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Edinburgh could be a good option. If you look hard enough, it is still relatively affordable (especially compared to the Bay Area) and I’ve found very intellect

Edinburgh could be a good option. If you look hard enough, it is still relatively affordable (especially compared to the Bay Area) and I’ve found very intellectual people to work with. There seems to be a big focus in the U.K. on collaboration between academic and industry and if you’re into data, Edinburgh is home to a The Data Lab, an innovation centre around data. I moved here from North America and have previous work experience in Silicon Valley. The startup vibe is slowly getting stronger and we’ve been very fortunate to get linked into the ecosystem.

benbristow 8y ago
Both Edinburgh and Glasgow are pretty good in Scotland/UK. Glasgow's tech scene isn't the biggest but we're a friendly bunch and there's lots going on. https://opentechcalendar.co.uk/ https://opentechcalendar.co.uk/ This site is pretty good for seeing all the tech meetups/events in the UK.
- tixocloud 8y ago
  Thanks for sharing. Agree on your sentiments that Glaswegians are friendly! Are you based in Glasgow?
  - benbristow 8y ago
    It's my nearest tech scene and I get involved when I can. I live in Paisley (town 20 minute train ride away) but that's the opposite of a tech scene.
arethuza 8y ago
The train links into Edinburgh are pretty good - I moved from central Edinburgh across to Fife and although where I live is only ~30 minutes from Haymarket it is pretty rural and property prices are much lower. And every day you get to go over the Forth Bridge is a good day...
hugofirth 8y ago
I would add that if you want something cheaper than Edinburgh, but in the same neck of the woods, then you should try Newcastle-upon-Tyne. There is the same academia-industry collaboration and a growing number of tech jobs. The pay is a bit lower than other parts of the UK (for tech), but that is changing and you can always find yourself remote work as well.
the_clarence 8y ago
It reminded me a lot of Dublin, so +1
loriverkutya 8y ago
I not recommend any UK city, until the UK figures out the whole Brexit mess, because currently it looks pretty ugly.
lifebeyondfife 8y ago
+1 to Edinburgh, from a biased local. Most (but far from all) startups in Edinburgh are based in the Codebase building: https://www.thisiscodebase.com/ https://www.thisiscodebase.com/. We also have a couple of unicorns that were started here, Skyscanner and FanDuel; Amazon and Smartsheet also have offices; and Rockstar North is where GTA is developed. All of the above companies are within 10-20 minutes walk of the Edinburgh Waverley train station. Public transport is awesome mainly because the city is quite small and buses are frequent and cheap. There are plenty of meetups too - see https://techmeetup.co.uk/ https://techmeetup.co.uk/ for the biggest general one, which is also live streamed. There are others on security, JavaScript, Go, Machine Learning etc. If you like hiking/camping/hill walking then Scotland is a great country for you - you have a view of the Pentland hills from the city, and Arthur's Seat in Holyrood park right next to our parliament buildings. You can be in the Cairngorms national park within a few hours by car/train. Upper end for Senior Engineer take home pay after taxes is around £4,000 pm. You could rent a nice apartment for £1,000 pm, but could get something small and habitable for £600. Edinburgh is Scotland's most international city, which is a double edged sword as the tackiness of the tourist shops up and down the Royal Mile showcase. But there's lots of great things to do and see, and varied places to eat and drink. The University of Edinburgh is one of the UK's best (I recently walked past Prof Peter Higgs :) and students come here from all over. The Edinburgh Festival is (one of?) the biggest arts festivals in the world and runs for the whole month of August. The Fringe Festival is a world famous testing ground for stand up comics - there's a great Netflix special from Hannibal Buress about his experience of the Edinburgh Fringe. Big downside to the city is that it doesn't have a tech sector as well developed as, say, London. Also for as stunning and booming as the city is, the weather is pretty bad especially owing to its unpredictability i.e. four seasons in one day. It's drier than most of Scotland but that's not saying much. It's cold and the winters have short days. The flip side is that a sunny summer's day will be one of the most enjoyable of anywhere in the world. EDIT: and yeah, I echo other warnings about waiting until the Brexit debacle has concluded to see what things are like for the UK
- panorama 8y ago
  Before I entered this thread, I was already thinking about spending a couple months from late Jan to late March in Edinburgh. Could you expand on the weather and the Brexit warning you mentioned? Thanks!

benbristow 8y ago

Both Edinburgh and Glasgow are pretty good in Scotland/UK. Glasgow's tech scene isn't the biggest but we're a friendly bunch and there's lots going on. https://opentechcalendar.co.uk/ https://opentechcalendar.co.uk/ This site is pretty good for seeing all the tech meetups/events in the UK.

tixocloud 8y ago
Thanks for sharing. Agree on your sentiments that Glaswegians are friendly! Are you based in Glasgow?
- benbristow 8y ago
  It's my nearest tech scene and I get involved when I can. I live in Paisley (town 20 minute train ride away) but that's the opposite of a tech scene.

arethuza 8y ago

The train links into Edinburgh are pretty good - I moved from central Edinburgh across to Fife and although where I live is only ~30 minutes from Haymarket it is pretty rural and property prices are much lower. And every day you get to go over the Forth Bridge is a good day...

hugofirth 8y ago

I would add that if you want something cheaper than Edinburgh, but in the same neck of the woods, then you should try Newcastle-upon-Tyne. There is the same academia-industry collaboration and a growing number of tech jobs. The pay is a bit lower than other parts of the UK (for tech), but that is changing and you can always find yourself remote work as well.

the_clarence 8y ago

It reminded me a lot of Dublin, so +1

loriverkutya 8y ago

I not recommend any UK city, until the UK figures out the whole Brexit mess, because currently it looks pretty ugly.

lifebeyondfife 8y ago

+1 to Edinburgh, from a biased local. Most (but far from all) startups in Edinburgh are based in the Codebase building: https://www.thisiscodebase.com/ https://www.thisiscodebase.com/. We also have a couple of unicorns that were started here, Skyscanner and FanDuel; Amazon and Smartsheet also have offices; and Rockstar North is where GTA is developed. All of the above companies are within 10-20 minutes walk of the Edinburgh Waverley train station. Public transport is awesome mainly because the city is quite small and buses are frequent and cheap. There are plenty of meetups too - see https://techmeetup.co.uk/ https://techmeetup.co.uk/ for the biggest general one, which is also live streamed. There are others on security, JavaScript, Go, Machine Learning etc. If you like hiking/camping/hill walking then Scotland is a great country for you - you have a view of the Pentland hills from the city, and Arthur's Seat in Holyrood park right next to our parliament buildings. You can be in the Cairngorms national park within a few hours by car/train. Upper end for Senior Engineer take home pay after taxes is around £4,000 pm. You could rent a nice apartment for £1,000 pm, but could get something small and habitable for £600. Edinburgh is Scotland's most international city, which is a double edged sword as the tackiness of the tourist shops up and down the Royal Mile showcase. But there's lots of great things to do and see, and varied places to eat and drink. The University of Edinburgh is one of the UK's best (I recently walked past Prof Peter Higgs :) and students come here from all over. The Edinburgh Festival is (one of?) the biggest arts festivals in the world and runs for the whole month of August. The Fringe Festival is a world famous testing ground for stand up comics - there's a great Netflix special from Hannibal Buress about his experience of the Edinburgh Fringe. Big downside to the city is that it doesn't have a tech sector as well developed as, say, London. Also for as stunning and booming as the city is, the weather is pretty bad especially owing to its unpredictability i.e. four seasons in one day. It's drier than most of Scotland but that's not saying much. It's cold and the winters have short days. The flip side is that a sunny summer's day will be one of the most enjoyable of anywhere in the world. EDIT: and yeah, I echo other warnings about waiting until the Brexit debacle has concluded to see what things are like for the UK

panorama 8y ago
Before I entered this thread, I was already thinking about spending a couple months from late Jan to late March in Edinburgh. Could you expand on the weather and the Brexit warning you mentioned? Thanks!