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Taking Risk

tomblomfield.com

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Re: Taking Risk

#101

Post by gambiting »

worstspotgain wrote: post #76

I think the "one thing that's not like the others" in the article are the crazy-high rankings of Britain's top schools. Universities are a bit of a self-perpetuating reputation scheme, and the UK has been punching well above its weight in that department. Having worked with all Europeans, I can't say that I found the British to be skill or preparation outliers. Maybe just a little above the mean? Speaking English nat…

>> are the crazy-high rankings of Britain's top schools

The problem(in general) with University rankings is that the ranking is done almost entirely on the number of publications.....in English. So it's no wonder that British universities take a lot of the top spots. I've had these conversations many many many times with people - it's not like the Universities of Warsaw or Milan or Prague are not as good as Oxford - but that's not what you're going to see in rankings because a lot of research doesn't get published in English, so somehow it doesn't "count".

As a completely separate point - British universities got absolutely decimated by Brexit in ways that are not immediately apparent, but I work with couple professors at Russel Group universities and they all say the same thing - the number of PhD and research positions applicants from the EU has gone from hundreds a year to literally a handful a year. Some of those were replaced by British applicants or non-EU applicants, but the number of people who want to be researchers in Britan and further the scientific fields has dropped drastically.

Re: Taking Risk

#102

Post by DrBazza »

dan-robertson wrote: post #74
DrBazza wrote: post #40

Financially, the UK is heavily centred around London, one of the most expensive cities in the world, so it's not altogether surprising that university students feel like they need a paying job that keeps a roof over their heads. Worse, the competition for rental property in London is ridiculous, which is the only choice in town for an ex-student. And London is where the VC people are. Also, in the USA 'bricks and mor…

Why does this rent argument not apply to SF/Silicon Valley? I think SF is more expensive than London, though typical pay in (non-startup) tech is higher.

Not sure, as I don't live in SF, but I know that not all start-ups are in SF/The Valley even if the VC money is raised there.

In the UK, they're disproportionately concentrated in London. In fact the UK government has encouraged many of them to set up around Old Street / 'Silicon Roundabout' (sigh). That area is only accessible by public transport, whereas SF/California is accessible via cars, so the choice of where you live is considerably greater in the US. The vast majority of people that work in London live within 10 miles of the absolute centre of London and use public transport. The magic '1 hr commute', if you will. Hence the rental prices.

Our government is continuing the prosperity of London at the cost of the rest of the country. If you remove London from the UK, we're poorer than Mississippi: https://archive.is/UJZBP

Re: Taking Risk

#103

Post by ilikerashers »

CalRobert wrote: post #46

Not the UK, but I'm a Californian who lived in Ireland for ten years. The risk aversion is _intense_. Me: "I want to build a house" My Irish friends: "That's a bad idea, you will fail, it could fall down, you don't know anything about houses". They were extra horrified that I didn't want to build it out of concrete blocks because "you can't build a house out of wood" My Californian friends (but one in particular): "F…

While Ireland has some cash these days, it was a poor place until joining the EU. If you wanted to do well, you emigrated. This is still the case pretty much.

Re: Taking Risk

#104

Post by gambiting »

dan-robertson wrote: post #74
DrBazza wrote: post #40

Financially, the UK is heavily centred around London, one of the most expensive cities in the world, so it's not altogether surprising that university students feel like they need a paying job that keeps a roof over their heads. Worse, the competition for rental property in London is ridiculous, which is the only choice in town for an ex-student. And London is where the VC people are. Also, in the USA 'bricks and mor…

Why does this rent argument not apply to SF/Silicon Valley? I think SF is more expensive than London, though typical pay in (non-startup) tech is higher.

Because it's not just "higher" - it's so much higher it's hard to comprehend what difference that makes to opportunities young people have. I finished my BSc and MSc in Computer Science from a prestigious Russel Group university 10 years ago, got hired as a C++ programmer for a big corporation.....making £18k a year. My take home was about £1200/month if I remember correctly, which was still ok-ish because I was sharing a flat with some people so I only paid like £150/month towards the rent. I was only able to save a very modest amount of money and it took me years to work up to what you'd consider a "decent" salary.

From what I understand, in US your costs are of course higher in terms of rent, healthcare, etc, but the difference in salary is so huge you can actually save up some capital if you want to try starting your own business in few years time.

Re: Taking Risk

#105

Post by toast0 »

monsecchris wrote: post #24

Why bother starting anything in the uk, the taxman will just take any proceeds. The moment I get an opportunity to move to the USA I’m heading over there to continue my business.

USA has taxes too.

Re: Taking Risk

#106

Post by gambiting »

arpinum wrote: post #85
CalRobert wrote: post #46

Not the UK, but I'm a Californian who lived in Ireland for ten years. The risk aversion is _intense_. Me: "I want to build a house" My Irish friends: "That's a bad idea, you will fail, it could fall down, you don't know anything about houses". They were extra horrified that I didn't want to build it out of concrete blocks because "you can't build a house out of wood" My Californian friends (but one in particular): "F…

Same experience in England. There is little celebration of business success and more likely accusations of exploitation. The class system is also alive and well in business - the ambition of many well off uni students is to manage others. Grinding on a startup doesn't fulfil that class ambition

Exactly - if you are doing well as a business, then it must be because you screwed someone over, and in general you're a bastard for making people work for you and make you money, like how dare you.

Re: Taking Risk

#107

Post by helsinkiandrew »

> It was inconceivable that the Bank of England would authorise me, a 31 year old who’d never even worked in a bank, to act as the CEO of the UK’s newest bank.

In general I would think this as a good thing. The UK has a more rigorous banking control than the US (where different state laws can make starting a bank easier than in the UK), with more scrutiny of the business model and customer protection - you need to prove what your doing is safe, not just talk the talk. This means there are no small 'town' or small specialist banks in the UK but also none of the failures that have happened in the US in the past few years.

I believe Richard Bransons lawyers also told him he wouldn't get a bank license. Monzo got its full banking license after a couple of years

Re: Taking Risk

#108

Post by yobbo »

oblio wrote: post #82
yobbo wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your future employer, friends and family will know. People in general don't keep track of other random people.

> Your future employer How will they know and why would they care, if we're talking about regular job postings?

You can choose to have a gap or failure on your résumé. Either makes you unemployable at the types of banks or consultancies considered "safe" in the article, unless you have some sort of remarkable pedigree or network.

That type of résumé is accepted at less prestigious consultancies/staffing agencies, but the pay is on a lower level.

Re: Taking Risk

#109

Post by foldr »

baxtr wrote: post #51

Everyone here blaming the costs of living in London being a major driver for people looking for security: SF is not cheap either! I don’t think you can boil it down to that only. What can be others fundamental reasons? also for Europe in general?

>Everyone here blaming the costs of living in London being a major driver for people looking for security: SF is not cheap either!

I think startup salaries in SF are higher compared to the cost of living, though. There are startups in London that pay £50k or less to new graduates.

Re: Taking Risk

#110

Post by Shrezzing »

thom wrote: post #83
Shrezzing wrote: post #28

> I don’t think it’s any longer about access to capital The link provided as proof for this comment is Wayve receiving a $1bn injection from Microsoft and Nvidia [1]. The $1bn raise is not the concern of a budding 23 year old graduate leaving Imperial/Cambridge/Oxford. They're looking at the first £100k capital to see them through the first few months. In the UK, the scene for the first capital injection is far weake…

Been a while since I was in this position but that first £100k used to be a cakewalk. SEIS made it almost a no-brainier for any high net worth individual to invest in startups.

The challenge in the UK at the moment is connecting willing high net worth individuals with entrepreneurs. Even with the tax incentives, and the relatively good incubator-ish organisations like Eagle Hub, there's some enormous disconnect between viable ideas and timely capital to execute on them.
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