We may or may not be planning a move there in the future, but got some questions. What is the average salary for the IT field? I don't have a degree in anything, I've just been with the same place for awhile so moved up there. I'm about 54k a year. Is there job search assistance? My wife has a masters in library science. What is the job market for that field? There will be more questions later.
Reed is the place for jobs in the UK, have a look, hope you get an idea http://www.reed.co.uk/ If your CV is strong, there'll be a high demand for you, apply for a job or two and you'll have recruitment agencies contacting you. You being in the US might complicate things though. Good luck.
I've never written a cv before, I have written cover letters and letters of interest. I'm very excited for this though! Need a change in my life, and everything I've read up about Scotland just amazes me. Plus I'll be able to track down some fellow gurus, and do stuff to their property!
A strong CV goes a long way. Scotland is an amazing place. The landscape, nature... one of the most beautiful places you'll ever see, so tranquil if you want it to be tranquil. Then there's places like Dundee, Glasgow... all different in their own right. Then there's Edinburgh, easily my favorite city I've ever been to. Pure magic. Oh and the scotch, yum Get some advice on your CV mate, it'll open doors for you. I applied for a job today (I'm currently employed but got tipped off about this position) and I had a phone call back within 5 minutes, based on them reading my CV. Obviously, I'm not the person to tell you about Scotland, but I love it up there and I've been up there a lot of times (leisure and ice hockey). I'm sure you'll see some Jocks in this thread soon telling you about IRN BRU in glass bottle, links and square sausages haha... They are the people who will tell you a lot more about Scotland that I ever will.
haha... are you familiar with the Glaswegian accent? It's pretty much a brand new language. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGKoekcThLE hahahhaaaaa
My Gramma was from Glasgow and when we were kids we had to get my Dad to translate what she was saying to us.My Dad had lost most of his accent by that time.
Hewlett Packard are recruiting at the moment for their Erskine site, I worked there for a year good place. Reed have an office in the city centre also.
I've been there before, now I'm not a native speaker but I've had enough experience. Glaswegian was absolute gibberish for me with odd word here and there that I did understand
What people call Glaswegian is mostly just a mix of slang and lazy pronunciation, you experience it mostly with city cab drivers. Walk into the west end and suddenly it becomes far less noticeable.
I think there is high demand for IT skills in Scotland but get in touch with a specialist recruitment agency. Edinburgh has a large financial sector, second only to London and we used to have what was known as 'silicon glen', a huge amount of technology based companies all throughout the central belt between Glasgow and Edinburgh. The oil and gas industry in Aberdeen may be going through a rough time at the moment but there will still be a demand for IT skills up there. Scotland is a good place to be, it's diverse and compact and a lot of the 'image' is either made up for effect or smoke and mirrors to get the tourists in to eat some haggis and drink the awful whisky. We all understand each other fine lol
Those haggis are a nightmare to catch, what with them only having 3 legs, causing them to run around in circles all day up in the moors Spoiler
I found it pretty brutal since I had to focus to understand what she's saying. I've been in Canada nearly all my life, English is my most fluent language and if I have a hard time with it I guarantee you those who use English as a second language would miss half of what she's saying. To be clear I don't dislike the accent, Glaswegian is probably my favourite accent. Just not her's specifically. :wanker:
I'd seriously have a visit there before you looked at doing anything further with your plans. Standard of living/lifestyle might not be what you consider an upgrade... Beautiful place for a visit, stunning scenery & friendly people. Im off to Loch Lowmmand and the Trossachs for a week in July, love it up there. I even saw a sunny day once in Scotland, 14th June 1997 iirc, was lovely.
As for some actual advice, I recommend what the others say, visit there. And not for a short period, be there for at least a few weeks during winter to have a feel for how bad it gets if you can possibly manage to get the time. The winters are half the reason why I don't recommend moving to Canada for anyone. It can snow up to 8 months a year here, from September to April, and even if it doesn't the weather is still absolutely abysmal. I imagine there's a lot of rain in Scottland in general?
The standard of living is pretty high actually. In Edinburgh, we have top rated universities, an excellent health service, an environment which is safe, friendly with a festival that is the envy of the world and easy access to some of the world's most attractive wild areas. I can leave my flat and wander down to Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens or explore the area - a world heritage site. I wouldn't want to leave, put it that way.