Hi all,
I am a 31 years old male that is currently planning on moving to the UK from Montreal, Canada to live and work there in the next couple of months. My father is british so I can finalizing my documents for the ILR.
I have a bachelors degree in economics and a graduate diploma in management and taxation. I also have PMP certification and will have ISTQB certification in the next month with 6 years of experience in the Information Technology field (mostly insurance, banking and financial institutions). Most of my experience is in software testing/QA (manual testing and 1 year selenium automation testing experience).
I wanted to ask you guys for advice...what would be a good salary for me to accept if I get a job offer in London? I am married with no kids. My wife will be moving there too but maybe a couple of months after me. I don't know if I will live in London (highly doubt it). I am looking to live in Ashford or somewhere close to the train station. (My dad currently lives in Kent so I dont want to be too far away from him either)
What should be a good salary to live in London, or in Ashford? How much do you think I should be asking for when I speak with recruiters considering my 6 years of experience in IT to work in QA?
Thank you guys in advance! 
IT Salary Advice (to work in London)
Hello rammut and welcome to Expat.com
While waiting for members to advise, I invite you to check out threads talking about cost of living and salary packages in our Cost of Living in England section of the site
Regards
Kenjee
Expat.com
Hi Rammut,
Depending on your experience salaries can range from £35k-£70k in London, and much lower in Kent. Ashford has a highspeed connection to London (St. Pancras station) but the season ticket is super expensive ( I'm commuting from Gravesend and for me its £480/month). The rent will be much cheaper at ashford. I would consider area around Ebbsfleet international station as then you will have a good connection bot direction and the rents are way better for a family sized house than in London). I thing getting a good IT job in Kent will be more difficult as in London.
Regards,
Andras
Hello,
This discussion is not so recent but I have some questions about it.
@Entity concerning you commuting, In term of fees, isn'it more interesting to live directly in London so that the difference of £480/month could be put in the flat rent ? Or is the life in London so expensive that it's even better to live in another city and to commut ?
I try to understand the difference between the 2 option (living in London cost life and living out of London cost life)
Thanks
Larry
Ok I think that I have a great idea about this now .
The site countrylife gives a great comparison for each cities around London (1h commuting at most), putting in relief the ticket commuting price, and others information.
For example :
Haslemere
Commute: Haslemere (London Waterloo, 52 minutes). Frequency of trains: 3 per hour (peak). First train in: 5.26am; last train home: 11.45pm. Annual season ticket: £3,900.00. Annual car-park ticket: £1,050.
Larry
And the answer is https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=582927
Bye
Where do I get the link to read info on living in areas outside of London vs London??
We live in Reading, Berkshire area and it's convenient to commute into London by train (25 minute ride) yet Rent and Cost of Living us reasonable bad affordable here.
We spent the 1st year living in Cardiff, Wales; we loved this area but found it just too far out to commute into Londin for work and being a tourist area; rentals and cost of living not you bad but Train is expensive for a Round Trip unto London and back! No commuters discount available in Cardiff, Wales. Ideal 4 Vacations
Hi,
Here you are [edit] http://www.countrylife.co.uk/property/t … ondon-2296
See you
PS : For the moderator, I guess that it is not a problem to put the direct link in the message 
Thx Bouilio for sharing the link! However,
READING, Berkshire in the Thames Valley where we love living was left off that list.
Commuter friendly plus it's a fabulous location thats plentiful. READING, Thames Valley has the
Thames River flowing through it makes for many interesting walking spots. Plenty of Shops, Restaurants and Pubs too; just to mention a few of READINGS many benefits - it's a fabulous place to live and play!
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