u/PlayErOnE27

TLDR: Full post is availble on my youtube channel, 'Kavil Writes' on YouTube.

I moved to London for an MA in Creative Writing in 2023, already had 3 years of marketing experience from India, and figured the UK job hunt would be a formality on top of the degree. It wasn't.

Some quick numbers, because I think people underestimate how brutal this actually is: I applied to 300+ marketing jobs over about a year and a half. I got 3-4 interviews out of that. As a student, I was also capped at 20 hours/week, which killed a lot of part-time options before I even applied.

A few things that actually moved the needle for me:

• Stopped applying everywhere and went deep on one channel. I picked paid media specifically, learned Google Ads properly, and built real case studies around companies I actually wanted to work for, instead of sending the same generic CV to 50 places a week.
• Took a completely unrelated job for stability first. I ended up as a Teaching Assistant for a while — not marketing at all — but it gave me predictable hours, which meant I could actually study and job hunt properly instead of being in constant survival mode.
• The job I finally got came from literally walking into shops on my high street and asking if anyone needed freelance marketing help. Most said no. One said "actually yes," and that turned into a real marketing executive role a few weeks later.

The part I didn't expect: I got the job, then a few months later couldn't get sponsored under the Skilled Worker Visa route — the salary threshold to sponsor a recent grad now works out close to £50k in total employer cost once you factor in visa fees, the health surcharge, and NI. My spouse's visa also got rejected for a separate reason. So I ended up coming back to India about 6 months before my visa expired, after all of that.

Not a fairy tale ending, but I don't think it needed to be one — the job hunt part worked, and I learned a lot doing it the hard way.

I wrote the full, longer version of this (with more on the visa/sponsorship math specifically, in case that's useful to anyone else weighing whether to stay). Watch the full video on my Channel 'Kavil Writes' On youtube

Happy to answer questions if anyone's in the middle of a similar UK job hunt right now — I remember exactly how disorienting the "why is nobody responding" phase is.

Hello everyone! salute to all protestors in Delhi! Your blood and tears will not go to waste.

What I noticed in all the live feeds that I watched is that the government was banning communications. I have a solution. Mesh network apps that use phones on a network to communicate without internet.

Apps like Bitchat and Briar are helpful in this matter. It uses bluetooth and can send messages without any internet.

The only cons are that it depends on how many people are on a network and can send messages to people 100 mts apart.

The second con is that anyone can message, so you have to be careful before sending or receiving messages since they can be used to misdirect. But I think this can be used to our advantage if properly used.

The post was made on Rajabhau Waje's Instagram and X, and there is a protest in alliance and in support of Sonam Wangchuk on 19th July at 3 p.m. We must carry forward the light that was ignited by the absolute spark that is our dear Sonam Wangchuk.

He was illegally abducted by Delhi police today, on 18th July, and we must ask oursevles are we really living in a democracy. I find it hard to believe.

please join this protest, and let's see if our priorities are being listened to, if BJP will sack Dharmendra Pradhan or if Pm Modi will surrender

I have heard this rant in many places, even the famous author John Green seems to hate Atlas Shrugged? I have only read Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, and I loved it. The book helped me leave architecture, and it kind of inspired me to write my first book. So can you guys tell me what it is about Ayn Rand that people dont like?

Edit: Holy Moly replies, I need to go through them

Just the title. A massive question? Even in the subreddit, I dont see many people getting a skilled worker visa; very few people are writing in. If you are someone who came to uk on student visa in 2023 and are promised to get a skilled worker visa or have already secured one, please mention it here.

So, a quick background. I (28M) came to the UK in sept 2023 for an MA in Creative Writing. I worked hard and smart, day and night and got a decent marketing job in August of last year. I did some T.A work before that. Everything was going alright in the UK, and my wife (26F) was going to join me for 6 months on a visitor visa, and we were going to spend 6 months in the UK until my visa runs out in Jan 2027.

I was with my now wife before marriage for a couple of years before we got married, and I immediately came to the UK for this new job. Fast forward to today, I am being let go, and my wife's visa has been rejected. Currently serving my notice period till the end of the month.

Two kicks in a span of 4 days. My first priority is my wife, whom I have to visit, so I thought I would visit her and come back in 1.5 months and have 4 months left. "Worst comes to worst, I will work as a T.A again for four months."

But I feel like I am done. I have been at this constantly. I did not know about sponsorship when I came to the UK; my only intention was to prove to myself that I could get a degree in creative writing from a good university and get a marketing job, which I have done. I honestly did not expect to get a job with my graduate visa, which I did.

I am going to have more or less the same amount of money if I just leave my flat and leave this country, rather than retaining my flat and then booking a return ticket.

I need to start my life with my wife; we have only ever been long-distance except for a few months together in the past. I will take a break, finish my book and think about what to do after that.

I want to create a marketing plan for self-publishing my book, and I will work on that. Excited to see my family and friends.

Here are my two cents on my journey in the UK, spoilers, it's not all bad, but I needed a lot of trial and error to get it right. Currently working as a Marketing Executive in a good company in the UK.

I came to the UK in 2023 sept to study an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Greenwich. I was 26 at the time. I had a gf (24F) at that time. I did not take any education loan, and everything was paid from my pocket. This will come in handy later.

So, I came to the UK with hopes to only retrieve my money invested, aiming to stay for 3 years (1 year student visa + 2 years Graduate visa)

I then started looking for jobs and trying to find friends, I had quit, smoking, drinking, late night outs and partying and looked at masters in UK as a second chance in life, each day was costing me roughly £25-£35 just accommodation, travel and food excluding tuition fees, so I was really cautious on not wasting time in UK and do my studies and get a job.

Initially, many of my friends got jobs in restaurants and pubs. I had a cleaning job, but I quit after 2-4 weeks since I had to get up really early at 4 am and go to the job, which didn't even pay well.

I quit that job and tried finding different jobs. I kept going to university job fairs even when some of my roommates said that ‘the jobs there are useless.’ (THANK GOD!)

I found a teaching assistant job in the UK, and I had to assist students under year 6 with their studies, which was pretty simple but taxing on the mind. I did not mind that since it was really good pay and only had to work from 8 am - 3:30 pm, and I was home and ready to chat with my family and GF (who is also my wife now) and plan my future actions.

My gf was a really great support, and I had someone to bounce my ideas off, make sure my mental health is good and give me advice on lots of things. 

During my university studies, I knew that an MA in creative writing was not going to bring any jobs, so I studied marketing courses from YouTube and Udemy. I also had 3 years of writing and marketing experience before I came to London. I found Senator, we run ads and his video on “How he would start marketing all over”. It's a great piece of advice, and he suggests going in on one marketing field like (SEO, PPC, SSM) and giving it your all and going in depth.

He also suggested creating marketing portfolios, yes, case studies of companies that are hiring. There’s a third piece of advice I will give you that will get you a job in the UK later.

So I did, I studied marketing, read business books, entered a business competition at my university, and came in the top ten in that business competition. 

After my graduation, I tried a lot to get a job, optimised CVs, made case studies and applied to almost 300+ jobs. I got around 5-6 interviews, and I did not get a job. I had lost all hope in July 2025, and since the vacation started in August, which meant I did not have a job for almost 5-6 weeks, which was fine, since I had savings. 

After I got super bored one evening, I just decided to go along my high street and start asking if they required marketing help, and I can do that as a freelancer. That decision alone changed my life.

I went out, and I saw an ad for a ventilation company requiring marketing assistance, and I went in and gave my C.V I was called for an interview, and I went in with my case study. The interviewers, my current managers, asked me questions for 3 hours + which was great because no one in the past year had bothered to even look at my case studies.

After three hours, I went home, and in two weeks, I started working there. I have eight months until my visa expires, and I have to make the decision to go back home. But I have achieved what I came here for, and I don’t have any regrets. 

To tie everything together, my GF at home and not taking a loan was amongst the best things I could have had before arriving in the UK, which allowed me to only focus on being hirable for a job and getting one.

So, that’s what I had to say, making it in the UK is all about focus, learning new things, being humble enough to understand that other people can provide value, saving as much money as possible so you can use your free time to find jobs, ensuring you don’t think about doing as many shifts as humanly possible and just do jobs during your student life. The amount of resources and extracurricular activities you can do here is immense, and they help you a lot.

So I would end this super long post by saying this, “Work hard, study well, and eat and sleep plenty” — Master Roshni (The Turtle Hermit Way)

Here are my two cents on my journey in the UK, spoilers, it's not all bad, but I needed a lot of trial and error to get it right. Currently working as a Marketing Executive in a good company in the UK.

I came to the UK in 2023 sept to study an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Greenwich. I was 26 at the time. I had a gf (24F) at that time. I did not take any education loan, and everything was paid from my pocket. This will come in handy later.

So, I came to the UK with hopes to only retrieve my money invested, aiming to stay for 3 years (1 year student visa + 2 years Graduate visa)

I then started looking for jobs and trying to find friends, I had quit, smoking, drinking, late night outs and partying and looked at masters in UK as a second chance in life, each day was costing me roughly £25-£35 just accommodation, travel and food excluding tuition fees, so I was really cautious on not wasting time in UK and do my studies and get a job.

Initially, many of my friends got jobs in restaurants and pubs. I had a cleaning job, but I quit after 2-4 weeks since I had to get up really early at 4 am and go to the job, which didn't even pay well.

I quit that job and tried finding different jobs. I kept going to university job fairs even when some of my roommates said that ‘the jobs there are useless.’ (THANK GOD!)

I found a teaching assistant job in the UK, and I had to assist students under year 6 with their studies, which was pretty simple but taxing on the mind. I did not mind that since it was really good pay and only had to work from 8 am - 3:30 pm, and I was home and ready to chat with my family and GF (who is also my wife now) and plan my future actions.

My gf was a really great support, and I had someone to bounce my ideas off, make sure my mental health is good and give me advice on lots of things. 

During my university studies, I knew that an MA in creative writing was not going to bring any jobs, so I studied marketing courses from YouTube and Udemy. I also had 3 years of writing and marketing experience before I came to London. I found Senator, we run ads and his video on “How he would start marketing all over”. It's a great piece of advice, and he suggests going in on one marketing field like (SEO, PPC, SSM) and giving it your all and going in depth.

He also suggested creating marketing portfolios, yes, case studies of companies that are hiring. There’s a third piece of advice I will give you that will get you a job in the UK later.

So I did, I studied marketing, read business books, entered a business competition at my university, and came in the top ten in that business competition. 

After my graduation, I tried a lot to get a job, optimised CVs, made case studies and applied to almost 300+ jobs. I got around 5-6 interviews, and I did not get a job. I had lost all hope in July 2025, and since the vacation started in August, which meant I did not have a job for almost 5-6 weeks, which was fine, since I had savings. 

After I got super bored one evening, I just decided to go along my high street and start asking if they required marketing help, and I can do that as a freelancer. That decision alone changed my life.

I went out, and I saw an ad for a ventilation company requiring marketing assistance, and I went in and gave my C.V I was called for an interview, and I went in with my case study. The interviewers, my current managers, asked me questions for 3 hours + which was great because no one in the past year had bothered to even look at my case studies.

After three hours, I went home, and in two weeks, I started working there. I have eight months until my visa expires, and I have to make the decision to go back home. But I have achieved what I came here for, and I don’t have any regrets. 

To tie everything together, my GF at home and not taking a loan was amongst the best things I could have had before arriving in the UK, which allowed me to only focus on being hirable for a job and getting one.

So, that’s what I had to say, making it in the UK is all about focus, learning new things, being humble enough to understand that other people can provide value, saving as much money as possible so you can use your free time to find jobs, ensuring you don’t think about doing as many shifts as humanly possible and just do jobs during your student life. The amount of resources and extracurricular activities you can do here is immense, and they help you a lot.

So I would end this super long post by saying this, “Work hard, study well, and eat and sleep plenty” — Master Roshni (The Turtle Hermit Way)

Here are my two cents on my journey in the UK, spoilers, it's not all bad, but I needed a lot of trial and error to get it right. Currently working as a Marketing Executive in a good company in the UK.

I came to the UK in 2023 sept to study an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Greenwich. I was 26 at the time. I had a gf (24F) at that time. I did not take any education loan, and everything was paid from my pocket. This will come in handy later.

So, I came to the UK with hopes to only retrieve my money invested, aiming to stay for 3 years (1 year student visa + 2 years Graduate visa) 

I then started looking for jobs and trying to find friends, I had quit, smoking, drinking, late night outs and partying and looked at masters in UK as a second chance in life, each day was costing me roughly £25-£35 just accommodation, travel and food excluding tuition fees, so I was really cautious on not wasting time in UK and do my studies and get a job.

Initially, many of my friends got jobs in restaurants and pubs. I had a cleaning job, but I quit after 2-4 weeks since I had to get up really early at 4 am and go to the job, which didn't even pay well.

I quit that job and tried finding different jobs. I kept going to university job fairs even when some of my roommates said that ‘the jobs there are useless.’ (THANK GOD!)

I found a teaching assistant job in the UK, and I had to assist students under year 6 with their studies, which was pretty simple but taxing on the mind. I did not mind that since it was really good pay and only had to work from 8 am - 3:30 pm, and I was home and ready to chat with my family and GF (who is also my wife now) and plan my future actions.

My gf was a really great support, and I had someone to bounce my ideas off, make sure my mental health is good and give me advice on lots of things. 

During my university studies, I knew that an MA in creative writing was not going to bring any jobs, so I studied marketing courses from YouTube and Udemy. I also had 3 years of writing and marketing experience before I came to London. I found Senator, we run ads and his video on “How he would start marketing all over”. It's a great piece of advice, and he suggests going in on one marketing field like (SEO, PPC, SSM) and giving it your all and going in depth.

He also suggested creating marketing portfolios, yes, case studies of companies that are hiring. There’s a third piece of advice I will give you that will get you a job in the UK later. 

So I did, I studied marketing, read business books, entered a business competition at my university, and came in the top ten in that business competition. 

After my graduation, I tried a lot to get a job, optimised CVs, made case studies and applied to almost 300+ jobs. I got around 5-6 interviews, and I did not get a job. I had lost all hope in July 2025, and since the vacation started in August, which meant I did not have a job for almost 5-6 weeks, which was fine, since I had savings. 

After I got super bored one evening, I just decided to go along my high street and start asking if they required marketing help, and I can do that as a freelancer. That decision alone changed my life.

I went out, and I saw an ad for a ventilation company requiring marketing assistance, and I went in and gave my C.V I was called for an interview, and I went in with my case study. The interviewers, my current managers, asked me questions for 3 hours + which was great because no one in the past year had bothered to even look at my case studies.

After three hours, I went home, and in two weeks, I started working there. I have eight months until my visa expires, and I have to make the decision to go back home. But I have achieved what I came here for, and I don’t have any regrets. 

To tie everything together, my GF at home and not taking a loan was amongst the best things I could have had before arriving in the UK, which allowed me to only focus on being hirable for a job and getting one.

So, that’s what I had to say, making it in the UK is all about focus, learning new things, being humble enough to understand that other people can provide value, saving as much money as possible so you can use your free time to find jobs, ensuring you don’t think about doing as many shifts as humanly possible and just do jobs during your student life. The amount of resources and extracurricular activities you can do here is immense, and they help you a lot.

So I would end this super long post by saying this, “Work hard, study well, and eat and sleep plenty” — Master Roshni (The Turtle Hermit Way)

Here are my two cents on my journey in the UK, spoilers, it's not all bad, but I needed a lot of trial and error to get it right. Currently working as a Marketing Executive in a good company in the UK.

I came to the UK in 2023 sept to study an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Greenwich. I was 26 at the time. I had a gf (24F) at that time. I did not take any education loan, and everything was paid from my pocket. This will come in handy later.

So, I came to the UK with hopes to only retrieve my money invested, aiming to stay for 3 years (1 year student visa + 2 years Graduate visa) 

I then started looking for jobs and trying to find friends, I had quit, smoking, drinking, late night outs and partying and looked at masters in UK as a second chance in life, each day was costing me roughly £25-£35 just accommodation, travel and food excluding tuition fees, so I was really cautious on not wasting time in UK and do my studies and get a job.

Initially, many of my friends got jobs in restaurants and pubs. I had a cleaning job, but I quit after 2-4 weeks since I had to get up really early at 4 am and go to the job, which didn't even pay well.

I quit that job and tried finding different jobs. I kept going to university job fairs even when some of my roommates said that ‘the jobs there are useless.’ (THANK GOD!)

I found a teaching assistant job in the UK, and I had to assist students under year 6 with their studies, which was pretty simple but taxing on the mind. I did not mind that since it was really good pay and only had to work from 8 am - 3:30 pm, and I was home and ready to chat with my family and GF (who is also my wife now) and plan my future actions.

My gf was a really great support, and I had someone to bounce my ideas off, make sure my mental health is good and give me advice on lots of things. 

During my university studies, I knew that an MA in creative writing was not going to bring any jobs, so I studied marketing courses from YouTube and Udemy. I also had 3 years of writing and marketing experience before I came to London. I found Senator, we run ads and his video on “How he would start marketing all over”. It's a great piece of advice, and he suggests going in on one marketing field like (SEO, PPC, SSM) and giving it your all and going in depth.

He also suggested creating marketing portfolios, yes, case studies of companies that are hiring. There’s a third piece of advice I will give you that will get you a job in the UK later. 

So I did, I studied marketing, read business books, entered a business competition at my university, and came in the top ten in that business competition. 

After my graduation, I tried a lot to get a job, optimised CVs, made case studies and applied to almost 300+ jobs. I got around 5-6 interviews, and I did not get a job. I had lost all hope in July 2025, and since the vacation started in August, which meant I did not have a job for almost 5-6 weeks, which was fine, since I had savings. 

After I got super bored one evening, I just decided to go along my high street and start asking if they required marketing help, and I can do that as a freelancer. That decision alone changed my life.

I went out, and I saw an ad for a ventilation company requiring marketing assistance, and I went in and gave my C.V I was called for an interview, and I went in with my case study. The interviewers, my current managers, asked me questions for 3 hours + which was great because no one in the past year had bothered to even look at my case studies.

After three hours, I went home, and in two weeks, I started working there. I have eight months until my visa expires, and I have to make the decision to go back home. But I have achieved what I came here for, and I don’t have any regrets. 

To tie everything together, my GF at home and not taking a loan was amongst the best things I could have had before arriving in the UK, which allowed me to only focus on being hirable for a job and getting one.

So, that’s what I had to say, making it in the UK is all about focus, learning new things, being humble enough to understand that other people can provide value, saving as much money as possible so you can use your free time to find jobs, ensuring you don’t think about doing as many shifts as humanly possible and just do jobs during your student life. The amount of resources and extracurricular activities you can do here is immense, and they help you a lot.

So I would end this super long post by saying this, “Work hard, study well, and eat and sleep plenty” — Master Roshni (The Turtle Hermit Way)