Where to source top talent?

[Fraidycat]

That is nonsense

I think it was Bill Gates who said, “ a great writer of software code is worth 10,000 times the price of an average software writer.”

Steve Jobs was a little less hyperbolic when he said a top software developer is "50 maybe even a 100 times" better than an ordinary developer.

My own claim of being worth just £2000 a day (about 4 times average) is pretty humble in comparison, i'm actually worth way more than that.

[Lance]

My own claim of being worth just £2000 a day (about 4 times average) is pretty humble in comparison, i'm actually worth way more than that.

if you're worth that why aren't you getting paid that? Maybe you're a tulip salesman (back to my earlier comment about having to bring more to the party).
I've met tons of chancers/wingers/bullcrappers, and you strike me as one of them. If you're as good as you think you are, you wouldn't be talking tulipe like this. You'd be running a real company.
In "21 years" one would have thought you'd learnt something.

Oh. And lookup "humble" in a dictionary...

[SussexSeagull]

From a testing perspective I found the better developers who you found fewer problems with were the quiet ones who got on with it rather than the ones who talked a good game in meetings.

Rockstar? Really?

[JohnM]

He already has in the opportunities thread.

No link to a proper job advert/spec, he just says he is looking for react rock stars

[JohnM]

I think it was Bill Gates who said, “ a great writer of software code is worth 10,000 times the price of an average software writer.”

Steve Jobs was a little less hyperbolic when he said a top software developer is "50 maybe even a 100 times" better than an ordinary developer.

My own claim of being worth just £2000 a day (about 4 times average) is pretty humble in comparison, i'm actually worth way more than that.

I bet in reality you are earning £220 a day on an NHS contract

[TwoWolves]

It is 5 years since I last contracted so I may be out of date with what market rates are.

The ranges we are offering are:

Engineer (2-4 years experience) - 300-330 pd
Senior Engineer (4-7 years exp) - 450 - 550 pd
Lead/Staff Engineer - (7+ years exp) 550 - 650 pd

I thought they were pretty competitive.

These are rates I was seeing in London (Finance) in around 2000, you haven't got a clue.

I got cold-called by a US company opening in London recently, it sounded good until it got to the money. I do think American business have a naive view of the London market and living costs.

About to start a London gig, from my study in Gloucestershire.

[ChimpMaster]

Yep those rates are average to below-average, especially if you're talking London. £650/day is reasonable but probably not enough to convince someone to leave another contract midway through for it.

I was a "rock star" in my previous contract and my rate was £1k/day reducing down to £900/day for various reasons. I don't know what the React market is like but £650/day won't buy you the best of the talent pool unless times are desperate.

[Fraidycat]

I got cold-called by a US company opening in London recently, it sounded good until it got to the money. I do think American business have a naive view of the London market and living costs.

I actually work for a midsized US company with a London office. They also opened the office to hire the best talent in London.

At current exchange rate I cost them around them around $950 a day USD including the agent fee.

That is a relatively low rate for the US, but i think thats the whole point of setting up an offshore office.

If I were to cost them the same as a US contractor, say $1200 a day (and much higher in Silicon valley), they could just hire talent locally in the US instead, why bother will the hassle of setting up and maintaining a London office with all the overheads.

Permies here are well paid though, around 90th percentile. Contractors only 50th percentile.

When they setup offices here, they lucked out, they hired a development manager from a European tech firm (one that was in decline because Google ate their lunch).

The manager then bought in his old team of Architects and Software Engineers as the core team for the London office. A bunch of really talented guys who work well together.

I would hate to think how hard building up a team completely from scratch would be. Even more so if the OP has been told to do it fast. The OP needs all the luck he can get.

[eek]

Although sometimes i think they opened the London office because Senior management fancied flying over to London a few times per year.

London and the UK is also the obvious place to expand your business to - no awkward language difficulties.

But London isn't cheap - if you were hunting the cheapest place you would be heading towards Sofia as GoDaddy and Experian amongst others have done.

Problem is if you want the best skill set you probably do need to head towards the UK / parts of Eastern Europe or India.

Heading to India though will give you an entirely different set of issues (you need people on the ground as well).

[Lance]

London and the UK is also the obvious place to expand your business to - no awkward language difficulties.

But London isn't cheap - if you were hunting the cheapest place you would be heading towards Sofia as GoDaddy and Experian amongst others have done.

Problem is if you want the best skill set you probably do need to head towards the UK / parts of Eastern Europe or India.

Heading to India though will give you an entirely different set of issues (you need people on the ground as well).

All the best "talent" (god I hate that word) I've worked with was UK or Eastern Europe.
Never any Indians. I don't understand why. I'm sure there are plenty of very good Indian IT people, but they don't seem to work for any of the outsourcers I come across (TCS & WiPro mainly).

I did a project where we needed one day of SAP consultancy from Crap Gemini. They provided a bob for £150. I, and the customer said, "no way. We want top talent. This is a £600,000 project and the main cutover is critical and we will happily pay £2k. They refused and told us how good their Indian staff are."
Long story short. He fooked it up.