Ask HN: What has been your experience with bigger tech companies in London?

#1

Post by jstx1 » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 11:54 AM UTC

I'm interested in some of the bigger tech companies and I'm wondering about their presence in the UK.

Do you work there? What has your experience been so far?

How competitive are they relative to the rest of the market in London?

How challenging is the interview process?

Culture/work-life balance?

Is the number of teams and the problems they work on limited because they're not in one of the primary US offices?

Re: Ask HN: What has been your experience with bigger tech companies in London?

#2

Post by thorin » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 1:59 PM UTC

Google had been building a massive office in central London so I assume they have a reasonable amount of interesting work going on there.

I did go there for a mobile conference a while back and they were not sparing any expense on the conference location and catering etc so I assume they are reasonably competitive. I haven't heard anything bad from the couple of people I know who were based at Google London (although I assume they're still home based, one of them lives near Milan!)

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jul/28/google-co...

Edit, more recent article

https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/business/kings-cross-google-c...

Re: Ask HN: What has been your experience with bigger tech companies in London?

#3

Post by djohnston » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 2:01 PM UTC

You make way less money than your peers in California and everything is still as expensive. It's a financially horrible decision if you can work in the US. If you want to work in Europe though it's pretty good.

I've worked at FAANG in US and UK and am currently going back to the US for non-financial reasons. I don't regret being here but I find London to be impossibly expensive to build a family in.

Re: Ask HN: What has been your experience with bigger tech companies in London?

#4

Post by mettamage » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 2:08 PM UTC

If you're European it's one of the few options you've got. I find it odd though that people make so much less compared to their US counterparts. Does anyone know why that is?

Re: Ask HN: What has been your experience with bigger tech companies in London?

#5

Post by Chirono » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 2:12 PM UTC

To get an idea of comp for companies in London, levels.fyi is a good starting point. https://www.levels.fyi/Salaries/Software-Engineer/London/ Bottom line is that comp is way under what you would get for the same job in the US, but better than most other engineering jobs in London outside of certain finance roles. The market seems to have been going up a lot in the past couple of years though.

The interview process is pretty much the same as you get in the US. Lots of leetcode and system designs.

Re: Ask HN: What has been your experience with bigger tech companies in London?

#6

Post by hutrdvnj » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 2:13 PM UTC

Nowadays it's called MAMAA instead of FAANG.[0]

[0] https://fortune.com/2021/10/29/faang-mamaa-jim-cramer-tech-f...

Re: Ask HN: What has been your experience with bigger tech companies in London?

#7

Post by tasubotadas » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 2:14 PM UTC

mettamage wrote: post #4

If you're European it's one of the few options you've got. I find it odd though that people make so much less compared to their US counterparts. Does anyone know why that is?

Lack of competition and venture funding

Re: Ask HN: What has been your experience with bigger tech companies in London?

#8

Post by fgh » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 2:14 PM UTC

djohnston wrote: post #3

You make way less money than your peers in California and everything is still as expensive. It's a financially horrible decision if you can work in the US. If you want to work in Europe though it's pretty good. I've worked at FAANG in US and UK and am currently going back to the US for non-financial reasons. I don't regret being here but I find London to be impossibly expensive to build a family in.

Reminds me of Martin Hairer commenting on what he is going to do with his $3m breakthrough prize-money: “We moved to London somewhat recently, three years ago, and we are still renting. So it might be time to buy a place to live." [0]

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/sep/10/uk-mathemati...

Re: Ask HN: What has been your experience with bigger tech companies in London?

#9

Post by dbetteridge » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 2:15 PM UTC

tasubotadas wrote: post #7

mettamage wrote: post #4

If you're European it's one of the few options you've got. I find it odd though that people make so much less compared to their US counterparts. Does anyone know why that is?

Lack of competition and venture funding

Also different employer expenses per employee, I don't know them off the top of my head but the UK tax levels are pretty high.

Re: Ask HN: What has been your experience with bigger tech companies in London?

#10

Post by blululu » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 2:17 PM UTC

mettamage wrote: post #4

If you're European it's one of the few options you've got. I find it odd though that people make so much less compared to their US counterparts. Does anyone know why that is?

Putting aside the clear invitation to dunk on Euros the answer is pretty straightforward: 1.) The market rate on software engineering is lower in Europe. There are probably some cultural factors at play here (larger talent pool, less entrepreneurship). 2.) Taxes are a bit higher and the company must foot the bill even if that doesn’t show up in your take home directly.