5 ms·

Great comment. Only thing I'd add is a bit of clarity on "Software engineer salaries are generally capped at around £150k if you're a lucky" -- in 20 years I'v

Great comment. Only thing I'd add is a bit of clarity on "Software engineer salaries are generally capped at around £150k if you're a lucky" -- in 20 years I've never met a software engineer on that figure. They exist, but I'd call that extremely lucky, and suggest a more realistic cap is not even half that. I welcome stats.

lonbigtech 7y ago
The big tech companies will pay this to engineers with 5+ YOE when you include stock. Financial firms can be within this range too, and be a lot higher for quants. I’d suspect 20% of my engineering colleagues make in excess of £150k a year.
Lio 7y ago
If you look at contractor day rates that sounds about right to me.
- kosker 7y ago
  Agree with contracting. However it’s coming to an end after IR35 legislation, which will put in the place on April 6.
  - mstade 7y ago
    The trick is to set up a remote contracting gig, and live overseas! That'll last you till dec 31st at least. :o)
timruffles 7y ago
Definitely higher than half that. SWEs at FB, Google etc will get >100k. Even aside from that I regularly see higher than half that - e.g random example from a quick Google at 85k https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salary/Travelex-Backend-Engineer-Salaries-E23898_D_KO9,25.htm https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salary/Travelex-Backend-Engineer... - 90th percentile of Java roles are over 100k - https://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk/java.do https://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk/java.do. Secondly a pretty average contractor day rate is 500pd, which is over 100k, and there are a lot of contractors. I think it makes eng salaries in the UK seem lower than they are. Many of my friends went contract and would never go back. The senior market is therefore hard to hire for, outside trendy/exciting companies, unless you pay for contractors. That said, we should all be asking for raises <3! By all I mean everyone apart from the C suites of public companies
- rezeroed 7y ago
  That itjobswatch java London: London median annual salary £75,000 I'm not sure big tech and finance are representative of London.
  - timruffles 7y ago
    Sure, but since that’s a median not a cap, doesn’t that point to ‘a more realistic cap is not even half that’ (75k) being a bit pessimistic? There are a lot of people in finance in London, also a lot of big tech (seen the current, and new, Google buildings at KGX?), quite aside from a lot of contractors :)
    - rezeroed 7y ago
      Not really. My intention was to clarify that's not what most people should think of as potential earnings. ~1 000 000 businesses in London - how many are big tech or finance? Even ftse 100 which are not big tech/finance don't pay as high as median. Others on that board: C# £65, python £60, php £60, erlang £80. In fact, the more I think about it the more I think there's something fishy about that site. edit: ah, those stats are based on advertised salaries, not actual salaries after the bait and switch - so they're all inflated.
      - user5994461 7y ago
        The answer to how many places are big tech or finance is a truckload. There are 10 000 employees in every building in canary wharf (the financial center with tens of banks). There are a similar amount of employees in the new buildings of Google, Apple and co. Plus multiple large companies but not necessarily as great. That's tens of thousands of roles to fill.
        toyg 7y ago
        Those buildings are hardly full of developers. Most of them are accountants and boatfuls of bullshit jobs. I know because I work among them. Look at Canary Wharf at lunchtime and tell me with a straight face that those are developers.
deleted 7y ago
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chrisseaton 7y ago
Have you looked jobs boards like Oxford Knight? I often see cash compensation >300k on there. Here's one for precisely 150k right now https://oxfordknight.co.uk/jobs/big-data-engineer/ https://oxfordknight.co.uk/jobs/big-data-engineer/. These aren’t junior jobs, and they often require you to be in central London so your money won’t go as far, but these jobs do exist.
- teh 7y ago
  More often than not recruiters (external and in-house) make up large numbers to get you to reply. Here is a verbatim quote from a mail I got last year: > For the right candidate year 1 comp will be up to £500k. After going through a three hour coding test, phone screen + onsite it turned out to be 120k + smallish bonus. Maybe I'm not the right candidate but most likely 500k was never on the table. It's not the first time this has happened to me or people I know either. What I'm getting at is that I'd take the Oxford Knight compensation numbers with a pinch of salt. Those 300k jobs _do_ exist but nowhere near as many as in the US. Additionally levels.fyi or glassdoor data doesn't support a large number of 300k jobs in London.
  - mstade 7y ago
    Yeah this seems like a common bait and switch tactic amongst recruiters these days, I've received the same kind of emails as you.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
mstade 7y ago
I'd say it depends on what industry you're in as well. In finance for example you can quite easily land a >£100k salary, especially if contracting, even if you're not with one of the top tier institutions. (Though I suppose IR35 makes the contracting trickier.)
- heavenlyblue 7y ago
  With contracting you should immediately subtract at least 10% of your salary for holidays, don’t you?
  - mstade 7y ago
    Not sure what you mean by subtract. If you mean save away to pay yourself because as a contractor you don’t get paid time off – sure, you have to plan and be fiscally responsible. My personal experience being a contractor vs. employee though is that contracting is Significantly more lucrative. Not orders of magnitude more lucrative, but at least ~2x in gross terms. What really sets it apart for me though is the freedom to choose how to make the best use of that revenue. That freedom to me is priceless, and can absolutely increase that multiplier quite significantly by way of investments, expense allocation, pension schemes etc. It’s more responsibility and more admin than simply being an employee and collecting a salary and benefits, and it’s certainly not for everyone, and you will definitely need a good accountant, but in my experience being a contractor is worth every second of extra time and effort.

lonbigtech 7y ago

The big tech companies will pay this to engineers with 5+ YOE when you include stock. Financial firms can be within this range too, and be a lot higher for quants. I’d suspect 20% of my engineering colleagues make in excess of £150k a year.

Lio 7y ago

If you look at contractor day rates that sounds about right to me.

kosker 7y ago
Agree with contracting. However it’s coming to an end after IR35 legislation, which will put in the place on April 6.
- mstade 7y ago
  The trick is to set up a remote contracting gig, and live overseas! That'll last you till dec 31st at least. :o)

timruffles 7y ago

Definitely higher than half that. SWEs at FB, Google etc will get >100k. Even aside from that I regularly see higher than half that - e.g random example from a quick Google at 85k https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salary/Travelex-Backend-Engineer-Salaries-E23898_D_KO9,25.htm https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salary/Travelex-Backend-Engineer... - 90th percentile of Java roles are over 100k - https://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk/java.do https://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk/java.do. Secondly a pretty average contractor day rate is 500pd, which is over 100k, and there are a lot of contractors. I think it makes eng salaries in the UK seem lower than they are. Many of my friends went contract and would never go back. The senior market is therefore hard to hire for, outside trendy/exciting companies, unless you pay for contractors. That said, we should all be asking for raises <3! By all I mean everyone apart from the C suites of public companies

rezeroed 7y ago
That itjobswatch java London: London median annual salary £75,000 I'm not sure big tech and finance are representative of London.
- timruffles 7y ago
  Sure, but since that’s a median not a cap, doesn’t that point to ‘a more realistic cap is not even half that’ (75k) being a bit pessimistic? There are a lot of people in finance in London, also a lot of big tech (seen the current, and new, Google buildings at KGX?), quite aside from a lot of contractors :)
  - rezeroed 7y ago
    Not really. My intention was to clarify that's not what most people should think of as potential earnings. ~1 000 000 businesses in London - how many are big tech or finance? Even ftse 100 which are not big tech/finance don't pay as high as median. Others on that board: C# £65, python £60, php £60, erlang £80. In fact, the more I think about it the more I think there's something fishy about that site. edit: ah, those stats are based on advertised salaries, not actual salaries after the bait and switch - so they're all inflated.
    - user5994461 7y ago
      The answer to how many places are big tech or finance is a truckload. There are 10 000 employees in every building in canary wharf (the financial center with tens of banks). There are a similar amount of employees in the new buildings of Google, Apple and co. Plus multiple large companies but not necessarily as great. That's tens of thousands of roles to fill.
      - toyg 7y ago
        Those buildings are hardly full of developers. Most of them are accountants and boatfuls of bullshit jobs. I know because I work among them. Look at Canary Wharf at lunchtime and tell me with a straight face that those are developers.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

chrisseaton 7y ago

Have you looked jobs boards like Oxford Knight? I often see cash compensation >300k on there. Here's one for precisely 150k right now https://oxfordknight.co.uk/jobs/big-data-engineer/ https://oxfordknight.co.uk/jobs/big-data-engineer/. These aren’t junior jobs, and they often require you to be in central London so your money won’t go as far, but these jobs do exist.

teh 7y ago
More often than not recruiters (external and in-house) make up large numbers to get you to reply. Here is a verbatim quote from a mail I got last year: > For the right candidate year 1 comp will be up to £500k. After going through a three hour coding test, phone screen + onsite it turned out to be 120k + smallish bonus. Maybe I'm not the right candidate but most likely 500k was never on the table. It's not the first time this has happened to me or people I know either. What I'm getting at is that I'd take the Oxford Knight compensation numbers with a pinch of salt. Those 300k jobs _do_ exist but nowhere near as many as in the US. Additionally levels.fyi or glassdoor data doesn't support a large number of 300k jobs in London.
- mstade 7y ago
  Yeah this seems like a common bait and switch tactic amongst recruiters these days, I've received the same kind of emails as you.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

mstade 7y ago

I'd say it depends on what industry you're in as well. In finance for example you can quite easily land a >£100k salary, especially if contracting, even if you're not with one of the top tier institutions. (Though I suppose IR35 makes the contracting trickier.)

heavenlyblue 7y ago
With contracting you should immediately subtract at least 10% of your salary for holidays, don’t you?
- mstade 7y ago
  Not sure what you mean by subtract. If you mean save away to pay yourself because as a contractor you don’t get paid time off – sure, you have to plan and be fiscally responsible. My personal experience being a contractor vs. employee though is that contracting is Significantly more lucrative. Not orders of magnitude more lucrative, but at least ~2x in gross terms. What really sets it apart for me though is the freedom to choose how to make the best use of that revenue. That freedom to me is priceless, and can absolutely increase that multiplier quite significantly by way of investments, expense allocation, pension schemes etc. It’s more responsibility and more admin than simply being an employee and collecting a salary and benefits, and it’s certainly not for everyone, and you will definitely need a good accountant, but in my experience being a contractor is worth every second of extra time and effort.