Seriously want to move from South Africa to UK

[Madig]

I don't want to bore you with a lengthy post, but I have several questions I need to ask. My husband and I both hold European passports so we wouldn't need work permits etc. We have three kids - 10,9 & 7 and our biggest fear is not being able to find work when we arrive. We are currently self-employed and due to current economic conditions here in RSA we do not have pots of money saved with which to get us off our feet. I realise that living in or near London will be costly and just wondered what the job availability and rental situation is like around the Southampton area. My husband is an IT consultant who can literally do everything - unfortunately has not specialised - due to the nature of our business here it is better to know how to do everything - although this does not seem to bode well salary wise in the UK. I have an aunt whom we could probably stay with initially in Lymington, but wonder if it would be a waste of time to start off there and just need to relocate to London anyway. Anybody with an IT or related job, please help. Where would we be more likely to get better pay in proportion to rental and travel costs etc.? I can do all office admin, bookkeeping etc. and have a business doing mortgage origination and am a qualified estate agent by South African standards. Also our school year begins in January and ends in December. Would it be a train smash if our kids had to integrate into a UK school, say in February?

[jlms]

Originally Posted by Madig

I don't want to bore you with a lengthy post, but I have several questions I need to ask. My husband and I both hold European passports so we wouldn't need work permits etc. We have three kids - 10,9 & 7 and our biggest fear is not being able to find work when we arrive. We are currently self-employed and due to current economic conditions here in RSA we do not have pots of money saved with which to get us off our feet. I realise that living in or near London will be costly and just wondered what the job availability and rental situation is like around the Southampton area. My husband is an IT consultant who can literally do everything - unfortunately has not specialised - due to the nature of our business here it is better to know how to do everything - although this does not seem to bode well salary wise in the UK. I have an aunt whom we could probably stay with initially in Lymington, but wonder if it would be a waste of time to start off there and just need to relocate to London anyway. Anybody with an IT or related job, please help. Where would we be more likely to get better pay in proportion to rental and travel costs etc.? I can do all office admin, bookkeeping etc. and have a business doing mortgage origination and am a qualified estate agent by South African standards. Also our school year begins in January and ends in December. Would it be a train smash if our kids had to integrate into a UK school, say in February?

Hello,

I have worked in IT in the financial industry for several years and right now the situation is quite difficult. Many of the big players are outsourcing jobs to other EU countries, India, Singapore and I am sure it will not end there. Curiously enough one of the places hot in "outsourcing" from London is Belfast in Northern Ireland. I know is not the cup of tea for everybody but it is an option that should be seriously considered if you want to put your foot in the door in the UK IT job market.

Which brings me to the specialization bit. There are jobs in IT, good jobs to be had, but they require that you can name specific technologies in which you are an expert.

IT is too vast just to say that somebody can do everything, this is in all likelihood not accurate, so the best thing your husband could do is to name 3 or 4 subjects he is familiar with and hone his skills based on those. If he could mention these I could suggest some possibilities, the trick here is to be specific.

The better paid jobs in the IT field have been traditionally paid by banks, so normally big towns like London, Manchester and Edinburgh will be the best places for jobs.

I personally am a firm believer of living close to your potential workplace, so I live no more than 20 minutes away from the main financial districts in London, but I know of other people that commute up to 2 hours each day every day to reap the benefits that a good London salary has to offer, I don't know how good or bad commuting from Lymington to other places would be, but if that would save you housing at the start maybe you should take that chance, let your husband find his way in the IT industry and then take it from there. The point here is that everything is possible.

The most important thing to help you to asses your prospects it to know exactly what your husband does, without that it is very difficult to suggest how marketable his skills are.

[Madig]

Thanks for the feedback. I will try to get my husband to choose a couple of things he does best and see where that takes us.