Bengaluru techie pens ‘vibe shift’ of work culture in India and the UK after moving to London

A Bengaluru engineer who shifted to London six months ago shared a lengthy thread on X listing the key differences between the Indian and UK tech industries.

Arnav Gupta who relocated on a Global Talent Visa, engaged with several startups like Elevenlabs, Onfido, Robin, and Omnea, before settling for a role at a big tech company.

“The biggest ‘vibe shift’ for me was to see the average level of passion for the ‘work’ (not for the job, or the product, but just the work itself - and I am sorry if you don’t get the difference) is just off the charts, in comparison to what I have seen back in India,” wrote Gupta.

He found everyone engrossed in understanding the details along with discussions.

Moreover, while tech salaries in India vary drastically - ranging from ₹8 LPA to ₹150 LPA for similar roles - the UK maintains a more balanced pay scale, Gupta observed.

“Also unlike India, tech here doesn’t pay 10-20x of literally every other job. Tech pays well here, but it isn’t like 95% of people just do it for the money, without actually liking it. It makes a lot of difference,” he added.

In the UK, software engineering salaries range from £60K to £200K, a more modest 300% spread compared to other markets. Due to low inflation and slow growth, salary increases are gradual, and competing offers rarely provide significant jumps. 

Once earning £100K+, engineers typically need to improve their skills by 30-40% to achieve a 20% pay increase. This fosters a greater emphasis on skill development rather than aggressively maximizing offers to climb the pay scale, as per him.