Cardiff tech firm: 'We'll pay £100k, but can't get staff' • Hacker News Board

Re: Cardiff tech firm: 'We'll pay £100k, but can't get staff'

#41

Post by biztos » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 4:11 PM UTC

mattlondon wrote: post #10

In the article they say they are offering London salaries. Fine. But Cardiff is not the same as London ! London is huge comapred to Cardiff. Cardiff has about 500,000 people in its urban area compared to 10,000,000 in London, and Cardiff is about 30 square miles compared to almost 700 square miles for London [1]. As such London just has a lot more going on - theatre, museums, nightlife, restaurants, sports, shopping,…

> you name it there is more of it in London

Welsh speakers?

(Probably not a big factor in recruiting, but still...)

Re: Cardiff tech firm: 'We'll pay £100k, but can't get staff'

#42

Post by BurningFrog » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 4:11 PM UTC

otras wrote: post #17

Onboarding and dividing work between 100 engineers is hard. Makes me think of Brooks' law: " Adding human resources to a late software project makes it later ." [0] MyPinPad's careers page [1] lists four positions (Android developer, iOS developer, senior devops engineer, and services developer) with the same " salary up to £60,000 per annum, depending on experience " for each position. The higher salary makes for a…

Depends on how your work and code base is organized.

In my pair programming jobs, we've usually been able to onboard people to be fully productive in a few weeks.

Re: Cardiff tech firm: 'We'll pay £100k, but can't get staff'

#43

Post by EnderMB » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 4:11 PM UTC

So, has MyPinPad actually tried raising their salary offering to £100k? I find it very hard to believe they have, because that would be well-above the average for the area. In relation to standard Web Developer roles, it'd be over double what I could expect in Cardiff for a mid-to-senior level role.

Their website currently says "up to £60k", and in my experience companies that say "up to" will rarely go to that number unless the candidate is very/over qualified, in which case that candidate has zero potential for growth and will have a hard time getting an annual raise unless things go brilliantly.

MyPinPad look like a reasonably large company, so their salary offering right now is probably average or above, but the article itself is absolute crap. If MyPinPad were to offer £100k for their Services Developer role I'd beat their door down for an interview. It's double what I'm getting in Bristol right now, I have C# and non-CLR expeirence, and the commute would be worth it. Hell, for that money I could drive in, pay an obscene amount for parking and still be ahead!

I don't buy for a second that they have failed to get devs in when offering £100k. Either they're full of shit, or they are terrible at advertising roles.

Re: Cardiff tech firm: 'We'll pay £100k, but can't get staff'

#44

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 4:12 PM UTC

jfindley wrote: post #13

I am continually amazed at the cynical attempt by hiring managers to try to pretend that the laws of supply and demand shouldn't apply to non-exec level staff. If you can't hire the people you want for what you're offering that should be a signal to pay more, not to whine that you can't force your idea of a reasonable wage on others.

[deleted]

Re: Cardiff tech firm: 'We'll pay £100k, but can't get staff'

#45

Post by wmonk » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 4:12 PM UTC

dvdcxn wrote: post #30

mattlondon wrote: post #10

In the article they say they are offering London salaries. Fine. But Cardiff is not the same as London ! London is huge comapred to Cardiff. Cardiff has about 500,000 people in its urban area compared to 10,000,000 in London, and Cardiff is about 30 square miles compared to almost 700 square miles for London [1]. As such London just has a lot more going on - theatre, museums, nightlife, restaurants, sports, shopping,…

You're projecting your own perception onto others. Let me raise a counterpoint, the cost of living in Cardiff is vastly less than the, frankly, over inflated prices in London. I'm going to reuse your tone here - who would give up Cardiff to go to London to get the same Salary but pay twice as much for rent? I'd raise another point as well - you're assuming people prefer the art and culture scene in London in comparis…

> who would give up Cardiff to go to London to get the same Salary but pay twice as much for rent?

Clearly nobody... which is what they are talking about in the article.

Re: Cardiff tech firm: 'We'll pay £100k, but can't get staff'

#46

Post by CalRobert » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 4:13 PM UTC

So.... pay more then. Does the city say "we'll pay 100k but can't get quants"? Or do they pay market rate?

If they can't pay more, perhaps other people have found ways to make more profitable use of their engineers' time, in which case their business is not viable.

Re: Cardiff tech firm: 'We'll pay £100k, but can't get staff'

#47

Post by BurningFrog » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 4:14 PM UTC

jfindley wrote: post #13

I am continually amazed at the cynical attempt by hiring managers to try to pretend that the laws of supply and demand shouldn't apply to non-exec level staff. If you can't hire the people you want for what you're offering that should be a signal to pay more, not to whine that you can't force your idea of a reasonable wage on others.

True. On the other hand, there are hard limits to what companies can afford to pay their employees. Related to the same supply and demand laws.

Re: Cardiff tech firm: 'We'll pay £100k, but can't get staff'

#48

Post by DrNuke » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 4:14 PM UTC

mattlondon wrote: post #10

In the article they say they are offering London salaries. Fine. But Cardiff is not the same as London ! London is huge comapred to Cardiff. Cardiff has about 500,000 people in its urban area compared to 10,000,000 in London, and Cardiff is about 30 square miles compared to almost 700 square miles for London [1]. As such London just has a lot more going on - theatre, museums, nightlife, restaurants, sports, shopping,…

> London is huge compared to Cardiff

Yes, so many more rats running the same race on the same overcrowded facilities? Cardiff is a nice city and the same London money is worth two times more there.

Re: Cardiff tech firm: 'We'll pay £100k, but can't get staff'

#49

Post by ashelmire » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 4:15 PM UTC

choot wrote: post #34

leed25d wrote: post #2

Can't get staff? What a shame. Would you consider starting some kind of training policy?

I wonder if training works for developers. I've never seen any company offering developer training, so i assumed training developers doesn't work.

If there's a junior in the job title, it means they train developers.

Re: Cardiff tech firm: 'We'll pay £100k, but can't get staff'

#50

Post by skybrian » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 4:16 PM UTC

jfindley wrote: post #13

I am continually amazed at the cynical attempt by hiring managers to try to pretend that the laws of supply and demand shouldn't apply to non-exec level staff. If you can't hire the people you want for what you're offering that should be a signal to pay more, not to whine that you can't force your idea of a reasonable wage on others.

Job offers aren't a liquid market. Publicity is still needed or people won't find out about the job. It can be hard to tell whether the problem is with the job offer or word not getting out.

Getting a story in the BBC and on Hacker News might help, though.