I’m in the lucky position of having a couple of graduate job offers to take up once I finish uni this summer. The problem with this is that I just can’t make up my mind on which one to take up.

After living in London for the past 4 years I am keen to be able to live somewhere with easy access to good biking, but I can’t decide how important I should make this over the job.

The two offers I have are either a general engineering company, based in Bristol, or an engineering company doing something I’m slightly more interested in and specialised in Brighton. Pay is pretty similar (actually slightly better in Bristol), hours are better in Bristol (finish earlier, finish at lunchtime on Fridays) and I have more friends in the Bristol area. I know Bristol quite well and love it as a city (for biking and general life), but the Brighton company has possibly a slightly more interesting job. I’ve also worked for the Bristol company last summer so have a vague idea of what working for them is like. However, I think it will be difficult to judge what it’s like to work at either until I’ve done a few months there, and this is what’s making the decision difficult.

Anyone had to make a decision like this before? Any advice?

Nothing like asking some complete strangers for career advice on the internet eh?

Anyone have any experience of the mountain biking from Brighton? I realise there is some but the distance to Wales/the Peaks for weekend trips is big.

Location is very important to me. Work is a big part of life but you need to make sure have time and access for fun things. With the Bristol job on Friday you could head off to Ashton Court, get an afternoon of riding in and still be home at a normal time, or get an evening ride in, or head off to the Quantocks, Wales, etc.

When i moved to Cardiff from Reading it was a complete revelation. Suddenly I was out pretty much every evening playing tennis, riding, etc. I could do all the chores like shopping on the way home so weekends were freed up for fun stuff. Now living in Bristol and its pretty similar, or it was until I went self employed.

location location location.

basically, location isn’t just important, location is EVERYTHING!

I’m moving soon from Croydon to Cheltenham, there is a chance that the job won’t be as good (same company, different role)… no contest.

Dave

From what you say Bristol is the choice IMO

Depends how important your work/life balance is, really….

How important is your mountain biking??

I was fairly careful when I moved from home after graduating and into my first job. At the time though, I wasn’t into mountain biking so chose Cambridge; which I now regret as it isn’t ideally positioned for getting out into the wild.

I am more of a work to live than live to work type person, so would err towards sorting out the social/life priorities over work priorities.

Location (for me) is very important, as you’ll only be at work for roughly a 1/3rd of the day.

I moved from a place 40 mins away from the Derbyshire peaks, to a place inside the M25 (long story involving a very messy divorce with a philandering wife), and to be honest there isn’t a single day when don’t miss it!

I’d choose Bristol over Brighton, assuming that you’re not planning on living IN Bristol.

Bristol has the option of the Chilterns, Forest of Dean, Dartmoor/Exmoor, and Wales for a longer trip. It’s also gonna be easier to get to Cumbria from Bristol than navigating around the M25 from Brighton.
The downside is that cheeky trips across the Belgium and France is gonna be less likely from Bristol.

Bristol for me (not to mention that I think it’s a great place to live and be a cyclist) – work is secondary to all the other things and unless the Bristol job was going to be really dull/you’d be unhappy doing it, that’s the basis I’d make the choice on.

FWIW, I work the types of hours you say the Bristol job offers (Aerospace which I’m guessing yours might be as shorter weeks seem pretty common in the industry) and it’s a big benefit IMO – half day Fridays really shortens the week and helps the weekends feel noticeably longer.

With TJ here – from what you say – Bristol. FWIW, when I was your age, I would probably have focused predominantly on the opportunities of the job and accepted compromises on the other stuff. 20 years later I can tell you that unless you luck out and have a dream job then all the other stuff is far more important than work will ever be, and if that other stuff includes biking then location is what you are after. From what you say, there is little compromise to make on the Bristol job – so go for it! Good luck – oh and well done for securing a graduate position too. 🙂

Definately Bristol. Reasons as above really.

Bristol with a good quality of life = no brainer. Congratulations by the way!

i’d firstly like to just say you’re extremely fortunate with both choices. I love Bristol and Brighton and are both two places i’d be very happy living.

I don’t have any riding experience at either though. I do have plenty of driking/drugging/partying experience in both places though and they both have a wicked music scene and young, vibrant friendly vibe.

congrats on the job. have fun.

Speaking from experience, location is very important for me to go riding.

Spent 4 years living in central London (Angel) – might go riding once per month. Aston Hill was 1.5hr drive from the house. etc etc.

Now I can walk out the door, and cycle up a Fell here in the beautiful Lancashire countryside, every day, after work.

Took a £10k pay drop though….. but wouldn’t change it for the world!

I’m a location person too. Although I too live in Cambridge so mtbing isn’t a regular activity. That said I ride a traffic free route to work everyday and love the area I live in for many other reasons, and I can ride the roads easily enough too.

I personally would go for Bristol from your 2 options, we have an office down there and it’s a good place from the looks and sounds of the life down that way (how people handle the traffic in the mornings though I don’t know) definately a place to be a cyclist.

I tried living in Lincoln once. Even if you gave me a job as Kylie’s man slave I couldn’t be persuaded to live there again. So location for me is way more important that job.

They’re both nice places with good MTBing. I’d bother more about the job specifics and the company prospects. 4.5 day week is very appealing though!

Can I go against the flow here?

but the Brighton company has possibly a slightly more interesting job.

You’ve basically convinced yourself that you’re going for the Bristol job and are looking for support, nothing wrong in that. However, how slight is slightly more interesting? You’re going to be spending a fair chunk of your life in the office, and if that time is not good time I don’t think it’s worth giving up 40hours a week of your life just for the location. I believe there is some good riding around Brighton and with a car the world will be your oyster.

I bet the Friday afternoon thing doesnt happen… or does the site actually close down?

Is it Gillette in Brighton?

Both great locations, but nowt beats living by the ‘proper’ seaside. And the riding from Brighton isn’t too shonky either.

My attitude is to enjoy life while I’m young(ish). I didn’t want to spend my 20s and 30s slaving in London and only be in a position where I can move to the countryside and bike, kayak and climb when I’m 50+ and knackered. So, the things I prioritise now are location, travel opportunities, time off etc. On that basis, the Bristol job sounds like your preferred choice (and would probably be mine) . That said, there are many, many worse places to be than Brighton. Decent riding on the Downs, other sports on your doorstep. So, it’s a win-win really.

FunkyDunc – Member
I bet the Friday afternoon thing doesnt happen… or does the site actually close down?

Does here. Also does at other sites that I know have the same thing…

From what you’ve said Bristol sounds like the obvious choice. It’s a great location for riding. I currently live in an area with no good local riding and whilst my job is fairly easy and satisfying (when we have some good work in) it’s so shit having to drive at least an hour and a half for interesting riding.

My little brother lives in Bristol…he loves it.

Brighton…my wife insists I take her there all the time as she like the beach, although I’m not a fan of Brighton. In the summer you’ll have to put up with crappy parking and tourists everywhere.

Live to work or work to live.

Live! Bristol with it’s decent local XC riding, AM within an hour across the bridge and both the WDMBA and Pearce DH series within easy striking distance or Brighton with reasonable trail riding plus allowing you to knock a couple of hours off the annual Alps commute?

Work! Brighton has the slightly better job, Bristol pays more.

Bristol has the option of the Chilterns, Forest of Dean, Dartmoor/Exmoor, and Wales for a longer trip.

Any chance you don’t own a Map?

Wales is next door, the Chilterns are 2 hours away.

is’nt brighton considerably more expensive to live in than brighton these days?

anway, location is all. when i left london 15odd years ago now i was courted by a good ad agency in oxford and at the time i really would have liked to have taken on creative work like that. i went to see them for a chat and literally stood there thinking ‘what the f@ck am i going to do around here?’. similarly a production company in london called me at the same time so i went back to london to see them, again stood there thinking ‘no not this place again’.

ended up taking a peanuts salary in cornwall just to be where i wanted to be and have never looked back.

looks like Bristol has it 🙂

This anti Brighton stance is good – don’t come here, we’re full! And there’s no good riding either, no, none at all!

Having just moved from Bristol, from a reasonably specialised engineering job, to Malvern to do a different specialised engineering job, I’d say location is paramount. Which company is the Bristol one if you don’t mind me asking?

Riding in Bristol was OK, with south wales close by, riding in and around the city is pretty good for a big city really, though not compared to the Malverns!

However, as most others have said you need to enjoy the job as realistically you’ll be working a lot of the time.

Flexitime is great, really missing that, but having an awesome commute with loads of off road routes is great instead!

Check out costs of rent / housing. It could make a huge difference in your ‘real’ salary

toss a coin and while it’s in the air you’ll know where you’d prefer to be

as cm said take into account housing etc costs, and you might want to see what ‘other’ jobs are like as well coz it’s an rs to be in a one pony town when the pony goes lame…

but mainly it’s a punt, as you said it takes a while to find out and things change anyway

I’ve had a similar situation recently.

Until October last year I was working in the Bristol area (North Somerset). Absolutely loved it. Cracking riding minutes from my front door, with plenty of choice slightly further afield in any given direction and a great riding group to enjoy it with 2-3 times a week without fail. Job was fine and life was good.

Then my missus got a offered a job in Southampton. I was lucky enough to find a suitable job for myself which was actually an upgrade interms of both role and remuneration, so we moved to the Southampton area. We’ve been here about 6 months now (and maybe this is due to me being busy or lazy or not bothering to go out and find the good riding) but I’ve been on the bike maybe 4 times. My attitude and mental state have nosedived.

If I could ‘downgrade’ to my old job and old pay and move back to where I was, I’d go tomorrow.

Bristol

But then what I’d do is live in Bath 😀 and travel to Bristol for work