Thinking of moving

Creme fraiche

Hey, similar thread to Kamyl's, he had an awesome outcome so I'm hoping for the same. I hope the mod's don't mind another post on the same topic (also didn't want to post on his thread as that seemed a little cheeky).

I'll preface this that I'm kinda scared to do a jump at the moment as I'm currently providing for myself and my partner as she goes back to college.

Background:
* I graduated with a Computer Science degree.
* I got a job straight out of college with a large Irish company (one of the top 5 websites in the country). Doing Lamp stack etc.
* I was more a generalist at the job, even helping out with developer environments, virtual servers etc. setting up developer machines for new hires etc.
* Jumped after 3 years, switched from web development to native mobile development, specialising in iOS with a top mobile consultancy in Ireland. Currently have 2.5 years experience
* All in all I have 5 and a bit experience in the industry split fairly evenly between web development and iOS.

What I do
* Work on developing iOS apps for many clients who don't have the resources to build apps these include banks, large payment providers, automotive industry titans and so on...
* Manage interns over the summer months.
* Pretty much left to my own devices on projects from start to finish.


My Problem:

My salary is 44K a year. I feel like this should be more for what I do. Unfortunately I get a lot of job offers blankly sent to me by recruiters for jobs back in web dev, or "dev ops" that ask for the same amount of experience I have, but the salaries are in the 55K-65K range.

There's three jobs that came to me recently:

* Snr iOS engineer / Head of Mobile position for a good startup (won't mention their name but something I'm definitely interested in).
* Snr iOS engineer for a financial company that's not a bank.
* iOS engineer for a musical company.

To add to my indecisiveness, one of these companies are based in the U.K. and are willing to allow remote work. I haven't the faintest idea how that would work for me based in Ireland.

I've gotten one pay rise since starting the iOS role, it was given to me and wasn't asked for by me. That was a year ago. Should I ask for another? is it too soon?

I'll finish this off by stating I love my job, enjoy what I do. But not sure I'm "Head of Mobile Development" material just yet despite ticking many if not most of the boxes on the requirements.

awec

For the remote work I think you'd need to talk to Revenue and send them forms etc, they'd work it out with HMRC to figure out your tax liabilities. Ireland and the UK have a tax treaty.

The Corinthian

You have two considerations when considering jobs - staying, moving, etc - money and career.

Of the former, the reality of IT is that 9/10 times you will need to move to get what you're worth. Even if you sought and got a raise from your current employer, do you really think you'd get one that would even come close to matching the salaries that you're being quoted? Unlikely.

IT companies will always seek to keep salaries down, and over time you'll find that the gap between what you get in most companies and the market rate will widen, until you effectively have to jump ship.

From what you say, you will see around a 25% - 50% increase in another comparable job, if you move. If you want more, then you should consider contracting or emigration - Irish salaries, given the cost of living, are quite low compared to many other Western countries.

Career-wise, there are pros and cons to what company you move to. Start-ups tend to be good where it comes to your seniority (it's easier to rise in the ranks and get yourself a flashy job title for your CV), will allow you to get your hands dirty in multiple areas and can be an overall good experience. They're bad principally because they're unstable and can (and do) fail; even if promised funding for four years, that funding can dry up overnight if a milestone is missed or the loss of a major client can be disastrous for them - either leading to job losses, pay cuts or bankruptcy.

Big companies, such as banks, multinationals and other institutions tend to be more stable, but your career will progress more slowly, and even if they are more stable you won't be immune to 'rationalizations' as the banks here demonstrated a few years ago.

SME's fall somewhere in-between the above two, depending upon the SME in question.

Overall, I cannot advise which is best - depends on your long term plan and the company in question, but broadly speaking these are the pros and cons.

Finally, as to specialization, try to keep a foot in the Web side of things. I started in Web development about 17 years ago and moved into mobile around 1999 - 2000. The former is stable - it's here to stay. The latter has fluctuated hugely and the mobile landscape of iOS-Android is likely to evolve further in the next few years, so the last thing you want to do is become specialized in only something that could decline in popularity in five years time. Having said that, I wouldn't abandon mobile either as in the long run mobile development will likely earn you a lot more than Web and in some form it also is here to stay (problem is more what form this will take).

As a caveat though, try to balance between being too narrowly specialized and being a Jack-o-trades, as the latter is not good in the long run either, especially outside of the Anglophone sphere (e.g. continental Europe).

Tar.Aldarion

There is no harm in asking, I got two raises in 9 months, first I asked for second was given to me. Definitely worth voicing your concerns as imo you are underpaid.

Berserker

Creme fraiche wrote: »

My salary is 44K a year. I feel like this should be more for what I do. Unfortunately I get a lot of job offers blankly sent to me by recruiters for jobs back in web dev, or "dev ops" that ask for the same amount of experience I have, but the salaries are in the 55K-65K range.

You are underpaid but I would take the salaries quoted to you by agencies in particular with a pinch of salt. With five years experience you should be able to get 55K. You will need to move to get the increase in salary that you are looking but I get the impression that you like the company you are working for at the moment. Keep that in mind when you are looking for a new job because good companies to work for are few and far between.