Anyone moved from the UK to live in the USA?

Anyone moved from the UK to live in the USA?

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Welshbeef

49,633 posts

199 months

Thursday 13th July 2017
quotequote all
It would be great to live in the USA but I/we simply could not accept 10days annual leave.

I was gutted at moving down from 30 days to 25 + BH. Life is a lot more than work work work.


As for each weekend is a holiday... ballet classes swimming lessons parties etc (kids ) that would be a total no. So 2 weeks a year.

Christ how do people in the USA go on frequent ski holidays?

h0b0

7,639 posts

197 months

Thursday 13th July 2017
quotequote all
Welshbeef said:
It would be great to live in the USA but I/we simply could not accept 10days annual leave.
I moved over on 15 vacation days + 3 floaters + public holidays and I was relatively junior as I was 25 with 2 years industry experience.

Today I have 20 days + floaters +personal days. I have just done a 2 week tour of Europe and will be going on a week holiday in September. The flexible work from home policy helps because I don't have to take days off for school visits and dentist appointments.

Americans choose to work long hours and not go on long vacations. That does not mean you will have to do the same to be successful. In my opinion, those that work long hours are not ideal candidates for promotion because they have reached capacity. (not always true and is an over simplification but we are not here to discuss efficiency.)

Welshbeef

49,633 posts

199 months

Thursday 13th July 2017
quotequote all
h0b0 said:
I moved over on 15 vacation days + 3 floaters + public holidays and I was relatively junior as I was 25 with 2 years industry experience.

Today I have 20 days + floaters +personal days. I have just done a 2 week tour of Europe and will be going on a week holiday in September. The flexible work from home policy helps because I don't have to take days off for school visits and dentist appointments.

Americans choose to work long hours and not go on long vacations. That does not mean you will have to do the same to be successful. In my opinion, those that work long hours are not ideal candidates for promotion because they have reached capacity. (not always true and is an over simplification but we are not here to discuss efficiency.)
Lol are you being serious time off for a dentist appointment!

Better hope the gas boiler service or when it breaks down you'll burn all your leave!

h0b0

7,639 posts

197 months

Thursday 13th July 2017
quotequote all
Welshbeef said:
Lol are you being serious time off for a dentist appointment!

Better hope the gas boiler service or when it breaks down you'll burn all your leave!
Erm, I was saying time off isn't required. I used to work for a U.K. Company in the U.K. And they would at least expect you to make up time lost due to a dentist appointment

Stu R

21,410 posts

216 months

Friday 14th July 2017
quotequote all
Welshbeef said:
It would be great to live in the USA but I/we simply could not accept 10days annual leave.

I was gutted at moving down from 30 days to 25 + BH. Life is a lot more than work work work.


As for each weekend is a holiday... ballet classes swimming lessons parties etc (kids ) that would be a total no. So 2 weeks a year.

Christ how do people in the USA go on frequent ski holidays?
I took 45 days last year. Don't be a slave and you won't get treated like one wink

unrepentant

21,276 posts

257 months

Friday 14th July 2017
quotequote all
Stu R said:
Welshbeef said:
It would be great to live in the USA but I/we simply could not accept 10days annual leave.

I was gutted at moving down from 30 days to 25 + BH. Life is a lot more than work work work.


As for each weekend is a holiday... ballet classes swimming lessons parties etc (kids ) that would be a total no. So 2 weeks a year.

Christ how do people in the USA go on frequent ski holidays?
I took 45 days last year. Don't be a slave and you won't get treated like one wink
You work for yourself though don't you Stu? wink

I've never taken less than 3 weeks plus public holidays and occasional personal days. In my first job here it had to be earned with time so I took part of it unpaid for a couple of years. When I moved jobs I negotiated it in from the start.

mikal83

5,340 posts

253 months

Friday 14th July 2017
quotequote all
unrepentant said:
Stu R said:
Welshbeef said:
It would be great to live in the USA but I/we simply could not accept 10days annual leave.

I was gutted at moving down from 30 days to 25 + BH. Life is a lot more than work work work.


As for each weekend is a holiday... ballet classes swimming lessons parties etc (kids ) that would be a total no. So 2 weeks a year.

Christ how do people in the USA go on frequent ski holidays?
I took 45 days last year. Don't be a slave and you won't get treated like one wink
You work for yourself though don't you Stu? wink

I've never taken less than 3 weeks plus public holidays and occasional personal days. In my first job here it had to be earned with time so I took part of it unpaid for a couple of years. When I moved jobs I negotiated it in from the start.
I was self employed so time off wasn't a problem, especially with the gulf of mekiko 5 miles away and my boat in the drive. Wife on the other hand was lucky to negociatte 2 weeks hols!!

Matt Harper

6,621 posts

202 months

Friday 14th July 2017
quotequote all
I wonder where all of this 10 days max stuff comes from too.

I get 4 weeks + (some) public holidays + all of the time between Christmas and New Year - I'm in qualitative market research (pharma industry)

Wife gets 3 weeks + main public holidays (or time-off in lieu) - she's a director of clinical reimbursement in a big hospital system

Daughter gets 3 weeks and time-off in lieu of main public holidays - she's in law enforcement

johnwilliams77

8,308 posts

104 months

Saturday 15th July 2017
quotequote all
Matt Harper said:
I wonder where all of this 10 days max stuff comes from too.

I get 4 weeks + (some) public holidays + all of the time between Christmas and New Year - I'm in qualitative market research (pharma industry)

Wife gets 3 weeks + main public holidays (or time-off in lieu) - she's a director of clinical reimbursement in a big hospital system

Daughter gets 3 weeks and time-off in lieu of main public holidays - she's in law enforcement
Quite common in first 10 years in engineering and tech (10-15 days / yr)

Sheepshanks

32,814 posts

120 months

Saturday 15th July 2017
quotequote all
It must be regarded as a 'standard' because apart from annual passes the maximum length of DisneyWorld passes that Americans can buy is 10 days. Brits can buy 14 or 21 days!

mwyatt82

87 posts

124 months

Tuesday 18th July 2017
quotequote all
I managed to get 18 days plus state holidays when I moved. Just so happens my employer has gone to unlimited vacation now, the idea being that resource constraints and managers will stop people taking the proverbial. Seems to be working ok so far and i'm planning to bump my leave to around 30 odd days per annum from now on, so attitudes are changing!

Welshbeef

49,633 posts

199 months

Tuesday 18th July 2017
quotequote all
I think 6 weeks +BHolidaus is the ideal amount of time off.

Basically 1 week per quarter and then a two week period for the summer holidays.

Beyond 6 weeks I think it would start to become impactful to business/would need more automation of processes

K50 DEL

9,237 posts

229 months

Tuesday 18th July 2017
quotequote all
h0b0 said:
K50 DEL said:
Similar to me, god knows how many trips, 47 States visited but, at 37 years old despite having a good CV and trying for over a decade I simply cannot get myself a position there.

Probably the only time in my life that I regret being in IT, there's simply too much home-grown ability in the US for any company to need to employ me!
I work in IT for one of the big banks in the NYC area. I would estimate 50% of the people in my building (>3000) are not US nationals. It is a running joke when we have to go to diversity training.

My move over to the US was in the pharmaceutical industry in 2004. I was on an L1 inter company transfer visa. My company then paid for a Green card through marriage. They did stop at paying for the actual wedding or supplying the bride though. I made the jump over to Finance because there is more opportunity in the Tri-state area.

Anyway, to the point. Your IT background is not holding you back. However, if you are trying to land a job in Google you will not have a chance as you say.

Edited by h0b0 on Thursday 13th July 21:34
Thanks for this, food for thought indeed... definitely not trying to apply to Google, would be quite happy as ICT Manager for an SME, don't even really mind where in the USA I end up, I've seen so much of it now that I know that everywhere has its good and bad points

As you note, maybe the best route is to try and get a position here in the UK with a company who have operations in the USA and then transfer..... unless you guys need an IT Manager of course lol

Targarama

14,635 posts

284 months

Tuesday 18th July 2017
quotequote all
K50 DEL said:
h0b0 said:
K50 DEL said:
Similar to me, god knows how many trips, 47 States visited but, at 37 years old despite having a good CV and trying for over a decade I simply cannot get myself a position there.

Probably the only time in my life that I regret being in IT, there's simply too much home-grown ability in the US for any company to need to employ me!
I work in IT for one of the big banks in the NYC area. I would estimate 50% of the people in my building (>3000) are not US nationals. It is a running joke when we have to go to diversity training.

My move over to the US was in the pharmaceutical industry in 2004. I was on an L1 inter company transfer visa. My company then paid for a Green card through marriage. They did stop at paying for the actual wedding or supplying the bride though. I made the jump over to Finance because there is more opportunity in the Tri-state area.

Anyway, to the point. Your IT background is not holding you back. However, if you are trying to land a job in Google you will not have a chance as you say.

Edited by h0b0 on Thursday 13th July 21:34
Thanks for this, food for thought indeed... definitely not trying to apply to Google, would be quite happy as ICT Manager for an SME, don't even really mind where in the USA I end up, I've seen so much of it now that I know that everywhere has its good and bad points

As you note, maybe the best route is to try and get a position here in the UK with a company who have operations in the USA and then transfer..... unless you guys need an IT Manager of course lol
Sounds like you're looking for the wrong kind of job in the US. Get a job with one of the actual technology 'creators' instead of a technology 'user', and move into a role which will transfer to corporate (Product Management for example). For my sins I have worked for Adobe, Dell, Sun, HDS, VMware and each of them has given me the opportunity to relocate to the US (I even managed a US-based team from the UK back in 2009ish).

Personally I like to keep the US at arms length and work 'remotely' smile

anonymous-user

55 months

Tuesday 18th July 2017
quotequote all
One of the main reasons I turned my US job down, 15 + public day's, currently on 30 + pd, my friend has just took a role In France and you are looking at 40-45 days there.

K50 DEL

9,237 posts

229 months

Tuesday 18th July 2017
quotequote all
Trexthedinosaur said:
One of the main reasons I turned my US job down, 15 + public day's, currently on 30 + pd, my friend has just took a role In France and you are looking at 40-45 days there.
To be fair I'd struggle with that as well, I was on 44 in Dubai and as a contractor in the UK for the last 2 years I'm free to take as many or as few days as I choose. 15 would be a little awkward!

Zeek

882 posts

205 months

Tuesday 18th July 2017
quotequote all
I've had a bunch of jobs out here and don't think it's particularly different to the UK.
In most companies out here it's a bit misleading to just quote vacation days. They also have "sick days" which are days you can use for whatever you want. It's often encouraged to use those first because they don't carry over like vacation days do.

When I first managed a team out here it threw me when people pre-booked "sick days" but that's just the way it works. Seems pretty standard to have a setup like 15 days vacation, 10 sick days and 2-4 "floating holidays" - plus the extra bank holidays.


Targarama

14,635 posts

284 months

Wednesday 19th July 2017
quotequote all
Vacation days can be mean, especially for new hires. However some companies are changing their attitude and realising that you are being paid to do a job. http://fortune.com/2016/03/10/companies-offering-u...

mikal83

5,340 posts

253 months

Wednesday 19th July 2017
quotequote all
Trexthedinosaur said:
One of the main reasons I turned my US job down, 15 + public day's, currently on 30 + pd, my friend has just took a role In France and you are looking at 40-45 days there.
My wife took a new job even tho she only got 10 days pa as it paid 3 times what she earnt in the UK and enjoyed it.

Chessers

745 posts

213 months

Tuesday 1st August 2017
quotequote all
I don't know anyone here on 10, usual I have seen in Financial Services is 15 min + the state holidays or when the stock market is closed, so generally 20 ish and then a few days when the business is closed over the Christmas break.

Del, I think we were in the UAE at the same time (you know Gaffer, Shirt, Ian etc), did you take the Fezza back to the UK??