Bit of background: I work in software. I'm still very junior, but have been in the job long enough to know that I enjoy it, and I'm not completely terrible at writing high- or low-level code. Pay is OK, location is pleasant enough but unexciting for a single man in his 20s. Work is mostly good but I don't feel I've got into anything very meaty yet. Main plus side are the flexible hours, and the social side within my year of new starters.
Since I've started I've been getting a few messages from recruiters on LinkedIn. A lot of these I just reply "No thanks" to straight away because the location is bad, it's an area that does not interest me (read: web dev) or a company I've heard bad things about (e.g. Amazon), as well as the fact that I've only just started at my current place relatively recently. Recently though I've been getting a bunch of messages advertising jobs in central London-based financial firms. Mostly small-ish automated trading startups looking for devs to work alongside the quants, and paying 2-3 times what I'm on now.
I've been thinking of moving somewhere central-ish for a little while now, be close to more interesting places and not have to take the night bus home for hours after. But with what I'm on at the minute combined with work location I'm unlikely to break through zone 3, maybe 2 at a push. 10 mins walk from the arse end of a tube line if I'm lucky. So this has got me thinking, whether living and working somewhere central would be a possibility. On the other hand, I know I can kiss goodbye to good working hours and the social side I've integrated into so far if I did that. I definitely wouldn't rush into anything, I'll want to stay at my current place for at least until my next review, but it's given me things to think about regarding the future. I'm really not sure if I can see myself staying round here forever.
I guess the main point of all this, is are there any people on here with similar experiences? Is the City worth the extra stress and hassle, or should I thank my lucky stars for a quiet if unexceptional life?
>>11113 I've worked in both the City (12 years+) and Amazon (5 years) and loved both. The interview for Amazon is much harder than your average City interview.
Living Central is great, but you're going to be living in a shithole and paying a lot - given that if you work for people like the City/Amazon/dotcoms, you're not going to be home a lot. Kiss goodbye to good working hours and just go with it, is my advice.
>>11113 >Mostly small-ish automated trading startups looking for devs to work alongside the quants, and paying 2-3 times what I'm on now.
As has been alluded to, there's a reason they pay their devs loadsamoney, and it's not because they're talented.
>>11116 Do you mind going into more detail as to why you loved it? Because you liked the work, the social side, the money...? Also I realise I may have been quick to judge Amazon based mostly on fake news online articles about their shady business practices and employee maltreatment. Is their interview process on a similar level to Google's then?
Also a bit more information about yourself would be useful. Are you one of these people who can sleep for <6 hours every night and not notice any difference in your performance/concentration? Would you say you deal with stress better than the average individual? These would be my two main concerns with living and working in the City, I've only just recently managed to adjust myself to a 9-5 10-6 work pattern so doing 8-8 or whatever these sort of firms expect may just kill me.
On reflection, I've realised that I just have to get out of my little corner of north London. Even if it's just to another slightly better-connected corner of north London. I've also considered the nuclear option of trying to jump on the silicon-mad San Fran bandwagon but I've no idea how feasible that would be for a British national, and from what I hear standard US work hours/holidays can be as bad as the very worst the UK has to offer so that might not help anyway.
>>11123 >I may have been quick to judge Amazon based mostly on fake news online articles about their shady business practices and employee maltreatment.
The stuff I've read about Amazon employees being treated like shit was in regards to the warehouse workers. Somehow I doubt >>11116 was sweating half to death packing boxes for minimum wage.
>>11124 >The stuff I've read about Amazon employees being treated like shit was in regards to the warehouse workers.
They're not alone. Plenty of reports of poor treatment of people on the tech side.
>>11124 On the one hand, even it was just warehouse staff it's still a damning comment on their attitude towards their people. But it was the NY Times article that gave me a bad impression of the technical side of the business.
>even it was just warehouse staff it's still a damning comment on their attitude towards their people.
Agreed. Scant consolation, if any: those people won't have those horrific warehouse jobs in another five or so years, as it'll all be automated.
