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Some of the fastest growing financial technology firms in Wales are at risk of being held back by skills shortages, a leading specialist lawyer has warned.
Cerian Jones said so-called fintech companies have told her they are "chasing fish in the same small pool".
She said those firms not actually trying to fill a recruitment gap "are trying to retain staff so they don't go elsewhere".
Cardiff is facing competition from London and Bristol among other cities.
Ms Jones, a patents attorney and partner at UDL in Cardiff, said: "When I talk to software companies about what their biggest challenge is, nine times out of 10 it's recruitment.
"These are very skilled positions, needing skilled graduates with the right coding and development skills."
She said there was a lure of working in London and firms in south Wales were having to be creative in trying to entice people "in a candidates' market".
Some were finding it difficult, even when offering £60,000 salaries.
There you have it. You can code to make banks richer. In Cardiff.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Saturday November 18 2017, @08:39PM (8 children)
The one thing that might really show a shortage of talented candidates is offering more pay. They say they're offering 60,000 Euros (about $70,000) as if that's a big increase over previous offers and a lot of money. If the cost of living in Wales is low, and if that amount is for new graduates with 0 years of experience, then that's pretty good pay. It's still nothing on the 7 figure pay that upper management in finance pays themselves.
Now if they were willing to allow telecommuting, and they begged for workers on tech oriented web forums, then I'd believe there really is a shortage of workers.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 18 2017, @08:53PM
I agree, they could pay more if they want more. My staring pay out of college was 20% higher than that, and they claim this is trying to retain workers? I make double that before stock, bonus and benefits. Its a competitive market. It easy to view your company failing to be profitable enough to hire staff as a staffing challenge, but its really just a struggling business (or the management is hording all the money). Either way I don't really see it as a staffing problem: which ever department is underfunded is going to have a problem, in this case staffing.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Saturday November 18 2017, @09:48PM (3 children)
Whoops, that's pounds, not Euros. 60000 pounds is equivalent to about $80000. Not bad, but still not high. A quick online search shows pay is all over the place, maybe 50k or maybe 60k pounds is about average for an experienced software engineer in Britain, depending on which site you believe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 19 2017, @12:28AM
There... fixed that for ya...
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 19 2017, @04:42PM (1 child)
Says someone who has never been to London. 60k pounds is nothing, everything there is expensive. And remember they say it's for "very skilled positions", so even if London was cheap that salary doesn't cut it. Add bad weather, pakis, etc and no wonder they can't find suckers.
(Score: 3, Informative) by TheRaven on Sunday November 19 2017, @09:04PM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 18 2017, @09:54PM
Mid-level Wall St. investment banker/analysts/trader make well over a million on average. Mid-level computer programmers (engineers, architects, whatever) makes a tiny little fraction of that on average. Even bliuechip IT firms' CEOs make tiny fraction of bank CEOs.
Obviously, what we need is whole lot of H1B visas for finance.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Sunday November 19 2017, @12:34AM
Well its closer to 80K than 70 at today's rate.
I don't know what average financial systems devs make in Wales but that seems cheap for US market. I was doing way better than that when quit a State Government job 25 years ago in that same general area of expertise.
It all comes down to money. What's the price of decent housing in Wales? The cost of food, cars, travel?
If those things are expensive, then this is a shit wage.
These are supposed to be financial Technology firms. If they can't figure out how to attract talent then why would you buy anything to do with finance from them? Its easy. Reach for your wallet guys.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by crafoo on Sunday November 19 2017, @03:03PM
How valuable is the skill to the company, really? Mid-management certainly makes more than that. Probably the HR drones too. Maybe start paying the people that create value for the company. Is this really about begging for cheap import labor?