DH cant find an IT job

[usernamess]

We moved to the UK last year. DH spent 9 months in finding an software developer jobs, but still cant find one. He had several interviews in the first 3/4months referred by agents. After that, no more interviews.
What can he do to increase his chance of getting an IT in the UK? Is it DH's problem or overall the it's not easy to find an IT job now?

Thanks in advance for your opinions!

It's financial year end. Never a good time to look for a job while next year's budgets haven't been set yet.

Use chatgpt to generate a few CVS focusing on slightly different skill sets.
Get feedback from interviews.
Encourage your partner to get involved with open source GitHub projects and stick that on his CV.
If he doesn't already, get cloud certified with one of the big providers.
Good luck!

Look at all the universities commutable.

Where does he look for jobs ? Indeed, Linkedin, Reed etc, jobcentreplus? Has a recruitment agency looked through his cv? Is he just speculatively sending his cv as that may be pointless. He needs to consider organisations with IT needs rather than just IT companies.

It's bad. There were a lot of IT people on this recent thread experiencing the same thing.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/work/4982339-job-hunting-but-no-response-whatsoever-is-it-me-or-the-uk-job-market-is-incredibly-bad

Thanks Cogsie, I will google if any Dev Ops meet ups in my area

Yes, he got 14 interviews during June to September last year, since then no interview at all. For the 14 interviews, he thinks some are mismatched (referred by agents) and also admitted his skillset is outdated, so he spent the spare time in studying.

He said it's weird only agent can get him the interview chances. If he applied the jobs directly to the company, even appeared fulfilled most of the job requirements, he still never got a chance. So he start to think if there's problem in his CV as well.

@usernamess lots of companies have their affiliation with certain agencies. The meet ups provide great local knowledge of what things are in the pipeline and what skills they may be looking for.

The agencies should be advising him on why he isn't going through to the next round. They get the feedback.

Please can you help me ask your DH what qualification he is looking for? Hope to get some ideas from him, thanks!

Is he on LinkedIn? There is loads of advice online about improving your cv to deal with applicant tracking software.
lots of companies will do a free cv review before offering paid services.

@JennyBeanR thanks! I will ask him to check out GitHub and cloud certificate (he mentioned aws before but kept saying certification is not much important in IT industry. But in my perspective, I think at least can increase the interview chance?) Thanks!

He needs to be on the case of the agents, even if it means taking something he feels overqualified for to get some UK experience and understand what is required

Cloud certification is important if he can't demonstrate that he has relevant workplace experience. Pretty much the entire industry is moving towards cloud computing, and many private and public organisations are already there.

My experience is different to some others in this thread in that I've seen the industry booming and have not had trouble finding work, so I do suspect there is likely something lacking experience wise for your partner. Apologies, I hope that doesn't sound harsh, but it is a fast moving competitive field so you must keep your skills sharp and be willing to move with the latest tech trends.

Is he a native English speaker? If not how good is his English?

Without seeing the CV it is hard to be specific so my general suggestions would be:

• ensure that his right to work in the UK is clear on his CV
• have someone else look at his CV for a fresh pair of eyes particularly if English isn’t his first language
• are his skills clearly articulated
• 1-2 page CV is ideal
• any UK experience should be clearly articulated
• agree re GitHub, we often check to see what activity there is if someone claims to be active
• If applying for a role some distance away be wary of putting your home city on as recruiters will rule the commute unlikely
• ensure linked-in is up to date
• keep the format simple, anything too complex or creative sometimes doesn’t copy across properly onto an ATS so all the recruiter would see if a blank or garbled page

If he only gets interviews via recruiters I’d suggest the CV might be the issue as the recruiter will be able to explain past whatever the issues is on the CV.

Lots of businesses are hiring directly, without recruiters, where possible. So you’d expect decent chances of applying directly.

Try to get someone local to check his CV. Your English is great but you don't always use standard British English in your posts, so it could be that his CV is the same. Language/cultural differences might mean it doesn't get scored properly by a British automated system and gets rejected.

Is he on LinkedIn? If not, he needs to get on there... set his profile to 'open to work' and recruiters will get in touch. Where I work, we're crying out for IT people...

Is he a front end developer? The trend has been for companies to outsource those positions, often to people/teams based abroad. They hire them in for a specific project, and it's easier to scale up and down depending on company cash flow.

If possible, it might be worth focusing on the back end/database side, if he has skills there. Due to data laws, it's harder to outsource those positions abroad.

I’m ex-IT in the Thames Valley area. Just taken a look and a lot of recruiters are looking for people. TechEx have some vacancies in Bracknell for example.
I get spammed all the time!

Have a look at utility companies, my husband works in one and they struggle to fill IT roles so are very flexible.

What’s his specialism?

IT covers a huge range of sectors, some have shortages, many not.

I'd look at Babcock, National Grid, BT, OpenReach.

@JennyBeanR thanks for your tips! Your words definitely strengthen DH's mind to take the AWS exam asap! Thanks!

@Ghuunvg He is not native English speaker, I think his English standard is similar to me =(

@SaltyGod thanks so much for your tips! I will forward your message to him!