Questions about Irish IT job market for a foreigner

AnxM

Hi everybody!


I'm a software engineer in his early thirties from France (with a French IT university degree and a few years of professional experience in France), and I'm thinking about working in your beautiful country, the Emerald Isle. I have some questions about the Irish job market (sorry if they have already been answered, if so, please direct me to the relevant threads):

1) Is it feasible for a young engineer with no Irish/UK college degree nor previous Irish/UK job experience to make it in the Irish job market?
By comparison, I know for example that in North America, any foreign university degree or professional experience is necessarily considered utter crap by US and Canadian employers, and actually if you don't hold any North American diploma or job experience, it's bloody hard to find a decent work in your field of expertise. In Canada, there are scores of qualified foreign engineers, architects etc. who end up as taxi drivers or flipping burgers at McDonald's for a living and have to start over from scratch at the very bottom of the social ladder.
Is it the same situation in Ireland, or does a skilled immigrant really stand a chance to obtain a decent job in his field without any previous Irish/UK experience or diploma?

2) Generally speaking, are job market practices in Ireland similar to those in North America? For instance, is it common to :
- hire a new employee "instantly", i.e. with only a verbal contract?
- fire an employee "instantly", i.e. to tell him to leave the company's premises immediately, without any notice?
- hire someone without the proper qualifications/degrees for the job, give him a chance on the job, and fire him instantly if he doesn't suit the job?
- etc.
My guess is that the job market in Ireland is more flexible than in continental Europe, but not as flexible as in North America.


3) Is it common in Ireland for skilled people to take menial jobs if financially in need?
I mean, I know that in the United States and Canada, it is not uncommon for unemployed skilled workers (e.g. engineers, business executives etc.) to take menial/casual jobs (e.g. waiters in restaurants, taxi drivers or any unskilled/lowly skilled job) just to make a living until they find another job in their real field of expertise. It's not uncommon there either that skilled people who are being currently employed in their field take an unskilled job at night or on week-ends to get a supplementary income.
Is it the same situation in Ireland? Or is stooping to menial labour while you're a skilled professional considered degrading and not well regarded in Ireland?


4) What's the average salary a junior IT engineer (with a college degree and 3 years of experience) could expect in Ireland, especially in Dublin?
I already went through countless job offers on many Irish job/recruitment Web sites, but most of the time they only say "salary to be negotiated" or "attractive salary" which isn't of much help...


Thanks in advance for any help,
Have a nice day!


AnxM

MIN2511

Hello there,

Am going to do my best to answer most your questions..
1. Your degree would be recognised here, we have immigrants from all over who get jobs in their fields. I have heard of polish nationals who have 7 years experience an d still can’t get jobs in Ireland; in their case I think English(verbal and written) would be their problem but from your thread you don’t have a problem.
2. Job market is similar but I would say not as brutal as America, a lot of IT companies here are American. You have to read your contract and negotiate it, it’s normally a 6 months probation period.
3. Would come back to this question
4. Salary; 32-38k there are threads on salaries her have a look at those.

easyontheeye

yeah just to backup the last poster,

employment laws are alittle better here than in the US. ok, during your probation period you can be let go at little notice but once this ends its alot more controlled.

with 3 years experience stop referring to yourself as a junior, i wouldnt see yourself as a juinor engineer. Also i have worked with lots of europeans (many french) within the IT and telecoms sector. salary wise with 3 yrs exp, you would be looking from 38k -45k in most cases 40k+ from my experience

newestUser

I don't think you'd have problems finding work, there are plenty of foreign national programmers working in Ireland. Racism isn't as prevalent in the software industry in Ireland as it might be in other sectors.

And, please stop making derogatory references to minimum wage jobs (ie working at the bottom of the social ladder, people stooping to menial work, etc.), I find it offensive.

Jumpy

newestUser wrote: »

I don't think you'd have problems finding work, there are plenty of foreign national programmers working in Ireland. Racism isn't as prevalent in the software industry in Ireland as it might be in other sectors.

And, please stop making derogatory references to minimum wage jobs (ie working at the bottom of the social ladder, people stooping to menial work, etc.), I find it offensive.

He was asking, not stating.

newestUser

AnxM wrote: »

1) In Canada, there are scores of qualified foreign engineers, architects etc. who end up as taxi drivers or flipping burgers at McDonald's for a living and have to start over from scratch at the very bottom of the social ladder.

AnxM wrote: »

stooping to menial labour while you're a skilled professional

Sounds like he's already got an opinion.

AnxM

Gentlemen,



Thank you very much for all your replies!
I appreciate very much your answers and insight!

And sorry if I offended some of you regarding unskilled work. I can assure you I don't have any contempt for unskilled labour. Nevertheless I admit I should have said "resorting to unskilled labour while you're a skilled professional".

So I think I'm going to try to move to Ireland and join the Irish IT workforce. And enjoy lots of pints of Guinness by the way.

Long live Ireland!


AnxM