I think the biggest impact will be the loss of access to EU workers without hassle. I would have gladly worked for a company based out of the UK in the past; now I assume I am not welcome and can't be asked to find out what would be involved.
Ask HN: Relocating to London After Brexit
11–20 of 97 posts
Re: Ask HN: Relocating to London After Brexit
#12London wasn't that great when it comes to tech jobs compared to US/Canada. Starting salary for grads at FANGs is around a third of what it is at large US cities when living costs are no more than 30-40% lower for example. Compared to rest of Europe London is a lot better with notable exception of Switzerland which is a non-EU country. So to me it would seem that membership in EU is not a necessary condition for good…
London beats any European city by a substantial amount, even including cost of living. I don't see why that would change. Switzerland as you point out has similarly high wages.
I can't see innovation, talent or companies moving to the EU at any stage. It's a regulatory horror show and has massive brain drain to places that actually pay developers reasonable wages.
Developers in Sweden are paid the equivalent of 51k USD. This means even including cost of living such as health insurance, you can make substantially more in the US, London or Switzerland.
Developers in the EU get shafted big time. Free health insurance is not worth half, or even one-third the salary.
Re: Ask HN: Relocating to London After Brexit
#13We will find out is the only sensible answer, as the question is too complex really. But, one obvious impact will be labour supply. Fewer European area devs will come to the UK, which will make things less attractive for big tech companies.
This might cause wages to go up or alternatively a points based immigration system will allow any programmers to apply for a visa from anywhere in the world. I have no idea to be honest, it will be interesting to see what happens.
Re: Ask HN: Relocating to London After Brexit
#14London wasn't that great when it comes to tech jobs compared to US/Canada. Starting salary for grads at FANGs is around a third of what it is at large US cities when living costs are no more than 30-40% lower for example. Compared to rest of Europe London is a lot better with notable exception of Switzerland which is a non-EU country. So to me it would seem that membership in EU is not a necessary condition for good…
Switzerland does have freedom of movement with the EU so thinking it's a "non-EU country" in terms of talent access is incorrect
Re: Ask HN: Relocating to London After Brexit
#15I moved to London to do a startup in December 2019. All I can say is do not do this. The government during covid has been horribly inefficient, I just received my NHS ID in the last month (taking upwards of a year to process, during which time they denied me covid testing after I had the necessary symptoms) and I received my NINO 6 months after moving here, however now with covid they aren't even processing these anymore.
In terms of brexit, any sort of gains for a startup will be possible only if the British government allows them to be (for example with deregulation or the removal of GDPR or the reduction/easing of bureaucratic proceses). In my experience betting on the British government to do the right thing is a bad bet. They have the digital London effort but it seems more like a PR stunt than a good-willed effort to attract startups.
You will also encounter strange socio-economic effects that you would not see in other places, for example being an engineer and starting a startup here is viewed as a negative while being a business major is a positive. There is a big divide between capital and labour that perpetuates itself through these stereotypes that are not present in places like America.
Re: Ask HN: Relocating to London After Brexit
#16I’m not sure what you’ll gain from this question other than political comments. Some will say no because of possible tariffs the EU could apply to sales into the Eu. It tends to forget that the rest of the world exists. Some will say yes given the UK now has the ability to reduce taxes, invest in areas that it couldn’t before and provide competitive opportunities which anyone in the EU couldn’t So it’s really down to…
> possible tariffs the EU could apply to sales into the Eu.
Isn't that what the 2000 page trade deal they just signed is for?
> It tends to forget that the rest of the world exists.
the EU offers unilateral zero tariffs on all goods except weapons to all Least Developed Countries. Seems a strange way to "forget that the rest of the world exist"
Re: Ask HN: Relocating to London After Brexit
#17London wasn't that great when it comes to tech jobs compared to US/Canada. Starting salary for grads at FANGs is around a third of what it is at large US cities when living costs are no more than 30-40% lower for example. Compared to rest of Europe London is a lot better with notable exception of Switzerland which is a non-EU country. So to me it would seem that membership in EU is not a necessary condition for good…
I always feel like salary comparisons are a little biased by a slightly US-centric definition of a comfortable lifestyle (e.g. including a car, parking, bigger house requirements, etc) as well as underestimating some built-in benefits of other countries like free healthcare. Are there good sources out there that would afford a holistic cost comparison of a typical London lifestyle (Tube, 1-bedroom in Zone 1-2, weeken…
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Re: Ask HN: Relocating to London After Brexit
#18London wasn't that great when it comes to tech jobs compared to US/Canada. Starting salary for grads at FANGs is around a third of what it is at large US cities when living costs are no more than 30-40% lower for example. Compared to rest of Europe London is a lot better with notable exception of Switzerland which is a non-EU country. So to me it would seem that membership in EU is not a necessary condition for good…
I always feel like salary comparisons are a little biased by a slightly US-centric definition of a comfortable lifestyle (e.g. including a car, parking, bigger house requirements, etc) as well as underestimating some built-in benefits of other countries like free healthcare. Are there good sources out there that would afford a holistic cost comparison of a typical London lifestyle (Tube, 1-bedroom in Zone 1-2, weeken…
>as underestimating some built-in benefits of other countries like free healthcare.
If you're at FAANG (which the original post was talking about) then there's little advantage of free healthcare imho. You get top of the line company paid for healthcare. You can see a top specialist in a week with no referrals needed and someone almost as good same day.
Re: Ask HN: Relocating to London After Brexit
#19London wasn't that great when it comes to tech jobs compared to US/Canada. Starting salary for grads at FANGs is around a third of what it is at large US cities when living costs are no more than 30-40% lower for example. Compared to rest of Europe London is a lot better with notable exception of Switzerland which is a non-EU country. So to me it would seem that membership in EU is not a necessary condition for good…
I always feel like salary comparisons are a little biased by a slightly US-centric definition of a comfortable lifestyle (e.g. including a car, parking, bigger house requirements, etc) as well as underestimating some built-in benefits of other countries like free healthcare. Are there good sources out there that would afford a holistic cost comparison of a typical London lifestyle (Tube, 1-bedroom in Zone 1-2, weeken…
Agree direct comparison is tough and multifactored and would be highly individual (how do you put a price on being a 2 hr train ride away from Paris whilst having much better job opportunities than Parisians). However, given that compensation in US is a large multiple higher I think it would be easy to agree it's better overall. For comparison Big Law pays 20-30% lower on average in London vs. NYC and finance pays marginally lower (outside of quant finance where London pays a lot lower than NYC as hedge funds don't have to compete with FANGs for tech talent that wants high pay).
Re: Ask HN: Relocating to London After Brexit
#20It's too early to know right now. We can see that there has clearly been a lot of damage caused by Brexit but it may bring on more opportunities in the future depending on how regulations and relationships with other nations develop.