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UK's hardware talent is being wasted

josef.cn

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Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling it right now: give it five years, and even Raspberry Pi will be relocating. ARM is already somewhat relocating - some of their newest cores, like Cortex A78, were designed in Austin.

I don't think they'd relocate, but that doesn't matter. They most likely will pull an ARM and hire almost entirely in the US and India instead of in the UK, because competitive British engineers would immigrate to the States, and you can get top tier Indian chip design talent across the spectrum for $30-60k.

>British engineers would immigrate to the States.

I just don't think this is very true, some perhaps but not many.

Secondly, if "the salleries are too low in the UK" is the argument then why would companies be interested in shifting hiring to the states?

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#22

I agree with this call to action. Sadly, I think there are more fundamental issues in the UK economy. For all intents and purposes, Venture Capital is dead in the UK. While companies do get funded in the UK and are technically "UK domiciled" - in action most of their Engineering and Product teams are located in Eastern Europe or India, or are startups from those markets (and China) who domiciled in the UK to raise fr…

I don't understand why it's so bad in a country that's supposedly amazing at financial services.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#23
post #2

[flagged]

No. UK's pay is extremely low. And you know that it is VERY difficult to earn beyond £80k/yr as a SWE outside of top foreign employers in the UK like Google or Citadel. More likely, you'll stagnate at £50-60k. And when factoring the UK's CoL being comparable to some of the more expensive American cities (SF, NYC, Boston) yet salaries being a fraction of those available there, it makes sense why engineering isn't well…

> And you know that it is VERY difficult to earn beyond £80k/yr as a SWE outside of top foreign employers in the UK like Google or Citadel.

That’s not correct at all. There’s a ~130k job going for lead engineer of a data team at a home improvement store.

It’s not “VERY difficult” - it’s not easy but it’s definitely achievable.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#24
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they'd relocate, but that doesn't matter. They most likely will pull an ARM and hire almost entirely in the US and India instead of in the UK, because competitive British engineers would immigrate to the States, and you can get top tier Indian chip design talent across the spectrum for $30-60k.

>British engineers would immigrate to the States. I just don't think this is very true, some perhaps but not many. Secondly, if "the salleries are too low in the UK" is the argument then why would companies be interested in shifting hiring to the states?

The answer is right in your own question. They are shifting hiring to the US because the top talent is leaving the UK, or leaving the field.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#25
post #2

[flagged]

This is such a poor take. What is your justification that SWE is not a skilled job? The majority of the gains in the S&P 500 come from tech companies, with a large part of their value being embedded in their software assets.

UK companies don't make those kinds of gains, though. The market conditions don't allow it.
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