The reasons I will give you here are the reasons that many people won’t.

On the whole and not just in the UK, most employers prefer to hire their own home grown born and educated citizens with localised qualifications and experience.

There is also a feeling on the part of some employers that an outside candidate should not take a job that a UK or other EU Citizen can also do, unless one is a world leading Scientist, Professor, Academic, Nuclear Chemist, Medical Doctor etc that they cannot source locally.

It is just the same in Canada, US, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand that I have also tried to live and work in HR. They prefer and put their own people first for the jobs. Only in the EU it is different but you then need fluency in the official language of the relevant country you are interested in to operate on a professional level.

So, whilst you may have the legal right to live and work in the UK, that alone does not automatically guarantee a job in the UK.

As with all 195 countries around the world, most UK employers ultimately  prefer to hire UK Citizens and after that then EU Citizens. They are their own people and their own country after all who are born, raised, educated there and know the working culture and system with homegrown experience.

That is also the very essence of why all nation states have an immigration system. They both want to control who comes in and who comes out, but first and foremost, it’s for protection of the national labour market for their own citizens who have a vote and who all governments are responsible to safeguard the interests of. They don’t have that same responsibility towards citizens of other countries.

I could not get an HR job in the US as I was not a US Citizen or Resident Alien. It goes both ways as well. I also experienced it in Canada. Canadians always get first preference over other nationalities, unless you have something very special to offer and bring to the table that their own do not.

I also have a friend, a Doctor, in the process of emigrating to Canada. He described the process as difficult, laborious and expensive. He has only been successful in his application after three Canadian doctors refused the post he applied for.

Because Canada is a Commonwealth country and a former colony of Britain there is a common misconception that British citizens have an advantage in applying for residency in Canada. The truth is they don't.

The Canadian system means that a person from the UK must have a job offer in Canada before they can apply. Canadians are always favoured over foreign applicants. There is a points system as well, and being British earns no extra points. A person must have highly specialised skills in an area here the Canadian labour force cannot meet the need.

The same also largely applies in the UK.

Hi Harika and welcome to the forums. CIPD qualifications would certainly help, but are not indispensable for good candidates with marketable skills.

1. The job market is tight at the moment and in order to market and sell yourself, you will need to identify and underline elements in your experience and achievements that will be perceived as giving greater added value compared to other candidates.
2. If your special qualities lie in the area of ERP integragtion in Oracle and SAP systems, maybe you could target the integrator consultancies directly underlining your dual skill-set. Companies like Deloitte come to mind.... in my experience the dual skill-set is rare for integrators where the primary skill-set tends to be more IT/systrms than operational HR....
3. Perhaps also you could target UK subsidiaries of indian multinationals, or UK companies with major indian operations?

Hope these ideas help you and good luck with your search

Ray

In reply to Ray:

Agree with Ray

In addition I would suggest that if your sole strategy is replying to LinkedIn or job boards you will face a huge uphill struggle. Because of the ease of application it’s likely there will be 100++ applicants making it very hard to stand out.

My opinion is less is more. Tailoring ( and this takes time) a well crafted personal response to a far smaller number of jobs, trying to speak to recruiters, networking etc will pay more dividends. Recruitment is certainly more about quality rather than quantity.

Good luck.