Reply to: Why not become a septic?

[Platypus]

race hate
fat people
thick a pig tulip people

Just like CUK

[TheFaQQer]

Yeah.

Hunting.

Buying dozens of big guns.

In Wallmart.

Wot's not to like?

Bear in mind that you need to sign a form that says that you aren't crazy before you are allowed to buy an M16 or similar....

[CoolCat]

Yeah.

Hunting.

Buying dozens of big guns.

In Wallmart.

Wot's not to like?



AtW would really be at home there.

He could even get a concealed weapon carry permit*.


*Do try to take the weapons handling course somewhere the instructor won't accidently shoot you.

I do have some sympathy with their view of the world on many things. Neither the UK nor the USA have these things sorted. I did however find it strange to find pickup trucks with recently shot bambi strapped alloever them pull into mcdonalds for a burger and fries as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

[CoolCat]

On the holiday thing you need to fit in with their culture. Take up hunting. Go visit family for a long time at thanksgiving. And so on. Bend the rules and use the flex that everyone else does. You just need to understand how its done. Your official holiday entitlement will never be the same as Europe, but your pragmatic adoption of their way of doing things will leave you no worse off.

[Mich the Tester]

Gun crime
race hate
fat people
thick a pig tulip people
long hours
little holidays
obama

No thanks.

Talented chimps though;

BBC News - US chimp Brent wins Humane Society art competition

[DimPrawn]

Gun crime
race hate
fat people
thick a pig tulip people
long hours
little holidays
obama

No thanks.

[original PM]

Friend of her indoors moved to yank land when he married a yank....

he works generally 8 to 5.30

gets about 12 days holiday a year and bank holidays seem pretty scarce..

although he can take unpaid leave quite easily and salaries seem to be higher than comparable jobs over here.

[TheFaQQer]

The obvious way to do it is to go permie over here then hop across on an ICT visa. Some parents from our kids school did it this way last year. The wife works for one of the big four accountancy firms. The firm have a dedicated legal crew that practically kicked the embassy door down for her.

But as MarillionFan can attest, it's not much fun and the hours are just stupid compared to here.

A friend of mine did this a few years back, and they now have green cards.

Long days, not much holiday are a given - might just be the job that he's in anyway for the hours, but the lack of holiday is a big deal.

[amcdonald]

Why? It's fooking expensive, it's long hours and you get less holiday.

And it's full of relgious fundies

[CoolCat]

"But as MarillionFan can attest, it's not much fun and the hours are just stupid compared to here."

Bulltulip I am afraid. I worked in Chicago for a few years, and did about 6 months in Pittsburgh. The life on a big IT programme is little different to here, certainly in terms of the hours. Sure they "officially" get less days holiday but then they are given allsorts of weird special dispensations to disappear from the office, for instance when someone won the lottery to get a hunting permit they were allowed to go shoot bambi for a few days no questions asked. When you totted all this up it was just about the same as the UK.

There are other differences, their average programmer can speed type using the correct finger on the correct key! They are apparently taught this as part of their education system, here I have never seen a decent programmer touch type! So that was one big difference between the Americans and Brits.

Chicago is a melting pot a bit like London, so many weird and wonderful accents and backgrounds that its easy to fit in and I was certainly more integrated into their social life than I have ever been able to in a new city in the UK.

There a many positives, they dont understand accents or care which school or college you went to, so as someone producing the results with many years experience you would never suffer versus the public school and/or Oxbridge bias like you do here.

Still got lots of friends out there.

I was the only one refusing to drink to the toast at the independence day celebrations, something along the lines of "here one for all the British soldiers we killed"... they had completely forgetten I was a Brit but I took the mickey on that one rather a lot.

My visas were organised by big multi nationals with lots of expensive lawyers sorting it, so was never a personal issue for me to resolve.

[DimPrawn]

Once a US tax payer, always a US tax payer

WHS.

Hence why the global elite buy property in London and not New York.

[bobspud]

The obvious way to do it is to go permie over here then hop across on an ICT visa. Some parents from our kids school did it this way last year. The wife works for one of the big four accountancy firms. The firm have a dedicated legal crew that practically kicked the embassy door down for her.

But as MarillionFan can attest, it's not much fun and the hours are just stupid compared to here.

[Spacecadet]

Once a US tax payer, always a US tax payer

[centurian]

Plus there is the danger you could bump into MF. Very small possibility, I know.... but why take the chance.

[Jubber]

What's the most practical way to spend a few years working in the US? I hear they've ramped up their entry requirements big time, even for Brits. A limited number of work permits etc.

Have you worked with any?