Temping in London
by MishyM
I will go over a number of different types of work you can find in London. To begin with, temping is a great idea if you are only here for a year or two. it allows you to work only a week somewhere if you wish, or a day, or 6 months! You can choose the sort of company you want to work for as well, and it allows you to take of time to travel for a month if you wish.
-Temp work
Temp work is what I have been doing. I must have applied to, I kid you not, about 50 temp agencies when i first arrived. The thing with temp agencies is it takes them a LIFETIME to reply to you if you just email them. I recommend you call them, and have a chat to someone at the agency. This allows you to sell yourself, and your abilities!
Then they will ask you to email them your resume, and by this time you have already let them know who you are, and they will be more inclined to help you. Most of these agencies need you to have relevant work experience - from the jobs I have had through them, you don't really need it, but they ask for it anyway.
It also help a lot if you are good with word, excel, powerpoint and can type at a decent level. (this is for general office work)
Some temp agencies recruit for finance jobs, marketing jobs etc - just have a look on google and you will find plenty that suit your experience and the sort of jobs you are looking for. And if you are offered a job you don't want to do though your agency, don't be afraid to say no! They will find you another job, you don't need to worry about insulting them by turning one down!
This is a good site that lists recruitment agencies by speciality and will help you find one for banking, education, office work etc:
http://www.1st4jobsinlondon.co.uk/agencies/ Some good agencies from my experience are:
Tate: Tate is my favourite so far - the recruitment agent I have worked with there has been fantastic. When I was looking for work she would call to check how things were going, and to let me know she was finding something for me. I also had plenty of other people from there call me up about jobs I was actually interested in. I highly recommend them if you are looking for general office work in London! (http://www.tate.co.uk/)
Crone Corkill: This is another great agency, that actually made an effort to find me something I was really interested in, and also calls to check if you need work and so on. They do look for more experience that most agencies, so you probably wouldn’t get away with applying to them if you didn’t have at least 1-2 years experience. They also recruit multilingual people. (http://www.cronecorkill.co.uk/)
Prospect-us: A not for profit recruitment agency - good if you want to work for a charity, university, NGO. (http://www.prospect-us.co.uk/)
I highly recommend these as agencies that put in the extra effort to keep in contact with you, find you a job you like and are just really helpful and friendly.
financial heart of the world; but dead on weekends
by rickyvilla81
The City of London may only be one square mile in size, but what a square mile - more wealth than you can possibly imagine, and I'm sure you can imagine quite a bit. It's not generally a place where people live, in fact since the eighteenth century its resident population has declined massively from about two-hundred thousand in 1700 to roughly nine-thousand in 2005. As in most major cities worldwide, people generally live outside the financial centre. On weekdays, the place is heaving with businesspersons, most of whome cram onto the tube or mill around outside the many old and new pubs. On weekends, it is like a ghost town, with many shops not even bothering to open.
Fortunately there are plenty of tour guides who offer Ghostly-London tours around the City's creepy streets, which still stick to the medieval urban plan. This picture is of the Royal Exchange, at the very heart of the money district (to the left, out of view, is the Bank of England, while to the right going towards the river is Lombard St, named after the Lombard bankers who set up shop here in the Middle Ages). In the background is Tower 42, formerly the NatWest Tower. You can also see the top of the Gherkin poking out above the buildings.
London Tip
by S_R_NAIDU
Seeing once again the famous red British ROYAL MAIL Letter Box at the Heathrow Airport and posting my last letter with British stamps affixed.
You see, these red Letter Boxes were a common sight in the British Territories, the world over. In Singapore, these were found scattered all over the island and with British withdrawal all were removed.
Tower of London - The Scaffold Site
by kris-t
In front of the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula a railed-off plaque commemorates the execution in this area of seven famous prisoners A private execution within the Tower was normally decided upon when the execution was considered too politically sensitive to carry out in open view.
the culture of cards!
by Manyana
Sending and receiving cards is one of the things i've found very compelling and culturally extraordinary in Britain! i mean for every single thing a card should be sent off. i have this *very* british friend who sends me cards all the time. he even makes his parents send me some too,lol.....for christmas, easter, my graduation, even a welcome and so i expect a good-bye card upon my leave:^)
In my college, i usually see the library, the registerar, and even the reception quite often designed by thank-you and greetings cards. when i spent last year's christmas in south england, the house was filled by cards!
i find this a very traditional custom in the UK that i once read that the Royal Mail often posts more than 2 million cards only for christmas within the UK!!!! needless to mention the e-cards.
i'm not saying that in saudi arabia, there's no such a thing but it's not quite culturally as much as this. in a world where intimate 'close' communication has been somehow lost, keeping in touch via cards is the most 'direct' way now of expressing our feelings. my appreciation for such kindness and sincere attempts to be really in touch regardless!
so send cards all over the world:^)