Re: O'seas work: confessions of a 10-year expatriate

[John Sheridan Smith <John -at- SHERIDAN -dot- DEMON -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

As a British tech author who gets to work on Monday morning and wishes he was
somewhere else, can I make a few comments.

In article <36ol0i$qis -at- dcsun4 -dot- us -dot- oracle -dot- com>
           sread -at- nirvana -dot- NoSubdomain -dot- NoDomain "Steven Read" writes:

> My living standards have actually improved: I can afford a house here,
> and I get a flashy new company car every 3 years, to say nothing of a
> 35-hour week and five weeks holiday.

Things are obviously pretty damned good at ORACLE (not that I'm surprised). I
think you might find home grown British software houses rather more on the
mean side (Welsh ones make the average Bangalore sweatshop look like a
charity).

> |>   1. Local nationals (no matter what Brussels says...)
> |>   2. Citizens of other EU countries (sometimes...)
> |>   3. Others.

Continental Europeans have spent thousands of years living with *different*
people next door rather than over the ocean.  This can work both ways.
Sometimes it means that they are practised in hostility, at other times, it
means that being foreign is seen as no big deal.  The place you are most likely
to find consistent and genuine xenophobia is Britain.

> All very true. And it's stupidly difficult to convince them that you're
> the boy/girl for the job.

If you WILL go to interviews with your trouser legs rolled down and don't
squeeze the 2nd knuckle of the interviewer's shaking hand, what do you expect?

> |>  * Frustration bordering on rage
Why?


> |>  * Great bread/beer

I agree about the beer but do tell me where you get your bread.

> |>  * Pancakes for supper
> |>  * Pickles for breakfast

> Not in England. They'd probably arrest you for crimes against nature.

Only in Southern England.  Up North (from where I hail) people eat things for
breakfast which would make your hair curl.

I'm delighted to hear that Europe in general and Britain in particular has
something to offer Americans (and very welcome you are) but what about the
quality of the work and job satisfaction?  Does it differ from the States?

And what would you chaps say to a Brit might muse on the idea of working as
an author in the US?



--
John Sheridan Smith      | You should try everything once - exept incest and
Software Technical Author| folk dancing.
Cardiff                  |             (Sir Arnold Bax quoting unknown Scotsman)