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

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

#221

Post by tonyedgecombe » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 7:34 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.

It's much the same in Oxford, add in the hordes of tourists and I would say it's not a good place to live unless you are an academic.

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

#222

Post by walshemj » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 7:37 PM UTC

cyberpunk0 wrote: post #4

ForHackernews wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Because when tech companies come to places in the us they become gentrified and everything becomes expensive. In most cases tech companies coming to an area has a devastating effect as people who had lived in an area forever are forced out due to the insane spike in cost of living.

Cambridge and Oxford have been gentrified for a very long time

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

#223

Post by CM30 » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 7:41 PM UTC

robert_foss wrote: post #34

adventured wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'…

My personal counter is that I just couldn't morally accept contributing taxes to a nation which: - Exploits the poor and non-citizens - Overthrows governments and bullies smaller countries - Has only the most rudimentary social security system - Does not really have a concept of healthy work/life balance. With little time off and none at all for people with newborns. - Takes near-zero environmental responsibility - L…

How many countries are left after that list?

You've already ruled out any 'five eyes' countries (United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand), much of Europe (for similar reasons), China, Russia (okay, these literally break all of them), Japan and South Korea (work/life balance), almost all of the middle east, much of South America, much of Africa, etc.

Maybe one of the Nordic countries avoids these issues. Maybe.

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

#224

Post by ben_w » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 7:42 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #209

ben_w wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Dual nationality.

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

#225

Post by walshemj » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 7:45 PM UTC

hacker_9 wrote: post #93

6ak74rfy wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am thinking about moving from US to London. So, I am curious to know why you prefer UK to US despite the salary gap. Also, do you know how does their healthcare compare?

For one, our healthcare is free. Though many companies still provide private healthcare as a benefit. Personally I agree with OP, I wouldn't want to live in the US either. Mainly because capitalism has been taken to an ugly extreme and you might get paid more but you also work more etc. Not to mention the tax and tips culture. Of course there are problems here too; it rains a lot more, and every conversation that goe…

Private health care in the UK is a scam just gives you an extra tax bill for no real advantage

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

#226

Post by eli_gottlieb » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 7:48 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'…

>There are only two strong counters, one is that the quality of life can be very high in parts of wealthy Western Europe, and the other is cultural (preferring one culture over another).

I would think the counters would also include:

* Getting to go on vacation ever, at all.

* Weather and closeness to family.

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

#227

Post by collyw » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 7:53 PM UTC

elliotpage wrote: post #80

angarg12 wrote: post #11

> As the tech workers land the big salaries, home prices are skyrocketing, and the locals are being squeezed out. Joke is on them, I'm a new tech immigrant to Cambridge and I still can't buy a house here.

As someone who born and raised in Cambridge the possibility of owning anything larger than a shared shoebox has plummeted into impossibility.

As someone who lived in Cambridge a while ago, Barcelona isn't much different in that regard. I have a theory that its all to do with fiat money, and it took 40 or so years for the effects to filer through.

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

#228

Post by notahacker » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 7:57 PM UTC

foldr wrote: post #163

notahacker wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point behind building nuclear defence systems was to render the risk of consequences from a first strike too grave to attempt it, not to achieve perfect balance between the city-eradication potential of the respective nuclear powers. Nobody is about to evaluate how well Trident works in practice by launching a first strike on London. For all of Trident's limitations, it is impossible to argue with a straigh…

>Nobody is about to evaluate how well Trident works in practice by launching a first strike on London. Let's hope not. >not to achieve perfect balance between the city-eradication potential of the respective nuclear powers. The UK's nuclear deterrent consists of one or two Trident submarines active at any given time which carry 8 Trident missiles each. (They can carry up to 16, but don't at the moment.) Don't be unde…

I'm reading the political slant into the comment upthread I quoted from; not really sure why we're engaged in the tangent of questioning the adequacy of Trident if you acknowledge it's a better deterrent than the present "Special Relationship" (and an expensive one paid from our taxes). The UK's non-operational stockpile means ample capacity to expand upon the currently operational missile stock in the event of a ratcheting up of tensions, and frankly if there's a hostile leader who considers even 8 nuclear missiles to be insufficient deterrent, the UK faces bigger problems than lack of retaliatory capacity.

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

#229

Post by collyw » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 8:08 PM UTC

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #83

tigershark wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not from what I know.

Maybe my numbers are off, but at least in Munich startups are ~80k, automotive ~100k. What are you seeing?

Isn't Munich the German equivalent of London? The expensive but well paid part?

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

#230

Post by carbine » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 8:15 PM UTC

Genuinely surprised at how much most people on this thread seem to consider salary as the most important variable when it comes to where you'd want to live.

Relocating TO the US from other countries is often a nightmare, no matter how talented you are.

And I personally care more about how much I like the culture and environment around me after work and on the weekends than how much I'm being paid.

SF is really great, but it's not London.

All that is to say, there's more to it than money. At least for some people.