u/Own-mc

Hi everyone! This is my first Reddit post, and I'm hoping to get some honest advice from people working in IT or recruitment in the UK.

I recently moved to the UK, so all of my professional experience was gained in my home country. I have a degree in IT and around 3 years of experience as a Customer Support Analyst for an international IT services company.

Before that, I worked in customer service for a large logistics company. I believe that experience actually helped me get my IT position, because I was already using a CRM/ticketing system, dealing with customer cases, investigating problems, documenting information and following processes.

I also had experience in customer service, administration, reception and teaching/training IT, so my CV is quite varied. I know that might not necessarily be a bad thing, but I'm wondering if it makes my profile look unfocused.

I joined the IT company as a trainee and, after about a year, I became a Customer Support Analyst.

My role was mainly focused on supporting a large corporate account with mobile devices and services. My work was more focused on customer support, troubleshooting, processes and ticket management rather than software development or advanced technical support.

My day-to-day responsibilities included:

• Managing incidents and service requests through a ticketing system
• Providing first-line troubleshooting for mobile devices and services
• Supporting users by email, phone and chat
• Explaining processes and providing documentation to users
• Managing and updating tickets and following SLAs
• Escalating issues when necessary
• Assigning tickets within the team
• Maintaining device and service records
• Monitoring mobile data usage and contacting users when necessary
• Supporting requests such as new devices, replacements, lost devices, cancellations and number transfers
• Working with different internal teams and an external telecommunications provider

I used ServiceNow and other internal systems.

I really enjoyed this job. I worked from home for a significant amount of time and later had a hybrid arrangement, and I found that I was comfortable and productive in that type of environment.

I left my job when I moved to the UK after getting married. I expected finding another job to be easier because I had worked for an international company, but it has been much harder than I expected.

I have applied for quite a few jobs and have received very few responses. Some applications seem to be rejected almost immediately, and I haven't been able to get many interviews.

This has made me wonder whether my experience is simply not translating well to the UK market, whether I'm applying for the wrong roles, or whether my CV is presenting my experience badly.

I do have full right to work in the UK and don't require sponsorship.

Another thing I'm trying to improve is my English. Most of my professional English came from working in my previous job. I have a good vocabulary and can understand work-related English quite well, but I'm quite shy and speaking is still much harder for me than writing. Since moving to the UK, I feel that my everyday English has improved, but I still need to work on my confidence and grammar.

I'm also currently pregnant, with my baby due in January. I don't see this as something negative, but realistically it affects the timing of my job search. My plan is to use the next few months to prepare rather than simply wait.

Ideally, I would like to return to work around March, preferably in a hybrid or remote IT/customer support role. I really enjoyed working from home before, and I feel that this type of role would also work well for me in the future.

From now until January, I would like to focus on:

• Improving my spoken English and confidence
• Refreshing my IT knowledge
• Learning useful skills without spending a lot of money
• Improving my CV
• Understanding which roles I should realistically target
• Starting to apply more strategically

I'm also wondering whether I should broaden my search beyond UK-based companies. For example, should I look for remote positions with companies based in other countries, as long as they legally employ people who are resident in the UK?

So this is where I would really appreciate some advice.

If you were in my position, how would you use the next 5–6 months?

Based on the experience I've described:

1. What roles would you target? Service Desk, IT Support, Customer Support, Application Support, Technical Support, or something else?
2. Does my experience as a Customer Support Analyst sound transferable to UK IT support roles?
3. Does my previous customer service experience strengthen my profile, or does my overall CV look too scattered?
4. Is having all my previous experience from another country likely to be a major disadvantage?
5. What skills would you recommend I refresh or learn?
6. Are there any genuinely free courses or certifications worth doing?
7. Would you focus on ITIL, Microsoft/Azure, networking, or something else?
8. Where would you look for hybrid/remote roles in the UK?
9. Are there good job boards or companies for finding remote IT roles where the employer is based outside the UK but hires people who are legally resident in the UK?
10. Is there anything obvious in my situation that I might be missing?

I'm especially interested in hearing from UK recruiters, hiring managers, or people who moved into the UK job market from another country.

I would really appreciate honest and constructive feedback. I'm trying to understand where I might be going wrong and what I could improve. If there is something wrong with my CV, my experience or the way I'm applying, I'd genuinely rather know so I can work on it.

Thank you for reading! :)