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by timruffles 2316 days 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 :)

2 comments

Please. 75k is the package good people can get 1-2 years after moving to London, basically when leaving their first company -whatever job they could get really- to move to an actual company that doesn't screw them over.

It's true that there are startups that try to get away with hiring people out of school for peanuts, from all across Europe. They often have a turnover of half the staff leaving within a year and it's no coincidence.

That hasn't been my experience. 75k is not earth-shaking, but also not something that i would expect someone with 2 years of experience to get in London. What companies do you think would pay that to such a person?
How about every single company? The better ones give 10% or 20% bonus annually, so really easy to get there, even while unaware of it.

I worked in startups. I've seen first hands employees being abused and leaving in drove after 1-2 years to get significantly more, literally anywhere else. Name any company in London, probably have some ex colleagues there.

That being said, I am talking about developers who can handle a HackerRank test and a coding interview on the whiteboard. It's not a high bar by any means but it is something.

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.

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.

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.

Of course no building is full of a single thing. The one I worked in had full floors full of developers, that adds up to quite a decent amount.

Ironically, accountants and finance folks eat at their desks, so if you see people outside at lunch time, they might very well be technology folks. They'd be wearing shirts though, easily confused with business people.