Hi Laura, can you tell us about yourself and what brought to London?
Thank you for having me here. I think it is important that people think twice before moving to another country and I am happy to tell you about my move from Frankfurt/ Germany to London.
I am 29 years old and I was born in Frankfurt/ Germany were I spent nearly my whole life. The only time I left home for longer than a month was when I was studying in the Basque Country for a semester.
After some months in the UK what is your impression of living in England? pro and cons compared to Germany?
London is much bigger than Frankfurt and has a lot more to offer. You could visit a different pub every evening for three years in a row and you could have tried at least 267 beer brands during that journey. And this is just one statistic to prove the existing varieties regarding foods, drinks and cultural institutions. O
On the CONTRA side would be the fact that most of London's residents moved here because of their jobs so what you do and for whom you do it is a very often discussed topic. This can become boring but keeps you focused which isn't that bad I guess.
As we well know, there are plenty of business opportunities in this city, networking events, business drinks, people seem to be extremely proactive and value networking very much. What's your take and your experience?
As I've mentioned before you talk to people about your job very often anyways so even if you don't proactively go to networking parties you generate a lot of business contacts, if you're a social person you get to know a lot of people and if you're clever and skilled enough you can find a business opportunity everywhere.
Do you find london a difficult city to live in? what do you think are the key requirements to successfully move abroad? I often read of people who moved here expecting to find paradise on earth and suddently book their flight home as soon as things got complicated.
First of all you need to be aware of the costs. You need to have a job before you come to London. You need to earn enough to be able to even rent an apartment as the landlords often ask for a payslip or a bank statement to prove your income for a year. London is too expensive to just come here and expect that everything comes your way. This is something that doesn't only count for London but for every country that you want to live in, learn the language and have a plan about what you want to do and achieve. Only moving to another place won't make your skill set grow. Without a structured plan you won't not be able to survive.
Workwise, it looks like a dream of many is to go self employed or open their own company, can you see yourself in this category in the near future?
UK's job market in general asks more for skills than for graduation papers (which you need as well). This doesn't mean that you don't have to visit schools and universities but it means that you will always be able to proof yourself to do other very different things taking over more responsibilities and earning higher salaries as long as you're willing to do so. London is the city with the highest amount of young senior people.
Last but not least, will you go back to Germany one day or is not in your plan now?
I don't have a plan yet. London offers me so much at the moment that I will definitely spend some more years here. What happens during this years will then some day leave me to a decision.
Thank you very much for your time, Jac. I hope we spend several more years working together :)
