Ask HN: What salary to expect in London?

11 points by sun123 7 years ago | 9 comments

Hi, I'm from India working with one of the "Digital Transformation" consultancy. I have little more than ten years experience. I work with clients to help transform their legacy architecture. I work with some of the newer technology stacks ( think micro-services based, Java 8 , Spring Cloud, Node.js (hapi, loopback), Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines etc.,)

Right now I'm being offered a transfer to our London office. They are offering me around 47,000 pounds. I personally think this is less, but I don't have any figure to anchor on. Is this figure less or is it decent ? Should I negotiate for more ? What is considered a decent figure ?

tinktank 7 years ago |

They are getting you cheap and you should be aware that this is a common tactic in the UK. They know you will not know going rate/be willing to take a paycut to get into the UK so your best bet would be to (1) work out how much you care about being in the UK [i.e. are you willing to work for below market rate] and (2) find comparable other jobs and come back to them saying the market seems to say differently. Be aware London is hideously expensive so budget appropriately.

tinktank 7 years ago | |

One additional point I'll make -- if the company baulks or treats you poorly if you ask for market-rate think long and hard about whether you want to work for them. It usually indicates a toxic internal culture.

EnderMB 7 years ago |

That is extremely low for London. That's the salary I'd expect in Bristol, and compared to the rest of the country London is probably a good £15-20k on top of that.

With all that being said, salaries are pretty low in the UK right now, and in my opinion they seem to be getting lower as companies look to hire less experienced developers on cheaper salaries.

I reckon £60k is probably the minimum you should aim for, otherwise you'd be underselling yourself.

spoonie 7 years ago |

I was making GBP 43,000 at a very small non-software company with about 4 years of experience during 2014-2016. I’d say you’re definitely underpaid at that rate. I considered myself to be paid below market at the time.

obayesshelton 7 years ago |

I would say that is less than the going rate. Look at salaries for DevOps in London I would say more like £60k-80k

alimw 7 years ago |

£47000 will put you in the eightieth percentile of London earners.

aiwabdn 7 years ago |

I moved to London from India to do a masters and then found a job. The market definitely tries to capitalise on the visa requirement. They will try to get you at lower salaries, £40-50k. That being said, comparing it with the US market is quite unfair. At £50k you will have a comfortable life. But given you have 10 years of experience, you should definitely push for more. The other option would be to move here and find a better paying job.

kleer001 7 years ago |

check out glassdoor.com , they're not perfect, but a little is better than nothing

badpun 7 years ago | |

> glassdoor.com , they're not perfect, but a little is better than nothing

haha, that is so accurate.