Earlier quoted context omitted.
You really can't get much closer without being _in_ the city...
Ah sorry I forgot I meant the City of London - not London the City
Old Street roundabout is 620 yards away from the City of London boundary
The last days of Silicon Roundabout
41–50 of 152 posts
Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout
#42Everything I read on the internet suggests that UK tech salaries are extremely low, and that the profession has a low level of respect overall. I have many many foreign or first generation immigrant coworkers, but almost no one British. I'm surprised, because there's no language barrier and a minimal cultural barrier, but still the vast majority of my coworkers are from places that are much harder to immigrate from.…
> If any UKites have made it to this thread, is be curious to hear why so few people leave for countries with a stronger and higher paying tech sector? First of all, working in tech in the UK you can make $130,000 which is 3-4x the median annual salary. Very few Brits would describe that is "extremely low". That's enough money to have a few kids, a wife who doesn't work, and a pretty decent lifestyle. Why move a 10-h…
> First of all, working in tech in the UK you can make $130,000 which is 3-4x the median annual salary.
That's not a common compensation at all. I think USA gives way more choices, at the very least finance, big tech and start-ups (that actually offer noticeable equity, unlike UK).
Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout
#43I miss working from Google Campus and attending tech events in the surrounding streets. Not a day passed without meeting someone new and interesting, being inspired by the work of others as they describe it to you, even just checking out the student-like noticeboard of startups looking for co-founders for this or that idea. None of these have a compelling replacement online.
Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout
#44Everything I read on the internet suggests that UK tech salaries are extremely low, and that the profession has a low level of respect overall. I have many many foreign or first generation immigrant coworkers, but almost no one British. I'm surprised, because there's no language barrier and a minimal cultural barrier, but still the vast majority of my coworkers are from places that are much harder to immigrate from.…
> Everything I read on the internet suggests that UK tech salaries are extremely low, and that the profession has a low level of respect overall.
For salaries, we're better paid than the vast majority of white-collar workers to the point it becomes a running joke. I once got asked by a standup comedian doing a set what my job is, I said software dev, and he answered "blimey you must be fuckin loaded". We're not at the level of the US, but we're probably higher than most of Western Europe, at least after CoL (e.g. https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/uk-developer...). It can be tricky to compare salaries across countries, but I can't imagine the massive amounts of European developers came to London for the climate.
As for respect, I don't really know what you mean. Beyond professions like nurses/social workers, I (and I hope most people) don't really base respect on profession. We probably get more professional respect in the workplace, we get away with stuff the other departments definitely don't, but personal respect? Just doesn't come into it, unless you're a social worker or nurse or something.
Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout
#45Everything I read on the internet suggests that UK tech salaries are extremely low, and that the profession has a low level of respect overall. I have many many foreign or first generation immigrant coworkers, but almost no one British. I'm surprised, because there's no language barrier and a minimal cultural barrier, but still the vast majority of my coworkers are from places that are much harder to immigrate from.…
UKite here, active in the London fintech scene. Everything I say is based purely on my perception of the situation. Anecdotally, I see more people in this sector moving to places such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand than to the USA. I think there is a perception here that while salaries might be higher in the USA, there are hidden costs both financially and socially (such as health insurance payments, getting to…
And the immigration system. I'd love to move to the US but the family-focused immigration system makes it real tricky compared to Australia (could get a visa in 6 months WITHOUT a job offer) or Canada (working holiday visa gives me 3 years working access no problem).
Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout
#46Is this article down playing the effects of Brexit a little? I used to work in Silicon Roundabout and now I live in Paris, I know plenty of developers who've moved out of the UK because of Brexit, but none who have moved to the UK since Brexit was finalised. It must be getting harder and harder for London based startups to find a dev team
It's not just start ups who are struggling.
I don't think the struggle is there as the salaries did not start growing yet.
Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah sorry I forgot I meant the City of London - not London the City
Old Street roundabout is 620 yards away from the City of London boundary
Yes, that’s what I meant. It’s as close to the City of London as one could realistically be without being inside.
Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout
#48Not surprised there are nicer bits of London to set up in - not surprised the Googles moved to Kings Cross now its gentrified. Before it was Silicon Roundabout BT had a couple of big offices that I used to go to occasionally and the area was a real dump back then. Ironically in 95 or so I was up for a board (promotion) at 207 old street and was extoling all the cool things I was doing with the www and internet - unfo…
> not surprised the Googles moved to Kings Cross now its gentrified. I really dont understand why people want to work there. Its a really expensive shithole still. Granted there are now lots of new offices full of tech workers, but thats not a selling point. Facebook and google moved out of soho for kings bloody cross. I suspect the real reason is that its the only site left big enough to put multi-thousand person of…
Kings Cross has amazing commuter links, that's why. 45 minutes to Cambridge really opens up your options.
Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout
#49Not surprised there are nicer bits of London to set up in - not surprised the Googles moved to Kings Cross now its gentrified. Before it was Silicon Roundabout BT had a couple of big offices that I used to go to occasionally and the area was a real dump back then. Ironically in 95 or so I was up for a board (promotion) at 207 old street and was extoling all the cool things I was doing with the www and internet - unfo…
My brother lived on Great Eastern Street from the early 90's until last year, he got in just as it was an 'up and coming' area - it's an interesting place, and there are a fair few tech companies around there (Amazon is 5 minutes brisk walk, as is a company now owned by Vonage).
It was interesting to see the area develop over those years.
Re: The last days of Silicon Roundabout
#50Everything I read on the internet suggests that UK tech salaries are extremely low, and that the profession has a low level of respect overall. I have many many foreign or first generation immigrant coworkers, but almost no one British. I'm surprised, because there's no language barrier and a minimal cultural barrier, but still the vast majority of my coworkers are from places that are much harder to immigrate from.…
> If any UKites have made it to this thread, is be curious to hear why so few people leave for countries with a stronger and higher paying tech sector? First of all, working in tech in the UK you can make $130,000 which is 3-4x the median annual salary. Very few Brits would describe that is "extremely low". That's enough money to have a few kids, a wife who doesn't work, and a pretty decent lifestyle. Why move a 10-h…
Can you supplement your post with some evidence? Because what I see on the market is all at the ~80k mark - 100k+ is an edge-case outside of FAANG.
In comparison, in the US 150k+ seems common, and while you could argue costs of living and healthcare offset that, if you're purely betting on the short-term and are relatively young (so unlikely to need much healthcare) you can save up a ton of cash with that compared to in UK.