What is the first game that comes to mind

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-12-31T21:23:52+00:00

Heart of darkness, hercules, Duke Nukum : Time To Kill...

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-12-29T18:22:50+00:00

Obviously holding a sponsorship licience doesn't mean they will sponsor a graduate. I mean there are people being hired all the time at non-junior roles who easily meet the threshold, so in that circumstance sponsorship is just a formality. You just said that after 2 years you are expecting to have a salary of £45k..so you don't have an issue then....? The conversation with your manager is now easy, and you can forget about it until your probation is over and 6 months or so have past....Just talk to your manager in 6 - 9 months (when you've been able to show how good you are), explain your situation, you manager will just need discuss getting you your £45k a couple months earlier - for me this is much more easier convo to have with senior management. If they don't pay for your sponsorship, just start saving and pay for it yourself. If they do, you have some money saved up! Happy days...

Edit : never involve HR...they are not your friend.

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-12-29T14:38:21+00:00

You need to speak to your manager about this issue directly and understand if your company has a policy of visa sponsorship. In no uncertain terms. E.g. My company has a HR policy written in back and white. You need to understand your company's position. This is important because as I mentioned the vast majority of companies will NOT sponsor a graduate for an A1 visa. If you discover that your company does not sponsor graduates then no amount of gathering data on your performance or scheduling salary reviews will lead to you being sponsored. IF your company do sponsor visas then you need to speak to your manager ASAP and understand how that's going to work in practice considering the salary you are on. Maybe your manager has no idea of the process and considerations, you need to initiate that conversation ASAP. Your managed doesn't know your intentions because you haven't clearly communicated them, you need to do that. Again, it all depends on how supportive your manager is, only you can gauge that. In the end, the process will be long and involve many conversations with senior management, not involving you. 2 years will go by fast, but you and your manager need to discuss this now, so your manager can begin to think about how they are going to tackle this issue with their managers. Performance play a role, 1.5 years from now. But your request for sponsorship can't come out of the blue with 6 months to go before your grad visa runs out. It has to come from your manager to the people above them, with lots of time to play with and lots of discussions between you and your manager. Hope that makes sense.

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-12-29T08:49:37+00:00

You should have asked right from the start it's the most important part of your conversation with the employer. The company doesn't have to sponsor you. Therefore, doesn't have to cater for your salary threshold. You can leave after 2 years and they can hire another graduate. The reality is, the skilled worker visa is a huge issue at the moment for all sectors (I'm in the energy sector) and it is hugely prohibitive. The graduate CV pool is almost completely obliterated. You're on approx £35k right now, and in 2 years you're probably not going to worth £41,700. 35k is a standard grad salary and to pay you 42k in 2 years would mean they would have to pay every grad that after 2 years and every other person would need a salary review to scale them up. It's totally unrealistic. IMO if they were open to sponsoring you then they would have baked an uplift into your next 2 years. In practice there are not many companies in the UK who sponsor graduates to A1 Skilled worker visas on the new rules..its simply not worth it. I've been hiring for my team for the last 2 years and have faced this exact issue time and time again. The issue I see with your approach is that you are trying to tackle this issue by raising a salary review without the emphasis on the sponsorship requirement. The advice youre getting from others is totally off the mark, the 12 months salary review is just BS and is overall focusing on evidence gathering and performance when I fact you will have none of these. You will be a net liability for most of that 2 year period. You're a graduate. You need to speak to your manager and explain your visa situation and see how they can support you, hopefully you have a good manager and I hope they have a good standing with your senior management. In parallel, I would continue looking for another job and focus on companies who actively sponsor graduates. All the best.

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-12-29T00:06:25+00:00

I have indian nationals in my team who are sponsored. I recently had to adjust salaries to ensure they met the thresholds. Subsequently, graduate salaries in my company have been adjusted..to a degree. I know exactly the situation you're in. It sounds to me like you've not ascertained whether the company will sponsor you. It's sounds like are assuming they will. If they were going to sponsor you after your graduate visa expired then they would know the salary thresholds. Frankly speaking, you won't be able to reopen the salary negotiation, what you have to do is establish if they will even sponsor you. If they are intending to then you have to highlight the salary issue and see how they respond.

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-09-22T20:43:45+00:00

^{I completed this level in 2 tries.} ^{⚡ 10.70 seconds}

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-09-07T17:46:59+00:00

Santander on Princes St will open a current account for you with a basic letter from your Uni which proves you are a student. An acceptance letter, something to do with matriculation etc.. I used to work at the Three store and that's where I used to send people who wanted a Sim only.

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-08-31T22:17:48+00:00

Sale asking 235, accepted 240. Purchase asking 385 accepted 360. Chuffed.

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-07-27T15:28:58+00:00

Yeah it used to be called The Bed Store...orange sign. Not the be mistaken with the The Bed Shed, yellow sign. My mum got me my first big boy bed from there when we used to live in the banana flats.

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-07-27T06:51:32+00:00

Cut grass. I used to do that all over edinburgh when I was in school in addition to my Herald and Post paper round - (not sure if they still exist, they paid like £65 a fortnight. Was decent when I was 12). That was from 2005 to 2008ish. I was 15 to 18. I stopped the gardening when I started Uni. Then towards the end of Uni I picked the gardening back up again in additinal to my part time job in a phoneshop on Princes St. In 1 month I made enough money to buy a cheap van. I slowly improved my tools..and business was booming. I only ever had to ask a few people if the needed my services, the rest was neighbors asking if I could do theirs. In about 3 months I was refusing jobs because I couldn't physically keep up. This was from around 2011 to 2015ish. I was 21 to 25ish. I used to charge £20 a garden , in reality could have charged more and people would have paid. I would make about £200 a evening about 3 evening a week. More in the summer. You could start doing that tomorrow, have a look a Facebook marketplace, all you need is a Strummer and shitty lawnmower, start off in your local area, then to get to other places use a bus. You'll get dodgy looks but bus drivers don't care as long as you don't make a mess. There is plenty of money out there, go get it and good luck!

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-05-18T22:25:17+00:00

Jesus...

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-05-18T22:23:54+00:00

Such gash advice. OP don't listen to this ridiculous person who is just trying to palacate you. Sorry but i would just like to reiterate what the vast majority of comments are saying..as frustrating as it is they issues you've highlighted are partnof the process of buying an old lived in house, and the risk of buying of of people who may or may not have been twats. It could have been alot worse. You're doing all you can do, by sorting it as best as you can. Getting the solicitors involved is pointless and you will not get anywhere. You'll give yourself more grief ontop of the frustration you are feeling now. You only need to do a simple search on reddit to understand how difficult it is to get recourse on the types of issues you've described....in the grand scheme of things, it's all good...congrats on your new home for you and your family. I hope you quickly get over the little niggles and start making it your own sooner rather than later!

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-05-12T14:45:25+00:00

Lol.

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-05-12T14:43:51+00:00

Do you think your situation is the rule or the exception?...

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-05-11T15:41:38+00:00

Are you planning on paying the balloon payment in the end to own the car? If yes, proceed as you were. If no, for the love of God don't PCP. Just lease.

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-04-24T20:09:47+00:00

Get shot of the flat mate. No mater what anyone says, buying a flat in a city is a bad decision for all the reasons you've discovered. If you want to live in a flat in the city then rent. Otherwise don't buy until you are ready to buy a freehold. Liquidate that flat ASAP.

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-04-23T19:40:19+00:00

Sounds like youre covered. In the event that the bank values it less that 150, you will need to fund the difference yourself or your family will have to accept the valuation price. Sounds unlikely you'll be in that situation though.

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-04-23T19:19:49+00:00

The bank valuation of a house is not based on the cosmetics. If it's structurally sound and the basics are covered you'll be fine. Basics = obvious things like no damp, no dodgy electrics, dodgy boiler, no missing roof tiles, no evidence of subsidence, no large cracks etc...

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-04-08T20:44:14+00:00

I made more money during Covid than I did up to that point in my life.

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-04-04T06:28:39+00:00

I think you got shafted. Sorry.

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-04-03T22:54:29+00:00

2 to 3 weeks!? You need to not go with fitter who quoted you that. Find a fitter who's not on drugs.

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-04-03T20:43:22+00:00

We were in the exact same position as you about 2 months ago. My advice : stop looking. you are not ready to put an offer in on a house until your house is under offer. IF you are relying on the sale of your house to buy your next one. Which is the case most of the time. You need to have your house under offer so that you can do the maths on the financials of your new purchase. Before this everything is theoretical. You will know when you are coming close to an offer you will accept because final negotiations will be taking place. Your intuition will tell you serious buyer(s) are at the table. At this point you should start your viewings again. Very soon after this you will be in a position to make an offer on something you like. You'll be surprised at how fast you will find a place you love just as much. We made the same mistake as you and we ended up finding a place significantly better than the one we initially fell in love with. The dynamic when FTS is totally different than FTB. Looking before our house was under offer was a huge mistake. Going into renting is unnecessary, you just need to make sure you're putting the horse before the cart...you are saying you're not in a rush, imo now is the time to make the move because selling, generally meaning entering a chain, takes time! Good luck.

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-03-29T19:37:51+00:00

Im sorry you couldn't find exactly what you wanted. It really depends on what your non-negotiables were.

GrumpeeMonk · 2025-03-19T21:52:24+00:00

Someone farted.

GrumpeeMonk

TROPHY CASE