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Ask HN: How much do you make in London?

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Re: Ask HN: How much do you make in London?

#61

Post by thrwaynow »

frowaway_lon wrote: post #48

This is a bit depressing. In 2010 I retired from full-time post as Investment Bank, front office senior dev on £100K with 30-50% bonus, 20 years experience. C++, Java, Sybase, finance tech and domain knowledge, and colleagues in hot areas were getting way more than that. My impression that rates are dropping seems to be confirmed.

today you can still get £100k+ as a senior developer in a bank for doing c++, java, with or without domain knowledge, but bonus is likely to be a lot less, more like 15-30%, of course exceptions apply

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make in London?

#63

Post by gringofyx »

Reading some of the amounts listed is a bit depressing, I thought that the increased cost of living in London would justify salaries and rates much higher than the average.

By contrast I know from personal experience you can earn the same or better than what's listed here outside of London and enjoy the lower cost of living.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make in London?

#64

Post by throwawayberlin »

Degree in Graphic Design, 8 years industry experience, started with Flash / ActionScript and moved to JavaScript about 5 years ago.

Freelance Flash animation / dev for big digital agencies and ad companies (5 years ago) - £250 p/h, with 3 years experience.

Tech Lead - Digital Agency in Shoreditch (1.5 years ago) doing Node / Ember / Angular / DevOps - £45k, however I chose a lower salary for more leave and flexible working hours.

Freelancing JavaScript dev (Node, Angular etc), digital agencies - aprox £300-350 p/h

Now I work in Berlin in a dev role doing Node / React / Redux. €57k. My living expenses are 1/2 what they were in London, and I live in a central Berlin 1 bedroom apartment rather than shared housing.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make in London?

#65

Post by gokhan »

gringofyx wrote: post #63

Reading some of the amounts listed is a bit depressing, I thought that the increased cost of living in London would justify salaries and rates much higher than the average. By contrast I know from personal experience you can earn the same or better than what's listed here outside of London and enjoy the lower cost of living.

Any recommended locations to look at?

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make in London?

#68

Post by throwawayberlin »

gokhan wrote: post #65
gringofyx wrote: post #63

Reading some of the amounts listed is a bit depressing, I thought that the increased cost of living in London would justify salaries and rates much higher than the average. By contrast I know from personal experience you can earn the same or better than what's listed here outside of London and enjoy the lower cost of living.

Any recommended locations to look at?

Berlin.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make in London?

#70

Post by throawaylondon3 »

wannabecontract wrote: post #41
throawaylondon3 wrote: post #27

Senior front end developer. 4 years experience. Now a contractor on my first project at £350/day in a big company. Expecting this to rise to 400/450 for the next gig. A few months ago I was full time at a startup on £52K.

48k, London startup, frontend, 2.5 yrs exp. Took a paycut from 52.5k (@ 1.5 yrs exp) for this role. Off topic - As someone in your exact previous position and looking to make the same move to contracting do you have any advice, did you find it easy to land that first contract?

I did find it quite easy. I just followed up with a recruiter, went to interview and got the job. You usually have to start fairly quickly so have some holiday banked up so you can leave permanent work sooner.

The work, culture, etc is similar to any other permanent job I've had. As long as you keep up to date and are good you'll be fine. Other companies may differ wildly I'm sure

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