Across different job markets and sectors, employers have a scale of preference regarding what they value from employees and/or what they consider good enough to take a chance on prospective employees. This phenomenon is what I call the labour-levers of a given market.

It is a labour-lever because having one or a combination of these factors gives you an edge in that market and sector.

Broadly, in most markets, these levers are education and experience. You are either educated enough to be trusted to do a thing or have done that thing before and are therefore trusted to do it again.

Nearly all markets value experience above other levers, but different markets have differing gaps in how they rate experience versus education.

In the UK, the gap between experience and education is one of the widest I’ve seen. Employers would choose someone with two years’ experience over someone with 10 years’ worth of education (BSc, MSc, and PhD). It may seem trivial as an observation, but its importance is much more pronounced for immigrants.

The path to immigration works in two ways: you have a job to come and do in the new country, or you decide to get an education in the new country first, hoping that the relevant education will ease your way into the country’s job market.

The gap highlighted implies that, in the UK, immigrants are often met with stark surprise about their expectations versus reality. They realise that even their experience from their home countries is more valuable than the education they have obtained in terms of opening doors to opportunities.

This has a few implications:

  1. Those who have obtained education with the hope of switching careers find it harder to do so.
  2. Frustration levels are elevated because you are being asked for experience in a new country where there is practically no way to get any.
  3. The value of the education that you have obtained is often diminished.
  4. It takes longer to realise the ROI on the education.
  5. It requires more effort than anticipated to eventually get the desired job.

In my reflection, I have also noticed that this gap between the value of experience and education varies depending on the type of education.

  1. When the education is highly specific to the UK, the gap shortens. For example, a foreign pharmacist who moves to the UK and completes the required education to become a UK‑qualified pharmacist faces a shorter gap and can easily get a job than an enterprise salesperson would, irrespective of the education they have obtained.
  2. Globally scarce skills that can be gained via education also shorten the gap. For example, an actuary.

Now, hopefully that helps someone to better navigate their way through things as they plan their career — in a new country.

Ask questions like:

  1. What are the labour-levers in the country’s job market?
  2. What are the labour-levers in my target sector?
  3. What’s the gap between these levers?
  4. Which lever(s) can I most optimise for?