[mothsonasloth]

I will be trying remote working soon, this whole culture of co-location is the reason you have SF, London, NY etc.

I moved away from London because its economically and socially tough.

With a remote job I will be able to make a London salary but live wherever I like, enjoy the outdoors and live life how I see fit.

SF, Madrid, Berlin, NY are sparkly places where a lot of people (bar the lucky few) end up trapped.

[sleepychu]

Have you lined this up already? Do you have examples of places paying London salaries to remote employees?

[sokoloff]

London salaries are surprisingly low to this US-based employer with employees in a handful of cities around the world.

I was expecting “NYC salaries” and instead found more like “Atlanta salaries” which I can’t figure out how the economics works for London-based employees.

Given that, lots of US employers with remote work available will be able to hit London salary level I think.

[walshemj]

We are considered "greasy" engineers second class professionals London is well know as a place to get good engineers who will work cheaply.

Though London has far better public transport so living 60 miles away and commuting by train isn't to bad.

[fastball]

London is an amazing city.

I don't think there is much more to it than that. People just enjoy living there even if it doesn't make as much sense economically.

[mothsonasloth]

I disagree.

The pollution, increase in knife and gang crime, work yourself to death culture and overcrowding due to immigration.

This makes London not feasible for the long term. If you look at statistics of immigration / emigration from London by age. Anyone below 30 is net migration, whilst above 30 its the opposite.

[fastball]

Ok, well you are in the minority of people who don't think London is an amazing city then. Not really sure what your point is. It's still a place people want to live, even if quality of life is lower than other places. It's just that desirable in many people's minds.

[s0rce]

People say the exact same things about the bay area.

[Havoc]

>which I can’t figure out how the economics works for London-based employees.

They don't. Much like SF it appeals to people though so they flock to it anyway

[badpun]

> I can’t figure out how the economics works for London-based employees.

Well, they don't have the privilege of being able to work in the US, so basically it is what it is.

[mothsonasloth]

You are correct, a lot of US companies are setting up shop in the UK, some examples are JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley in Glasgow.

Its a happy medium from going full outsource to Asia

[mothsonasloth]

Its not concrete yet but I've been searching for about 4 months now for a suitable remote job.

The main hurdles have been that many remote jobs in the US are restricted to US only.

Other things have been tech stacks; I am a Java/Go/C++ with SQL person, whilst most remote companies use Ruby/Python/Node.js with NoSQL.

Check wfh.io , remoteok.io

[jypepin]

a lot of companies pay salaries agnostic to where you are. Or do very little adjustment. You can look at buffer's new pay system (it's all open). A lot of other remote company do the same or something pretty similar.

[walshemj]

Google doesn't - why would they pay the same for a physically present vs a remote.

[jypepin]

Google is one example. And AFAIK they don't support remote work. So they have offices in multiple countries, and usually pay a salary related to the local market.

Most big companies with offices around the world adjust their salaries to local market because it is yet another way to optimise, and with a physical location, it doesn't make sense not to level. It's also how they budgeted the office to decide if it's worth having or not. So salaries in most locales will be way closer to the market. I moved myself from SF to Amsterdam (staying with the same employer) and my salary was cut by roughly 40% for this reason.

For a remote company, the approach to hiring might be a little different. They need a new engineer, they budget the new engineer, not knowing where the engineer will be located, so even if the engineer is located somewhere cheaper, lowering the salary won't be too much of a deal. That's usually what you see. For example, buffer will pay 100% for SF and 85% (I think) for a city like Amsterdam. That different is much lower than what you'd get at Google, etc.

[ghaff]

Well, Google tends not to favor remote. However, at least within a given country, a lot of companies who support having remote employees don't vary salaries a lot based on where you live. Of course, many things go into how much someone is paid and competition with local companies may be one of those things. But most companies with remote workers aren't going to suddenly give you a big raise if you move from Akron to San Francisco.

[walshemj]

Why do you think "co-location" is bad? its proven to be the best way to work.

[mothsonasloth]

Well after 6 years of co-location, im willing to try something else.

[walshemj]

OK that's your opinion but do you have any evidence? Steve McConnell certainly comes down on the side of teams collocated with the customer.

And certainly my experience winter of 94 with another developer using DSDM (Agile) an collocated with the customer in Scotland delivering in a month what another remote team quotes 2 years for makes me agree with his thesis.