Working in London
Hi all, I'm currently looking at perhaps moving to London for a position with a rather large company there and I have a few questions if you fine people don't mind. I'm realising as I think about it that I know the place and love it, alongside the people, the beer, the food and all that, but that I have a somewhat limited idea of what it's like to work there. For one I'm not sure what constitutes a decent pay there, one on which to live taking into account a wife who will probably need a few months to find a job and a small baby and that doesn't involve spending half of one's day in public transport. I know that it's more expensive than Paris, but that's about it (the strange legacy currency also doesn't help, but I can get used to that ;-). As a data point, the position is research/standards orientated, in a field in which I'm well-respected. I also know very little about UK work law. Is there anything specific to look out for in a contract? Any catch that could bite me? I'm used to French law which is generally super protective of employees (at least for indefinite-length contracts) so I could well be quite naïve. Another thing I know nothing about is childcare. Is there decent state/city provided stuff? Is it for pay (and if so around how much) but it won't be a problem to get in? In Paris it's supremely difficult to find a crèche place even if you're willing to pay so most parents resort to hiring a nanny that you share with other families. Thanks a lot for any answers, and if you have advice on things I might not have thought about I'm all ears! -- Robin Berjon - http://berjon.com/
Re: Working in London
Full time under-5s childcare could set you back as much as £1400 a month. My employer subsidises so it's only around £750. You might get some vouchers from the government from age 3+ (I think it's equivalent to a few hours a day). As for availability, it seems there are waiting lists but it's not impossible to find a place. I don't think there's any state-provided care, but I think there's a tax break (I do a salary sacrifice). I'm not the best person to ask about personal finance! On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 1:05 PM, Robin Berjon ro...@berjon.com wrote: Hi all, I'm currently looking at perhaps moving to London for a position with a rather large company there and I have a few questions if you fine people don't mind. I'm realising as I think about it that I know the place and love it, alongside the people, the beer, the food and all that, but that I have a somewhat limited idea of what it's like to work there. For one I'm not sure what constitutes a decent pay there, one on which to live taking into account a wife who will probably need a few months to find a job and a small baby and that doesn't involve spending half of one's day in public transport. I know that it's more expensive than Paris, but that's about it (the strange legacy currency also doesn't help, but I can get used to that ;-). As a data point, the position is research/standards orientated, in a field in which I'm well-respected. I also know very little about UK work law. Is there anything specific to look out for in a contract? Any catch that could bite me? I'm used to French law which is generally super protective of employees (at least for indefinite-length contracts) so I could well be quite naïve. Another thing I know nothing about is childcare. Is there decent state/city provided stuff? Is it for pay (and if so around how much) but it won't be a problem to get in? In Paris it's supremely difficult to find a crèche place even if you're willing to pay so most parents resort to hiring a nanny that you share with other families. Thanks a lot for any answers, and if you have advice on things I might not have thought about I'm all ears! -- Robin Berjon - http://berjon.com/ -- http://darwintunes.org - a test-tube for cultural evolution http://evolectronica.com - survival of the funkiest http://compare-stuff.com - confused? you will be! http://twitter.com/darwintunes http://twitter.com/bobmaccallum
Re: Founding a Perlmongers group
On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 02:56:09PM +, Anthony Fisher wrote: Ovid publiustemp-londo...@yahoo.com wrote: for cross-disciple presentations. Personally, I think it's better to keep religion separate. Last year, the French Perl, Python and Ruby communities organized their first OSDC.fr, as a way to mix communities and ideas. We had talks about Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, Smalltalk, JavaScript, MySQL, testing, etc. Apart from a Java whiner who complained afterward about people saying bad things about his favorite language[*], everyone seemed very happy with it. We plan to have one again in 2010. The three communities have their own separate events, so everyone's free to decide if they like their religions separate or in an ecumenical mix. Or both. [*] I looked a bit at his blog and online history, and the whining seemed to be part of his personality. During the event, everyone tried to avoid gratuitous language bashing as much as possible. -- Philippe Bruhat (BooK) When you double-cross a friend, you triple-cross yourself. (Moral from Groo The Wanderer #8 (Epic))
Re: Founding a Perlmongers group
Philippe Bruhat (BooK) philippe.bru...@free.fr wrote: On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 02:56:09PM +, Anthony Fisher wrote: Ovid publiustemp-londo...@yahoo.com wrote: for cross-disciple presentations. Personally, I think it's better to keep religion separate. [snip] The three communities have their own separate events, so everyone's free to decide if they like their religions separate or in an ecumenical mix. Or both. For the avoidance of doubt, please note that my comment was just a lame joke on Ovid's typo (cross-disciple == Xtian - geddit?). Anthony -- To contact me directly please apply s/lists/aef/ to my address.
Re: Working in London
Hi, Provided you are using a registered childcare provider (which you'd be mad not to) and your employers signs up to the scheme (which most employers have) then *each* parent can apply for £243 of childcare vouchers each month which come off your gross salary so you pay no tax or NI. regards, Paul
