Hi graphicbreeze
I was going to send you a private message rather than post on the forum, as I feel that some of the comments that you have received are a lot more negative than they need to be, hardly encouraging... but I changed my mind, as maybe it might help someone else looking to tackle the industry here in the UK along the line and everyone needs a starting point.
Don't give up. The agencies here are horrific - honestly, I gave up on them a long time ago and choose to be a freelance magazine designer from home and concentrate on being a mum in between designing franchise magazines for peanuts, rather than tackle the industry head on. It is cut-throat and it is very competitive. Taking anything an agency says to heart, will destroy you, so don't.
Most of the following is my personal opinion: I am not an awesome designer, I consider myself a 'safe' designer, so I can understand your frustration and although I have been in the UK for 13 years, I also view the industry as an outsider as I am treated as such.
The graphic design industry here is
very hard to get into - and it takes a lot of rejection on the verge of slitting wrists to get anywhere. From personal experience over the past 13 years, agencies don't really help at all, the market is so flooded with wannabe designers, most of them with degree strings comparable to a doctors, that you are just a drop in the ocean. If you walk into an agency, they park you in front of a computer and give you a test to prove that you are capable with the programmes, pat you on the head and you never hear from them again - in reality they are clueless, just looking for the next big designer that will bring in lots of bucks.
Try the following general sites rather and see if they help - and if you are walking into the UK without the need for visa help, don't be scared to go for temp jobs... they are a foot in the door and could lead to a full-time job if they are happy with you:
http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/browse/media/publishing/index.jsp?
Media job, London : Find London media jobs online
More jobs, more choice at reed.co.uk, the UK’s #1 job site
Reed Creative
Find Jobs. Build a Better Career. Find Your Calling. | Monster.co.uk
fish4jobs | UK jobs and London jobs | Job adverts, finding staff
UK Jobs from the best companies - JobSearch
(will have to go through my bookmarks as most of them are dead links from a few years ago... but you get the gist...)
Bare in mind while looking for a job that there are different job 'names': For example 'Graphic designer' is the general term (usually meaning full on design from scratch) but there is also 'art worker' (pretty much a bog standard drawer-up of someone else's designs using Adobe Creative Suite, which may be a starting point...). Within that, you have levels of design experience: Senior Designer, Middleweight Designer and Junior Designer at the bottom end, but don't expect a salary that will pay a mortgage.
On top of that, the design industry is a minefield that is split into about 100 different sections:
Design 'agencies' only take the top dogs - full stop - mainly advertising campaigns across the spectrum, they are virtually impossible to get into, unless you are related to or sleep with the boss, even if if does encompass everyone's dream job and all of us here would kill to even step foot in one...
Publishing houses (mainly publications and that is split into even more divisions... ie topdog glossy mags, monthly mags and freebee give away mags - which I work on... which is bottom of the range even with 20 years of experience... Quite frankly a glossy mag publisher wouldn't even look twice at me.
Design shops - the quickie design services end of the market for walk ins eetc.
For some reason, anyone capable of doing good 'general' design work is incapable of crossing from one split into another - and to make matters worse, if you get a specific type of design experience on your resume/portfolio, then apparently... that is all you are capable of. For example, I killed my career by working for a puzzle magazine publishing company for 3 years - and therefore that is all I am apparently capable of.
Good luck and hope that helps a little bit ;0)