UK job hunting experience ③ | Current situation of foreign nurse recruitment in the UK and my second job offer

 I started job hunting again in March 2021. I immediately searched for jobs for foreign nurses, but due to the impact of COVID-19, many hospitals temporarily postponed hiring and there were almost no job openings.

I searched for jobs on NHS jobs, but there were so few that I thought it was a lie. After searching for two weeks, I found only one job.

When I consulted Mayumi Rossi, who works as a head nurse at a hospital in London, about job hunting, I heard that there are fewer job openings for foreign nurses. Therefore, if my job hunting does not go well, I received advice to cherish the offers I currently have. In response to the reality that it was harsher than I had imagined, I decided to set a deadline and start job hunting again.

Job hunting on my own
Here, I will try job hunting on my own, which I did not do last time. To be honest, I have no experience in job hunting overseas and have never been to the UK, so I was not confident in job hunting on my own. It seemed that many foreign nurses were using an agent, so I used an agent last time. However, I decided to do job hunting on my own in order to get a new offer.
I sent a total of 15 inquiry emails. Of those, five were called for interviews. The other 11 hospitals either did not respond, only licensed candidates were accepted, or were on a temporary hiatus.

Agent
The first agent had a rule that you could not apply for a job unless the department they were hiring in was the same as your current or most recent department. Even though valid job offers were posted twice a week, I was rejected because they did not fit the rule.

The second agent had a good job offer and we were in the middle of the conversation, but suddenly they stopped contacting me. I gave up quickly because I did not hear from them on the day we had agreed. Just when I had forgotten about it, they replied that they could set up an interview next week.

The third agent required me to submit a reference form for the agent in advance. Filling out the reference form before applying was a hassle, so I stopped looking for a job through this agent.

Job hunting is all about timing
I wrote that I was called for a total of five interviews, but they were all called at different times. I received a job offer from Hospital A in London, which was the first to respond to me. The other hospitals contacted me just before the interview or after I received a provisional offer, so the timing was not right.

A few days after the inquiry, I received an interview invitation from Hospital A. The other hospitals either did not reply or continued to reply that they were not currently hiring. Since I wanted to work in London, I decided that this was my only job and started preparing for the interview.

In fact, Hospital A was one of the hospitals I sent emails to randomly. Therefore, I did not know much about the hospital, and I researched it after the interview was decided. As I researched, I found out that it was a hospital with a very good reputation, and it was a workplace where I could advance my career. Moreover, it was located in London, the city I most wanted to work in. Although I had no clinical experience in the department I was recruiting for, it naturally became my first choice hospital.