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There is no hope for the UK, especially the disaster that is the UK tech industry. After the lockdown is over, people who reside there should get out while the

There is no hope for the UK, especially the disaster that is the UK tech industry. After the lockdown is over, people who reside there should get out while they can.

throwewey 6y ago
Disaster, could you elaborate?
_Wintermute 6y ago
Not sure the UK tech industry is a disaster, I left the UK for France following the Brexit result and it has really opened my eyes to how good it was in the UK.
- leonroy 6y ago
  Mind weighing in on the pros and cons of your experiences in the UK vs France?
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago
  Please expand on this. Are you referring to technical sloppiness, compensation, availability of jobs, something else?
  - _Wintermute 6y ago
    I could write paragraphs on this but I'll keep it short, also bear in mind a lot of it will be due to specific workplaces and so on. There's some incredible French engineers, but I get the impression a lot of the talent is lost to the US, Canada and the UK. Compensation isn't too dissimilar to the UK or other western European countries. There's still a huge emphasis, especially in larger companies, on where you went to school - if you didn't study at a Grand Ecole you can get snubbed by a lot of people. France is also very conservative when it comes to technology, and often the French bureaucracy leaks into the workplace, I had to have multiple managers sign off my request form to get a HDMI cable.
- kgraves 6y ago
  ARM was sold off on the cheap thanks to Brexit, I can only imagine how other UK companies would fare under Brexit Britain + Pandemic.
joelbluminator 6y ago
What? It has the best tech industry in Europe in almost every metric you can think of. Maybe you mean UK outside London which is probably comparable to continental Europe, but London is booming.
- raxxorrax 6y ago
  Aside from maybe Dublin, this seems to be true. Obviously that has to do with synergies of the language alone that gets you a large advantage for your location.
- kgraves 6y ago
  > It has the best tech industry in Europe The UK sold ARM to Softbank, Imagination Technologies to a private equity firm in China, SwiftKey to Microsoft, DeepMind to Google, Deliveroo to Amazon, Dyson has gone to Singapore and most of these startups will not exist in 20, 30 or 40 years time. The UK's homegrown tech companies are selling out and you think it is still best in Europe? Thanks to Brexit there is no hope. > but London is booming. OK, but compared to the UK as a whole, disaster. I expected jobs to flow all through the UK, not be crammed into London where people from other areas have to travel there by train or suffer rent hikes, thankfully this pandemic has put an end to this.
  - thu2111 6y ago
    You realise that a huge number of US startups also sell out to big tech firms? These companies were at least all actually profitable (except DeepMind). If selling to a bigger firm is the same thing as failure then Silicon Valley is drowning in failure.
    - kgraves 6y ago
      Most startups that are being acquired are going to US based companies which benefits the US, so this is a moot point, and I already addressed this: > ...and most of these startups will not exist in 20, 30 or 40 years time. > These companies were at least all actually profitable (except DeepMind). I agree with Dyson but we need more of them. Unfortunately ARM and Imagination technologies have a great history that is now in the hands of foreign companies. Deliveroo isn't profitable. SwiftKey as AFAIK didn't make money (MS bought them for the AI tech), Powa Technologies (remember them?) hailed as one of the original UK tech unicorn went bust, Blippar is dead. Skyscanner is gone to China and laid off 300 people recently [0], Shazam is gone to Apple. The situation is so dire OneWeb had to be rescued by the UK government, and they don't even have majority ownership. What is the UK's answer to FAANG? rather than FAANG coming to the UK? [0] [0] https://layoffs.fyi/2020/08/12/skyscanner-launches-talent-directory-after-laying-off-300-employees/ https://layoffs.fyi/2020/08/12/skyscanner-launches-talent-di...

There is no hope for the UK, especially the disaster that is the UK tech industry. After the lockdown is over, people who reside there should get out while they can.

throwewey 6y ago

Disaster, could you elaborate?

_Wintermute 6y ago

Not sure the UK tech industry is a disaster, I left the UK for France following the Brexit result and it has really opened my eyes to how good it was in the UK.

leonroy 6y ago
Mind weighing in on the pros and cons of your experiences in the UK vs France?
MaxBarraclough 6y ago
Please expand on this. Are you referring to technical sloppiness, compensation, availability of jobs, something else?
- _Wintermute 6y ago
  I could write paragraphs on this but I'll keep it short, also bear in mind a lot of it will be due to specific workplaces and so on. There's some incredible French engineers, but I get the impression a lot of the talent is lost to the US, Canada and the UK. Compensation isn't too dissimilar to the UK or other western European countries. There's still a huge emphasis, especially in larger companies, on where you went to school - if you didn't study at a Grand Ecole you can get snubbed by a lot of people. France is also very conservative when it comes to technology, and often the French bureaucracy leaks into the workplace, I had to have multiple managers sign off my request form to get a HDMI cable.
kgraves 6y ago
ARM was sold off on the cheap thanks to Brexit, I can only imagine how other UK companies would fare under Brexit Britain + Pandemic.

joelbluminator 6y ago

What? It has the best tech industry in Europe in almost every metric you can think of. Maybe you mean UK outside London which is probably comparable to continental Europe, but London is booming.

raxxorrax 6y ago
Aside from maybe Dublin, this seems to be true. Obviously that has to do with synergies of the language alone that gets you a large advantage for your location.
kgraves 6y ago
> It has the best tech industry in Europe The UK sold ARM to Softbank, Imagination Technologies to a private equity firm in China, SwiftKey to Microsoft, DeepMind to Google, Deliveroo to Amazon, Dyson has gone to Singapore and most of these startups will not exist in 20, 30 or 40 years time. The UK's homegrown tech companies are selling out and you think it is still best in Europe? Thanks to Brexit there is no hope. > but London is booming. OK, but compared to the UK as a whole, disaster. I expected jobs to flow all through the UK, not be crammed into London where people from other areas have to travel there by train or suffer rent hikes, thankfully this pandemic has put an end to this.
- thu2111 6y ago
  You realise that a huge number of US startups also sell out to big tech firms? These companies were at least all actually profitable (except DeepMind). If selling to a bigger firm is the same thing as failure then Silicon Valley is drowning in failure.
  - kgraves 6y ago
    Most startups that are being acquired are going to US based companies which benefits the US, so this is a moot point, and I already addressed this: > ...and most of these startups will not exist in 20, 30 or 40 years time. > These companies were at least all actually profitable (except DeepMind). I agree with Dyson but we need more of them. Unfortunately ARM and Imagination technologies have a great history that is now in the hands of foreign companies. Deliveroo isn't profitable. SwiftKey as AFAIK didn't make money (MS bought them for the AI tech), Powa Technologies (remember them?) hailed as one of the original UK tech unicorn went bust, Blippar is dead. Skyscanner is gone to China and laid off 300 people recently [0], Shazam is gone to Apple. The situation is so dire OneWeb had to be rescued by the UK government, and they don't even have majority ownership. What is the UK's answer to FAANG? rather than FAANG coming to the UK? [0] [0] https://layoffs.fyi/2020/08/12/skyscanner-launches-talent-directory-after-laying-off-300-employees/ https://layoffs.fyi/2020/08/12/skyscanner-launches-talent-di...