Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK

Re:Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK by buserror on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @05:50AM (#9730816)

I agree; unless working for google or something, the ceiling for a super-duper dev at hiring time seems to be around 65k -- perhaps a bit more if you stay and negotiate well, but I topped up at 75k before I became a contractor.

Now, this company tax year, I invoiced 120k ex-vat so far, managed to buy a rather large amount of kit on the company (like, that 4k£ dream workstation..) and I finally have the feeling I'm getting paid what I'm worth, without having to do any politics.

I can concentrate on pure engineering, and I don't have to ponder whether I should become some sort of 'manager' to crack up the engineer pay ceiling.

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Re:Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK by Peroni on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @06:25AM (#9730903)

>the ceiling for a super-duper dev at hiring time seems to be around 65k

Not in London. Don't get me wrong, £65k will get you a decent developer but £60k is the starting point for good quality developers in London right now. I'm currently hiring a senior iOS developer and our aim is to hire someone around the £70k mark but I honestly think we'll need to pay more to get the calibre we need.

I've spent the last few years hiring developers in London and I also help run the HN London meet-up and based on first-hand experience along with the huge number of developers I've met through HN London, I can assure you that I'm not exaggerating the figures.

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Re:Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK by buserror on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @06:38AM (#9730936)

Oh I'm sure in London it's likely to be the case, but I'm around the Thames Valley here. Just the train ticket to London offsets any gain I would have made tho :-)

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