Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news
From: Toby Sargeant <toby@fulcrum.com.au>
Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english
Subject: Work in the UK.
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 11:14:34 +1100
Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE)
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Well, it's finally happened, Lisa and I have decided that it's time to spend
some time working abroad. We've decided on the UK, and as I've always wanted to
do some games programming work (the games programming industry is rather small
in Australia) this seems like an ideal opportunity to do just that.

I'm a British national, so I don't think there'll be any bureaucratic issues to
cope with.

Anyway, I was kind of hoping that some people could make some suggestions on a
few fronts.  We really don't have all that much idea of what to expect from the
UK, so it would be good to get an idea of things like:

* what kind of salaries are offered for games programmers?
* what a recommended minimum living wage is to support two people?
* where it would be best to consider living (both in terms of jobs, and in
  terms of environment)? We've heard that London is very expensive, and
  also rather polluted...
* which companies would people recommend as being fun & challenging places to
  work?
* what is the IT (specifically games) job situation like in the UK at the moment?

Also, are there any online resources with useful information that we can
look at?

Hopefully by August, I'll be able to meet some real life yaroze members. :)

Thanks heaps,

Toby.

(Just in case, here's a quick experience summary)

* BSc
    (major: comp sci)
* BComp hons
    (thesis: constraint based graphic editor)
* MComp (completed by June)
    (thesis: parallel logic programming extensions to java)
* competitions:
    1st, ACM south pacific regional programming contest
    5th, ACM international collegiate programming contest (Phoenix, Arizona)
* languages:
    C/C++/Java/Python/Perl
    x86/68k/MIPS assembler
* platform experience:
    amiga,psx,unix,windows (Win32/DirectX)
* programming experience:
    3d/graphics/lowlevel OS&HW programming/networking/parsers/compilers/
    web&cgi/databases/numerical algorithms/constraint solving&optimisation/