My job only exists in London

[ILikeyourHairyHands]

I see this all the time on threads. Unless you're the Prime Minister, Queen, keeper of the ravens at the tower, a genuine pearly queen or jellied eel and pie and mash slinger, I reckon that's utter bollox.

There may be more opportunities within your chosen career in London but outside very specific roles, your job does not only exist in London.

And they won't let me work remotely

So if we're excluding equivalent jobs then there are onyl two people who do my job - me and my job share. Its very niche.

Sometimes it may be the case that not ‘all’ the jobs in one specific industry, but rather that 75% or so of the uk-wide jobs in that industry and based in London. This then makes it a massive risk for someone in that industry to relocate out of London.

For example my husband works in a specialist area of law. There’s maybe 30-40 law firms in London he could work at. If he were to take a job at the one law firm in eg Glasgow that works in this specialist area this would be a massive risk in terms of any future redundancy, etc.

When he was made redundant a couple of years back (in London) he was able to find another job in London within a few months. If he’d been made redundant from the one law firm that does his speciality in eg Glasgow we’d have to completely relocate, move houses, schools etc.

What I’m trying to say is that while London is not the only place you can do some jobs the sensible option in our case is to live somewhere there is a critical mass of relevant jobs, which is London.

My job only exists in London. There are only three or four companies in the country that do my job and all are in London.

I thought is was rather obvious what I was referring to but obviously not! I wasn't for a minute suggesting all jobs could be done remotely, and equally some jobs are very site-specific (PP mentioned the nuclear industry), and yes there is a concentration in London, in most, (not all) industries.

But teaching hospitals? Research departments in Universities, the civil sevice? Depending on discipline there are many jobs throughout the UK in all of these areas. And black cabs exist in all major cities.

As a few PPs have picked up on it's threads that claim living in London is unbearable but it's completely impossible to move as their jobs exist nowhere else I was referring to.

It's just a mindset that many (office-based obviously, I'm not talking about farriers or microbiologists or neurosurgeons) jobs can't be done remotely, I think things will change in that respect.

I'm rather fond of London btw, certainly no London-bashing here.

And as long as this attitude flourishes, things will remain London-centric.

For many jobs, the equivalents outside London offer very little career progression and substantially lower pay. Maybe this is what people are alluding to.

My job and area of industry is based in London. As rent/property prices have risen a lot of people have moved away and tried to work outside of London....and many found they couldn't make a living being away from the industry hub and have either done something else or come back to London.

The queen of England is the queen of England, no matter where she is.

FFS, when will this shit stop?

What is your industry Skinny?

Quite Jock, I feel your pain a bit there!

My job only exists in London. I commute in because I like bringing the kids up where we are currently based.

My husband works remotely from home.

Quite Jock, I feel your pain a bit there!

Yep, and me.

My husbands job only exists in London, We don’t live in London, he works there 4 days a week and then comes home the rest. We live in a much cheaper part of the country and live a great lifestyle, but this is the sacrifice we make and it’s very hard for all involved. So your wrong, there are those London specific jobs only, but some people could work around it

I keep hearing ' My, my DH's job only exists in London' being repeated, it would be very helpful if this was qualified with an actual job title.

And Lemon, whilst it's true that all national UK papers are based in London, there's very little reason that a majority of the jobs there couldn't be done remotely other than 'they won't let me'.

With current concerns about the environment it's an outdated corporate mindset that needs to change.

He is a director of a finance company.

(It’s a very specific area of finance so that’s all I’m giving away, but he is based in London, or abroad)

Conversley many jobs couldnt be done in London so swings and roundabouts.

Most regional theatres don’t employ performers. They are receiving houses and tours that usually originate in London visit each venue for a week or two. All the auditions are in London and rehearsals usually are too. Tiddler might get a tour but would be London based.

Saying that one of dh’s Ex students who is about to finish a major tour has just announced his intention to relocate to Manchester. But I bet he’ll be travelling down to London a lot.

So he has no transferable skills then Shook?

I think there's a lot of point-missing going on here. The actual point being (I'll just repeat it for those at the back), that when posters state, 'It wouldn't be possible for me/us to relocate from London because my/DH's/DW's job only exisits here' they are being somewhat disengenious, it may be that that exact job only exists in London but in the vast majority of cases the poster in question is the bearer of skills that could easily find them stimulating and handsomely remunerated work in other UK locations.

What they actually mean is 'The specific and chosen area of my discipline is largely London-based and I am either quite happy with that, or I am terribly unhappy but shall continue as I am whilst whinging about living in London'.

And for those happy about living in London, that's not an issue, but this quote only ever surfaces when people are unhappy living in London, but can't possibly move, because of the aforementioned.

“Hundreds of jobs across the civil service only exist in London”

There are 100,000’s of civil servants and civil service jobs across the country, I used to do them! Also one side of my family are almost all civil servants working here in Scotland.

There are large centres of civil service workers in East Kilbride and gartcosh among others.

Civil servants working directly with Westminster parliament need to be in London but there are many, many other places for civil servants to work in the uk inc senior level ones.

It’s perception of status. There’s a great deal of career snobbery within the civil service.

“but to say there are no other opportunities anywhere else would be horseshit.” Exactly!

And even saying about lower pay outside London well given we’re ALSO always hearing on mn how horrifically expensive it is to live in London and non Londoners couldn’t POSSIBLY “understand” this well surely you don’t need as much pay if you’re living somewhere much cheaper? Or is that argument only an issue when it suits?

“It’s not hard to understand that most jobs of a certain level require you to be in London, lots of ‘jobs’ can be found outside of London but not at the same level or quantity.” Ahh so it’s because the “best” jobs are in London is it?

“But everyone's specific job often only exists where they live. I work in a niche field in a niche industry and genuinely couldn't do my exact job anywhere else in the world (proprietary process for global company but has only one site for this specific manufacturing processes).

Yet, I could and have worked in multiple jobs / industries around the country as my general field is relevant and much less specific. I think this applies to most people if you have enough imagination and a good enough CV to demonstrate the value of your transferrable skills” very well explained

“Professional musician would not get regular theatre/concert work anywhere in the UK other than London. You’re wrong.” Really? I know a few that work in Glasgow and Edinburgh they seem to have no problems getting enough work in the theatres and concert halls there.

Quite Graphista I have a friend who's a concert pianist and lives in Manchester, if his packed schedule and house are anything to go by, he seems to be managing rather well.

Do you really feel we dont have a London centric economy then? They say 35% of new jobs created were in London (compared to say 2 or 3 % on some other regions) and in London and the south east apparently half of jobs are professional jobs. I mean i get there are other areas thriving too but i still think the government has actively pursued london centric policies.

imho we do have a very London-centric economy, but sometimes claims that “my/DH’s job only exists in London” are themselves examples of London-centric thinking rather than accurate claims about what jobs exist where.