Manchester is one of the promising cities in the United Kingdom. The Greater Manchester area has been growing steadily since 2007 and is one of the areas of the UK that has recovered most quickly from the credit crisis recession. It is the second largest functional financial region outside London and shows a growth rate almost double that of most urban areas in the UK. The expansion has been driven by large-scale investments in service industries, particularly in the financial sector. Some of the major companies with offices and large employee bases in the Manchester region include Vodafone, the BBC, Thomas Cook, The Guardian, Kellogs, ITV and the atrocious internet ogre Google.
Between them, they offer a large number of job opportunities; However, the appeal of Manchester for job seekers is that there are many other industries too. The main industry is the financial sector; banking and insurance, but there are other opportunities available in retail and telesales in particular. Manchester is a center of excellence for the service sector, including logistics. The latter is natural as Manchester is the center of the UK’s transport network with motorway and rail links stretching in all four cardinal directions. There are some highly specialized niche industries that have focused on the area, for example biotechnology and environmental technology; perhaps due to the presence of the Manchester Institute of Technology (MiT), which trains many scientific and technically qualified experts.
On a human rather than economic scale, the city and its surroundings are cosmopolitan and there is a thriving cultural scene. The latter has attracted creatives to the city – check any search engine and you’ll find pages of advertising agencies and other creative businesses based here. These include digital and print advertising, packaging design, marketing, media… the list goes on and on! So not only is it a great area for technical job hunting, but it’s also great for those on the other side of the coin looking for creative jobs. While searching for available jobs, I found an unusually high (well, it seemed high to me) number of jobs for linguists as well: the travel industry needed Polish speakers; A car rental company needed someone who spoke excellent Norwegian and there were openings for French speakers in retail!
Salaries in Greater Manchester vary widely. For telesales and basic retail jobs, they cost as little as 12,000, but you don’t have to look far to find well-paying technical and management jobs that offer 40,000 to 50,000 more. In other words, there is practically something for everyone, depending on their skills and experience.
How to find a job in Manchester
Online is a good place to start. It will save you a lot of time and several bus tickets! There are thousands of jobs advertised on the usual websites like gumtree, Monster and fish4. But a really good site for job seekers is Reeds, a national recruitment agency, as you can see how many other people have applied for the jobs you are interested in. For creative jobs, check out ‘The Drum’ and remember to check out the Guardian jobs pages too.
But before you even start, you should renew your CV. This is best left to professionals who, after exploring the type of employment you are seeking, can give you an advantage over others. They will advise you on the best type of CV (yes, there are several effective ways to present a CV) and will use your skills and experience to present you in a very positive light. After all, you are an amateur in this field, unless of course you are in HR!
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