Advice on living/career in London

[YK@HKG]

Congratulations on your offer!

[lee_apromise]

Congratulations Savage25 !! Hope you have a great career~!
I've got 2 more years to finish off this idiotic engineering and 1 extra year to finish finance maths.

[TerryK]

Congrats! Savage25. Both offers look great. You won't go wrong with either. You must be doing really well in school.

[SuperJonJon]

Congratulations, Savage25!
If you do choose London, I am sure there will be more London DOs.

[sqforever]

congratulations Savage25! The UK has always been an inspirational place to me, especially the outer areas like Lancashire. My father brought back many pics from Marlow and its just beautiful. I wouldn't mind living in the area; only problem is the sheer cost of everything

[MovieMan]

Congratulations, Savage25!

I can't give any real advice on London vs. Silicon Valley, but if I were you, I would probably go for the UK. I think I share Snaffled's philosophy: "My whole perspective on career moves like this is that unless there is a real glaring reason not to move somewhere new & exciting (I mean REALLY glaring) then I go..." That's what got me to Asia and flying on SQ in the first place. Not a decision I will ever regret.

[KeithMEL]

Congrats, Savage25!

[SQflyergirl]

Congratulations Savage25! Nice going

[9V-JKL]

Well Done Savage25

I did spend 2years in the UK in the 90s. Was in Birmingham rather than London but the odd trips there so weekend left me feeling that London is rather expensive to live in. I'll never forget paying GBP3 for an ice-kacang that had NO atap-chee (Atap-chee is the flesh from the young seeds of the mangrove plant Nypa fruticans. It is usually soaked in sugar syrup)

[CGK]

Congratulations!

[StarG]

Congratulations Savage25.

[jhm]

Are black cabs different from regular London cabs?

People refer to a black cab to distinguish it from a (licensed) minicab - apart from the difference in the vehicle itself, the drivers of the former take the "Knowledge" (a test of thousands of routes and points within central Lodnon - it takes a few years to learn and pass) and the former cost more.

[Savage25]

Congratulations Savage25.

Personally I would base your decision on the job, what you will be happest with as I'm sure both of these offers are going to expect you to put in a lot of extra hours. Personally I took job in Bangkok because I wanted to live there but really wasn't happy because the job was rubbish. Now I'm living in Jerusalem which would not be in my top 1000 places to live but I'm much happier as the job is really interesting.

I'm sure the money would go much further in states than it will in London. However your offer is for approx double the UK average salary so you will be by no means having to scrape by.

Thanks! Money isn't the most important factor for me because both offers are high enough to do better than scrape by. Each one has its good points though - one for the variety of work and the other for the variety of places to live in during the rotations.

I think I would be happy with either job, and from talking with people in both companies, I think both have a good work-life balance. I like the idea of the extra vacation in the London job though....makes for more long weekend getaways

[Savage25]

Thanks for all your comments, folks. Especially jjpb3's detailed reply. As a poor starving grad student, its good to be a position to make a choice between job offers, but its hard making a decision.

jjpb3, #4 got folded into #3 and subsequently forgotten.

Based on my brief time visiting London, I think I would be a Zone 1 or Zone 2 person. I like to be within 20 minutes of commuting time to work and play. I noticed that alcohol is cheaper too

And living costs for the Bay Area seem comparable to NYC, so I think your comparison is useful.

I'm trying to learn about the postcodes....is there a good postcode map that overlays a regular map? Something like this but covering multiple postcodes and most of central London?

My whole perspective on career moves like this is that unless there is a real glaring reason not to move somewhere new & exciting (I mean REALLY glaring) then I go ... I'd hate to get to an older age, look back & think what may have been.

I agree wholeheartedly...I've been living away from "home" since the age of 15 so moving to somewhere new and exciting is what I've been doing for a while now. I definitely want to live and work in London at some point (for all the reasons that jjpb3 mentioned, but I'm trying to decide whether I want some work experience in the US at this point in my career.

jhm, thanks for pointing me to that section of FT. Forgot it existed and will have to go though the threads there tonight.

Are black cabs different from regular London cabs?

[Lobster]

Congratulations Savage25.

Personally I would base your decision on the job, what you will be happest with as I'm sure both of these offers are going to expect you to put in a lot of extra hours. Personally I took job in Bangkok because I wanted to live there but really wasn't happy because the job was rubbish. Now I'm living in Jerusalem which would not be in my top 1000 places to live but I'm much happier as the job is really interesting.

I'm sure the money would go much further in states than it will in London. However your offer is for approx double the UK average salary so you will be by no means having to scrape by.