@Op I never moved there but I’ve got lots of family there and I used to travel there for work regularly for extended periods. Happy to tell you whatever I can. I will say that I don’t like it as much as I used to: crime, lack of free speech. London is extremely PC. It’s different than PC here.
I moved several employees. They are happy with rich, vibrant and multicultural city life. They are unhappy with taxes, incredibly expensive housing, high cost of living, healthcare and a necessity to send kids to private school.
@mayfair this is why private schools are required in London: I used to LOVE the vibrant and diverse London scene from 20 years ago. But now it feels like I’m in a Mad Max movie there. “vibrant and multicultural city life” - In the old days Londonstan had tons of people from all over the empire and world. But they didn’t let the violent, unskilled or people that hated England live there. You could be any race or nationality but you were expected to be civil and become English. Or if kept your own passport you were expected to respect the native culture. That’s all out the window now. Public schools in the UK now teach children that England has always been a bad boy and deserves to be punished for it. As a result private schools are a must. Also grooming gangs are a huge problem as we read in the news here all the time.
Thanks! Good to know! I was also told that they have a different type of racism. Like they don’t discriminate against former colonies, like Indians, Pakistani, US, Canada, but they discriminate against other Europeans.
I moved here earlier this year. My experience is as follows: 1. Taxes are high for sure, you don’t get all the deductions like you get in the US (no pre-tax commuter pass, FSA). Forget about itemising deductions. 2. NHS is meh, it’s hard to get a specialist appointment if at all you need one (had to wait four months). 3. London is a great city, loads of interesting things to do. Rent is expensive closer to Central London. Public transportation is quite expensive which means even if you live farther you might not be saving that much. 4. Close to Europe which means flights to a lot of cool destinations are under £30-50 if you plan early. Some pointers to keep in mind when negotiating an offer or if you’re interviewing. 1. Try to get a role that compensates with a base salary and stocks (RSU’s). Living off of base salary is difficult especially if you have family. If you’re spouse is working it definitely helps. 2. Make sure your employer has good benefits plan (private insurance, pension, ESPP) You can definitely get a base pay of ~£100k for senior roles. There are companies that pay over 100k base, you just have to find the companies that pay well.
I did that move 5 years ago - but not with amazon. Happy to answer any questions
How has been your experience ? Has the effective TC been much lower ? Any other problem areas ? I am thinking of such a move too
Loved it. Yes TC will be around 30-40% lower as the market overall pays less there. And then taxes are higher too - everything is expensive. But the beauty is very quickly you learn to live happily with that money. The city offers you a lot of things to do - and you can be very happy if you like going to theater or museums or shows or parks or whatever your taste is in