Scala salaries

[Pere Villega]

Hi,

apologies if you believe the question doesn't fit the group.

I finished a selection process for a position of Senior Java/Scala dev (7+ year of experience) in London and I was unpleasantly surprised when the offer they extended was substantially below the average salaries I've seen mentioned around on other offers.

If it's not a big deal, I would like to know the ranges that some of you consider normal for a senior dev (7+ years experience in Java and with practical Scala knowledge) in London city itself. I'm aware individual experience may change the values a bit, but I dont expect variations of over 50% and I would like to have an additional source of reference besides the ones I've already seen.

Best regards,

Pere Villega

[Peter Pilgrim]

Hi Pere

It is the Consultants answer, "Well, it [always] depends".
What is the industry? What sector? Banking still seems to pay the
most. However some media and software house seem to be catching up as
contractor rates are cut by 10% then another 10% then another 10%

On 25 October 2012 13:15, Pere Villega <arac...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> apologies if you believe the question doesn't fit the group.
>
> I finished a selection process for a position of Senior Java/Scala dev (7+
> year of experience) in London and I was unpleasantly surprised when the
> offer they extended was substantially below the average salaries I've seen
> mentioned around on other offers.
>

Did you accept the job offer?

> If it's not a big deal, I would like to know the ranges that some of you
> consider normal for a senior dev (7+ years experience in Java and with
> practical Scala knowledge) in London city itself. I'm aware individual
> experience may change the values a bit, but I dont expect variations of over
> 50% and I would like to have an additional source of reference besides the
> ones I've already seen.

You and me both.

Unfortunately the variation is going to be 50% or so. It is fair to
say that it wide and varying for permanent 40K to 90K and repeats on
the contracting side. At the top, as I said, it depends on the
business sector.

For a city worker at an investment bank I would expect myself around
the 55K for 7 year good, better than average, comfortable and
knowledge Java JEE, Spring Framework, JPA, Hibernate, XML, Server
side, Unit tests only software engineer and they know know their
skills around technical and object oriented design.

If you happen to know any of the 100K+ developers or the 700+ per day
contractors, please interview them for me (us)!!!

Good luck

>
> Best regards,
> Pere Villega
>
>



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[Kevin Wright]

It also depends on the exact role, and whether or not the company is a startup.

If you're getting equity or options, then a lower salary is the norm.

[Andy Hicks]

Hi Pere

Personally I think pay is a very simplistic was of looking at a job, how much are each of is this worth to you

- Flexi hours

- Working from home

- Not having an over zealous network security team

- stress free office

- Interesting work

- not being in desk 52, row 96 have some advantages

- bla, bla 

Also there is a big difference between banking and other areas, so the big mega-bucks sums are normally in banks, if you work for a company that looks after stranded kittens than you may not have to pay as much.

Andy

  

On 25 October 2012 13:15, Pere Villega <arac...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Nick Kasvosve]

I would expect a higher salary than an equivalent Java position. Scala simply demands more intelligence than Java.

Don't compromise my friend, ask for more.

Nick

[Andy Hicks]

The higher salary for java may not be true. Given the  choice between a Java job with no prospects of moving to scala and one paying less but with lots of scala. I know what I would pick.

[Matthew Tyler]

Hi,

I would say anywhere between £35k to £150k+ if you are a quant developer at a hedge fund.

If you aren't going to accept the role how about naming and shaming or at least giving us an idea of the nature of the role.

Unfortunately for us Scala advocates in London there aren't that many roles out there or at least they aren't being advertised.

Matt.

[Peter Pilgrim]

On 25 October 2012 13:58, Nick Kasvosve <nkas...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I would expect a higher salary than an equivalent Java position. Scala
> simply demands more intelligence than Java.

With the Keynesian economical model I would agree. Recruitment and
bias and management tend to skew the concept a lot. A lot of this is
the perspective of what value is software developer to the business.
Certainly not at all comparable to brain surgery ;-/

> Don't compromise my friend, ask for more.
>

--
Peter Pilgrim,

[Pere Villega]

Thanks for all the quick answers :)

I won't name and shame, although it's tempting I believe is not worth it. And yes, I rejected the offer. 

I agree with some opinions here that wage is not the only thing that matters, but I was offered 45k ... a bit too low for my comfort, specially for London given the cost of live in the city. I can accept less salary for perks and the option to work with great technology (and the company looked really great, I really wanted to join), but I calculated a minimum of around 60k to be able to live comfortably (my wife has no job right now, finishing PhD).

Seeing the ranges you mention, I believe 60-65k is not so out of the market as they tried to let me think, and it fits what I've seen around. 

Honestly disappointed, I really wanted it (working with Play 2 + scala is my aspiration)  and I believe I was a good fit given my involvement in Play, but...

Thanks a million for your answers! Hopefully some other option will work out and I'll be able to join you in some Scala meetup soon ;)

Cheers,

Pere

[Mikhail Krivoshein]

I don't believe number of years translates into salary quite well. It
is more about skills you managed to acquire and experiences you had on
your path.

Best regards,
Mikhail Krivoshein

[Richard Gomes]

A good source of information, IMHO is itjobswatch.co.uk

http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk/scala.do

Cheers

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[Matthew Tyler]

Some employers will base any offer on your current salary which I feel is a little unfair.

Going off topic does have a resource that lists companies that are using Scala in London?

Matt.

[Richard Gomes]

It's definitely unfair.
They simply apply a magic number and that's it.
It does not mean anything, actually, and do not measure the effort or
potential to achieve results you may have.

[bryan hunt]

Your talk of unfair salaries makes me laugh, life is unfair my friend.

All they know of a potential candidate is:

a) Talk, idle talk.

b) What your previous employer was willing to pay rather than
replacing you with a more compelling prospect.

Unfair is working in a slave labour camp.

Fair is selling your skills for the maximum achievable sum.

If you sell for less, the failure is entirely yours.

The council/local government employ a 'fair' compensation scheme.

[bryan hunt]

He is taking a big cut, and they have correspondingly adjusted the salary downwards.

On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 5:27 PM, Pere Villega <arac...@gmail.com> wrote:

As a small update, got today an email of a recruiter, "top media company in Central London"  offering 40£/year as a senior scala dev... what's going on in the market? :o

On Thursday, October 25, 2012 1:15:45 PM UTC+1, Pere Villega wrote:

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