Entry-level job tips for international students

I wrote separately about why the first UK job is hard for international graduates. This is the other half: what I would actually do, in the order I would do it, based on having got it wrong for several months before getting it right.

1. Fix the CV before you send anything

Every application you send with a weak CV is a lead you cannot get back. Spend a day on it first.

• Two pages, no photo, no date of birth, no marital status.
• Every bullet in the shape action → method → measurable result. "Rebuilt the Google Ads account structure and negative keyword lists, improving ROI by 25%."
• Convert foreign grades into something a UK recruiter can parse.
• Keep the layout single-column and plain, applicant tracking software struggles with multi-column designs and with text embedded in images.
• Put a one-line visa statement near the top if you hold a route that permits unrestricted work. Remove the ambiguity before it removes you.

2. Build the portfolio piece first

The strongest thing you can bring to an entry-level interview is not a degree. It is a thing you made, with numbers attached, that you can talk about for ten minutes without notes.

It does not need to be paid. Run the social accounts for a local charity and report the growth. Do a free SEO audit for a small business and show them what you found. Build the site. Run the campaign. In my case it was a full WooCommerce platform for a freelance client (300+ product listings, Klaviyo flows, secure checkout) and it is what my interviewers wanted to discuss.

3. Aim at companies of 20 to 200 people

Large graduate schemes are the most competitive and least flexible entry point available. Smaller companies read applications properly, weigh demonstrated ability over pedigree, and decide in days rather than months.

Find them through industry directories, local business press, LinkedIn company filters by size and region, and by looking at who sponsors or attends events in your city. Most of these roles never make it onto the big job boards.

4. Tailor properly, or do not bother

Tailoring is not swapping the company name in. For each application, spend twenty minutes: read the advert twice, pull out the three things they clearly care most about, and make sure those three things are visible in the top third of page one. Mirror their vocabulary, if they say "demand generation", do not write "lead gen".

Fifty applications done this way will beat three hundred done generically, and will leave you with far more energy.

5. Write to humans, not portals

After applying, find the person who would manage the role (not HR) and send a short message. Three sentences: who you are, one specific relevant thing you have done, one sentence on why this company. No attachment, no "please find my CV", no essay.

The response rate is low in absolute terms and enormous compared to the portal alone. It is the single highest-leverage habit in the whole search.

6. Ask one answerable question

For networking messages, the format that works is a specific question the person can answer in two lines from their own experience. "I noticed you moved from agency to in-house, what surprised you most?" gets replies. "Can I pick your brain about marketing?" does not, because it transfers all the work to them.

Alumni from your exact course are the highest-yield contacts you have. Shared reference point, and they remember this stage.

7. Prepare six stories, with numbers

UK entry-level interviews lean on competency questions ("tell me about a time when…") and expect a structured answer: situation, task, action, result.

Prepare six stories covering leadership, conflict, failure, data-driven decisions, tight deadlines and persuading someone. Memorise the numbers in each. Six well-drilled examples will cover most of what you are asked, and knowing them cold is what lets you sound calm rather than rehearsed.

Include a real failure with what you changed afterwards. Candidates who claim never to have failed are not believed.

8. Take the adjacent job, keep the project running

If the search runs long (and it may) take work that pays rent and keep one relevant project alive alongside it. I worked at Amazon in warehouse and fulfilment operations for eight months while freelancing in the evenings.

Two things came out of that. The freelance work gave me a current, demonstrable answer to "what have you been doing". And the warehouse job taught me the physical reality of e-commerce fulfilment, which I use in my actual marketing job now. Frame it that way in interviews, not as a gap you are apologising for, but as operational experience you can point at.

9. Run it as a pipeline, not a verdict

The psychological trap is treating each rejection as information about your worth. It is not; it is one data point from a process with a lot of noise in it.

Set weekly process targets you control (ten tailored applications, five direct messages, one portfolio improvement, two networking conversations) and score yourself on those rather than on outcomes. Track everything in a spreadsheet: company, date, route, contact, response. Patterns emerge after about six weeks, and they tell you which of the four activities is actually producing interviews.

You cannot control who replies. You can control whether you did the ten. Score yourself on the ten.

The short version

1. Fix the CV first.
2. Build one real project with real numbers.
3. Target 20 to 200 person companies.
4. Tailor properly or skip it.
5. Message the hiring manager directly.
6. Ask specific, answerable questions.
7. Drill six competency stories.
8. Take the adjacent job, keep building.
9. Measure your process, not the outcome.

It took me longer than I expected. It worked.

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