London Wages

Guy I work with recently moved to Southampton from London.

He says things aren't much cheaper at all - he's only saving around £75/month in rent, with most other bills being very comprable. So having taken a £2k (gross) pay cut to move here, he's no better off than he was before.

Might be slightly different if you want to buy, but from the sounds of things renting is very affordable in outer London. I used to be put off by all the horror stories about how expensive London is and figured I'd be needing another £5k minimum to live there, but it seems not. It's not like your grocery shopping is suddenly going to rocket by hundreds a month.

For people who don't drive, London also has an excellent public transport system (compared to the South). Can get the tube or bus to anywhere giving you a full choice of places to work/go.
 
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Thanks HangTime, some useful info. I'm just looking at some of the average saleries for graduate jobs and I thought it was a bit on the high side. Seems it's one of the better answers I could have recieved :D

Burnsy
 
I've recently moved from working in Central London to working in Sheffield. I've lost a third in salary. This may not be any help to you, but it shows either London salaries are very good, Sheffield salaries are very bad, a combination of both, or I suck at salary negotiation!
 
As you are looking at graduate jobs and are only 20 I'm assuming you are still an undergraduate. In that situation where presumably you don't have many ties in terms of an existing job/career or home ownership, my advice would be not to tie yourself down to any specific location. By which I mean find a great job anywhere in the UK and then move there when you get it, rather than trying to seek out a job in say London, Southampton or wherever.
 
You can spend as much or as little as you want in London. Assuming you don't need to live within spitting distance of a famous landmark, or near the Thames, you don't need to be a millionaire.

London salaries vary more than the cost of living, but on average I would say 25% more would be needed over the south east. Most of that would be rent/mortgage though. As said above, grocery prices are pretty similar everywhere.
 
As you are looking at graduate jobs and are only 20 I'm assuming you are still an undergraduate. In that situation where presumably you don't have many ties in terms of an existing job/career or home ownership, my advice would be not to tie yourself down to any specific location. By which I mean find a great job anywhere in the UK and then move there when you get it, rather than trying to seek out a job in say London, Southampton or wherever.

I'm not specifically looking for a job in London, I'm going for a job with Morgan Stanley which requries working in London :)

Burnsy
 
Well, I thought the london weighting was the sole difference.

Otherwise, when I applied for my grad engineer job in London, it was £24k but because I wanted to go to the Winchester office because I was at Uni. of Soton and wanted to stay in the South, I got offered £23k. My lower limit would prob have been £22k.
 
Well, I thought the london weighting was the sole difference.

Otherwise, when I applied for my grad engineer job in London, it was £24k but because I wanted to go to the Winchester office because I was at Uni. of Soton and wanted to stay in the South, I got offered £23k. My lower limit would prob have been £22k.

It's funny, I'm looking into going into IT for investment banks and they are all offering substantially more then that. Lets hope I have some luck :)

Burnsy
 
Key term there - investment banking. They pay very well indeed but I believe the hours are long and hard.

Yeah, and that's one of the reasons I've chosen to go into it. It may seem strange but I like working under pressure and at this point in my life I want to engross myself in my career.

I'll probably regret saying that now but we shall see :)

Burnsy
 
As someone living in the London metropolitan area, I can say from experience that rent in the western suburbs for a studio is about £600p\m.

Southampton is more like £400 (or at least thats what my girlfriend was paying for a flat there).
 
Yeah, and that's one of the reasons I've chosen to go into it. It may seem strange but I like working under pressure and at this point in my life I want to engross myself in my career.

I'll probably regret saying that now but we shall see :)

Burnsy

My group of friends includes 1 chap who works for KPMG and unfortunately, he is the one person in our group who misses out the most on social events. Leaves early, turns up late, cannot make a boys' weekend, etc, etc. He never joins us online for a chat or come for an online game from time to time - all because of the unsociable hours. We do pick on him for that as even though he makes more than us, he hasn't got much time for anything else. He does buy nice expensive stuff though. But as you say, he is prob also concentrating on his career right now.
 
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