channels are recommended less for educational content, and more in the spirit of what we believe in, which is that you can achieve anything with discipline and hard work.
Get our FREE ebook “The 7 Steps to Getting Hired”
with 130+ Tier 2 Sponsors Hiring in 2021
We would love to hear from international student Youtubers from different countries, who make videos about studying and working in the UK.
Drop us an email with your channel to mike@jobreadyenglish.com and if we love your channel and content we will post it up!
Arrange a
discovery call
Call 0203 4886472, email mike@jobreadyenglish.com, or send us a message to arrange a convenient discovery call that will help you understand what’s stopping you from achieving your goals.
We’ll tell you exactly how our bespoke coaching service will get you where you want to go.