Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news From: Toby Sargeant Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english Subject: Re: Work in the UK. Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 13:39:31 +1000 Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE) Lines: 34 Message-ID: <38E41DF3.D147B6C2@fulcrum.com.au> References: <38B1D4E9.1D8C059B@fulcrum.com.au> <38E20810.8622E3A3@scee.sony.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: redback.spyda.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2.2.14 i686) X-Accept-Language: en James Russell wrote: > I would leave if I was getting paid under 22K (London only, you can survive on 10K outside London). > Don't even BOTHER doing the conversion into Aus dollars, basically 22K here = $22K in Aus. (Well, > probably closer to $Aus28K). If you're in IT working in the City (that's the financial district, not > the-city-of-London), expect to be paid a million billion pounds a year (the bastards). The eternal dilemma... Do what interests you, or do what makes you money. Given the fact that games programmers (from what I've seen) tend to be skewed towards the upper end of the IT professional skillfulness scale, it's a pity that they don't get salaries in line with that.. I've heard a lot about the 1 to 1 equivalence of pounds to AUD, but at the same time, listed salaries in the UK seem often to be a lot lower than over here. Admittedly I'm not quite comparing apples with apples, but 50-60K here is not an unreasonably large wage, and certainly some programmers are getting 80K+. Needless to say, this isn't in the games programming industry. Is the income tax rate higher in Australia, possibly (49% these days, in the top tax bracket)? > London's standard of living is less than what you'd expect, and very expensive (I pay 400 a month > for my room in my flat, which is a nice flat). Other cities are much lower and more in line with > what you'd expect, but most of the Big Players are in or very close to London. Most people who come > from SA/NZ/Oz want to live in London for the experience, the large SA/NZ/Oz community and the > relative ease of getting over to Europe. It's kind of strange to imagine going overseas to work, and choosing a place that allows you to associate with noone but other expats :). Rent seems to be a little bit of a worry, really. I don't know whether we'll want to share a place with other people; we're kind of used to the freedom associated with not having housemates these days. > They're always looking for more programmers. If you've got a university qualification, you shouldn't > have too much trouble finding work. That being said, don't assume uni degrees are all equal. You can > get a MSc in 4 years here, whereas it takes 5 in NZ (and probably Aus too). Mmm. Nothing like fresh programmer blood to grease the wheels of the Juggernaut of Capitalism... Toby.