Very Important Things to Know Working in London

If you're planning on moving to London and you're going to get a job, here are some things you need to know about working here.

Must know before working in London.

 Now these tips are for non-UK people so unfamiliar with the work culture here and also for people who already have the right to work here. So I'm not going to talk about getting a visa or something like that and I can't help with that. Salaries are paid monthly.

As an American, I am quite used to being paid twice a month, here they pay monthly and it is usually at the end of the month, but it depends.
On my permanent work days, I had to learn to budget a little better so that monthly payment would stretch a little more. Also online job, and hourly jobs and freelance work and part-time jobs or others types of work that can totally vary.

You may not live near where you work. Due to the rental prices in London it is very common for people to live in totally different areas than where they work, especially if they work in central London, it is really difficult to be able to afford to live in central London. So you will have to take this into account when planning where your work will be and where you will live.

Again, this is a little different for me, coming from the US, where part-time workers and hourly workers generally don't have a contract that stipulates how much vacation time you have free and things beyond, like this is what you get paid .

But yes, in most jobs here you will end up signing a contract and will probably have a notice period as well. And of course, if you're a freelancer, you definitely always want to have a contract in place that spells out how much you get paid and all the usual freelance stuff.

The Americans here are one to blow your mind, it is UK law for employers to grant employees a minimum of 20 vacation or vacation days per year. This is very different from the US, obviously there is no minimum in the US, and on average employers usually give around 10 days of vacation per year. And then if you work part-time or part-time, I don't even think they usually give you vacation time, they just don't pay you if you take time off. If you are from another country other than the UK or the US, let me know in the comments what holidays are like in the country where you are from.

You will work with a different kind of people. Because London is so diverse, you will most likely end up working with other employees and also clients who are from all over the world and may have different accents, English skills, and also cultural differences. So this is your first job in London, any experience you have dealing with people who are different from you in the past while on your interview would be worth mentioning.

Notice periods can be very long. By notice period I mean the amount of time you have to remain in your position after submitting your resignation. Now, this typically refers more to positions that are office-based and like salaried employees, full-time permanent employees.
Typically a notice period for lower level employees will be around a month, but then since you are mid-level, executive level, it can be 6 months or even a year.

Its very Important to know how to work in London .

In terms of part-time work and salary, asking my friends seems to depend entirely on the company and what is in the contract that you signed when you started working for them. It needs an NI number to work. If you are not British, you need to apply for an NI number or a national insurance number when you arrive in London to be able to work and also do few other things like buy a mobile phone and create a bank account.

As soon as you arrive in London make an appointment to get your NI number and as soon as you have applied for it you can legally start working. There is much talk in London about minimum wage versus living wage The minimum wage is the national minimum that employers in the UK must pay their employees, which at the time of recording is £ 7.83 if you are 25 or older £ 7.38 if you are 21 to 24 years old and £ 5.90 if you are between 18 and 20 years old.

Working in London? than you should know..

Then there is the actual living wage which is calculated by the living wage foundation which at the time of registration is £ 10.20 for London specifically. This is the number that represents how much someone should realistically earn in order to survive living in London.
Unfortunately, living wage is not enforced by law, it is just a suggestion at this time. 

Londoners work long hours. I am a New Yorker and if I were working full time right now in New York I would probably have an average of 55 hours of work a week, including night and weekend jobs. This is how it is when working in New York City, so comparatively speaking, I think actually working in London, let's say in permanent full-time office positions, people here tend to have a better balance between work and life.

That being said, when you compare how much Londoners work with the rest of the UK and the rest of Europe as well, it's far more than the average for virtually anywhere else. So depending on where you are, you will probably notice a difference from what you are used to. This article is part of my Living in London series, which I talk about moving to London, living in London, working in London, my experience living here as an American.