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

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

#201

Post by gabbo » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 6:21 PM UTC

steve_musk wrote: post #117

gabbo wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a lot of Google US employees who work 40 hour weeks (plenty who work more but usually by choice), their sick days don’t come out of their vacation allowance at all, and after 4 years of working there they get 5 weeks of vacation per year on top of 12 days of paid holidays. Even Amazon employees do pretty well, getting 2 weeks paid time off + 1 week of "personal days" (de facto vacation days) in year 1, then th…

I know a UK google employee who is a new college grad and gets 5 weeks of vacation per year on top of 8 bank holidays. And their salary is higher than most US Google new grads. They are working at a US company, but at least they are still paying UK taxes and contributing to the UK economy.

I'd love to hear what sort of job a UK new grad would get at Google that would pay them more than their US equivalent. Every data point I've ever seen has shown Google UK employees are paid a lot less.

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

#202

Post by greggarious » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 6:24 PM UTC

TulliusCicero wrote: post #125

bodas wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even on a selfish level, the extra 2-3 weeks of PTO in UK is easily more important than the extra compensation in the US. What's the point of having more money if you are stuck in an office for more of the year and can only spend it on material goods? As you say, for women the difference in maternity leave is laughable.

Eventually at Google US you get 5 weeks PTO, which is the same as in Google London. Plus Google has four more holidays in the US than in the UK.

>Eventually at Google US you get 5 weeks PTO, which is the same as in Google London. Plus Google has four more holidays in the US than in the UK.

How many engineers do you know who made full use of their five weeks every year and were able to be promoted?

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

#203

Post by dmode » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 6:29 PM UTC

swebs wrote: post #133

meheleventyone wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Huge tech industry profits, high demand for skilled programmers, limits on foreign workers who tend to drive wages down.

Have you been to SV ? Engineering is 80% foreign workers

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

#204

Post by seanmcdirmid » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 6:29 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #200

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USA has bank/federal holidays also (around 10/year).

Public holidays (federal or state) in the US are not obligatory for (and many are often not observed by) private employers.

Sure, but most tech companies will give you them anyways. If we are talking about what we get for half the pay in the uk, vacation isn’t it.

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

#205

Post by dragonwriter » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 6:35 PM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #204

dragonwriter wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Public holidays (federal or state) in the US are not obligatory for (and many are often not observed by) private employers.

Sure, but most tech companies will give you them anyways. If we are talking about what we get for half the pay in the uk, vacation isn’t it.

> Sure, but most tech companies will give you them anyways

I've yet to see any private employer in the US that gives employees every public holiday applicable in their jurisdiction; heck even public employers often don't, as federal government doesn't give state holidays in the location and state and local agencies often don't give all federal holidays.

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

#206

Post by vilhelm_s » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 6:36 PM UTC

jingleheimer wrote: post #181

vilhelm_s wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of frictions did you see?

It's town vs gown. You have separate areas and generally don't mingle. There is an age difference as well as a cultural and class difference. Much of Cambridge is gated off into colleges that a town person can't go unless escorted by someone connected to the university. I was in the gown group, but even within this group there are additional degrees of stratification.

I went to Cambridge as an undergrad, and indeed I interacted basically exclusively with other undergrads. Now as an adult I'm living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and there are tons of undergrad students on the street, and I basically never interact with them at all (nor go into the the various university buildings that are scattered throughout the town).

But I wouldn't describe that as friction? If anything, it seems the opposite of friction, there are separate groups of people who are smoothly gliding past each other... I guess what I'm wondering is, do you feel there are any concrete problems or inconveniences caused by the town/gown distinction?

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

#207

Post by blibble » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 6:37 PM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #199

blibble wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had tech jobs in Cambridge and London, and they've all been 25 + 8 public/bank holidays so 33 total (6.6 weeks)

If we are including bank holidays, then I got around 4 weeks + 10 days off in the states.

they're not included, but employment contracts tend to be written as X days off + all bank/public holidays (as employers generally close their offices on bank/public holidays)

the guarantee of 5.6 weeks paid holiday doesn't guarantee when they are taken, as long as you receive at least 5.6

I've always received 6.6 weeks, some of which my employers request I take on bank/public holidays.

the other big difference is in the UK I've never even heard of anyone even feeling remotely pressured into not taking their full entitlement (in fear of being labelled a slacker)

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

#208

Post by walshemj » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 7:08 PM UTC

Nursie wrote: post #183

angarg12 wrote: post #14

> According to the recruitment website Hired, the average tech salary in London is $78,000 a year, versus $142,000 in Silicon Valley. And this is one of the reasons for the brain drain that the mention before. Silicon Valley firms pay significantly more than the competition, and they are still paying almost half of what they do in the US. It isn't only about money, but it would be naive to deny it's impact on people'…

>> Silicon Valley firms pay significantly more than the competition, I'd say another major factor here is that the UK market significantly undervalues talent, compared to the US, Australia and other markets I've heard of. It may be better than continental Europe, but it's pitiful compared to the money in other countries. Which is why I'm a contractor now, salaries for permanent work in London are not comparable to wo…

Very much so though the market is super hot now I just took a job locally on Monday (no godam commute on the shit show that is thames link ) and thought I did well to get 5K bump.

since then I just got pitched a 100,000 K euro Job in Portugal (flat 20% tax!!!!) and a £60K one in London maybe I jumped to soon.

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

#209

Post by dragonwriter » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 7:12 PM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #186

robk wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then they just come back to Europe when they want those perqs

My girlfriend accidentally moved from the UK to California because when her parents paid for her to visit, she didn’t have enough money saved up to come back afterwards. I’m visiting her next week, and sure, if there was an emergency we could sort something out… most people aren’t that lucky.

> My girlfriend accidentally moved from the UK to California because when her parents paid for her to visit, she didn’t have enough money saved up to come back afterwards.

That sounds a lot like an immigration violation, if she wasn't a US citizen to start with.

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

#210

Post by walshemj » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 7:12 PM UTC

adventured wrote: post #19

angarg12 wrote: post #14

> According to the recruitment website Hired, the average tech salary in London is $78,000 a year, versus $142,000 in Silicon Valley. And this is one of the reasons for the brain drain that the mention before. Silicon Valley firms pay significantly more than the competition, and they are still paying almost half of what they do in the US. It isn't only about money, but it would be naive to deny it's impact on people'…

In complete terms it's more like 3x that $78k figure. The salary would be bad enough. The big US tech companies are nearly all publicly traded. So that $142,000 is really $250,000 or more in total compensation. The UK, and Europe more broadly, not only can't compete with the salaries, they can't compete with the ability to dish vast stock compensation thanks to the immense market caps that Google et al. have. If you'…

The advantage of the UK's take on stock options is the tax man wont try on tax you on money you never had and their is much less opportunity to get screwed out of stock - you must get the same stock - multi class share listings are not looked on kindly and can get you kicked of the UK indices.

My mate made 125k on 5 years worth of stock options at BT and that was open to all staff - oh ad that's mostly tax free.