3% to 5% more expensive every year - that is similar to or less than inflation. Given their dominance, i'm genuinely curious why they don't raise it by 20% a year. Or 50%?
That's a nice little island you have there; it would be a shame if we let the gang next door have their way with it. Now why don't you make nice with our close business associates and give them a good deal, eh?
My sense is that there are plenty of junior level opportunities still out there, although fewer than before.
But senior level positions which pay a decent salary (which i define as £200k+/year in London) are especially hard to find and get nowadays, compared to years prior.
How are UK salaries competitive? Even in London, salaries are, at best, 50% of what they are in Silicon Valley for 'typical' companies. At FAANG companies (e.g.: the Google/FB/etc London offices), they are about 70% of what they are in Silicon Valley. Cost of living is higher in SV, but not that much higher.
I believe that 70% is very, very competitive — I’d go as far as to say 70% of an SF salary, in London, is better. There’s a bunch of considerations, not just the cost of living, but things like healthcare, which allow for a high-earner to better leverage their earnings to improve their quality of life.
There’s a higher density of well-funded companies in the US who can afford to pay high salaries, so it’s easier to find a high salary, but if you find a well-funded company in the UK (of which there are many, and growing) then you can earn comparably high amounts.
If you have a £150k salary in the UK — which is easy enough at Google, Facebook etc. — you will have a very high standard of living, so much so, that moving to the US to earn $300k/year at the same company would have very little impact on quality of life.
+1. Housing costs a fortune in both London and Silicon Valley. London has an excellent rail network so if you could WFH somewhere with much cheaper housing 3 days a week that could work. Although the NHS is underfunded to breaking point, private healthcare and insurance is much cheaper in UK than USA. Reasons to move to the US would be for adventure, experiencing another country, the great outdoors, all the things USA offers. Probably not for financial reasons anymore. This used to be different but UK tech salaries got better. Of course, who knows what the long-term holds for UK, with Brexit, higher inflation than other countries, the union breaking apart (Scotland leaving), political instability etc.. Not that USA is a perfectly stable country either ;)
That is a great salary for the UK - did you apply for a UK role, or did you apply for a US role working remotely, and thus got a US-level salary? I'm at the executive director level at another bank and get paid only slightly more than that in the UK - looks like I need to start interviewing.
What's crazy is just a few years ago that TC was only available for IBD. Even if the trajectory is only down after the 1st year bonus, you can hop off after the paycheck. Now that money can only be found in tech.
200k is roughly ICT4 at Apple Ldn which is like 10 years of experience. GP definitely an outlier. Maybe their profile fits a narrative that the bank is pushing.
I'm fairly sure that's total comp - so with a 1st year bonus guarantee. After that first comp cycle, we all know which way the bonus will go...And then you're fighting the rest of the team for that 2-5% merit budget.
If that's just salary - I have no idea what Citi are doing, it's way out of market.
