Insider’s Guide to Landing a Job in Manchester

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Manchester is one of the emerging cities of the United Kingdom. The Greater Manchester area has been growing steadily since 2007 and is one of the fastest-recovering areas in the UK from the credit crunch recession. It is the second largest functional financial region outside of London and shows a growth rate almost double that of most urban areas in the UK. The expansion has been driven by large-scale investment in service industries, particularly 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 provide a large number of job opportunities; however, the attraction of Manchester for job seekers is that there are many other industries as well. 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 only natural as Manchester is at the center of the UK transport network with motorway and rail links extending to all 4 cardinal points. There are some highly specialized niche industries that have focused on the area, for example, biotech and environmental technology; perhaps due to the presence of the Manchester Institute of Technology (MiT) which produces many scientifically and technically qualified experts.

On a human rather than an economic scale, the city and its environs are cosmopolitan and there is a thriving cultural scene. The latter has drawn creatives to the city – check any search engine and you’ll find pages of ad agencies and other creative businesses based here. These include digital and print advertising, packaging design, marketing, media… the list goes on and on! So it’s not 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 number (well, it seemed high to me) of jobs for linguists as well: the travel industry required Polish speakers; a car rental company needed someone who spoke excellent norwegian and there were vacancies for french speakers in retail!

Salaries in Greater Manchester vary greatly. For basic telesales and retail jobs, they are as low as 12,000, but you don’t have to look far for well-paying managerial and technical jobs that offer 40 – 50K more. In other words, there is pretty much something for everyone, depending on your skills and experience.

How to find work in Manchester

Online is a good place to start. It will save you a lot of time and various bus fares! 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 others have applied for the jobs you’re interested in. For creative works, check out ‘The Drum’ and remember to also check the Guardian works pages.

But before you even start, you need to refresh your resume. It’s best to leave it in the hands of professionals who, after exploring the type of employment you’re looking for, can give you an edge over others. They will advise you on the best type of CV (yes, there are several effective ways to present a CV) and use their skills and experience to put a very positive image on you. You are, after all, an amateur in the field, unless of course you are in human resources!

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