What happened ? I moved to London...

iiAku

— 7 min read

Hi folks,
What happened since one year. To be honest I have been very very very BUSY. I may had the time to write some article but the routine train does not stop and it's going though weeks after weeks and one day you come back and one year have been spent since you wrote your last article.

No worries, it's never too late

I said myself, once I'll be settle down, I'll take the time to go back here and have a talk with you, letting you know what happened. In the following order what happened since one year.

  1. We kept grinding at https://pops.co
  2. I moved from Amiens to Beauvais with my gf on 2018/09
  3. I have been going to badminton from time to time
  4. I had some day-off to Guadeloupe in 2018/12
  5. I had ski time with my friends at 3 vallées in 2019/03
  6. I was hired in 05/2019 at Big Pixel Studios in London (starting today 29/07/2019)
  7. My girl friend and I got invited to a very good old friend's wedding
  8. I moved to London 28/07/2019

During 1 year many things happened, it went well so far and I had great time, with friends, family and colleagues.

I moved to London the what ?

A little reminder, at https://pops.co I was Software Engineer - Backend, since the very beginning I was focus on the lenticular printing system, in other word the core pipe that turn any content from videos or images into printable lenticular assets for our printers at scale. This is challenging and interesting, we, as a team crafted this in a beautiful way and we managed to make things work pretty well. but..

I moved to London the why ?

Yes that's true, I left a well paid job in a very nice and innovative company. Why I quit ? Basically I started at https://pops.co there was absolutely everything to do and it was for one of that reason I was eager to join them. Being autonomous on my part crafting stuff from A to Z, being responsible, make research, development and PoC was exciting. Nevertheless after more than two years and a half the main part of the work is done. We turned into a phase that we needed to add more products, but since it has been done in a pretty good manner, out of specific needs for a particular product, addition or deletion of a product could be made in a pretty easy way through configurations files. We were also making some improvements on the shipment details for logistics purpose on our printings assets (eg: improving QR CODE, add order details to help shippers or printers). A big new part which was on track is also being able to handle a cart, this looked like interesting. However to be honest out of this I would have like our team grew a little bit quicker in order to mentor or on-board some newcomers and being able to work on more complex aspect of our system and implement other features.

Due to the context I was listening to the market silently. I have been during those year heavily been solicited by companies, recruiters. Sometime I kindly answered them I was not interested, sometime I started the process but did not end up with a positive experience. I even tried sometime to send an application to some company I was attracted to, and it did not work for some reasons. Until one day where a guy from Haptic Recruitment contacted me through LinkedIn for a Job into the gaming industry in London. I started getting in touch with him, tell him that I was ready to relocate, that I wanted to change and everything. I went through the process and finally got hired, so that was definitely the start of the turning point in my life.

I moved to London the when ?

Being committed into my job at pops.co, I had a 3 months notice period. So I had to deal with it before getting to London. Given the circumstances and with a common agreement we ended up to reduce my notice period to 2 months. So I had the contract from Turner (Big Pixel Studios) on 22/05/2019 they initially asked me to start on 22/07/2019, from that point I negotiated ending to 26/07/2019 at pops.co and starting the 29/07/2019, and everything went well so far. It also gave me the time to set things up in France and in London.

I moved to London the how ?

The description is a non-exhaustive list, but could literally help people that want to quit there current work and getting abroad in general and obviously especially if you are going to London.

How it worked in France

First of all I was living in Beauvais with my girlfriend and I. We had like a 100m2 flat for both of us. This was a pretty comfortable place, which after my leave was no longer adapted to the situation. Actually my gf which is beautician has her own institute and is due to stay in France so she won't join me in the journey. So we had to look for a new apartment for her, that what we did. I was personally looking for the opportunities through https://www.leboncoin.fr. At the beginning we started to say the truth, that I was personally leaving France and that my gf needed a smallest place to live, and that financially everything would be ok. From own tenants to agency we quickly understood that we needed to avoid saying to them I was leaving France. The idea was to try getting a flat through our current financial situation and once getting it, getting rid of there expectations. That what we did and we managed to get a really nice flat in Beauvais, and we settle down few weeks before my leave. If I have an advice, avoid doing this too late, I did this like 3-4 weeks before my leave, and I believe it's pretty good in order to be sure that everything is ok, if you have anythings to say to your tenant or the agency and also it give you more time to settle down properly.

Regarding the moving from Beauvais to Beauvais take into consideration that you'll have some administration stuff to do. I recommend doing thing by internet or phone call as much as possible.

I moved our ISP we had like Freebox Crystal with a discount 9.99 during 1 year then 24.99 after 1year. The end of discount was for 09/2019, the bad thing is that you can't keep your discount if you are moving your ISP line, so while moving since I did this over the phone, the guy told me I can ask for a new discount again If I'm getting commited again for 1 year. Basicaly the new discount is -10euros/months, so we move the line got a 10euros/month with 12month of commitment for 14.99/months for only internet, definitely enough for us.

I changed my home insurance from the one I had to my bank to Luko the newcomers into the insurtech industry. I heard from them since it's part of the startup ecosystem in Paris. I was pleased by the way how the subscription is taking place. I was also able to subscribe all online and very quickly, everything could be handled online so good.

I moved my electricity provider (direct energie Total), pretty easily by phone. They are canceling the old subscription and creating the new one, the date you are asking for.

How it worked for London

I needed a flat, a room or something where I can sleep. In 4th year of my studies while doing my Engineering Program, I had the chance to work at HousingAnywhere.com that helps expats or people around the world for accommodation. HousingAnywhere is nothing more than the Airbnb for long term accommodation. So I jump on it, tried to look for a room, the nearest from where I am working and got it booked. So basically you are setting up your account, selecting your flat/room and then make the reservation. Once everything is ok, that the tenant accepted your offer you can have a chat with him and you'll have to pay your 1st month rent + platform fees. Once done everything is set up, HousingAnywhere guarantee the rent for you, meaning money will be block until 2 days after you check-in into your flat/room. This way it allows you to make some feedback if you encounter some issue.

source: https://housinganywhere.com

I needed a bank account, hopefully I was a Revolut user and the only thing you need to it that you are adding like GPB currency, once added you'll get bank account details. This way you are able to received your salary directly on Revolut. Please note that there is now so many other bank providers that can help you get cross border free fees bank card and account, such as Monzo, N26, Monese or Ultim Card from Boursorama Bank. Anyway, I was pleased that my Revolut Card I ordered few months ago was getting a little bit more justified.

sources:

I needed a way to go to work, I checked the price of transportation and the price seems high in London around 200 GPB/months. Since I did not want to spend this amount of money per month, I decided to be the nearest as possible from my work and I bought a bike. I took a pliable model from moma brands. This will help me to go to work by bike in 15-20 minutes avoiding the fees above.

In order to go to London I have multiple solution, the cheapest at the time I book and went was by flight. So I took like 1 lugage x23kg + bicycle I paid some extra for both but was worth it.

Regarding having a cell phone and some data. Since like 1 year I had like a 5 euros/months offer from Sosh (Orange brand) for like 40GB of data and unlimited phone call in France and Europe (UK included) after 1 year, I was supposed to pay 24.99/month but they added 1year of additional discount for 9.99 I got the same plan. Actually I am using the same mobile SIM card while being in London and I believe It's pretty cheap and fair for it.

source: getting best ISP/Mobile with discount in France

Out of this it was the main things I had to do to come to London. Not so easy not so hard, but definitely doable.

Conclusion

What's happening now? I moved to London and I am very happy for this. I hope I'll achieve great thing in my new company. It seems they already started to cook some great stuff, stay tuned. I hope I'll discover and visit great places, meet new people and make some friends. I also hope I'll have a little bit more time to focus on the blog and side projects. Bye.

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