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Mixed feelings on this - huge congrats to ARM friends but I feel it's 1 act too short for an exit like this. I'd love to have seen a British owned tech company

Mixed feelings on this - huge congrats to ARM friends but I feel it's 1 act too short for an exit like this. I'd love to have seen a British owned tech company higher up the Global 2000 before transferring ownership.

chrisseaton 10y ago
Yes I too wish that there was a big British tech company I could work for in the UK (being British myself). Unfortunately I can't imagine ARM ever being competitive as an employer. When I was applying for internships during my degree a couple of years ago I looked at US companies like Google and Oracle and ARM in the UK. I think ARM paid about a quarter of what Google and Oracle were offering. One quarter. And that's just cash before I included the housing, car costs and massive relocation grant that the US companies included and ARM didn't. Today Glassdoor tells me that ARM pays interns about half, and graduates about 60%, of what Microsoft does, in the same city (Cambridge) a few miles apart. But they have good people working for them so it must be enough I guess!
- steton 10y ago
  A decade or so ago, ARM was offering graduates about £25K. I believe they still offer the inflation-adjusted equivalent of that: ~£32K. Does this mean that Microsoft Cambridge are offering graduates ~£50K? It's interesting that I consider that to be very high for a graduate salary yet, at USD 66K equivalent, it is significantly less than would be available in an area of the USA with a comparable cost of living...
  - chrisseaton 10y ago
    Glassdoor says £70k to £90k for the same grade ('senior' but of course it's hard to compare). That's about what I would expect. This is for PhD interns and grads I should have made more clear. I'd say £32k is beyond taking the piss for someone with a CS undergraduate degree and having to live in Cambridge (you couldn't buy a house there on that) but if they're getting the people they want then it must be right for them.
    - sdnas211 10y ago
      >I'd say £32k is beyond taking the piss for someone with a CS undergraduate degree and having to live in Cambridge (you couldn't buy a house there on that) but if they're getting the people they want then it must be right for them. The average CS grad salaries in London are below that. But I agree, it is still terribly low.
    - gchadwick 10y ago
      >I'd say £32k is beyond taking the piss for someone with a CS undergraduate degree and having to live in Cambridge Whilst it's not giant it's not super low either. I'd be surprised if you could find that many tech (that is not banking/consultancy) companies in Cambridge (or indeed London) offering signficantly more than that. There's also things like Bonus, Share Scheme and pension (private health insurance too but that's a pretty common perk) that needs to be brought in the comparison.
      - chrisseaton 10y ago
        Don't Facebook and Google offer more than that in London to new graduates with just undergraduate degrees? I know those are outliers then, but it's a shame that the outliers are all US companies. And ARM isn't just some tech agency, they're working on hardware, simulation, compilers, etc, hard tech stuff.
        gchadwick 10y ago
        I'm sure FB and Google offer more but they're not most tech companies! London is also more expensive than Cambridge (I doubt you'll buy a house a short distance from the office in London on a mid-level engineers salary at Google/Facebook, you can happily do that in Cambridge at ARM). I'd also note hard-tech stuff just seems to attract less money than web/social (see how the recent linked-in acquisition by MS wasn't for much less cash than the Softbank ARM deal). I'm not saying ARM is super generous with their compensation compare to other tech giants, but you get a pretty reasonable deal, and it's a nice place work with interesting things to work on. (I work at ARM)
- gaius 10y ago
  What about Imagination?

chrisseaton 10y ago

Yes I too wish that there was a big British tech company I could work for in the UK (being British myself). Unfortunately I can't imagine ARM ever being competitive as an employer. When I was applying for internships during my degree a couple of years ago I looked at US companies like Google and Oracle and ARM in the UK. I think ARM paid about a quarter of what Google and Oracle were offering. One quarter. And that's just cash before I included the housing, car costs and massive relocation grant that the US companies included and ARM didn't. Today Glassdoor tells me that ARM pays interns about half, and graduates about 60%, of what Microsoft does, in the same city (Cambridge) a few miles apart. But they have good people working for them so it must be enough I guess!

steton 10y ago
A decade or so ago, ARM was offering graduates about £25K. I believe they still offer the inflation-adjusted equivalent of that: ~£32K. Does this mean that Microsoft Cambridge are offering graduates ~£50K? It's interesting that I consider that to be very high for a graduate salary yet, at USD 66K equivalent, it is significantly less than would be available in an area of the USA with a comparable cost of living...
- chrisseaton 10y ago
  Glassdoor says £70k to £90k for the same grade ('senior' but of course it's hard to compare). That's about what I would expect. This is for PhD interns and grads I should have made more clear. I'd say £32k is beyond taking the piss for someone with a CS undergraduate degree and having to live in Cambridge (you couldn't buy a house there on that) but if they're getting the people they want then it must be right for them.
  - sdnas211 10y ago
    >I'd say £32k is beyond taking the piss for someone with a CS undergraduate degree and having to live in Cambridge (you couldn't buy a house there on that) but if they're getting the people they want then it must be right for them. The average CS grad salaries in London are below that. But I agree, it is still terribly low.
  - gchadwick 10y ago
    >I'd say £32k is beyond taking the piss for someone with a CS undergraduate degree and having to live in Cambridge Whilst it's not giant it's not super low either. I'd be surprised if you could find that many tech (that is not banking/consultancy) companies in Cambridge (or indeed London) offering signficantly more than that. There's also things like Bonus, Share Scheme and pension (private health insurance too but that's a pretty common perk) that needs to be brought in the comparison.
    - chrisseaton 10y ago
      Don't Facebook and Google offer more than that in London to new graduates with just undergraduate degrees? I know those are outliers then, but it's a shame that the outliers are all US companies. And ARM isn't just some tech agency, they're working on hardware, simulation, compilers, etc, hard tech stuff.
      - gchadwick 10y ago
        I'm sure FB and Google offer more but they're not most tech companies! London is also more expensive than Cambridge (I doubt you'll buy a house a short distance from the office in London on a mid-level engineers salary at Google/Facebook, you can happily do that in Cambridge at ARM). I'd also note hard-tech stuff just seems to attract less money than web/social (see how the recent linked-in acquisition by MS wasn't for much less cash than the Softbank ARM deal). I'm not saying ARM is super generous with their compensation compare to other tech giants, but you get a pretty reasonable deal, and it's a nice place work with interesting things to work on. (I work at ARM)
gaius 10y ago
What about Imagination?