People & Skills 

30 September 2020

Relocation, Relocation, Relocation

Written by:

Steve Dukes
COO
Confused.com

 


September’s underway and my kids are heading into their next year of schooling.

I’m excited for them to get back to learning, socialising and activities, but I also imagine they’ve felt some nerves after being away for a while. It reminds me that it’s been just over a year since I made the plunge to move from Surrey to Wales to join Confused.com as COO.

Having spent most of my adult life working in London, starting out as an equities analyst before realising that I wanted to be part of the team running businesses rather than analysing them, I’d never considered Wales as somewhere to go for a job. That was until Confused.com.

It was back in 2003 that I realised the markets I was commenting on were being transformed by the internet and that’s what sent me on a quest to be part of a tech company. Many years later, I still feel we’re only at the start of that journey.

I spent 15 years commuting in and out of London for work, which at the time felt like the done thing. But then I took on a role in Oxford, which opened my eyes to the fact there’s a world outside of the capital, with great roles, great businesses and a great quality of life. Relocating to Wales was a bit of a punt, having to move the family cross-country and starting again as the ‘new kid in town’. But having such admiration for the company and the people who run it, as well as seeing what Wales has to offer wasn’t too much of a hard sell for me – although the family took more convincing!

It’s great to feel vindicated now – even though I didn’t start out with this confidence.

Wales has a wonderful community feel, and as an English bloke, much more welcoming than I had been led to believe… even when the rugby is on! There’s such a high level of capability and skills in the region, which most outsiders wouldn’t be aware of. But, unlike some famous tech hub regions, there’s a complete lack of arrogance and ego in business – which is really refreshing. And when you put that hand in hand with the Welsh humour, it is a special place.

If I could give my younger self some advice, it would be to look at the whole package of a job, and to go and see for yourself what different regions are like to work and live in, rather than hearing it from others. Before moving here myself, I didn’t realise what a vibrant fintech and tech hub Wales has. And now that so many of us have shifted to home working due to the pandemic, I think it may spur on a change in priorities for people.

In Wales, there’s often a view that we should nurture ‘home-grown’ talent. That’s true, but we need to also attract talent from outside Wales in equal measure, because that mix of skills and experience is what really develops the depth of an economy. And with the way the world is moving, I hope it’s giving people (like me) the confidence to buck the trend of needing to default to London for work. Who knows, maybe they’ll end up in Wales too?

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