Getting an IT job in Ireland

chapel976

Hi there.
So, I've been a systems engineer in the States for about 6 years and been in the IT trade for 11.

Without knowing anything about the current market in IT, how would you say the IT landscape is in Ireland? Oversaturated? Underexperienced? Just right?

CiaranC

chapel976 wrote: »

Hi there.
So, I've been a systems engineer in the States for about 6 years and been in the IT trade for 11.

Without knowing anything about the current market in IT, how would you say the IT landscape is in Ireland? Oversaturated? Underexperienced? Just right?

Loads of work here. A visa will be your biggest obstacle.

chapel976

CiaranC wrote: »

Loads of work here. A visa will be your biggest obstacle.

yeah, that's been my next quandry after determining the landscape.

I was hoping that if I moved to Ireland, I'd simply relocate altogether with the family. Right now I'm making $85k USD as an IT Support staffer with extensive knowledge of Exchange (up to 2010), MS Server and Cisco networking.

Scráib

I'm not sure if you'll get it through in time but this job might be suitable for you.

The problem is the deadline, tomorrow the 5th. I've seen the application form, it's big!

chapel976

Scráib wrote: »

I'm not sure if you'll get it through in time but this job might be suitable for you.

The problem is the deadline, tomorrow the 5th. I've seen the application form, it's big!

thanks
it's probably not something I plan on doing for a few years at this point, I'd just wanted to get started looking into the potential for it.

dan_d

I'm no IT expert but I am job hunting and a lot of the jobs seem to be IT.

Check out these sites....

www.irishjobs.ie
www.recruitireland.ie
www.jobs.ie

They advertise a lot of jobs that are being advertised by different recruitment agencies and companies in one place. There are more websites out there. You'll probably understand the language in the IT job descriptions...I don't! But it might give you an idea.

chapel976

thanks!

I'll look into it. With the mess our country is in, my wife and I have been seriously considering bailing out to Ireland.

Sucks, because I have a really good job with good pay and great benefits... but the direction this country is going in makes me want to get out while the getting is good.

what's a reasonable salary to own a house in Ireland with a wife and kid anyway?

I'm just squeaking by here with $72,000 year in a $200,000 house

RedXIV

Wait and see what the Budget does first if it sucks, move to Germany instead

Realistically though, IT sector is still going strong, with your experience, its hard to imagine you not getting work

chapel976

RedXIV wrote: »

Wait and see what the Budget does first if it sucks, move to Germany instead

Realistically though, IT sector is still going strong, with your experience, its hard to imagine you not getting work

that's good to know. I can't expect leaving here until at least the next election.

still trying to understand what's going on with your country in terms of it's economy

RedXIV

chapel976 wrote: »

that's good to know. I can't expect leaving here until at least the next election.

still trying to understand what's going on with your country in terms of it's economy

Join the club!

Seriously, no one here has a clue. especially those in charge

chapel976

RedXIV wrote: »

Join the club!

Seriously, no one here has a clue. especially those in charge

like, my country is TRILLIONS of dollars in debt (primarily to the Chinese) yet for some reason we're not requiring a bailout.

I don't quite understand... is the Euro collapsing already?

at least you guys have an entire union of countries supporting you, we're in debt to tons of foreign creditors on the arm... it's ridiculous.

I work IT in the financial industry and I can't make heads or tails of it.

chapel976

also, do you know of a salary estimator for Ireland?
like, I plug in my years of experience and my job title and it'll give me a rundown of what the average pay is?
in America we use 'salary.com'

Raekwon

chapel976 wrote: »

I'll look into it. With the mess our country is in, my wife and I have been seriously considering bailing out to Ireland.

Sucks, because I have a really good job with good pay and great benefits... but the direction this country is going in makes me want to get out while the getting is good.

I don't mean to be a wet blanket here but the majority of the posters have been overly positive so far and I don't think that they have given you a fair reflection on Ireland's current situation.

The truth is that IT is not as strong as people are letting on, okay the development side of things are healthy enough so if you know Java, .Net, etc then you shouldn't have too much trouble landing a job. On the other hand Systems Engineering isn't quite as healthy and I've gone on a few courses recently and meet a good few unemployed System Engineers, one of whom was in his 50's and who had 30 years experience.

Plus of course Ireland's economy is totally up in the air right now and nobody knows what the next 12 months will bring. The bottom line is as we currently stand we have nearly 500,000 people unemployed with hundreds of companies are pulling out of here leaving thousands of people no choice but to emigrate. IMO you would be mad to come here.

chapel976 wrote: »

what's a reasonable salary to own a house in Ireland with a wife and kid anyway?

I'm just squeaking by here with $72,000 year in a $200,000 house

So you earned less then €60,000 per year and had a house worth alittle over €150,000?

Well for starters house prices are more then double that in Ireland (especially in Dublin where most of the jobs are). Check out Daft.ie for more information on that. Renting could be an option of course but once you are close to any major city the prices start to get silly. For example, I rent a tiny one bedroom apartment in Dublin city centre and I pay €1,000 ($1,300) for it per month and that doesn't include any bills.

Your salary should probably be around about the same that you are on now but I'd say in this current climate a Systems Engineer with 6 years in that role would be looking at just over the €50,000 mark. You can check it on this site for verification.

Plus when you consider that the cost of living is way higher in Ireland compared to the US then it actually makes it a no brainer to either stay put or find a more economic stable country to move to.

chapel976

Raekwon wrote: »

I don't mean to be a wet blanket here but the majority of the posters have been overly positive so far and I don't think that they have given you a fair reflection on Ireland's current situation.

The truth is that IT is not as strong as people are letting on, okay the development side of things are healthy enough so if you know Java, .Net, etc then you shouldn't have too much trouble landing a job. On the other hand Systems Engineering isn't quite as healthy and I've gone on a few courses recently and meet a good few unemployed System Engineers, one of whom was in his 50's and who had 30 years experience.

Plus of course Ireland's economy is totally up in the air right now and nobody knows what the next 12 months will bring. The bottom line is as we currently stand we have nearly 500,000 people unemployed with hundreds of companies are pulling out of here leaving thousands of people no choice but to emigrate. IMO you would be mad to come here.



So you earned less then €60,000 per year and had a house worth alittle over €150,000?

Well for starters house prices are more then double that in Ireland (especially in Dublin where most of the jobs are). Check out Daft.ie for more information on that. Renting could be an option of course but once you are close to any major city the prices start to get silly. For example, I rent a tiny one bedroom apartment in Dublin city centre and I pay €1,000 ($1,300) for it per month and that doesn't include any bills.

Your salary should probably be around about the same that you are on now but I'd say in this current climate a Systems Engineer with 6 years in that role would be looking at just over the €50,000 mark. You can check it on this site for verification.

Plus when you consider that the cost of living is way higher in Ireland compared to the US then it actually makes it a no brainer to either stay put or find a more economic stable country to move to.

thanks, that's what I needed to hear. Maybe I'll save up a bit longer here and keep an eye on the economy.

the house I live in now is about 25 miles from my job in Boston, so i take the train every day. I don't mind living out of town and commuting by train at all.

The cost of housing was the big question, as was the base salary
Maybe when my son is a little older and my wife is back to work I can consider it.

professore

Raekwon wrote: »

Plus when you consider that the cost of living is way higher in Ireland compared to the US then it actually makes it a no brainer to either stay put or find a more economic stable country to move to.

I would disagree with this last bit. Taxes are lower here (for now), also if the OP has a family he will find it cheaper here, I have a friend in Chicago and any sports clubs or outings for the kids costs $000's a year.

chapel976

the cost of living in New England (particularly within 50 miles of Boston in the 128 Loop) is astronomical.

my current mortgage payment is about $1600 a month (including my property tax)

If I wanted to live outside the 128 loop or even in Southern New Hampshire, $200,000 would have bought me an acre of land and an 1800sq ft house

not sure what your income tax is there... but here I make $2700 gross for 80 hours of work (2 weeks)
out of that, $250 goes to Federal income tax
$40 to Medicare
$170 to Social Security
$130 to State Income tax

so, 22% gets yanked right out from every check

Raekwon

Our current income tax (at the moment as it is set to rise considerably in 2011) is as follows:

Single & Widowed Persons: No Dependent Children
20% on first €36,400 ($47,437)
41% on balance

Single & Widowed Persons: Dependent Children
20% on first €40,400 ($52,630)
41% on balance

Married Couples: One Income
20% on first €45,400 ($59,138)
41% on balance

Married Couples: Two Incomes*
20% on first €72,800 ($94,826)
* Excess over € 45,400 ($59,138) non transferable between spouses

You can read more about it here and here and you can calculate the tax here

professore wrote: »

I would disagree with this last bit. Taxes are lower here (for now), also if the OP has a family he will find it cheaper here, I have a friend in Chicago and any sports clubs or outings for the kids costs $000's a year.

I'm not a parent so I cannot comment on the cost of raising children in any country but if you compare Dublin to Boston then Boston is cheaper in everything expect rental properties and property maintenance (although buying property is much cheaper). And considering that the wages are better stateside I'd say the difference in overall living standards are very noticeable.

chapel976

wow, your utilities are over half the cost of ours

What areas outside of Dublin are train accessible to Dublin?

CiaranC

The cost of living has plunged in Dublin over the last two years, Raekwons comparison site is way out Id say. Ive spent the last couple of years living in Canada and Oz and cant believe how cheap it is here in comparison.

Also, beware of Irish people who dont bother shopping around for a reasonable price on things and then proceed to complain that they are too expensive. I pay 25% less than he does for a nice apartment in Dublin city centre.

That said, the long term economic outlook is quite gloomy here now. Would be hard to advise anyone with kids to come here to make a life.

chapel976

at this point, it's more for future reference.

I think the thing I need to find out is where all the jobs are
where the affordable housing is
where the commuter rail is in relation to the affordable housing.


I have a hard time understanding how the rail system there works, how much a monthly pass costs, etc...

Also, what other expenditures come out of your paychecks?
You guys have a public health care system, right? Any reason to have private health insurance? I'm one of the lucky Americans that have their Health insurance paid for 100% by our company

kiersm

We have a public health service here but its a bit of a joke. You do need to have private health insurance. I'm married and have private health insurance from a company called VHI they are expensive enuff at bout €33 a week for two of us but that is a subsidised one. I find the public transport system here also not great If you dont live on a direct bus route it can be a problem. www.buseireann.ie is the national bus company but if you're plannign on living in Dublin its dublin bus. I live in Limerick and drive my car to work but i'm v lucky and only have a 5 mile commute which only takes me approx 15 mins and a really bad day would be 25 mins.

Jobs seem to be very hard to find here so am not too sure how you wud get on. As regards your child the education system here is fairly good and seems to give fairly good results for most children. I dont have children myself but I have a few nephews and nieces and their parents dont seem to have too many complaints other than class sizes which are about 30ish children per class.

Hope this info helps

chapel976

kiersm wrote: »

they are expensive enuff at bout €33 a week for two of us but that is a subsidised one.

... that's not expensive at all compared to here. I was paying almost $500USD a month with my old company who subsidized 80% of the total cost. that $500 was the coverage for just my wife and I... once we had the family plan it was going to be $800/month. That's why I quit my last job.

kiersm wrote: »

I find the public transport system here also not great If you dont live on a direct bus route it can be a problem. www.buseireann.ie is the national bus company but if you're plannign on living in Dublin its dublin bus. I live in Limerick and drive my car to work but i'm v lucky and only have a 5 mile commute which only takes me approx 15 mins and a really bad day would be 25 mins.

What about commuter rail though? Right now I enjoy walking to my local train station and sitting comfortably on the train for the 30 mile trip.
My monthly pass (which includes subway and bus) is $168 from my zone

kiersm wrote: »

Jobs seem to be very hard to find here so am not too sure how you wud get on. As regards your child the education system here is fairly good and seems to give fairly good results for most children. I dont have children myself but I have a few nephews and nieces and their parents dont seem to have too many complaints other than class sizes which are about 30ish children per class.

Hope this info helps

American education is a joke these days... unless you pay for expensive private (and mostly secular) schooling.

Raekwon

CiaranC wrote: »

The cost of living has plunged in Dublin over the last two years, Raekwons comparison site is way out Id say. Ive spent the last couple of years living in Canada and Oz and cant believe how cheap it is here in comparison.

Also, beware of Irish people who dont bother shopping around for a reasonable price on things and then proceed to complain that they are too expensive. I pay 25% less than he does for a nice apartment in Dublin city centre.

That said, the long term economic outlook is quite gloomy here now. Would be hard to advise anyone with kids to come here to make a life.

So it's a nit-picking contest now is it? Okay fair enough.

The cost of living has not plunged over the last few years in comparison to the sharp drop in wages which reflect the cost of living overall. For example my weekly food shopping bill is the exact same today as it was in 2006. Ditto the price of a night out (restaurant, alcohol, cinema, etc), transport, clothing, consumer goods, mobile phone bill, car insurance, petrol prices etc, etc, etc....... have not dropped significantly in price to reflect the downturn that has resulted in huge amount of people out of work or taking large salary cuts.

Also FYI the apartment I rent is a 2 minute walk from St. Stephens Green LUAS stop and I have all the amenities on my door step so €1,000 per month is a fair figure in that regard as you get what you pay for. Btw looking at Daft.ie right now you will see that €1,000 is the perfect figure to use as a gauge as you can get apartments from €750 upto €1,250 depending on location, size and quality.

Finally there is not "loads of work here" as you stated in your first post on this thread. IT is one of the healthier industries but its hardly booming right now and the people who are lucky to have a job right now are hardly secure in them. Just because you were absolutely blessed to get a job a few weeks after returning from abroad does not mean that everyone has had your luck. The jobless figures are high for a reason plus they do not take into consideration the thousands of people who emigrated or when back to full-time education. Please look at the bigger picture before making such bold statements.

Raekwon

OP I completely missed the post that I am quoting below as I initially read that you were earning $72k but I didn't realise that that was after tax.

chapel976 wrote: »

Right now I'm making $85k USD as an IT Support staffer with extensive knowledge of Exchange (up to 2010), MS Server and Cisco networking.

$85k (€65k) is a massive amount of money for IT support staff no matter what your experience is. You would be lucky to be on half of that in Ireland as most support roles paid between €30k-€40k during boom times and much less now. Also IT support had the most casualties from the downturn and as a result these positions are now very hard to find unless you can speaking a foreign language. Also alot of these roles are now WPP which means you work for a social welfare payment (ie: €196 per week now but possibly €180 after the budget) for upto 9 months, see here.

chapel976

Raekwon wrote: »

OP I completely missed the post that I am quoting below as I initially read that you were earning $72k but I didn't realise that that was after tax.



$85k (€65k) is a massive amount of money for IT support staff no matter what your experience is. You would be lucky to be on half of that in Ireland as most support roles paid between €30k-€40k during boom times and much less now. Also IT support had the most casualties from the downturn and as a result these positions are now very hard to find unless you can speaking a foreign language. Also alot of these roles are now WPP which means you work for a social welfare payment (ie: €196 per week now but possibly €180 after the budget) for upto 9 months, see here.

my pay rate is kinda weird
I make $72k base GROSS (before taxes)
I qualify for an annual bonus every year that is between 5 and 25% (last year I made 18%)

Also, while I do primarily work in Support NOW, I am a qualified systems and network engineer with 7 years experience as an engineer... not just a helpdesk monkey
.

joe123

Ok im confused because myself and alot of my friends graduated in the last few years and hardly any of us can get jobs in IT. So dont know what your all so positive about.

chapel976

joe123 wrote: »

Ok im confused because myself and alot of my friends graduated in the last few years and hardly any of us can get jobs in IT. So dont know what your all so positive about.

The difference is experience
When I was first out of school I couldn't find a job anywhere in IT. I ended up working at a computer retailer as the lead technician with a bunch of high school kids.
After that I worked for Dell under contract.
After that I got a job as the IT guy for a car dealership network with 8 sites in 2 states. That's where I got all my engineering experience (setting up point-to-points, PIX firewalls, 1700 and 2600 series routers, 2900 series switches, Dell Powerconnect switches, Poweredge Servers. Installing and maintaining a Windows Server 2003 network and active directory, Exchange 2003 setup and maintenance, Database creation and maintenance, Websense Server creation, integration and monitoring, inventory management systems, websites, maintenance of an existing Nortel phone network and implementation of a new ShoreTel VOIP system... planning and infrastructure construction of 3 new buildings...
and then after all that's done, helping end users with their stupid problems

runawaybishop

There are plenty of jobs, but you will be paid peanuts and you are pretty much forced to work in Dublin if you want to have a decent choice of positions. Ive lost track of the amount of times i went looking on job websites and turned off my pc in disgust after seeing advertisements looking for someone with 5-10 years admin experience and offering them what amounts to unemployment benefit wages.

Raekwon

chapel976 wrote: »

my pay rate is kinda weird
I make $72k base GROSS (before taxes)
I qualify for an annual bonus every year that is between 5 and 25% (last year I made 18%)

That is an incredibly good salary to be on and considering that it is more then double of what somebody would get paid in Ireland and comparing the cost of housing in Ireland, which is double of what they are where you live.............I actually think that it speaks for itself. Ireland would be last place to look for work IMO.

chapel976 wrote: »

Also, while I do primarily work in Support NOW, I am a qualified systems and network engineer with 7 years experience as an engineer... not just a helpdesk monkey.

Yeah I understand what you mean, but there are people with master degrees working in low end tech support roles in Ireland just to get by. I myself have 6 years experience in IT Support/Administration/Network Engineering and have a A+/Network+, MCSA:Messaging, MCIPT, CCNA, ITIL v3 and recently got a VCP but am still finding it hard going in Dublin. There are simply too many people competing for the same roles plus the money is down right insulting in most cases.

chapel976

yeah.
I was that way with my previous job. I did EVERYTHING and got paid about $50k a year.
I took a job with a better company who pays benefits in full and a huge raise for a demotion (desktop support)

However with the structure here, I'm better off staying here and getting promoted from within.

guess I'll check back in 5 years time...

Morlar

chapel976 wrote: »

yeah.
I was that way with my previous job. I did EVERYTHING and got paid about $50k a year.
I took a job with a better company who pays benefits in full and a huge raise for a demotion (desktop support)

However with the structure here, I'm better off staying here and getting promoted from within.

guess I'll check back in 5 years time...

You might want to check back on boards.ie on 7th december as the hardest budget in the history of the state is likely to land on that day. All sorts of shiny new taxes and charges and increases are going to be announced then. Also just as an fyi anytime it snows here the country basically grinds to a standstill.

time42play

Another thing you mightn't realise is that health insurance here generally doesn't cover GP visits and prescription drugs. The government has a drugs payment scheme which will likely be cut back in the budget, and you'd generally pay doctor visits out of pocket.

I've a few relations in the US, one in southern NH working just off 128. His cost of living is far less than mine (suburban Dublin) for a much larger and nicer house. My goal is to escape from Ireland!

chapel976

time42play wrote: »

Another thing you mightn't realise is that health insurance here generally doesn't cover GP visits and prescription drugs. The government has a drugs payment scheme which will likely be cut back in the budget, and you'd generally pay doctor visits out of pocket.

I've a few relations in the US, one in southern NH working just off 128. His cost of living is far less than mine (suburban Dublin) for a much larger and nicer house. My goal is to escape from Ireland!

yeah, if I lived in Southern NH, I'd have a HUGE house on an acre of land at least...

Stheno

chapel976 wrote: »

at this point, it's more for future reference.

I think the thing I need to find out is where all the jobs are
where the affordable housing is
where the commuter rail is in relation to the affordable housing.


I have a hard time understanding how the rail system there works, how much a monthly pass costs, etc...

Also, what other expenditures come out of your paychecks?
You guys have a public health care system, right? Any reason to have private health insurance? I'm one of the lucky Americans that have their Health insurance paid for 100% by our company

For the cost of monthly/yearly passes go to www.irishrail.ie know where you are going from, Maynooth, Sallins and Newbridge are close to Dublin in terms of Midland towns.

However recruiters are now looking for people who live in e.g. Dublin for Dublin based roles.

You MUST have private health insurance otherwise you can wait 12 months plus for e.g. an MRI

Most of the outer suburbs of Dublin north and south are affordable in terms of renting, e.g. < 1200 a month *euros* for a three bed house.

joe123 wrote: »

Ok im confused because myself and alot of my friends graduated in the last few years and hardly any of us can get jobs in IT. So dont know what your all so positive about.

You've no experience is the problem.

chapel976 wrote: »

my pay rate is kinda weird
I make $72k base GROSS (before taxes)
I qualify for an annual bonus every year that is between 5 and 25% (last year I made 18%)

Also, while I do primarily work in Support NOW, I am a qualified systems and network engineer with 7 years experience as an engineer... not just a helpdesk monkey
.

So are you at Architect level? I'm job hunting at the moment (IT, different field) and there are several architect level jobs out there. If you have any project management experience that you can prove you'd potentially do quite well here if you are happy to contract.

time42play wrote: »

Another thing you mightn't realise is that health insurance here generally doesn't cover GP visits and prescription drugs. The government has a drugs payment scheme which will likely be cut back in the budget, and you'd generally pay doctor visits out of pocket.

I've a few relations in the US, one in southern NH working just off 128. His cost of living is far less than mine (suburban Dublin) for a much larger and nicer house. My goal is to escape from Ireland!

My Irish Health Insurance reimburses me every time I go to a doctor/outpatient service to the tune of min. 30 euro and costs me 66 euro a month (single person) The drugs payment scheme means you pay up to 120 a month for drugs and that is also tax deductible at 20% at the end of the year.

chapel976

Stheno wrote: »

So are you at Architect level? I'm job hunting at the moment (IT, different field) and there are several architect level jobs out there. If you have any project management experience that you can prove you'd potentially do quite well here if you are happy to contract.

depends on your definition of architect.
I know what a new building needs and can set up about 90% of it myself (except for pulling wires... I just won't do that on principle...)

dazberry

joe123 wrote: »

Ok im confused because myself and alot of my friends graduated in the last few years and hardly any of us can get jobs in IT. So dont know what your all so positive about.

chapel976 wrote: »

The difference is experience
When I was first out of school I couldn't find a job anywhere in IT. I ended up working at a computer retailer as the lead technician with a bunch of high school kids.
After that I worked for Dell under contract.

Stheno wrote: »

You've no experience is the problem.

In joe123's case I'd suspect the issue isn't so much to do with experience, it's to do with graduate and entry level positions - i.e. few to none. When I came out of college in the early 90s - well before the dotcom thing, there were a lot of those positions around and a lot of opportunities for people to move into some aspect of IT. The way the market has gone over the last number of years is that employers want an exact match and then whine when they can't get it. It's a shame really.

D.