Im in exactly same position as you, except Im 24 and have finished college. Also in London but would love to trade it in for life in SFO. Currently working for a startup here, but not sure about their future.
Im thinking the best route is to a) find a job with an american/multinational company and transfer b) stow away aboard a cruise ship
I've heard London is actually the best place in the world in terms of salary for IT workers and programmers. Why are you all coming to Cal: for palm trees, or the gay scene in SF? (serious question)
This just isn't true. It might be 'published' as such somewhere, but there is such high demand for skilled IT workers and programmers in other large cities (I'm in Bristol myself) that you can get near London rates outside of London and the living costs are substantially cheaper.
Some of those numbers seem very suspect. For example, it lists Houston and Boston as almost identical, with Houston slightly higher. Anyone who's lived in both cities can tell you that's ridiculous; the BankRate.com COL calculator shows Boston as almost 50% more expensive:
The crucial information is in the small print though:
"(The index is based on cost of living expressed in US dollars. Therefore, if the dollar weakens against the local currency of a city, the city becomes more expensive and moves up the index, even if prices expressed in local currency remain the same or even go down.)"
London is now over 25% cheaper in dollar terms than in the summer.
I just fancy a change, I don't want to wake up one morning and think, shit. where has my life gone.
In regards to UK salaries, I think it massively depends on what you're doing in the IT. I've been in mobile and I know the big guns can get pretty insane salaries.
