OPINION12 July 2017

Tired of London, tired of life (or just struggling to pay the rent)?

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Sinead Hasson

Features Impact Opinion UK

Every year, people at the first stage of their career flock to London. Why? The answers are quite simple. More opportunities, more employers, higher salaries and great diversity. London is one of the world’s greatest cities and, with so much to offer, it’s the perfect place to start a working life. 

London

Unfortunately, the streets aren’t paved with gold, and what starts off all rosy and shiny can soon turn into a struggle for some. For the market research industry, it’s very much a practical problem. London is becoming increasingly expensive with unaffordable housing and sky-high travel costs, not to mention striking railways on the daily commute; yet, interestingly, most of the UK market research graduate schemes are offered by London-based agencies. 

As a recruiter, we are now seeing that London is becoming unrealistic for many graduates or entry level researchers who don’t have family within a commutable distance. In the past six weeks alone, we have seen several people in the early stages of their career looking for a move beyond the M25. 

Calculating their rent, travel costs, general living and – most likely – a student loan, it’s unlikely a graduate on an average entry level salary of say £22, 000 would be able to survive in ...