Help needed in 3-4 questions

[oaphyd]

Hi,

I need a little help here on the forum for some of the very basic questions. "I have tried searching the forums but still have following questions as some of the responses were very old and for some of the questions I did not find any answers.

I have made an effort to be very specific and crisp than being putting dummy, mundane and generic questions here. But if you still think its already answered please bear with me. First let me put my work-ex here for the background.

I have a total 8 years of IT experience in S/W development. I have majorly worked on Oracle Applications SCM Module for 5 years and from last 3 years I have been working on Oracle Fusion technologies like ADF and SOA. [b]I do not have UK work exp.[/b]

I am married with a recently born kid. Me and my wife together earn a total of 13Lacs INR approx(without tax deduction). With this sal, I am able to save only 40K INR per month becoz of loans, rent, tax etc.

I plan to move to UK in the month of Jan-Feb 2011 and would like to work on a permanent job on SOA and related technologies. Right now I am trying to evaluate whether its worth moving to UK or not and would like some of you to please help me here with my following queries.

1. I have visited sites like http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk/soa.do to find out what is the avg sal that is offered for SOA jobs.

Question: I would like to know how realistic are the figures mentioned on the site ? It shows the avg sal as 57K. Is it possible to get a 60-65K job for my profile with no UK exp (Why I arrived at this fig is in point 2 below) ? I tried searching the job sites like http://www.cwjobs.co.uk, http://jobsearch.monster.co.uk etc. Some of the jobs are in range of 40 - 55K GBP both in london and outside. There are some jobs with 60-80K range in london. Hence would like to hear from people who are already in this domain or have heard of it.

2. I wish to save atleast 1300 GBP per month. Checked site http://www.workgateways.com/working-cost-of-living.html for expenses. Hence I worked out backwards with london as base (no specific reason), and straight 40% as tax and NI deduction + 1800 GBP on food , accomodation(non sharing), conveyance, kid doctor etc which means that I need to fetch 37K as net sal which also means that I need to a job of 62K atleast.
Quesiton: Is the calculation fair or I am being too conservative on the expense part ?

3. I also have read somewhere that mother of recently born child is not allowed to take up job ?
Question: Is that true ? My kid is around 4-5 months old.

4. Learnt about taking UK Skype number thru this URL http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=62485. I plan to use this approach for first attending telephonic interviews and then a vist to UK for 15 days to attend face to face interviews if I could time the situation and schedule atleast 2-3 ftf interviews. ( I know all this sounds too imaginary and a bit impractical but thats the plan on the cards as of now).

That brings us to the last question: After the final selection do the companies give a months time for the candidate to join ? I plan to take 15 days leave when I visit the UK and upon selection I plan to quit my current company to serve the 1 month notice period.

Having said all the above things.... yes ! I have not even applied for the visa. Then why so many questions ? Well you see getting involved in this process would cost me atleast 1.5 - 2 Lac INR (visa fees, visiting UK for attending face to face interviews, accommodation, to and fro air ticket food etc). Hence thought of finding out first that whether its really feasible to achieve what I am looking for. I also understand that if it was this easy every one would have done it but the responses to above questions would help me a lot in my plan and decision.

Thanks for having patience in going thru such a long post, couldn't make it any shorter.

Regards,
oaphyd

[wunder]

1. Everything is possible, but you have a lot of things against you - lack of UK experience, state of the job market and economy, large number of local candidates...
Keep in mind that most listings on job sites are not real but just a way for recruitment agencies to gauge the interest in specific markets/roles.

2. 1800£ is way too low for a family with small kid in London (for comparison this is an exact amount spent monthly by 1 person in studio flat in central London). It depends widely on the area and your life-style - but I'd expect something in the area of 2500£ if you will live not too far from the centre.

3. Not true.

4. Should be fine as long as you will plan that your telephone interviews will be close to your arrival date (they usually are).

[kenfrapin]

Wunder explained well and let me add to this post -

Say you get a job for £55k net in hand excluding bonus and other incentives. After tax and NI reductions thats approx £3230 in hand

1. Since you are a family man and with a child, living anywhere outside of London can get you very decent accomodation within £700 - it may be a 1 or 2 BR but I have a feeling you are ready for a nice 1BR in a decent and safe area than a dodgy 2BR in a shady place (and most of London are filled with such places unless you are ready to pay above £1000 for rent!). If you dont mind a 1BR and open to any place in South UK then you can definitely find a 1BR for under £600 - all depends on what you get and want.
2. So then, living expenses - I honestly believe you can keep £125 aside at a max per month for groceries and stuff so that comes to £500 a month.
3. Regarding utilities, cable, phone, etc you can do it within £200 - once again really depends on what you are ready to live without.

So after all that, on £55k, you will have £1830 in your hand - I have not counted money towards leisure activities, education, medicines etc. Even if you allow for a little more for everything above and some holidays, luxuries, you can still hit the £1300 mark by just earning £55k.

Regarding chance of getting such pay well there is no rule that says you wont get it but you seem to be smart, articulated your question very well after doing a lot of research which is nice to see and you have a plan in mind which is good - Given that, you do have chances in the market but no one can guarantee that. And the entire interviewing stage along with 2nd rounds and final offers takes mighty long here. A final offer and acceptance can take upto 4 months in big companies so it wont be practical to think you can come here for just 15days and have 2-3 interviews with different companies coz each one takes their own sweet time to plan the 2nd round and you cant dictate those dates - in most cases that is

Lastly a word of caution to a family man - at the moment you earn 13lakhs and both of you are working. I do hope you are only coming her for the lifestyle and planning to settle here coz monetarily it does not make sense for you. Ad your child grows up, expenses increase a lot and then maybe with another child it just eats into your savings big time.

The luxuries and comforts that you guys have and spend for and then end up saving just 40k cannot be the same here. The expenses and savings mentioned above is if you really stick to a strict budget so do keep that in mind. Also, you will be the only bread winner and your wife has to be home caring for your child so thats another thing to consider.

All the best to you though - there is a lot of recruitment going on now but there are also that many people competing for the roles so its tough out here. Oracle is in demand and as you have the experience, I dont see why you wont get a job. If you are open to initially taking up any offer and then moving on to higher packages then thats an option as well for you to consider. Practically speaking, I maintain that probability of getting jobs above £60k without UK experience if difficult but it has happened if the experience you have matches their demand. Dont fall for ads that say they pay UPTO £75k - they end up paying just £30k. Hunt for ads that either give a salary range or have a single amount mentioned and also go through company websites rather than agencies.

Wish you the very best and hope others too have this much maturity when planning a move here - unlike some really ignorant questions from a few posters!!!

KP

[Idea]

apart from the specifics given already in the 2 posts above...

I feel it all depends on risk apettite, and mental mindset - because intially you may have to face a lot of strife before you find your feet and establish yourself - are you prepared for it ?

for youngsters there is nothing much to lose - they can take a few chances and recover from any downturns ...i'm referring to periods of uncertainty, being jobless for a period, finanical aspects, making compromises on the job role side(you may have to settle for a lesser role than currently in)
and add to it the settling down in a new place.

are you prepared for it?. no one can give you defintive answer bec. 3 years down the line it make work very well or it may turn out to be a rough ride
one side the advice might save you from trouble or it may rob you of the opportunity