Ruby/Ruby on Rails Development: Brief Job Market Overview 04/2013

To introduce myself to those who read this and haven’t spoken to me before …I’m Rhys Evans, a London based recruiter who’s been helping Rubyists all over Europe find new challenges since 2007.

I’m pretty active within the London Ruby User Community and my company, www.AdRocGroup.co.uk are pleased to be supporting The Scottish Ruby Conf  as a Gold Sponsor this year.

I work with a wide range of Ruby on Rails teams based in the UK & Europe who are constantly looking to hire exceptionally talented developers, developers who will help them deliver some of the largest Ruby on Rails projects around to date.

My contact details are:

Skype: rhysyevans
Tel: +44 (0) 208 279 9482
Mobile: +44 (0) 7711 350 121
E-mail: revans@adrocgroup.co.uk
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rhysy

The below is a few observations/opinions based on things I’ve experienced this year as someone who spends his days/weeks/years speaking to 100’s of developers/employers in the Ruby/Ruby on Rails community…..

Please feel free to get in touch directly with any comments/feedback on this post…………….If you think  someone else may benefit from the info – feel free to re-post/pass it on to them.

To say it’s been a crazy start to the year is the understatement of the century. (Where do I start?)…………….. Let’s kick off with the……..

The Contract Market

In my opinion, the contract market in London isn’t as buoyant as it was this time last year…. How can I back up that statement? I have more contractors calling me for work, than I have employers asking me for contractors….

That’s not to say there isn’t contract work available, there is…. However with the increase in the number of contractors available, compared to the employers needing short term resource for project work, the average daily rates have dropped slightly from c£450 per day to £350-£400 day depending on you experience, the client, the contract length and flexibility of remote working.

Don’t panic though – with the new tax year underway, new budgets amongst our partners being released over the coming weeks and the shortage of permanently employed Rubyists looking for work in London – they’ll be a steady increase in demand over the coming months.

The Permanent Market

The job market is crazy….. I’ve never seen such a huge gap between the demand for Rubyists to join employers on a permanent basis and the lack of people looking for a new gig. The companies who ARE successfully hiring experienced Rubyists on a permanent basis seem to have a few things in common. In addition to salary, they offer:

1.      Flexible working

2.      Challenging/complex project work

3.      Personal development time

4.      Expenses paid industry related events (Bacon Conf/Scottish Ruby Conf/Euroko etc etc etc)

So if you’re a company hiring, take note of the above – or you’ll continue to struggle to attract top talent ;)

Permanent salaries are rising, the average salary Rubyists obtain via us is c£58,000 – up 25% based on the same time last year but in my opinion, this still is low considering the demand for talent is at an all-time high.

Why have salaries jumped up 25% on last year? It’s certainly is due to the sharp increase in demand for talent, but also the fact companies are more likely to be hiring at a senior level, as opposed to training up junior developers at the moment.

Currently:

·        80% of the openings with our partners are paying over £50,000

·        30% of the openings with our partners are paying £60,000+

·        The highest salary we have on offer for a “Senior Developer” is c£80,000 at this moment. 

It’s good to see the salaries finally rising in London; however we’re still way off the salary ranges which are available in the likes of Barcelona, Hamburg & Berlin. This makes it difficult for London based companies to attract/compete to hire Rubyists from other Ruby hubs in Europe.

To wrap things up until my next blog post “The does and don’ts when looking for a new Ruby job…” -  If you want to make contact and discuss the above, please do – I don’t bite and would appreciate the feedback…… Of course if you’re actively looking for a new gig…… I’m 99.9% sure I can help put you in contact with the people you should be speaking to, so again, do get in touch.

Thanks,

Rhys