England's Tech Industry?

I've been lightly toying with the idea of spending a year or two in england - getting a job, the whole nine yards.  I'm a highly skilled vb.net developer - but does anyone know what the tech industry in england is like? Is it hard to find jobs? Anyone have experience moving from the US to England?

Any info or resources?

Thanks!

do you like paying taxes, mate?

Generally speaking:

People in England get paid more for what they do.

However, they pay more tax, and everything in the UK costs more than it does in the US  (up to a factor of two with software).

For earning a decent amount, and that is highly possible if you are a vb.net developer, you will want to look at contracting somewhere in London.  Getting a contracting job on £250-£300 ($500-$600) per day is about the bottom of the pay scale there for a contractor (~£75,000 or $150,000 per year).

Yep I agree blowdart, taking into consideration taxes and cost of living I think US and UK are pretty much similar.

I am currently contracting for around £300 a day in London, I'm at a fairly small company  and have had offers from banks etc ranging from £350 - £400, just for C#, ASP.Net Sql Server skills etc.

SharePoint is big at the moment as is BizTalk expereience, so developer to consultant in that area range from £400 - £650 per day respectivly with experienced consultants demanding the top wack.

I started on £170 a day just to get out of permanent and into contract and quickly moved up to £200, £250, £300 etc as I gained more experience.

And as blowdart says, I can't see this being sustained for much longer especially as C#, ASP.Net etc become commodity skills (if they arn't already) 

Also contracting can be complicated and risky here, and you really do need to have some kind of business knowledge or be prepared to learn very quickly about running a limited company. I do get away with paying as less tax as possible and there is definately a tax gain when getting a decent accountant to run your finances.  I mean everything you earn over £38k here gets taxed at 40% and just being able to get round that is a god send, for contracting last year bottom to middle market rates I earned around £70k.

What I'm looking to do to make some real money is make the leap from a one man limited company to a proper fully staffed consultancy, but that's never going to be easy!

IMO to make any decent money as a permie in the UK you need to work bloody hard and get many many years proven quality experience behind you otherwise you will be sitting at £30k maybe £40k a year even going down to £20-£25k a year for juniors (or people that can't bve bothered).

Anyway that's my experience of the UK job market.

blowdart wrote:



leeappdalecom wrote:  What I'm looking to do to make some real money is make the leap from a one man limited company to a proper fully staffed consultancy, but that's never going to be easy!

Actually my employer is recruiting ....

eagle wrote:



....and the origins of global warming.

Also, I hear that the English eat babies!

I try to eat a baby a day. Ask yourself - who is the monster? Me? the baby eating monster? Or is it society that is the real monster for denying me babies? hmm?

Tensor wrote:



I try to eat a baby a day. Ask yourself - who is the monster? Me? the baby eating monster? Or is it society that is the real monster for denying me babies? hmm?

What about Ireland?  Any general thoughts on tech employment in either north or south?

I recently realised I have dual Canadian/British citizenship, and am trying to build up the cojones to leave to the UK or Ireland for work.  I have some family there, and am looking for a new challenge...

Thoughts on Ireland?

Ireland is pretty simuilar to england except the wages and cost of living are a bit lower.

When you say England, do you mean the UK?

Skriker V1.0 wrote:

When you say England, do you mean the UK?