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Your journey to success in the Great Britain

Risks you can encounter, while looking for job in the UK

Are you afraid of looking for jobs yourself? Are you thinking about making use of an agency to help you with that? I would like to show you several traps and swindles that you might not reveal at the first sight.

You should know that nobody can guarantee you work for 100 %, unless it is a low-skill and not very well paid position. You always have to know, how to present yourself. Therefore, the services are in majority of the cases about arranging the interview, rather than getting the job on its own.

Very simply, if all these agency advertisements were true, there wouldn’t be any unemployment in the Czech Republic, UK, Germany and the world. Every minute, there is a new advertisement offering a long-term excellent position in the warehouse, farm or hotel. Of course, all of them without any previous knowledge of English. Everybody would like to go to the United Kingdom to work, because it is so prosperous.

The only condition there is to pay a (usually quite high) fee for provision and a monthly rent.

Examples of bad practices of the work agencies:

1. Excellent summer job

A “trap” advertisement that was posted in one of the universities in the Czech Republic. The advertisement promised an excellent summer job in Glasgow, Scotland, with very high earnings “only” for 15, 000 CZE as a provision fee. The catch was in the fact that the travel expenses were not included, the accommodation and food not provided. How did it work in practice?

There was an agreement between the agency and the owner of the restaurant about summer jobs. The agreement stated that only a part of the summer workers can stay and the rest must leave.
What were the reasons for the notices? The owner was not interested in having so many summer workers and for that reason he did not explain how things work properly. Then, the reason could be always found. In most of the cases, inability to fulfil the job duties. The respective people had to find another job to earn money for the journey back home. And the provision fee? Of course, the people did not see the money again as it was “their own fault”.

2. One service, paid twice

It is not an exception from the rule that the agencies charge one service twice, from their clients and you as a potential employee.

As a typical example, the company looking for employees gives instructions to the agency. Of course, the agency charges fees for provision of the employees. Then, the applicant contacts the agency and pays for provision of the suitable job. For the agency, there is no need to look for job opportunities as they are already given by the demand from the companies.

3. Rule: you cannot find a good job with contacts

Usually, the agencies have low-qualification and low-paid jobs available as the more prestigious are given to employees of the company who are promoted or recommended by people they know. Only those positions, which are hard to occupy are given to the agency to solve the problem.

4. Certainty of the job at the first sight, but…

The agency always signs a contract with you (sent via email before), which is usually five-page-long from both sides, A4 format. At first, it seems rather transparent and clearly guaranteeing the job. The contract includes a number of points, subpoints and subpoints of these.

Even if you are reading the contract carefully, you might overlook a piece of information or just don’t pay sufficient attention to the information mentioned in points 4.2.3, 12.4.2. and 23.2.3.

In the three different articles, you are basically told that if you don’t succeed in finding the job, the agency has no legal responsibility to care about you. They might provide you with several interviews in the town / city of your interest. However, if the employer is not satisfied with your performance, it is your problem, not of the agency.

In practice, the agency has its clients and arranged interviews in warehouses, restaurants, hotels and etc., but if there is no demand, it is always easy to refuse you.

In this respective case, the fee for job provision was around 7, 000 CZE. Obviously, this was only the “job”, but the person also had to pay for the transport, accommodation, among others.

5. Certain job in the hospitality sector without any interview…

Or, to put it simply, just pay the fee and start working in a hotel. I have used to work in the hospitality sector and I have still strong connections to the area, therefore such job offers always make me smile.

It is simply not possible to start working as a waiter, kitchen porter or even in housekeeping, if you have not met the owner of the place, or at least the manager.

If you were the manager or owner, you would also first test the employee before you sign the contract with him or her, right?

There might be a difference, when it comes to the catering agency, however, the agencies first give you instructions and training, usually they require some certificates or other documents and references as well.

6. What exactly am I paying the 5, 000 CZK for?

I got to know the following example from one of my clients:

The client contacted an agency, which she found on the Internet, because she was attracted by its price list. She sent them an email including various questions about the work in the United Kingdom, accommodation and their packet of services. After three emails (week of communication), she finally got to know the answers for her questions. She was told, what is provided for the fee of 5, 000 CZK:
  • The agency is arranging an interview, which does not mean that you are going to get the job. It only means that the agency cooperates with others giving you an opportunity to participate in the job competition. You can find the British agencies yourself on the Internet and for free.
    Copybook example of the service paid twice.
  • Card for public transport, you don’t have to pay for this service. Within two minutes, you can manage to get the card yourself, or you can ask me for help that I provide for free too.
  • British SIM card – is the same story as the card for public transport. You can manage to do it yourself without any problems. I can help you with getting new SIM card for free even me myself.
  • Provision of the bank account – at the best, a representative of the agency is going to accompany you to the bank. In the worst-case scenario, you are only given a tip for a bank, where it is good to open the account. Of course, you must pay for that. For free, I gladly recommend, how to do that.
  • ’More things and services for your successful start in the UK’ – if you find such a category of services, be careful and ask what it includes and if it is not one of the paid services, which you do yourself and for free.

Over the years, I had many clients that got themselves caught in one of the traps and made use of one of the services to get a certain and profitable job. At the best they found something else in London. However, in the worst-case scenarios, the people had just enough money to get back home and sometimes not even that. It is always very difficult to start again, especially when you lost all your money. Then, it is not that easy to pay for the deposit, pay for public transport, all once again. Do not risk, rather than loose everything.

To conclude, I would like to add that the above-mentioned practices are not the same for all the work agencies in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and other EU countries. Nevertheless, you might struggle to find a serious and trustworthy agency among the sea of others. Generally speaking, those agencies that are problematic have their services in contrast to my own much more expensive and the description of the job offers tends to be very short and blunt. It is because they often charge you for services that you can sort our yourself for free. Then, it is all up to you, which type of services you prefer.

In short, for those financially literate and thoughtful, it is clear that you need to put things together to avoid the “trap” offers of fortunes lying within arm’s reach.

EasyToUK.com is in its essence also a type of agency. Of course, I also have my own price list of services, by which I somehow earn my living. On the other hand, I am trying to flood the web with information, which can inspire people, how to manage on their own and save money. Therefore, there is a different spirit in the EasyToUK.com initiative.

At the end of the day, everything depends on you. What kind of choices you make. What you decide to solve on your own and what you ask me to help you with.