4 ms·

"Canada, Australia. All have higher salaries for software people," - I was under the same false impression that either of the two countries have better pay. Tur

"Canada, Australia. All have higher salaries for software people," - I was under the same false impression that either of the two countries have better pay. Turned out to be quite false, at least Canada has significantly lower pay, and far behind tech. Testament to this is the fact that I got a work visa for CA and turned it down once I did my due diligence. Brexit "refugees" that went to Canada share the same impression. However, both CA and AU have other benefits. While pay is lower, the standard of living in my view is much higher and are much safer. For those two reason I think they might be a good choice, but not pay. Correct me if I am wrong, as I am still considering a decent alternative to the UK - preferably somewhere safer and with better quality services.

Nursie 6y ago
I've worked in Australia, and compared to the pay of most salaried programmers in the UK, the money on offer was much better. Hell, doing the same damn job for a big corporate over there as I had done in London (same team and everything) netted me a 60% payrise. Comparing to London contractor money, sure it'll be less and I'm preparing for that, but compared to most salaried work. Look at the averages - Average software engineering salary in Canada $102,866. That average in the UK? £31K. Just over half the Canadian figure. (I'd allow that the average figure in the UK does not paint an accurate picture because a lot of the higher skilled people opt out of employment to go it alone, like ourselves) I very much agree on the standard of living aspect, having had direct experience of life in Australia. There's just more space, and more respect for public facilities etc.
- yrgulation 6y ago
  The issue is I don't know how these average salaries are calculated. I can confidently say that I know no one at a Senior level working on less than 60kGBP a year, and I don't imagine the bulk of engineers are junior or mid level. I do know however that people who earned a lot once they moved to either CA or AU, they earned less - but were happy given the benefits in previous comment. > I've worked in Australia, and compared to the pay of most salaried programmers in the UK, the money on offer was much better. Hell, doing the same damn job for a big corporate over there as I had done in London (same team and everything) netted me a 60% payrise. New data points are always welcome - I might have to read more on the topic as I am clearly missing some data in regards to AU (my peers told me otherwise, maybe they do something wrong).
  - Nursie 6y ago
    > I know no one at a Senior level working on less than 60kGBP a year, I don't think I know anyone in our sector that's currently salaried so I can't say I have many personal datapoints there. However I do think that outside of London the UK pays salaried software folks pretty badly. > I do know however that people who earned a lot... Maybe there's less variance and less room at the top end in CA and AU? That could explain our conflicting views. My last experience over there was not as a "senior", though I had a few years experience I wasn't at the top of my game compared to today.
  - varispeed 6y ago
    £60k gives you about £3650 after tax. It could feel like a lot if you live in a flat share and don't plan to start a family, but otherwise this just gives you a very basic life. Definitely not something you would expect after committing your life to this trade. I have a friend who is a self-employed cleaner and she makes much more than that and is much less stressed (what I mean by this is you need to commit far less time to learn how to clean and you are unlikely going to be woken up by a dream about that corner you forgot to clean).
    - krysp 6y ago
      Can't argue that being a self employed cleaner would be lower stress. What's your friend charging and what kind of work does she do? I only have limited experience with paying cleaners in the uk, but she must be charging more than those I've seen.

Nursie 6y ago

I've worked in Australia, and compared to the pay of most salaried programmers in the UK, the money on offer was much better. Hell, doing the same damn job for a big corporate over there as I had done in London (same team and everything) netted me a 60% payrise. Comparing to London contractor money, sure it'll be less and I'm preparing for that, but compared to most salaried work. Look at the averages - Average software engineering salary in Canada $102,866. That average in the UK? £31K. Just over half the Canadian figure. (I'd allow that the average figure in the UK does not paint an accurate picture because a lot of the higher skilled people opt out of employment to go it alone, like ourselves) I very much agree on the standard of living aspect, having had direct experience of life in Australia. There's just more space, and more respect for public facilities etc.

yrgulation 6y ago
The issue is I don't know how these average salaries are calculated. I can confidently say that I know no one at a Senior level working on less than 60kGBP a year, and I don't imagine the bulk of engineers are junior or mid level. I do know however that people who earned a lot once they moved to either CA or AU, they earned less - but were happy given the benefits in previous comment. > I've worked in Australia, and compared to the pay of most salaried programmers in the UK, the money on offer was much better. Hell, doing the same damn job for a big corporate over there as I had done in London (same team and everything) netted me a 60% payrise. New data points are always welcome - I might have to read more on the topic as I am clearly missing some data in regards to AU (my peers told me otherwise, maybe they do something wrong).
- Nursie 6y ago
  > I know no one at a Senior level working on less than 60kGBP a year, I don't think I know anyone in our sector that's currently salaried so I can't say I have many personal datapoints there. However I do think that outside of London the UK pays salaried software folks pretty badly. > I do know however that people who earned a lot... Maybe there's less variance and less room at the top end in CA and AU? That could explain our conflicting views. My last experience over there was not as a "senior", though I had a few years experience I wasn't at the top of my game compared to today.
- varispeed 6y ago
  £60k gives you about £3650 after tax. It could feel like a lot if you live in a flat share and don't plan to start a family, but otherwise this just gives you a very basic life. Definitely not something you would expect after committing your life to this trade. I have a friend who is a self-employed cleaner and she makes much more than that and is much less stressed (what I mean by this is you need to commit far less time to learn how to clean and you are unlikely going to be woken up by a dream about that corner you forgot to clean).
  - krysp 6y ago
    Can't argue that being a self employed cleaner would be lower stress. What's your friend charging and what kind of work does she do? I only have limited experience with paying cleaners in the uk, but she must be charging more than those I've seen.