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Could it be that the UK has a shortage of programmers generally? My husband is a programmer in the games industry. He emigrated from the UK as a child, along w
by gamble 18y ago
Could it be that the UK has a shortage of programmers generally?
My husband is a programmer in the games industry. He emigrated from the UK as a child, along with his father and uncle. (Who both worked as programmers in the UK) Since he still has British citizenship, we've considered spending a few years in the UK. What's stopped us (so far) is that it seems like programer salaries in Britain are extremely low compared to the cost of living there. Things like housing, food, and transport are 50-100% more expensive in the UK, but the salaries appear to be roughly the same as here in Canada. Worse, it seems like most of the software companies are clustered in the very expensive areas.
- pmjordan 18y agoYep, the cost was part of the reason my girlfriend and I moved to Vienna, Austria (in my case that was moving back home) - we couldn't afford to rent a flat in London despite both of us working full-time; it used up my entire salary and some of hers, and that was before bills, commute, food, etc. I was doing ~70 hour weeks and we were barely breaking even, so we decided to get out. I think a lot of smart people, especially CompSci grads ended up working in the finance sector which pays (paid?) way more than classic software development, which pays more than game dev, so that probably explains the shortage. With that kind of cost of living it really surprises me that there are a lot of startups in London compared to other parts of Europe.