Hi,

Currently working a remote job (junior web dev) in the southeast of the UK, the office is based in a town outside London. Earning 25k at the moment, also had a short stint at a very outdated company using Classic ASP, so I have about 2.5 years experience.
I'm looking to make a move to a new role sometime soon, as pay is low and the work is boring, perhaps aiming for a mid-level role. I'm in my early-mid 20s so was hoping to move to a city for the social opportunities, plus jobs around here are very limited, you only see about 5 postings at a time and I think they're always the same small but established companies, which don't seem to be doing exciting work.

I'm currently renting a flat with my friend, I was hoping to move to London if I got a job there. I'm aware I could live outside London and commute in if I get a hybrid arrangement, but I was hoping to live and work in a city as I'm a bit tired of living in a small-ish town.

I see a lot of talk about London being one of the best places in the EU to work as a dev, or at least the best place in the UK. However I've noticed that the average salary, or at least the one I could probably attain as someone with 2.5 years experience, is about 60k, which doesn't go very far in London, as the minimum rent for a tolerable 1 bed flat seems to be about £1800, and that's outside Zone 2... Unless you want to go far out to the suburbs which are mostly young families and maybe don't have a huge amount going on, or renting a tiny studio where you would have no room for a WFH setup. I know one pretty talented guy who was renting in London, and forced to move to a commuter town recently because of high rents.

I'm aware that most people in London share a flat with strangers or friends, but I was under the impression that working as a dev in London gave a good QOL, but I wouldn't consider flatsharing to be a great QOL, and it doesn't seem to be quite as commonplace outside London/south UK for people in good jobs.

I've considered other places in the south, e.g. Brighton, but that doesn't seem to have a huge amount of dev roles and a lot of them are based in Crawley (and I don't drive). You also have Bristol but the cost of living has gone up immensely there and it has public transport issues.

It seems like if you got, say, a 40k salary in the midlands or up north, which seems very achieveable, you could probably rent your own flat, e.g. in places like Manchester and Nottingham, while saving more money than in London on 60k, and that money goes further if you're looking to buy a property. I know a guy managing to rent his own flat in Manchester, which really doesn't seem possible in London unless you're working in fintech or other high paying roles.

I'm kind of at an impasse at the moment and not really sure where to go, it feels like my 20s are rapidly disappearing and I kind of hate my job, does anyone have any advice on where to go or what would be a good place for a career good QoL? I know Manchester is meant to have a decent number of roles, not sure about other cities or if I should just go with London? Just want to get my own place really but don't want to live in the middle of nowhere :D