Posted by BalrajB on November 6, 2011 at 10:09am
Hi Guys,
I am working as Senior Drupal Developer in UK from last 4 years, having more than 6 years of commercial experience in PHP based web development.
My family moved to Surrey, Vancouver, and now I am planning too. I think there is good market for Drupal Developers but I dont have proper information. Some people says there is less demand and less salary in Vancouver, so it become most difficult decision of my life. So could you guys help me:
- What kind of jobs available? Permanent or Contract?
- Average Salary for Contractor?
- Average Salary for Permanent?
Your help would be really appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Comments
Hi Balraj. I've been in your
Hi Balraj. I've been in your shoes in both Surrey and the UK (London, to be precise). Check your email for some general information.
Hi Rick, i got your email,
Hi Rick, i got your email, its really helpful. Thanks very much.
Hi rickvug, would you mind
Hi rickvug, would you mind also sending me that email? I'm a developer starting out in Vancouver and also interested in BalrajB's question.
Ballparks
Wish I could see Rick's info and see how my view compares. ;) I don't have solid data to back this up, but if you want a rough ballpark idea here's how I would answer those questions - and for transparency, I am a project manager at one of the larger Drupal development companies in Vancouver and typically assist with hiring at our company.
Firstly, I would say there's a fantastic market for Drupal developers (and themers, and designers, and project managers, and salespeople, etc. too). If you watch the job posts in this group there is a constant stream of both permanent and contract work. I think you can always find something, at a range of skill levels, if you are keen to learn and easy to get along with.
1) What kind of jobs available? Permanent or Contract?
Answer: Both. There are a lot of Drupal development companies, as well as other businesses, academic groups, and organizations who hire permanent employees for their teams. I would say, if anything, right now there is competition among employers to snag good employees with Drupal skills. Because a lot of the skilled Drupallers in the city have been hired up for permanent work, there is also usually an ample supply of contract work. If you do a bit of networking and let people know you're looking for work you'll be able to find possibilities directly or through referrals.
2) Average Salary for Contractor?
I'll answer this as an hourly rate instead, as contractors really make their own salary depending on how much they charge and how much time they work. I would say this is completely dependent on your skill level and ability to market yourself, and deliver on time (and hence keep clients). A contractor's rate could be anywhere from $25 - $300/hr depending on whether you're pretty new to Drupal and doing basic configuration vs. a top expert doing high level consulting. If you have 4 years of experience and are a competent senior level developer, I could see $50 - $100 being a likely range - if you also do web strategy/consulting or information architecture work, maybe more like $75 - $150.
3) Average Salary for Permanent?
For this, with the same conditions as for contract as far as experience, skill, easy to work with, etc. I think you could expect anywhere between $35,000 and $100,000 depending on what level of developer you are. If you're just starting out, the lower end, and if you're a senior developer working for one of the top companies, then the higher end. If you are doing consulting, possibly more. Roughly from your experience, you could probably target the $45,000 - $75,000 range to start, depending on your skill level and eagerness to work hard and deliver top notch work.
Best of luck with the move/job hunt! Would love to hear others' opinions on whether this seems on the mark or not...
For what it worht...
For what it's worth, I just wanted to say "thanks" to arianek for taking the time to answer this inquiry with such detail. While you might think that you're answering one person's question there's in fact many more who are interested. I agree with your reply 100% and also take comfort that there's others with the same numbers in mind for our Drupal efforts.
Much obliged - that's exactly
Much obliged - that's exactly what I thought, probably other people would be interested to know... it's fun to talk about these things out in the open. ;)
I cant express how great i
I cant express how great i feel, arianek herself taking time to write that much detailed response to my question. one other plus point is that Figure are very close to Rick's figures..... :)
Its really worth to me and helped me to think realistically.
I'm flattered Balraj :)
I'm flattered Balraj :) really glad that this was helpful. Interesting to see Rick put together similar numbers. And what Catherine says is a good point, that for contracts, some people may be more comfortable doing flat rate. Best of luck with your decision!
That seems pretty on the mark
That seems pretty on the mark to me. I will say that in my experience, a lot of consulting work around here is easier to sell per-project, since people are generally much happier hearing a project costs $13,000 than they are realizing you've just told them it's 100 hours of work.
Some more information on differences in the UK
Ariane's breakdown of ballpark salaries is in the same range as what I emailed to Balraj. It is good to independently confirm the salary expectations.
In comparison to the UK I'd say permanent salaries are roughly the same but your income tax rate is much higher. Income tax is 20% up to £37,400 and then 40% on the rest. This does not include national insurance payments of up to 12% personally and 13% from the employer.
Due to high income taxes and restrictive labour laws it is much more common to work as an independent contractor. Companies will frequently offer contracts of 3-6 months with the potential for renewal. Since contractors are more flexible and come with less overhead, day rates are about 1.5 - 2 times higher than an equivalent permanent salary. For the contractor there's some business overhead and a lot more risk but you end up earning more and while paying less tax (no national insurance payments on dividends). See http://www.contractoruk.com for a lot more information about this route.
I'd aslo say it is very unfair to compare the whole of the UK with Vancouver. London is often an outlier, especially when it comes to the top of the market. Large IT consultancies and media companies based in London are starting to use Drupal on large (multi-million pound) projects. There's a lot of competition for senior talent. I've seen a few senior permanent postings at £70,000+ and contract positions are available at £400 to £600 a day on a semi-regular basis. I haven't come across similar opportunities in Vancouver (please, correct me if they exist!). I have seen similar offers in New York and Washington DC. I expect this is due to the size of projects in "global" cities. Perhaps Toronto is a bit better than Vancouver in this regard but I really don't know.
I hope this was helpful, or at least interesting.
Interesting and Helpful
Thanks for sharing rickvug.
To add to your comments from my perspective, I would be more inclined to compare the job market of London to Toronto rather than Vancouver as you suggested. The size of the market is vastly different but the nature of the clients are more akin both in the amounts being paid and the nature of the organisations hiring. I have yet to see a opportunity at a rate of £600 (~$1000CND) out of Toronto but as you say, differences in taxes and related issues are a consideration.
I can say that the number of Drupal opportunities coming out of Toronto has increased significantly in my little world. The large corporations, banks and financial organisations are all moving away from being exclusive Microsoft shops. I'm not sure this can be also said of Vancouver as I have a sense that there are far less corporate head quarters located there and those that are tend to not be of the staunch, old school Microsoft only thinking. My recent experience with Vancouver clients has been with start ups, typically of the dot com nature who are all about development time and flexibility rather than legacy issues and integration with closed protocols.
Each market seems to have it's focus, fortunately Drupal is dynamic enough to be in demand in each of them. To me it's just a question of where you want to focus your skill set as a developer which may or may not translate into higher pay rates.
There's also the possibility of working remotely which puts an interesting twist on this discussion. Speaking as a Canadian, living in Taiwan, married to a Czech woman it's more a case of finding a good Internet connection and the right clients rather than being concerned with the size of the job market based on geographical location.
That's another very good
That's another very good point - Vancouver tends to have much less corporate style Drupal jobs. We have several Drupal development companies, many startups, marketing companies using Drupal, Universities using Drupal, etc. so the work environments, benefits, and so on can really vary.
You're exactly right - the
You're exactly right - the London IT market has much more in common with Toronto than Vancouver.