Richard Scothern

Here in London, things are looking pretty good. The number of vacancies is up by at least 50% on this time last year. There are also jobs going unfilled for a number of weeks (>4), indicating that candidates are becoming harder to find.

Richard

An interesting point I think the OP was trying to make was about (before everyone got carried away) the relative job markets in the UK and the US.

A lot of people bandied around figures to do with salaries in the UK and the US. Here's my take on it....wherever you live, you're screwed. Based on where I've lived:

London: Salary for a mid-range developer (5 years) 40-50K GBP. Cost of (2 bedroom) apartment 250K (and falling, perhaps).

California: Salary, 70-90K USD. Cost of apartment $400K.

Wherever you live, I think the cost of living is expensive, and the reason is that these are places that people want to live - places with culture and opportunities. I know that I could get a 2000sq house in Iowa for $100K, or a 3 bedroom house in Hull for 60K, but wouldn't want to live those places.

As for opinions on gun ownership, foreign policy and who's country is 'best', these are all very subjective.

Abhi, don't buy a car. In london, you don't have to, in the USA you usually do. If you made huge money in India, why did you leave? If you can only get a small salary here, it's probably not worth staying. At least you'd get lots of sun in India

Frank, Europeans don't hate Americans, just Bush.

Originally posted by Damian FRACH:
[QB]
Also any comments on the topic employee / contractor?
Advantages / disadvantages in UK?
Is it more difficult to get a job as an employee?
As a contractor in UK your taxing is little bit better, is not it?
QB]

Sorry, I didn't address these questions:
Employee vs. Contractor. Usual thing, contractors get paid more, but less benefits and job security.

Advantages in UK: pay is high in London (compared with most places), London is a great city, people are cool
Disadvantages: housing is expensive, London is crowded, iffy weather

I've never been a contractor so I wouldn't know the relative difficultly with getting a contract compared with a permanent position.

Tax is high as a contractor, you have to pay income tax, national insurance, and a special kind of business tax if you're a contractor (because you work for your own company, or an umbrella company)

Richard

If you need sponsored for a work visa (i.e. you're outside the EU), your chances are small, unless you're very experienced or have specialist knowledge of the financial industry.

Otherwise, I would just apply for jobs through jobserve and cwjobs, and see what happens. It may be useful to establish a local presence (e.g., po box, or local friends' address).

The market is OK here, but there are very few companies who are willing to sponsor work permits.

Richard

Why don't you check their website for positions open in Pune, and look at the requirements. If no one has answered for 4 months, there probably isn't anyone who does know?

Alternatively, why don't you just ask them?

If you don't have a work visa, I don't think you have much chance. Unemployment is still rather high amongst java developers. Also, certifications don't really count as much as real experience.

Originally posted by Vijayendra V Rao:
Just wanted to know...how do you know this for sure Richard? I had some other image about Accenture so thats why this is a bit of a surprise to me!

I know people who used to work there. I've seen job advertisments with experience and salary ranges.

ATS != Accenture

Originally posted by Vijayendra V Rao:
Just wanted to know...how do you know this for sure Richard? I had some other image about Accenture so thats why this is a bit of a surprise to me!

I know people who used to work there. I've seen job advertisments with experience and salary ranges.

They are notorious for low pay, and you will be working alongside people from Accenture who earn ~30% more. Basically ATS was created to cheaply bodyshop people and somehow keep Accenture competitive with the other big cos.

Avoid if you can.

Richard

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=jrules&ie=ISO-8859-1&hl=en&meta=

A lot of financial applications tend to be in high-transaction environments, so previous experience with real-time, distributed systems can help.
Also, I recommend you diversify your skill set, as a lot of financial institutions use C, C++ and perl a lot. Also, *nix is extensivly used, still.
Apart from that, a bit of luck always helps, or a friend/ex-coworker who could recommend you. Not all financial jobs require previous experience (just practically all), I think as the job market improves, they may reduce their requirements somewhat.
Where are you looking, BTW?
Richard

There is no silver bullet.
Component software engineering has been around as long as OO. Take
a look at Software Facts And Fallacies by Glass.
Richard

One way some companies have created products is by contracting for another company, offering their services for free (or very little) and retaining the intellectual property rights of the software. The software can then be 'productised'.
One company that did this - and is doing very well - is Royalblue <www.royalblue.com>
Richard

" The number of H-1Bs that Indian firms send to the US could actually climb following a change in US laws .
The changes means 'H-1B dependant' companies are no longer required to attest that they sought US workers before applying for another H-1B visa. "
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-424905,curpg-3.cms
How did this change get made with so little noise? I read the news quite regularly and didn't hear of this until recently (last week).
And what is an H-1B dependant company?
Richard

I have no idea. If it is, then that is one big opportunity.
Richard