Is there any option for remote work? I’m sure there’s plenty of people in less wrong who would live to work on alignment at deep mind, but don’t happen to live in London...
Unfortunately not, though as Tom L points out below, if your concern is about getting a visa, that’s relatively easy to do. DeepMind will provide assistance with the process. I went through it myself and it was relatively painless; it probably took 5-10 hours of my time total (including e.g. travel to and from the appointment where they collected biometric data).
Whilst that’s definitely great, my guess is that 90% of the people who would be interested and don’t live in London, would not move to London for the job, even with a free Visa. Not supporting remote work therefore loses out on a majority of the potential talent pool for this job.
I don’t have a strong opinion on whether it is good to support remote work. I agree we lose out on a lot of potential talent, but we also gain productivity benefits from in person collaboration.
However, this is a DeepMind-wide policy and I’m definitely not sold enough on the importance of supporting remote work to try and push for an exception here.
I can’t speak to the option for remote work but as a counterpoint, it seems very straightforward to get a UK visa for you and your spouse/children (at least straightforward relative to the US). The relevant visa to google is the Skilled Worker / Tier 2 visa if you want to know more.
ETA: Of course, there are still legitimate reasons for not wanting to move. Just wanted to point out that the legal barrier is lower than you might think.
I’m not familiar with London housing prices. Is it possible to affordably rent or mortgage a decent 2 bedroom condo within a 5 minute walk of the offices with your compensation package? (By affordable I mean less than 1⁄3 of total comp spent on housing, stretching to 1⁄2 if comp is unusually high.)
Whilst you specified a 5 minute walk on your criteria I think you should also consider the fact that there is generally very good public transport in London where prices would be cheaper a bit further out. The location is close to several rail stations (Blackfriars, Farringdon), the new Crossrail route (farringdon) opening in a few weeks and tube lines (central, circle, district). With the new cross-rail route it should be possible to access zone 4 locations in 20 minutes.
Almost certainly, e.g. this one meets those criteria and I’m pretty sure costs < 1⁄3 of total comp (before taxes), though I don’t actually know what typical total comp is. You would find significantly cheaper places if you were willing to compromise on commute, since DeepMind is right in the center of London.
Is there any option for remote work? I’m sure there’s plenty of people in less wrong who would live to work on alignment at deep mind, but don’t happen to live in London...
Unfortunately not, though as Tom L points out below, if your concern is about getting a visa, that’s relatively easy to do. DeepMind will provide assistance with the process. I went through it myself and it was relatively painless; it probably took 5-10 hours of my time total (including e.g. travel to and from the appointment where they collected biometric data).
Whilst that’s definitely great, my guess is that 90% of the people who would be interested and don’t live in London, would not move to London for the job, even with a free Visa. Not supporting remote work therefore loses out on a majority of the potential talent pool for this job.
I don’t have a strong opinion on whether it is good to support remote work. I agree we lose out on a lot of potential talent, but we also gain productivity benefits from in person collaboration.
However, this is a DeepMind-wide policy and I’m definitely not sold enough on the importance of supporting remote work to try and push for an exception here.
Pretty disappointing and unexpected to hear this in 2022, after all the learnings from the pandemic.
I can’t speak to the option for remote work but as a counterpoint, it seems very straightforward to get a UK visa for you and your spouse/children (at least straightforward relative to the US). The relevant visa to google is the Skilled Worker / Tier 2 visa if you want to know more.
ETA: Of course, there are still legitimate reasons for not wanting to move. Just wanted to point out that the legal barrier is lower than you might think.
I’m not familiar with London housing prices. Is it possible to affordably rent or mortgage a decent 2 bedroom condo within a 5 minute walk of the offices with your compensation package? (By affordable I mean less than 1⁄3 of total comp spent on housing, stretching to 1⁄2 if comp is unusually high.)
Whilst you specified a 5 minute walk on your criteria I think you should also consider the fact that there is generally very good public transport in London where prices would be cheaper a bit further out. The location is close to several rail stations (Blackfriars, Farringdon), the new Crossrail route (farringdon) opening in a few weeks and tube lines (central, circle, district). With the new cross-rail route it should be possible to access zone 4 locations in 20 minutes.
Almost certainly, e.g. this one meets those criteria and I’m pretty sure costs < 1⁄3 of total comp (before taxes), though I don’t actually know what typical total comp is. You would find significantly cheaper places if you were willing to compromise on commute, since DeepMind is right in the center of London.
Thanks, that is more luxurious than I imagined, so families should have no difficulty finding a large enough place.