Tech Giants Take Their Talent Hunt to Cambridge, UK • Hacker News Board

Re: Tech Giants Take Their Talent Hunt to Cambridge, UK

#21

Post by Balero » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 11:22 AM UTC

slivym wrote: post #17

EliRivers wrote: post #2

The UK could pitch itself as a place rich US tech companies can buy top talent at low price. I have seen some (not many, to be honest) US tech companies open offices in the UK so they can pay half or less for staff, compared to what they'd pay at home. If Brexit goes as badly as it might, the pound could be even cheaper.

Lot's of companies do that, but the UK is kind of a strange place to choose to do that. If you want cheap, go hire a team of 10,000 engineers in Penang (I'm looking at you Intel). If you want expensive, choose silicon valley. If you want 2nd tier, take a look at Canada. You can choose the UK, but why? Their time zone means you'll never be able to meet with them at the same time as your Malaysian and Californian offic…

The timezone, whilst often being a negative, can also be a positive. If you need a service that is always up and supported, having three teams (GMT-8, GMT, GMT+8) is one of the best ways to do this. This puts the UK in the perfect place for a company needing this based in California.

Also there is a good overlap for companies based on the east coast to do hand over, which I believe is common in finance.

Re: Tech Giants Take Their Talent Hunt to Cambridge, UK

#22

Post by adventured » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 11:27 AM UTC

adav wrote: post #15

ForHackernews wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are UK tech salaries so low compared to the US?

Anecdotally, and when compared to America, it could be due to a combination of many factors including: - More regulation around employee protection - Excellent talent drawn from less wealthy EU states who may be willing to accept a slightly lower wage than locals - Lots of STEM graduates from UK universities - A different work life balance - Tech skills are not seen as valuable as law/banking/medicine - A more profit…

It's not STEM supply pushing down the salaries. Japan has fewer per capita stem graduates than the US, with a highly developed technical economy, and dramatically lower engineer salaries than the US (with a GDP per capita roughly the same as the UK).

Re: Tech Giants Take Their Talent Hunt to Cambridge, UK

#23

Post by tinktank » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 11:28 AM UTC

shanghaiaway wrote: post #10

ForHackernews wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are UK tech salaries so low compared to the US?

UK companies do not produce as much value, hence they are not able to pay as much as FANG.

LOL. I'm sure all the investors up to their eyeballs in the loss-making, ever hyped unicorns would beg to differ.

Re: Tech Giants Take Their Talent Hunt to Cambridge, UK

#24

Post by curiousgal » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 11:32 AM UTC

EliRivers wrote: post #2

The UK could pitch itself as a place rich US tech companies can buy top talent at low price. I have seen some (not many, to be honest) US tech companies open offices in the UK so they can pay half or less for staff, compared to what they'd pay at home. If Brexit goes as badly as it might, the pound could be even cheaper.

That is exactly what every multinational has been doing in the Third World for decades! Software developers in Tunisia, for instance, get paid 5k per year. If the salaries are enough to cover the cost of living then workers will be happy. 100k in SF is the same as 70k in London which is the same as 5k in Tunis.

Re: Tech Giants Take Their Talent Hunt to Cambridge, UK

#25

Post by meheleventyone » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 11:33 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #22

adav wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, and when compared to America, it could be due to a combination of many factors including: - More regulation around employee protection - Excellent talent drawn from less wealthy EU states who may be willing to accept a slightly lower wage than locals - Lots of STEM graduates from UK universities - A different work life balance - Tech skills are not seen as valuable as law/banking/medicine - A more profit…

It's not STEM supply pushing down the salaries. Japan has fewer per capita stem graduates than the US, with a highly developed technical economy, and dramatically lower engineer salaries than the US (with a GDP per capita roughly the same as the UK).

This makes me think the question is better phrased the other way around. Why is SV compensation so high compared with the rest of the world?

Re: Tech Giants Take Their Talent Hunt to Cambridge, UK

#26

Post by pjc50 » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 11:37 AM UTC

ForHackernews wrote: post #3

EliRivers wrote: post #2

The UK could pitch itself as a place rich US tech companies can buy top talent at low price. I have seen some (not many, to be honest) US tech companies open offices in the UK so they can pay half or less for staff, compared to what they'd pay at home. If Brexit goes as badly as it might, the pound could be even cheaper.

Why are UK tech salaries so low compared to the US?

Aren't the high US salaries themselves extremely location-specific? It's more like CA/NY vs rest of world in terms of salaries.

Re: Tech Giants Take Their Talent Hunt to Cambridge, UK

#27

Post by JansjoFromIkea » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 11:41 AM UTC

Balero wrote: post #12

petercooper wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are lots of reasons, both sociological and economical, but my hunch is that demand for the most productive tech employees is lower since it's so easy to lean on American-produced innovations and services rather than build our own in the UK. Consider that Azure, AWS, Google Cloud Platform, etc. are all huge in the UK, yet most of the work on them is taking place in the US. Ditto for Oracle, Office 365, t…

The UK has a higher cost of living, with London pretty much equal to NY or SF and other high cost cities. The other equivalents are cheaper in the US.

I've lived in both SF (and Berkeley) and London. Accommodation in London zone 1 is a good bit lower than SF without the same level of competition. Accommodation further out is (overall) significantly cheaper than the BART accessible parts of Oakland and Berkeley with a drastically better public transportation setup. Pretty cool and inexpensive but (by London standards) not that accessible areas like Peckham are about as long of a commute into zone 1 as my Civic Center to Berkeley BART commute, and probably much shorter once you factor in the time spent waiting on platforms at before getting on and/or a connection at 19th Street/MacArthur.

It's actually possible for me, a not-especially-good junior/mid developer to consider living alone with a All that being said, I saved a stupid amount of money in SF working on intern level wages. If your goal is to slum it and accumulate money, London does not come close. SF is a place to go and pile up money with a get out plan in mind.

Re: Tech Giants Take Their Talent Hunt to Cambridge, UK

#28

Post by smnscu » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 11:43 AM UTC

curiousgal wrote: post #24

EliRivers wrote: post #2

The UK could pitch itself as a place rich US tech companies can buy top talent at low price. I have seen some (not many, to be honest) US tech companies open offices in the UK so they can pay half or less for staff, compared to what they'd pay at home. If Brexit goes as badly as it might, the pound could be even cheaper.

That is exactly what every multinational has been doing in the Third World for decades! Software developers in Tunisia, for instance, get paid 5k per year. If the salaries are enough to cover the cost of living then workers will be happy. 100k in SF is the same as 70k in London which is the same as 5k in Tunis.

Have been to our offices in Tunis, can confirm. Shit's grim, apparently their currency devalued 3-4x in the recent years, making everything absolutely dirt cheap, and their salaries worthless.

Friendliest people I've ever seen, though.

Re: Tech Giants Take Their Talent Hunt to Cambridge, UK

#29

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 11:49 AM UTC

slivym wrote: post #17

EliRivers wrote: post #2

The UK could pitch itself as a place rich US tech companies can buy top talent at low price. I have seen some (not many, to be honest) US tech companies open offices in the UK so they can pay half or less for staff, compared to what they'd pay at home. If Brexit goes as badly as it might, the pound could be even cheaper.

Lot's of companies do that, but the UK is kind of a strange place to choose to do that. If you want cheap, go hire a team of 10,000 engineers in Penang (I'm looking at you Intel). If you want expensive, choose silicon valley. If you want 2nd tier, take a look at Canada. You can choose the UK, but why? Their time zone means you'll never be able to meet with them at the same time as your Malaysian and Californian offic…

[deleted]

Re: Tech Giants Take Their Talent Hunt to Cambridge, UK

#30

Post by MrBuddyCasino » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 11:52 AM UTC

a_imho wrote: post #5

EliRivers wrote: post #2

The UK could pitch itself as a place rich US tech companies can buy top talent at low price. I have seen some (not many, to be honest) US tech companies open offices in the UK so they can pay half or less for staff, compared to what they'd pay at home. If Brexit goes as badly as it might, the pound could be even cheaper.

Mainland Europe has even lower salaries in a similar timezone.

Err no, certainly not. German salaries are at least on par with London, and ~twice as high than the rest of the UK.