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How to Get a Job as a Software Developer in the UK After Brexit (Guide)

20 points by Varqu 4y ago

mmarq 4y ago
Just don’t, you don’t want to spend days fighting with the Home Office every other year to renew your visa, for the questionable privilege of making 70-80K pa in London, where a two bedroom apartment cost half your salary. I strongly advise one goes to Germany or the Netherlands, especially if they plan to have kids.
- user432678 4y ago
  Moved from Poland to UK, and unfortunately can confirm. My former colleagues are working for UK companies remotely getting UK level salaries, but spending much less because it’s cheaper to live in Poland.
- tobbob 4y ago
  We are overly London-centric in the UK. It's important to remember that it's just one city, and it's completely different to the rest of the country in almost every way.
  - mmarq 4y ago
    In the rest of the UK, you’d get a lower salary than in central Italy and possibly East Germany (I haven’t checked the latter). Inner London is different from the rest of the country because it’s the only part that looks like Western Europe. Starting in Putney, the UK is a giant periphery, with kilometres of houses and nothing to do apart from getting the train to Inner London. There’s more stuff to do in my grandmother’s village than in the entirety of West London after Hammersmith. At least, in that 1200 people village, there are 2 fully operational churches (one 1000 year old), a football field, 2-3 restaurants/cafes and a castle. Outside of inner London the density of foreigners drops dramatically, which in Brexit England tends to be a problem. Why would anybody in their right mind go to Nowhereshire instead of going, say, to Berlin or Milan or even Perugia?
    - forgotusername6 4y ago
      What an insane take. You obviously haven't visited anywhere outside London.
      - mmarq 4y ago
        I’ve actually visited half the country, when I worked as a consultant. Weather in the north is horrid, much worse than in London, food is appalling in ways that can’t be described, pubs are all the same replica of a Wetherspoon or of a Young’s. It could be that coming from central Italy I have very high expectations, maybe some form of Stendhal syndrome in reverse. But I haven’t had the same feeling when travelling in Germany or France. The UK outside of inner London is a distinctly ugly and boring place. Now it’s also the place in Western Europe with the worse supply chain disruptions and shortages.
        codeduck 4y ago
        You may have visited half the country, but it doesn't seem like you saw any of it.
        benbristow 4y ago
        > Weather in the north is horrid, much worse than in London, food is appalling in ways that can’t be described, pubs are all the same replica of a Wetherspoon or of a Young’s Perhaps you were going to a Spoons or whatever Young's is by accident. Brilliant food all around the North - maybe check OpenTable or Google Maps and find some proper restaurants/street food vendors. I live near Glasgow and there's some excellent food in the area. Yes, the weather isn't as good as London/the South. You learn to love it unless you're spoiled with the sun all the time.
        mmarq 4y ago
        I don’t mean to be dismissive, but if you come from southern/central Italy (or Spain or Greece, etc…), your idea of good food is significantly different from that of the English.
fy20 4y ago
I think a better question is "why would you want to?", and for EU based developers I don't really see the point. I'm from the UK, but now live in post-Soviet EU country. Ten years or even five years ago it was seen as a "right of passage" to go work in the UK, then come home and buy a used BMW with your earnings, but Brexit and COVID really changed that (well, except car preferences). In my previous position I was working remotely for a UK company and working in a co-working space, and many people were there who had the same stories. They'd been working in the UK for a while, but wanted to come home, and the company let them continue to work remotely for the same salary. COVID and IR35 threw another spanner into the cogs, so you started to see many more UK companies willing to hire people remotely, and at that point, why limit yourself to the talent pool in the UK? Late last year I talked to a recruiter who had placed a number of contractors with a London based food delivery company, and he said almost all new people he places are now based outside the UK, somewhere in Europe. This has had a knock-on effect on salaries of local companies here. Sure you could get more working remotely for a US or Western European company, but the rates that are being offered now are on par with what 3 years ago would be a really good salary for a second rate city in the UK (Manchester, Bristol, Reading, etc). So why go to the UK, when you can get good salaries working from your home country, where the cost of living is much lower than the UK?
- heavenlyblue 4y ago
  > Manchester, Bristol, Reading, etc I don’t think that is true to be honest
- burntoutfire 4y ago
  Interestingly, I see the complete opposite. High rates for remote contracts (700, even 800 pounds per day) in London companies, but almost all of them they want to hire remotely from the UK only. I'm not sure if there's some practical reason behind it or it's just pure classism/nationalism at play.
- jokethrowaway 4y ago
  Salaries are still considerably higher in the UK and cost of life relatively low. For seniors: 100k are not unheard of in tons of companies, especially after inflation. Contractor rates are even better and you can get more than 1k per day. That said, nowadays remote working with UK company (or even US) is a viable alternative. I personally left the UK after 7 years, moved to a sunny EU country and had enough money for a house.
deleted 4y ago
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durnygbur 4y ago
But why?! Train tickets and housing consume easily 50% of tech salary in UK.
- siquick 4y ago
  Only in you live in or close proximity to London.
ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago
If you can buy a house, UK is cheaper and livelier that any other place on earth.
- mi_lk 4y ago
  as someone who's interested in UK, am curious whether you are speaking from experience or is there anything to back up the statement?
  - ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago
    From experience. I lived there a long time. If you are bored of London, you are bored of life as they say. Taxes are part of the price tag and no tipping, cheaper groceries add up to pretty nice savings every month.
- breadloaf 4y ago
  Excuse me? I am living in central UK, rent costs me 5000GBP/month, council tax is around 3000GBP/year, food is more than 2 times expensive than in Europe, transportation is expensive in general. Then my status here can be anytime reverted by Home Office. I have pre-settlement status, but HO can anytime come, deny it and kick me out of the country. And before you tell me to move, yes I am currently in phase of moving back to Europe, because for same salary I will have much lower expenses and only thing which was preventing me from moving for last 2 years was the Covid.
Varqu 4y ago
We also wrote similar guides for: Germany: https://germantechjobs.de/blog/how-to-find-job-as-software-developer-in-germany-complete-guide https://germantechjobs.de/blog/how-to-find-job-as-software-d... and Switzerland: https://swissdevjobs.ch/de/blog/how-to-find-job-as-software-developer-in-switzerland-complete-guide https://swissdevjobs.ch/de/blog/how-to-find-job-as-software-...
mrlonglong 4y ago
As a Brit, don't. It's a Tory run hellhole.
extraduder_ire 4y ago
I know it only applies to relatively few people, but I was surprised there's no mention of Irish people in the visa section. We have the same right to live/work in the UK as their citizens (and vice-versa). No visa required. You can confirm this for yourself on the linked gov.uk website.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

20 points by Varqu 4y ago

Just don’t, you don’t want to spend days fighting with the Home Office every other year to renew your visa, for the questionable privilege of making 70-80K pa in London, where a two bedroom apartment cost half your salary. I strongly advise one goes to Germany or the Netherlands, especially if they plan to have kids.

user432678 4y ago
Moved from Poland to UK, and unfortunately can confirm. My former colleagues are working for UK companies remotely getting UK level salaries, but spending much less because it’s cheaper to live in Poland.
tobbob 4y ago
We are overly London-centric in the UK. It's important to remember that it's just one city, and it's completely different to the rest of the country in almost every way.
- mmarq 4y ago
  In the rest of the UK, you’d get a lower salary than in central Italy and possibly East Germany (I haven’t checked the latter). Inner London is different from the rest of the country because it’s the only part that looks like Western Europe. Starting in Putney, the UK is a giant periphery, with kilometres of houses and nothing to do apart from getting the train to Inner London. There’s more stuff to do in my grandmother’s village than in the entirety of West London after Hammersmith. At least, in that 1200 people village, there are 2 fully operational churches (one 1000 year old), a football field, 2-3 restaurants/cafes and a castle. Outside of inner London the density of foreigners drops dramatically, which in Brexit England tends to be a problem. Why would anybody in their right mind go to Nowhereshire instead of going, say, to Berlin or Milan or even Perugia?
  - forgotusername6 4y ago
    What an insane take. You obviously haven't visited anywhere outside London.
    - mmarq 4y ago
      I’ve actually visited half the country, when I worked as a consultant. Weather in the north is horrid, much worse than in London, food is appalling in ways that can’t be described, pubs are all the same replica of a Wetherspoon or of a Young’s. It could be that coming from central Italy I have very high expectations, maybe some form of Stendhal syndrome in reverse. But I haven’t had the same feeling when travelling in Germany or France. The UK outside of inner London is a distinctly ugly and boring place. Now it’s also the place in Western Europe with the worse supply chain disruptions and shortages.
      - codeduck 4y ago
        You may have visited half the country, but it doesn't seem like you saw any of it.
      - benbristow 4y ago
        > Weather in the north is horrid, much worse than in London, food is appalling in ways that can’t be described, pubs are all the same replica of a Wetherspoon or of a Young’s Perhaps you were going to a Spoons or whatever Young's is by accident. Brilliant food all around the North - maybe check OpenTable or Google Maps and find some proper restaurants/street food vendors. I live near Glasgow and there's some excellent food in the area. Yes, the weather isn't as good as London/the South. You learn to love it unless you're spoiled with the sun all the time.
        mmarq 4y ago
        I don’t mean to be dismissive, but if you come from southern/central Italy (or Spain or Greece, etc…), your idea of good food is significantly different from that of the English.

fy20 4y ago

I think a better question is "why would you want to?", and for EU based developers I don't really see the point. I'm from the UK, but now live in post-Soviet EU country. Ten years or even five years ago it was seen as a "right of passage" to go work in the UK, then come home and buy a used BMW with your earnings, but Brexit and COVID really changed that (well, except car preferences). In my previous position I was working remotely for a UK company and working in a co-working space, and many people were there who had the same stories. They'd been working in the UK for a while, but wanted to come home, and the company let them continue to work remotely for the same salary. COVID and IR35 threw another spanner into the cogs, so you started to see many more UK companies willing to hire people remotely, and at that point, why limit yourself to the talent pool in the UK? Late last year I talked to a recruiter who had placed a number of contractors with a London based food delivery company, and he said almost all new people he places are now based outside the UK, somewhere in Europe. This has had a knock-on effect on salaries of local companies here. Sure you could get more working remotely for a US or Western European company, but the rates that are being offered now are on par with what 3 years ago would be a really good salary for a second rate city in the UK (Manchester, Bristol, Reading, etc). So why go to the UK, when you can get good salaries working from your home country, where the cost of living is much lower than the UK?

heavenlyblue 4y ago
> Manchester, Bristol, Reading, etc I don’t think that is true to be honest
burntoutfire 4y ago
Interestingly, I see the complete opposite. High rates for remote contracts (700, even 800 pounds per day) in London companies, but almost all of them they want to hire remotely from the UK only. I'm not sure if there's some practical reason behind it or it's just pure classism/nationalism at play.
jokethrowaway 4y ago
Salaries are still considerably higher in the UK and cost of life relatively low. For seniors: 100k are not unheard of in tons of companies, especially after inflation. Contractor rates are even better and you can get more than 1k per day. That said, nowadays remote working with UK company (or even US) is a viable alternative. I personally left the UK after 7 years, moved to a sunny EU country and had enough money for a house.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

durnygbur 4y ago

But why?! Train tickets and housing consume easily 50% of tech salary in UK.

siquick 4y ago
Only in you live in or close proximity to London.

ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago

If you can buy a house, UK is cheaper and livelier that any other place on earth.

mi_lk 4y ago
as someone who's interested in UK, am curious whether you are speaking from experience or is there anything to back up the statement?
- ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago
  From experience. I lived there a long time. If you are bored of London, you are bored of life as they say. Taxes are part of the price tag and no tipping, cheaper groceries add up to pretty nice savings every month.
breadloaf 4y ago
Excuse me? I am living in central UK, rent costs me 5000GBP/month, council tax is around 3000GBP/year, food is more than 2 times expensive than in Europe, transportation is expensive in general. Then my status here can be anytime reverted by Home Office. I have pre-settlement status, but HO can anytime come, deny it and kick me out of the country. And before you tell me to move, yes I am currently in phase of moving back to Europe, because for same salary I will have much lower expenses and only thing which was preventing me from moving for last 2 years was the Covid.

Varqu 4y ago

We also wrote similar guides for: Germany: https://germantechjobs.de/blog/how-to-find-job-as-software-developer-in-germany-complete-guide https://germantechjobs.de/blog/how-to-find-job-as-software-d... and Switzerland: https://swissdevjobs.ch/de/blog/how-to-find-job-as-software-developer-in-switzerland-complete-guide https://swissdevjobs.ch/de/blog/how-to-find-job-as-software-...

mrlonglong 4y ago

As a Brit, don't. It's a Tory run hellhole.

extraduder_ire 4y ago

I know it only applies to relatively few people, but I was surprised there's no mention of Irish people in the visa section. We have the same right to live/work in the UK as their citizens (and vice-versa). No visa required. You can confirm this for yourself on the linked gov.uk website.

deleted 4y ago

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