Reply to: Scotland: Situation for Cloud/Devops contractors?

[rich2476]

Move to Bathgate! https://www.buzzfeed.com/hilarywardl...kvb#.fqB9aZwPY

Kidding aside, the area between Edinburgh and Glasgow is all very quiet and a bit dull. I can see the jump from London to an area so in the middle of nowhere being a big shock! Have you considered Stirling? Equally distant from Edinburgh and Glasgow, beautiful to live in and small but still a city

I am in Stirling and it's not a bad spot to live and for contracting - Not a huge amount of local work - hsbc / prudential but it's easy to get the train to Glasgow or Edinburgh and 35 mins to the airport.

[Kraut]

https://www.schoolguide.co.uk/

School Education Statistics

Revealed: Scotland's best 50 schools for Higher exam passes (From Herald Scotland)

P.S. Rightmove has the catchment area function
Primary, Secondary and Sixth Form schools in the UK | Schools on Rightmove

Again very helpful! Thanks a lot!

[FK1]

FK1, thanks again for your input!
Even though this is going to de-rail my own thread even more, just one more question: School ratings. I've found educationscotland.gov.uk, which appears to be publishing inspection reports and other useful information, somewhat comparable with Ofsted for England&Wales. Is there any other good local info I should be looking at to determine quality of schools (and possibly nurseries) in the area?

Thanks again!

https://www.schoolguide.co.uk/

School Education Statistics

Revealed: Scotland's best 50 schools for Higher exam passes (From Herald Scotland)

P.S. Rightmove has the catchment area function
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/schools.html

[Kraut]

Livingston, Bathgate or Linlithgow are all good choice to find a reasonable place for you.

I lived for 6 years in Falkirk (FK1) in a good modern flat (2-bedroom, 2 bathrooms for £450 ) as a balanced compromise between all factors. If you will travel by train you often you will find that all seats taken when you get a train from Linlithgow.

But after I got a driving licence 10 months we started looking around to buy a house and just has moved to Fintry G63.

We have a local primary school with 50 pupils and local nursery with 5 children. I found living in a decent semi-rural village are completely life-changing.

It is very personal to find your comfortable area. Personally I like towns and villages as Dunblane, Balfron and similar. And the High schools ratings prove my sense. Linlithgow has a good High school as well.

Scotland is amazing for family living, I still discover more and more places where I could go to enjoy it. So again good luck in your discovery

FK1, thanks again for your input!
Even though this is going to de-rail my own thread even more, just one more question: School ratings. I've found educationscotland.gov.uk, which appears to be publishing inspection reports and other useful information, somewhat comparable with Ofsted for England&Wales. Is there any other good local info I should be looking at to determine quality of schools (and possibly nurseries) in the area?

Thanks again!

[FK1]

FK1...
We are aiming to live somewhere in the middle between Glasgow and Edinburgh, maybe Livingston, Bathgate or Linlithgow. While we've been in Edinburgh several times (the wife's got family there, which is one -but not the most important- factor why we are considering), we have yet to have a closer look as to where exactly we can see ourselves settle. Always open for recommendations from somebody like you who knows the area

Livingston, Bathgate or Linlithgow are all good choice to find a reasonable place for you.

I lived for 6 years in Falkirk (FK1) in a good modern flat (2-bedroom, 2 bathrooms for £450 )
(P.S. It is now for £495.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-...-42278340.html)
as a balanced compromise between all factors. If you will travel by train you will often find that all seats taken when you get a train from Linlithgow.

But after I got a driving licence 10 months ago we started looking around to buy a house and just have moved to Fintry G63.

We have a local primary school with 50 pupils and local nursery with 5 children. I found living in a decent semi-rural village are completely life-changing.

It is very personal to find your comfortable area. Personally I like towns and villages as Dunblane, Balfron and similar. And the High schools ratings prove my sense. Linlithgow has a good High school as well.

Scotland is amazing for family living, I still discover more and more places where I could go to enjoy it. So again good luck in your discovery

[Kraut]

Move to Bathgate! https://www.buzzfeed.com/hilarywardl...kvb#.fqB9aZwPY

Kidding aside, the area between Edinburgh and Glasgow is all very quiet and a bit dull. I can see the jump from London to an area so in the middle of nowhere being a big shock! Have you considered Stirling? Equally distant from Edinburgh and Glasgow, beautiful to live in and small but still a city

Fair point regarding the shock, although for me it's probably going to feel quite liberating! I grew up in tiny towns and villages, but might be different story for the missus (who I will not share the cake link with! ). I will include Stirling in the list of places to check out when we're up there next time. Thanks!

[Old Greg]

Don't forget the packing department in the fudge factory. We usually have to get migrants in from England to work there though.

I hear the native population is overworked now in the munching departments of the Scottish pillow manufacturing industry.

[MattZani]

Move to Bathgate! https://www.buzzfeed.com/hilarywardl...kvb#.fqB9aZwPY

Kidding aside, the area between Edinburgh and Glasgow is all very quiet and a bit dull. I can see the jump from London to an area so in the middle of nowhere being a big shock! Have you considered Stirling? Equally distant from Edinburgh and Glasgow, beautiful to live in and small but still a city

[Kraut]

FK1, I have to agree with northernladuk. Very nice post indeed!
My expectations for the "worst case" (having to commute to London) match pretty much exactly the situation you are describing from your experience.
I'm reasonably certain that my current contract with my main client (in which I work almost exclusively remotely, even though the office is just an hour away from where we live now) will be extended another 1 or more terms (half year rolling, for a few years already), and other clients which I have been working with on and off over the years might not rule that out either. That, and a battle chest which would see the family comfortably through at least a year of bench time, gives a bit less to worry about initially.
Eventually it would be nice to find contracts in the area, though. But if that's not possible, your approach would work for me, and we get the benefit of much better quality of life at lower cost. (We just can't see ourselves raise our baby daughter around here; London is a place to work, but not a place to live. Maybe I'm just getting old )

We are aiming to live somewhere in the middle between Glasgow and Edinburgh, maybe Livingston, Bathgate or Linlithgow. While we've been in Edinburgh several times (the wife's got family there, which is one -but not the most important- factor why we are considering), we have yet to have a closer look as to where exactly we can see ourselves settle. Always open for recommendations from somebody like you who knows the area

At any rate, thanks for your posts, which have been helpful and encouraging!




SueEllen, that's correct. Less than half an hour on both sides, measured by where we would like to live and where my current and recent clients are. Not intended to be done on a daily basis, but rather for a couple of days each.

[northernladuk]

Nice post.

[FK1]

I'm aware of that, thanks. Been contractor long enough to know that flexibility will be required at some point. (I hope you didn't think that I'd seriously consider packing fudge.)
Flight from Edinburgh to London takes me ~2 hours including check-in/security, if tulip hits the fan, and my current daily rates there would cover flight and accommodation and still make a comfortable living (just considerably less convenient than working near home).

I used to commute from Edinburgh area to London area for years as a contractor. Mixed trains and flights and both Heathrow and City airports depending what location.

Initially arrived Sunday evening and departed Friday evening. Sometimes Saturday morning. Later arrived midday Monday for the most clients.
You would rather arrive on a site 1 pm if a train and 11 am if you fly.

The most annoying thing was for me - rail disruptions happened every third week regularly and normally.

I am very certain your annual income would be twice less as a result of living in Scotland but your living costs could be twice less as well. At the same time you could spend three times less to buy or rent than in London area.

If take an average IT rate as £450pd then £100pd will go to the expenses.
Given you are human-being you will contracting less months as will be tired more from commuting and your family would demand it. So that is why your overall income will be reduced.

It is likely you would have to pretend (initially) you live in London. Agents tend to find locals first.

Not sure about how sensible to live in cities as Edinburgh and Glasgow close to airports. 1 hour more or less to commute does not matter if you travel twice a week.
I lived 30 minutes from Edinburgh airport now I moved to a semi-rural area 1 hour from both airports.

I could not imagine myself living in England while 90% of my clients (historical and potential) based in England. And for a moment I do prefer remote work visiting clients from time to time. For that working pattern you should be unique or cheap enough, or both.

Good luck in your search and happy settlement! Be sensible though

[SueEllen]

I'm aware of that, thanks. Been contractor long enough to know that flexibility will be required at some point. (I hope you didn't think that I'd seriously consider packing fudge.)
Flight from Edinburgh to London takes me ~2 hours including check-in/security, if tulip hits the fan, and my current daily rates there would cover flight and accommodation and still make a comfortable living (just considerably less convenient than working near home).

You forgot to add in the airport transfers both sides.

[Kraut]

You are doing this the wrong way. Never make the assumption you will be working where you live. It leaves you far too exposed when you are out of contract. Pick areas that are nice to live near that have even better escape routes.

I'm aware of that, thanks. Been contractor long enough to know that flexibility will be required at some point. (I hope you didn't think that I'd seriously consider packing fudge.)
Flight from Edinburgh to London takes me ~2 hours including check-in/security, if tulip hits the fan, and my current daily rates there would cover flight and accommodation and still make a comfortable living (just considerably less convenient than working near home).

[bobspud]

Thanks for your answer, FK1. The statistics were quite interesting actually. In comparison with other areas in the UK, which we have considered moving to, Scotland (especially the Glasgow-Edinburgh area) does seem to be doing okay, though, if I use some other relevant keywords; at least not much worse.

To the other not so helpful hugely entertaining posts: Cheers, good to know that packing jobs are available and usually awareded to immigrants from England, should bench time threaten to eat up my battle chest. :P

You are doing this the wrong way. Never make the assumption you will be working where you live. It leaves you far too exposed when you are out of contract. Pick areas that are nice to live near that have even better escape routes.

[Kraut]

Have been living in Scotland for 7 years had to commute to England for contracting in an enterprise software niche. Just once was a client in Scotland. Now work almost remotely for North Ireland based client.

Scotland Amazon AWS Contracts, Contractor Rates for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Skills in Scotland - 26
Amazon AWS Contracts, Contractor Rates for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Skills - 1806

Scotland has 26 ads while nationwide 1806 matches for "AWS". Just as an illustration.

Thanks for your answer, FK1. The statistics were quite interesting actually. In comparison with other areas in the UK, which we have considered moving to, Scotland (especially the Glasgow-Edinburgh area) does seem to be doing okay, though, if I use some other relevant keywords; at least not much worse.

To the other not so helpful hugely entertaining posts: Cheers, good to know that packing jobs are available and usually awareded to immigrants from England, should bench time threaten to eat up my battle chest. :P