Do you still think that there's a dynamic fast-paced IT industry here? I'm a native, and to me it feels, for the most part (excluding some exceptional companies), stagnant and dependent on cheap non-EU labour.
I feel that a vibrant tech industry is often a reflection of a vibrant tech community.
Granted, a community is only a small part of an overall industry, but an industry without community is lacking heart and soul.
And I can say, with authority, that Dublin has a vibrant tech community. My company, Engine Yard, runs or hosts two meetups a week in our Dublin office, covering subjects such as Ruby, PHP, Node JS, Scala, as well as database, Open Data and designer / UX oriented meetups.
If you want to come to any meetups on these subject, or become more involved in the Dublin tech community, drop me a line - eamon@engineyard.com.
In addition, for the past three years, I've been running Pub Standards Dublin, the largest monthly gathering in Ireland of developers, designers and anyone interested in tech - we get about 150-180 each month. See http://pubstandards.ie/ or https://twitter.com/pubstandardsdub for details, you're welcome to join us any time.
I'm sorry you feel that things are "stagnant and dependent on cheap non-EU labour". I don't feel the same, and I invite you to come out, meet your peers and properly engage with your local tech community.
I am totally agreeing with Eamon. Besides the mentioned meetups there is a paper reading meetup, a google developer meetup, devops, python, coding grace, coder dojo, TOG (a really great hackerspace) and plenty more.
I arrived a year ago in Dublin and was surprised about the variety and diversity of the tech scene in Dublin. I really think that Dublin has a strong and thriving tech scene.
+1 for Pub Standards. Also, on the Apple/iOS side, a group of local (Irish and non-Irish) developers, called XCake meets monthly in the science gallery in Dublin. http://xcakelabs.com
I really wanted to believe this but after spending a good 15 minutes trawling through both of those incubator's portfolios, I'm left with the inescapable feeling that they're simply well polished investor fleecing vehicles with a specialization in putting lipstick on pigs...
How are any of these "startups" remotely likely to make any kind of respectable return for an incubator (and by extension the poor investors that have bankrolled it)?
I might add a third: if an "incubator" is peddling investment opportunities off the back of such an obviously sub prime portfolio, wise money should stay well away as should wise startups.
Yes, it upsets me watching the startup scene slowly mutate in to a cheap, low budget facsimile of the financial crisis. Fast money from naive investors, cynical players and unlimited wet behind the ears 20 somethings used to be the sole preserve of the financial industry.
Sadly, the same rot seems to be spreading to the tech industry and, if left unchecked, I fear will one day soon result in our own subprime/CDO style watershed moment. If (when?) that happens, it will make it a lot harder for honest/sensbile startups to attract the investment they need.
I've been organising various tech events (Python Ireland, Coding Grace, Global GameCraft to name a few) for quite awhile, but mainly Python events since 2005, and I have seen the growth of so many technical user groups in the past 5 years.
It use to be a case you can count the tech groups on one hand (for me anyway)! Also there are many entrepreneurs meetups happening around town as well. It's really exciting to be in Dublin at the moment, although I do wish the same amount of activity would happen in other cities/towns around the country.
As many mentioned before me, go and check out the meetups around town (via meetup.com, lanyrd.com and sign up to Dublin StartupDigest). This all leads to a vibrant tech community (good cafés also helps). I might warn you though, there is something happening most nights every week. Enjoy!
sounds like a meaningless platitude to me. From my experience most companies have huge difficulties finding good irish candidates because they are both just low in numbers and inclined to immigrate to London.
Agreed, I'm an Irish native who left for Scotland a few years ago. Frankly I'd be mega-surprised if there is a dynamic fast-paced IT industry in Ireland. I'd love to be proven wrong if someone else can chime in.
Take a trip to the docks in Dublin and you'll find a bustling tech sector with some huge tech companies (albeit some just for business), a collection of startups and even an incubator round the corner. Only for I'm based in Galway, I'd dive into it.
I can't edit my comment, but in reply to myself, I didn't mean to suggest that there aren't exceptional talents and exceptional companies in Dublin and Ireland. I'd consider many of my friends and peers geniuses, and their talents astound me consistently.
What I meant more so was that government policy seems to be pushing Irish innovation into a corner, while cheerleading a 'knowledge economy' that probably doesn't jive with our ideas of what a knowledge economy is. You only have to look at the recent reductions in the wage-floor for importing tech workers, on a fast-track visa scheme, from outside the EU, to see what I mean. If we had a thriving tech sector then why are wages stagnant? Why did Sean O Sullivan bleat on about needing to issue, what was it, 15k visas to non-EU people per year? We have a massive EU wide workforce, with massive unemployment and masses of graduates graduating each year. A significant number of STEM grads leave the industry because they can't find work, and yet we don't have enough workers? And if we don't have enough workers then why do they need to lower the wage floor for importing people? Shouldn't wages be rising?
Government policy is purposely driving wages down. Jobbridge internships have been extended to 18 months, and I fear for the effect that this is going to have on the country, in terms of brain-drain for graduates, and general morale.
It sounds like you guys all feel good about our tech sector. I'm glad, because as well as the above, all i've heard for the last 10 years is how terrible our graduates are, and how companies are annoyed that they have to spend money bringing people in from elsewhere. This isn't true of course, they don't have to, it's just part of the same 'we only want geniuses' narrative that's taking place in the US and elsewhere, which is handily also stagnating wages. I could link to probably 50 interviews and articles (if i had enough time) from CEO's of Havok, Demonware, Paypal, Google etc etc saying how poor our country is for talent, and whether you feel good about our tech sector, the statements coming from our indigenous companies, and MNC's, don't make me feel good.
So i'd suggest that if the sector is thriving, it's in spite of our culture, political climate (except for corporation tax), and whatever else, rather than being a thing that was destined to happen.
Anyway nevermind that, if anyone has any more suggestions for meetups, i'd love to hear them. Thanks for all the suggestions so far.
Speaking as a designer the tech community as a whole has gone from strength to strength. We've often tried to organise events only for them to conflict with another tech event on the same date.
Get out there, meet people and I'm sure you'll have a different perspective
Stagnant is definitely not the right word for the IT industry in Ireland. It's anything but. There have been some huge native successes in the industry in such a short time frame. Look at the likes of soundwave or the guys in trustev whom are winning startup awards left right and centre.
The amount of meet ups help make the IT industry in Ireland thrive. There barely goes a week without there being an event on sometime even three to four each week.
Depends who you work for, Ireland is full of big name companies, Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter.....
Not only that there us a tonne of big financials there too...
So, there's a wealth of choice..
From what I hear, the Google offices are really something, they have an amazing setup...
I live in Belfast, and there isn't the same variety of big tech, but still tonnes of IT jobs
If I lived in Dublin, I'd go all out to work at Google, or maybe Twitter..
Twitter just aren't really hiring for technology in Dublin. Maybe some of the 100 new jobs promised for next year will change that, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
I wasn't telling people not to investigate these companies, just that their isn't a glut of jobs that their size would suggest. There are companies a fraction of the size hiring more developers than the big guys at any given time.
I'm sure you can sometimes work from a Dublin base for these companies, I'm also sure that would be an exception to the norm.
If you're a sysadmin by trade or want to be (a minority here I think), you could do far worse than apply to Google, Facebook or Amazon.
Maybe so for a Irish native, but for an expat (which I was one, shifted to Germany from Australia), it is very much a "Grass is greener on the other side" point of view. I worked in Australia for at least 15 years, and it felt very stale, almost dying. With the move to Germany, everything starts to look exciting - new work environment, new challenges and new colleagues. After 5 years in Germany, the grass is still green.
Granted, a community is only a small part of an overall industry, but an industry without community is lacking heart and soul.
And I can say, with authority, that Dublin has a vibrant tech community. My company, Engine Yard, runs or hosts two meetups a week in our Dublin office, covering subjects such as Ruby, PHP, Node JS, Scala, as well as database, Open Data and designer / UX oriented meetups.
If you want to come to any meetups on these subject, or become more involved in the Dublin tech community, drop me a line - eamon@engineyard.com.
In addition, for the past three years, I've been running Pub Standards Dublin, the largest monthly gathering in Ireland of developers, designers and anyone interested in tech - we get about 150-180 each month. See http://pubstandards.ie/ or https://twitter.com/pubstandardsdub for details, you're welcome to join us any time.
I'm sorry you feel that things are "stagnant and dependent on cheap non-EU labour". I don't feel the same, and I invite you to come out, meet your peers and properly engage with your local tech community.
You wont regret it :)