I work in public health in the US in a 100% NIH funded research faculty position. None of my funding has been cut yet, but I have been applying to overseas positions as a “just in case” measure. I just received an invitation to interview for a Research Fellow position in London, but the pay is very low – 39,000 GBP per year. The position looks great, doing work I’m very interested in, but I’m worried about being able to afford the cost of living in London and taking a huge step back in my career. Please share any thoughts or advice!
ETA: I got my PhD 8 years ago, did a postdoc, had a tenure track position for 3 years, then moved to my current non-TT research faculty position.
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you already know london is expensive, like any other major city. likewise, everyone’s spending and consumption habits are different, so hard to say exactly what your monthly outlays would be like.
probably 1/3 of your salary will be taken by tax (although worth double-checking with an accountant what you’d be charged as there is a tax treaty between the two countries i believe), which leaves you with 30k. for a one-bed apartment, it would be reasonable to budget about 2k/month. you might be able to find deals, or, if you move out beyond zones 1 and 2, you can more likely to guarantee staying under 2k (including council tax, utilities). which leaves you with 6k for the year
or you live with roommates and the math is completely different. more like 1k/month for a room.
as an upfront cost to moving: worth figuring out if the uni would help you cover costs in the visa process. generally, foreigners pay NHS tax upfront (it’s not really ‘free’ for us once this is paid lol), and i believe the amount is something like 700 gbp per year. so if you were to sign a 3y contract, that means about 2.2k gbp to be paid to the government before you arrive. this would be on top of other visa costs.