[calinet6]

Wait, could you explain to us outsiders "the way the City works?" Are bonuses that important?

[stickydink]

"The City" is a small area of London, in terms of business, the US equivalent of a financial district.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London

[elemeno]

It's the UK term for Wall Street. It doesn't have as much of the geographic connotation these days - working in Canary Wharf or a Mayfair hedge fund can all come under the phrase of 'working the in the city'

[drakeandrews]

The city is certainly a geographic area. It's the City of London, an entirely separate city with it's own government and everything.

[swombat]

In the City, you get hired based on a "total comp" package that includes salary and a practically guaranteed bonus, that can be as much as your base salary or even more.

[re_todd]

Well that changes everything, maybe we should reboot this entire thread.

[Nursie]

That is a minority of programmers, even for London.

[bearmf]

"Practically guaranteed" nowadays means about 70% probability in finance :). There are almost no hard guarantees anymore.

[khuey]

"The City" is usually taken to mean the world of London finance, and in finance, bonuses are generally huge.

[OrsenPike]

Some places have very big bonus' with average salary. I have a few friends on 35-45% bonus on £35k a year as swdevs.