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Job opportunities in the UK for foreigners

Hello everyone! I'm a mechanical engineering student who will graduate soon in Korea. My interest is in Materials engineering area. So I want to apply for taught masters programme in Uni of Bristol, Manchester, and Sheffield.

As foreigner, I'm quite worried about my future prospects in the UK. Cos I want to get a job in the UK and live there If I successfully graduated from one of those unis.
I'd rather stay in Korea if I'm likely to come back home due to difficulties with settlement. And also I'm willing to proceed to PhD if it is satisfactory.
So what I want to ask is how difficult it is for foreigners to get a job in materials engineering industry with a MSc degree in the UK?
Also, what uni would you recommend me?
My specific interests are put in materials characterisation, mechanical properties, and materials under severe atmosphere.

Thank you for replying, in advance.
Original post by SeongsuShin
Hello everyone! I'm a mechanical engineering student who will graduate soon in Korea. My interest is in Materials engineering area. So I want to apply for taught masters programme in Uni of Bristol, Manchester, and Sheffield.

As foreigner, I'm quite worried about my future prospects in the UK. Cos I want to get a job in the UK and live there If I successfully graduated from one of those unis.
I'd rather stay in Korea if I'm likely to come back home due to difficulties with settlement. And also I'm willing to proceed to PhD if it is satisfactory.
So what I want to ask is how difficult it is for foreigners to get a job in materials engineering industry with a MSc degree in the UK?
Also, what uni would you recommend me?
My specific interests are put in materials characterisation, mechanical properties, and materials under severe atmosphere.

Thank you for replying, in advance.

Have you looked into the visa process? If you're interested in working in the UK I'd check that out first.
Reply 2
Original post by Smack
Have you looked into the visa process? If you're interested in working in the UK I'd check that out first.

Yeah I have. After graduation, I can get a graduate visa which let me stay for 2yrs. Before this period ends, I have to find a company who can sponsor me so that I can stay in the UK continuously. Otherwise, I have to come back home. But I'm afraid that's gonna be tough task. So I'm asking the other guys' opinion :smile:
Original post by SeongsuShin
Yeah I have. After graduation, I can get a graduate visa which let me stay for 2yrs. Before this period ends, I have to find a company who can sponsor me so that I can stay in the UK continuously. Otherwise, I have to come back home. But I'm afraid that's gonna be tough task. So I'm asking the other guys' opinion :smile:

OK. Materials engineering is quite niche, however many companies don't sponsor visas for international students. Ultimately, I wouldn't plan on working in the UK after graduation, I'd treat it as more of a bonus if you can get it.
Reply 4
Original post by Smack
OK. Materials engineering is quite niche, however many companies don't sponsor visas for international students. Ultimately, I wouldn't plan on working in the UK after graduation, I'd treat it as more of a bonus if you can get it.

Ahh I got it. Then, would you go to other countries like Germany or the US for work?
Original post by SeongsuShin
Ahh I got it. Then, would you go to other countries like Germany or the US for work?

Definitely worth looking into them, but I don't know anything about visas for those countries I'm afraid.
Reply 6
Original post by Smack
Definitely worth looking into them, but I don't know anything about visas for those countries I'm afraid.

Alright, Thanks for help! 😀
Reply 7
Original post by SeongsuShin
Hello everyone! I'm a mechanical engineering student who will graduate soon in Korea. My interest is in Materials engineering area. So I want to apply for taught masters programme in Uni of Bristol, Manchester, and Sheffield.
As foreigner, I'm quite worried about my future prospects in the UK. Cos I want to get a job in the UK and live there If I successfully graduated from one of those unis.
I'd rather stay in Korea if I'm likely to come back home due to difficulties with settlement. And also I'm willing to proceed to PhD if it is satisfactory.
So what I want to ask is how difficult it is for foreigners to get a job in materials engineering industry with a MSc degree in the UK?
Also, what uni would you recommend me?
My specific interests are put in materials characterisation, mechanical properties, and materials under severe atmosphere.
Thank you for replying, in advance.

Hiya.
Finding a job for someone who's from another company is no different to someone who lives here already - you "simply" have to convince the hiring manager that you're the best candidate. I'm not going to go into much detail about how to write a great CV and how to perform on the interviews, you can find that information on the internet.
To give you a bit of an idea, have a look around gradcracker website - https://www.gradcracker.com/search/all-disciplines/engineering-graduate-jobs
I found it the best place to search for internships and graduate opportunities for people with STEM degrees.
Have a look at the different industries, the companies and the job requirements to give you an idea. Although bear in mind that right now there aren't that many jobs posted as majority of the companies start advertising their opportunities around September-October each year.

I also have a couple comments regarding your plans:

Regarding the choice of Uni, it doesn't really matter as vast majority of them, if not all, are great. Just make sure the course that you're going to study is accredited by the IMechE ( https://www.imeche.org ). You should be able to find that information on the Uni website, on the course page. It's not mandatory, but it ensures the degree is taught to the latest professional standard and that you will be able to gain a Chartered Engineer (CEng) status, which could also be useful for your future career progression.

Visa application: It seems that you plan to study in the UK with the goal to stay longer. There is nothing wrong with that, however your intentions when applying for the visa should state that your goal is to study in the UK, not to use the student visa route to remain in the UK. I can't remember the formal way that the UK Home Office put it, but basically they want to know you have genuine goal of studying here and not simply using the student visa route to live in the UK, however that doesn't mean that you can't, it just shouldn't be the only reason for you to apply for such visa. On top of that, the UK Government have recently increased the minimum salary requirement - You must be paid £35,800 or more a year in order to qualify for the Tier 2 visa (or work visa). This isn't what the majority of the companies would offer a graduate. Graduate programmes often pay somewhere between £28k and £35k, but you do have the 2 year graduate visa option to get some work experience and then get the salary you need in order to qualify for the work visa, but you must understand that the graduate visa programme may be closed before you graduate (the previous Prime Minister has been considering scrapping the graduate visa option), potentially leaving you with no options but to either try to find a high paying job and if unsuccessful return back to Korea.

Costs: I don't know your financial situation, but Masters degree fees are quite high for international students - about £29,300 a year in Bristol Uni, £32,500 in Manchester Uni and £29,110 for Sheffield Uni. Also remember that you'll have to pay for everything out of your own pocket - rent (which is also quite high, I'd say at least £500/month on average), bills, transportation, food, cloths, etc. Not only you must make sure you have enough money to sustain yourself before you find an engineering job after you graduate, you'll also have to prove the UK Home Office that you do have such funds and they come from genuine resources (such as salary and savings).

Career: Having a such a narrow career focus (materials engineering) may limit your choices and introduce another level of challenge in finding a job after you graduate. Personally, I'd suggest not limiting yourself too much with this and going for any relevant mechanical engineering job at a known company with good reputation (that's almost any company that advertises on the Gradcracker). Once you've moved from student visa to a work visa and once you've gathered enough experience then you'll have much better options with regards to your long term career. Also, by that time you might easily change your mind and stay in the industry of our choice, for example automotive, energy, healthcare, infrastructure, etc. All industries need engineers these days, so unless you're really bad at making good CVs and performing at job interviews, you should not have any issues finding a job later on. Except for defence and aerospace companies, and sometimes for companies with headquarters in the USA, you'll have some trouble working there as you're not an English national, for security and for international trade compliance reasons.

I hope that helps.

-Al
(edited 2 months ago)
to offer a slightly different perspective (from someone who started their career in materials over 30 years ago) - I think it would be helpful to understand a few things and suggest some areas of research (if you haven't looked already)

Q - Why Materials? Which area of materials? My first degree and first Masters (quite a few years ago now) were in Materials, when I entered the job market I had very decent knowledge in my niche (ferrous metals and corrosion / failure mechanisms) - my pool of potential employers was small, it took a while for a job to come up but I was mostly hired for my knowledge.

Knowing your specific areas of interest / talent that an employer could use (I was really good at solving complex environmental failures) you can probably research who your potential employers are and get a sense of the likelihood of getting work.

UK isn't a manufacturing powerhouse any more, so many of the biggest employers in UK are in the military / defence (eg Babcock, BAE Systems etc) I don't know what their rules are around hiring non UK nationals. Across Asia there are a lot of manufacturing activities.

Some other countries (US, Germany etc) do still have large industries that might be potential employers. I worked in Germany, you would likely be expected to be fluent in English (the common language of engineering) and German the common language of most of the folks you will work with).

Q - What kind of job are you after?

If you want to working in industry then you will need to research where the work is.

If it is academia then that's quite a different option. I was lucky that my Masters led to a PhD offer (which I declined), if you want to go down that route then understanding each Uni and the wider PhD world will be helpful. In the UK you can get paid PhD Studentships but they don't pay very well and they are very competitive - which takes me back to you having niche knowledge that people need.

Your Uni list is excellent (though I don't know much about Bristol Materials dept), maybe look at Loughborough too? Its the Unis with the good connections to industry that will help the most (ie Loughborough is v good for that).

Q - Why do you want to move to UK?

There is (probably) plenty of work in industry for Materials graduates in other countries. The UK is expensive to live, Materials roles don't pay that well unless you get fairly senior. You might find a nicer quality of life in other places.

The counter argument to that is UK is a nice country to be an academic, lots of good Unis and great research going on - *but* there is a crisis in UK University funding currently, what the future of academic jobs in the UK looks like is quite unclear right now . . .

Just my opinion, hope it helps
(edited 2 months ago)

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