The Top Floor Flat

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had a couple of people get in touch with questions about how to get a job in London, particularly summer jobs for college students.  Although my experience is fairly different than that of most short-term travelers looking for jobs or internships, I thought I’d make a post to share some tips.

If you’re interested in a job, unfortunately you’ll need to sort out a visa before you leave the States – there is no other legal way to get paid. The best (and as far as I know, only) way for a short term student working visa is through a program called BUNAC which is the one that I used.  They give you a visa and then help you as little or as much as you need finding job and housing once you get to the UK. This is a 6 month visa and the BUNAC program typically recommends using the full time available on the visa. Of course you can leave after less time, and you can also do the program twice while still enrolled in college if you decide you want to go back but it is a bit costly if you’re only going to be there 8-10 weeks.

The other option is trying to find an unpaid internship (in fact there are very VERY few paid internships in the UK and they usually go to college grads). Many US students might be surprised by how common unpaid internships are in all industries but if you are expecting them, it’s less of a shock.  You can look at www.gumtree.com which is the London version of Craigslist. International students often work in pubs or restaurants – and in many cases these jobs provide accomodation as well.  Other professional industries offer internships but these tend to be competitive.

I have loved working in the UK and the BUNAC program makes it easy for students to do so.  If you have the funds to travel and work in an unpaid internship, that would be an amazing experience as well.  Good luck in the UK!