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> Anecdotally, I believe the best-paying jobs are in northern Europe, especially in Germany I think nothing in Europe beats London. Of course, the rents are in

by lgieron 10y ago

> Anecdotally, I believe the best-paying jobs are in northern Europe, especially in Germany I think nothing in Europe beats London. Of course, the rents are insane, but if you don't have a family and are willing to live in a shitty place (maybe with flatmates) with a commute, it doesn't affect you as much.

gambiting 10y ago
Nothing in London gets close to what people make in SF, and the rent is equally insane. I know senior software engineers in London with 15-20 years experience and they make ~100k pounds(~140k USD)/year,sometimes a bit more sometimes a bit less, and equity is definitely not a given thing. Obviously UK/US salaries are not directly comparable , but still, if you want to be making >$300k/year, then you need to work in finance in London, not IT.
- lgieron 10y ago
  I'm not sure how typical it is for a grunt level developer to be making >$300k in SV. For that kind of money, you typically need to be a manager (team lead at least). I think you can expect yearly earnings of around 150k pounds when you're contracting in London as a (obviously top-notch) technical team lead, which is about $220k. It's less than $300k, but contracting taxes in UK are about 20%, compared to the 33+% figure siberianbear gave. Plus, you don't need to wait years for the stocks to vest. The biggest problem with that is that a lot of companies don't like to contract out management, so you're options may be somewhat limited (and if you choose full-time employment instead, you go straight into the maw of 40% taxation).
  - d4rkph1b3r 10y ago
    >For that kind of money, you typically need to be a manager (team lead at least). False. You have to be very senior, but you do not need to 'typically' be a manager. There was a spreadsheet a few months ago on HN showing that with RSUs, most of the top tech companies pay above this for their higher level (non manager) engineers. >It's less than $300k, but contracting taxes in UK are about 20% Wow, contracting taxes are higher in the US, maybe it is a comparable if you can make 150k+ doing consulting work in the UK!
    - lgieron 10y ago
      > Wow, contracting taxes are higher in the US The justification in Europe is that governments want to encourage entrepreneurship (and contracting counts as entrepreneurship), hence lower taxes. I wonder what's the logic behind the US situation.
  - tobyc 10y ago
    I can confirm this. Permanent salaries in the UK are OKish. Contracting is where the money is at. An intermediate developer can pretty easily make £500 a day. If you can make yourself indispensable, or pick a tech stack used in finance, then £700-800 isn't uncommon. As a benchmark, £600 a day is roughly equivalent to $200K USD permanent salary.

by lgieron 10y ago

gambiting 10y ago

Nothing in London gets close to what people make in SF, and the rent is equally insane. I know senior software engineers in London with 15-20 years experience and they make ~100k pounds(~140k USD)/year,sometimes a bit more sometimes a bit less, and equity is definitely not a given thing. Obviously UK/US salaries are not directly comparable , but still, if you want to be making >$300k/year, then you need to work in finance in London, not IT.

lgieron 10y ago
I'm not sure how typical it is for a grunt level developer to be making >$300k in SV. For that kind of money, you typically need to be a manager (team lead at least). I think you can expect yearly earnings of around 150k pounds when you're contracting in London as a (obviously top-notch) technical team lead, which is about $220k. It's less than $300k, but contracting taxes in UK are about 20%, compared to the 33+% figure siberianbear gave. Plus, you don't need to wait years for the stocks to vest. The biggest problem with that is that a lot of companies don't like to contract out management, so you're options may be somewhat limited (and if you choose full-time employment instead, you go straight into the maw of 40% taxation).
- d4rkph1b3r 10y ago
  >For that kind of money, you typically need to be a manager (team lead at least). False. You have to be very senior, but you do not need to 'typically' be a manager. There was a spreadsheet a few months ago on HN showing that with RSUs, most of the top tech companies pay above this for their higher level (non manager) engineers. >It's less than $300k, but contracting taxes in UK are about 20% Wow, contracting taxes are higher in the US, maybe it is a comparable if you can make 150k+ doing consulting work in the UK!
  - lgieron 10y ago
    > Wow, contracting taxes are higher in the US The justification in Europe is that governments want to encourage entrepreneurship (and contracting counts as entrepreneurship), hence lower taxes. I wonder what's the logic behind the US situation.
- tobyc 10y ago
  I can confirm this. Permanent salaries in the UK are OKish. Contracting is where the money is at. An intermediate developer can pretty easily make £500 a day. If you can make yourself indispensable, or pick a tech stack used in finance, then £700-800 isn't uncommon. As a benchmark, £600 a day is roughly equivalent to $200K USD permanent salary.