Ask HN: Should I stay in London or move to San Francisco?

A worthy developer, even at a startup, should be making 70-80k a year easy + equity.

If I were you and really wanted to move, I would get a better offer then move out.

Otherwise, moving to SF at the moment is a hassle and at that income you're looking at living far away from the action anyway.

Granted, there are other things to consider, but consider this just a point of view from the money side.

That said, I find that when people post questions like this, they aren't generally looking for advice. Rather, it sounds like you really want to move to SF and are just looking for encouragement. If that's the case, you'll probably end up moving here anyway so just get it over with ASAP :)

All that said, you should consider some other things:

1) Do you want to live abroad? If you are young, this should dominate the decision. I am of the "Go abroad at all costs" camp, which means (if you're from London) take the job if you're in that camp too. If you're from the US, that's a case to stay in London.

2) Secondary ask what you want to do more, Fintech or Photo sharing. On the front end, your industry expertise will matter for the next job. Both are interesting areas.

3) Once you get into medium term thinking, how much you like your team matters an awful lot. It's not good short term (anyone can suck something up for 6-12 months) and not good long term (teams break up) but it's a good medium term consideration.

Good luck!

The UK is slowly going down the drain.

I am pretty incensed right now, they are equipping the UK with fibre broadband, and in a lot of cases the people who pay 0 income tax (and 0 every other tax) are getting 100mbit fibre, and the people in the same town are not getting fibre at all.

Reasoning: if you're stuck at home all day, jobless, you NEED 100mbit to stream tv: if you work, you don't. Only in the UK do the people who pay for everything get nothing whilst the people who don't pay for anything get everything free!

Move whilst you can and never look back!

Do you really get by on £24k? Surely your housing is something like 40% of your salary if you're in zone 1, 2 or 3 (I'm assuming shared accommodation)? Plus what, £135 for a monthly travel pass? After bare minimum expenses (housing, utilities, food) there can't be much left?

edit:

But in any case you should think about what you want to do longer term and use that to make your decision.

And 1% equity is worth nothing.

If you want to move to SF, find a better offer. The one you have now is scammy.