2019 looks like it is going to be another fantastic year in the Irish technology scene, many new start-ups are setting up here and many of the world’s largest tech firms are now calling Ireland home for their EMEA operations.
Ireland has cemented itself as a country with a genuinely vibrant technology scene where new and emerging technologies are at the forefront.
Having worked in technology recruitment for several years I’ve noticed each year there are certain skills and qualities companies look for and certain trends that are important to keep up to date with.
In this guide, I’ve covered all you need to know about technology jobs in Ireland, particularly for software engineers.
The 6 skills technology companies are looking for in 2019
- Java Software Engineers, specifically with experience with Spring Boot Based Microservices.
- Scala engineers are very rare indeed. It is a small market in Dublin for Scala and many companies consider developers from a Java background to fill the skills shortage since Java and Scala are from the JVM family.
- Software architects skilled in microservices migration from legacy monoliths. Moreover, Software Architect with more emphasis on the cloud side of development is always in high demand as companies make the move to become serverless.
- Python developers, especially within an Ops perspective. Flask and Django backgrounds are particularly sought after.
- DevOps/SRE- These engineers are crucial to any team. These hybrid roles encompass development coupled with maintaining complex patterns, sometimes with on-call responsibilities. These DevOps engineers are the firefighters and heroes of any reputable Agile environment.
- C# .Net developers, especially with microservices and exposure to cloud technologies like Azure
- Data Analytics, Data Engineers, BI and Data warehouse skillset. AI and Machine Learning engineers or ML and NLP experience are in massive demand also.
- Ruby on Rails developers are like the proverbial hen’s teeth and are always in demand. Many companies now like to hire developers from other languages to convert over to Ruby, usually from a JVM or Python background.
Technology & IT Salaries 2019
In terms of technology salaries, the roles that are commanding the highest salaries are:
- Java and Scala software engineers/architects
- C#.Net microservices engineers/architects
- Ruby engineers
- Data engineers and Data Scientists/architects
This won’t be of surprise to anyone reading this. The supply and demand dictate the salary ranges.
Skilled senior engineers and team leads across all these disciplines are seeing increasingly higher salary ranges, some going as high as 130k. A 100k salary for senior engineers is almost the norm these days.
The discrepancies these days is the exact technical experience that software engineers bring, rather than years of experience or certain degrees.
For example, a Java developer without microservices experience might not be able to command the same salary because they will not be able to hit the ground running because of their lack of production experience with Rest APIs, Microservices and containerisation tools and managing Kubernetes clusters etc.
The benefits technology companies are offering in 2019
The benefits on offer are varied and largely depend on the company. Discretionary bonuses, Healthcare, pension, 25+ days holidays, flexi-time and work from home privileges are all quite common.
However, working from home privileges are always at the discretion of the employer. It should be implicit that engineers need to earn the trust of the company when seeking regular working from home days, many companies don’t set out in stone their working from home protocol.
Moreover, many companies are offering other incentives like stock options and even paid overtime.
Software engineers and Data technologists seem to be able to command larger salaries these days and have plenty of options and offers which allows them to be more choosey with regards benefits packages.
Trends within Ireland’s tech sector
The demand for skilled engineers in the software space is as competitive as ever. There is a large skills shortage in relation to software developers with more and more companies now looking overseas to fill the multitude of developer roles on offer in Ireland.
Dublin is seeing the effects of this skills shortage. This has led to companies totally changing their recruitment protocols to secure these candidates. For example:
- More and more companies are hiring candidates who need visa assistance. This was quite rare before but in 2019 it is almost becoming the norm.
- Companies are hiring developers from varying backgrounds and are not totally focused on specific backend languages. This enables developers to switch over from one language to another.
- Language agnostic technical tests are very common. Companies are now of the opinion, that a good engineer can acquire a new backend language if they have a solid grasp of software engineering and computer science principles and can adapt and new language and framework to supplement this knowledge.
The most common trend in software development is companies migrating their legacy monoliths with scalable microservices thus making their development more modular and easier to isolate the tiniest area within their platforms and apps.
This experience is key for many of the companies when hiring new engineers. Knowing how microservices impact the business and the technical landscape is always beneficial when starting out this journey.
Having knowledge of Docker containers and general containerisation tools is always useful, moreover, same with Kubernetes. AWS and Azure remain the hegemons when it comes to cloud and many of the largest tech firms love to see experience in production with these also.
Types of companies hiring
As Dublin is now considered Europe’s technical hub this has enabled Dublin to attract the largest multinationals to our shores. This also provides a great incubator for tech start-ups, of which there are hundreds in Dublin alone.
These large and small companies are vying with each other for the top talent. Some engineers love the structure and relative security of a multi-national goliath, whilst others like the start-up feel and want to go on a journey of growth with a start-up.
Start-ups are a bit less structured which means engineers must wear a couple of hats and assume other interesting technical duties which add to their technical repertoire.
Dublin also has its fair share of SME companies who have gone from fledgeling companies to established names on the market. The variety and choice for engineers are there for all to see.
Advice for anyone looking for a tech job in Ireland
My advice to any software engineer looking for a role in Ireland is, do your homework on the companies you’re thinking of applying to.
You are in a great position because software engineers are in massive demand and you will have plenty of choices. The majority of companies use a technical test to ascertain technical feasibilities of engineers, so if you are applying to a lot of companies then prepare to be doing a lot of technical tests.
When doing technical tests prepare for all variations. Some tests mirror actual production environments, some are generic third-party technical tests, and some are more algorithm heavy, so prepare for all eventualities.
Interview advice for technical professionals
At interview always be prepared to talk about your CV and profile verbatim. Moreover, always try to remember specific success stories you were involved in previous roles and your exact role and contribution.
Soft skills are very important, developers need to be as collaborative as any other staff member.
When doing technical onsite interviews then prepare for any eventuality. You could be up on the whiteboard doing system design tasks, or doing OOP syntax on the board, moreover, I have heard of clients testing database normalisation knowledge on the whiteboard, so these interviews can be random.
Why you should have a Github account
When applying to any development roles, it’s always a good idea to have a Github account link on your CV. This gives employers a chance to see your code and the types of projects that interest you in your spare time.
If you don’t have an online portfolio then I suggest you create one. Keep it updated and contribute to it as regularly as you can. It really gives a good indication of how passionate you are about your profession.
Have your CV structured in a way that your technical experience is listed after each previous employment/project.
To give a list of technical proficiencies at beginning of the CV is ambiguous because it can create more questions than answers. If you list the tech stack of each project, then it gives employers a sense of what your most recent experience is with specific technologies.
Conclusion
It has never been a better time to be a software engineer in Ireland. The country is booming and we are lucky to have some of the world’s greatest companies and homegrown start-ups working with the latest and greatest technologies.
Software engineers have their pick of a multitude of different domains and technical stacks to pick from and if you want to change your backend language and frameworks then this is accommodated by the vast majority of companies.
Have your CV and portfolio on point. Be as specific as possible on your CV and keep it structured in a way that doesn’t leave more questions than answers.
Be prepared for all variations of technical tests and if you feel that you are rusty in any element then brush up, be it algorithms, database normalisation etc.
Cpl technology is one of the largest technology recruitment teams in Ireland. We work across every vertical in technology with consultants becoming experts in their respective fields. We have consultants specialising in verticals in software engineering, PMO, infrastructure, Data and Analytics, Change and Process management. We cater for all companies from large multinationals to start-ups.
If you’re interested in a new job in Ireland’s technology sector get in touch.