[Nextgrid]

> I would say in the UK, all are hard to hire.

I always say that when it comes to lack of candidates there's this magical thing called "money" where if you throw more of it on the table the problem suddenly resolves itself.

Recruiters and getting your job ad in front of more people is only needed when it's a hard sell; if it's an offer most people can't refuse then you just have to show it to a handful of people before you get someone who agrees.

[lbriner]

I don't think it's as simple as that, just ask any large company who is paying £100K+ for developers. It generates even more noise than before since there are plenty of chancers who will apply because if they get in then great but in the meantime, we are struggling to make good assessments of people's skills and values and it is hard to judge in a short time whether someone is working out, in which case you might have lost £30K to a Recruiter and another £15K in salary for someone who didn't work out.

If we had loads more money, we would probably pay for more specialist recruiters but nothing we have tried so far has been brilliant. We are looking at the whole package though, I think there are things that are relatively easy to do that make a job look appealing like duvet days or free posh coffee and stuff like that.

[sage76]

> we are struggling to make good assessments of people's skills

There's an easy solution to that, 10 MORE rounds of leetcode hard level questions.

[mmarq]

> I always say that when it comes to lack of candidates there's this magical thing called "money" where if you throw more of it on the table the problem suddenly resolves itself.

In the past few years, developers’ salaries have increased significantly in the continent. In Germany they are almost on par with London. So to convince somebody to move to the UK and go through the immigration checks, you have to pay more than the average British employer can afford. For 80-90K£, you are far better off getting 60K€ in Germany or Austria. I wouldn’t advise a EU citizen to move to the UK if they aren’t going to earn more than 120K£.

[GianFabien]

Many years ago I turned down a great job in London. The high salary wasn't enough to compensate for the far greater cost of living in London.

[cassianoleal]

> For 80-90K£, you are far better off getting 60K€ in Germany or Austria.

That's around €95K-€107K. How is getting that in the UK (far) worse than €60K in those places?

In any case, the parent's point stands: throw enough money at them and they will come.

[mmarq]

Because renting a half decent flat (new build, 60sqm, inner London) costs 2000£ per month, good food is extremely expensive (Waitrose would be an average supermarket in Southern Europe), the NHS is not as good as its continental homologues, so you have to pay for healthcare, public transport is very expensive, you have to deal with the immigration office (which western professionals aren’t used to), etc…

The cheapest nursery in inner London cost more than 1600£ per month, so if you have a child you’ll need 4000-4500£ per month (or 75-80K per annum) just to put a roof over your head. If you want to live like a professional or save some money, you’ll have to multiply that by 2.

[rio517]

Living in Berlin, 60k isn't really possible anymore for new hire. I bet there are people in their old jobs making that much, but for our backend hires we had to offer around 70 to find people.

[mmarq]

I started the comment saying that salaries in Germany are approaching those of London. Probably Berlin is still slightly below, but I think Hamburg have completed the catch-up.

Later I wrote that you get a better lifestyle in Germany with 60K€ than in London with 90K£.