Salary level for an experienced C/C++ developer for Linux

[karel]

In Helsinki is very hard to survive with 5000 Euro salary a month, if in family only one working.
Like me, I got little over 5000 Euro a month, after tax 3200 Euro month. Wife is a student, only get 200 something student money.

Every month goes like this,

Housing - 1400 Euro
Electricity + water + TV calble license, 100 Euro month
120 Euro pension saving,
120 Euro two health club membership card. Me Esportti, wife SAS.
40 wife's bus card.

That make 1800 Euro gone immediately after pay day.
Gasoline for car 300 Euro / monthly driving 3000 - 3500 KM.

400 Euro support wife's living.

Boy, do you live in the wrong neighborhood...
We've bought an apartment in Espoo and we pay about 1200 euros in mortgage, yhtiövastike and a yearly parking spot in the parking garage.

And G-SUS! You drive 3000 - 3500KM per month? If you live in Helsinki? Do you work in Lahti or something? Do you go to your cabin every weekend? Where do you go?
And really... If you can't get by with YOUR living costs for 700 euros a month, you need to close that hole in your hand.
You're not buying clothes every day, so that's not structural expenses.

[snaggletooth]

I think this guy is winding us all up 5000euro a month for engineer/developer........? dont think so mate------nice try

[snaggletooth]

I think this guy is winding us all up 5000euro a month for engineer/developer........? dont think so mate------nice try

[paulrenn]

5000/month for engineer/developer...snaggletooth, of course it is perfectly possible!
If you have the right employer/skills/experience...and can negotiate well when you are hired.

I agree with risto that it is hard to survive on such a salary with a family and only one income.

[risto777]

If you are good programmer it is very easy to get 5,000 - 7000 Euro a month in Helsinki, Espoo.

Good means proven track record of products development.
One good way to prove it, is to become a contributor to one of the major open source projects. Make your name show at Apache, Mozilla ...

NOKIA is corrently looking for Mozilla developer. Who has good understanding of Mozillar source code. MySQL is looking for database engine developer. Those job starts at least 5000 Euro / month, typically 7000, 8000.

Those people who qualified for the jobs are normally from USA, EU, Russia, China from top ranking unversities. Very often has Ph.D in Math, computer scicence.


I have never seen any India programmers reach that level.

[nomad_alien]

Wow, I was a c/c++ developer of many years and if I got 5000 a month I would have NEVER left Finland!

I know some guys do get pay that, but they are either very lucky or VERY good, I mean top10 type of good!

[sanyi]

I do not know, maybe you get that money in Helsinki... I am a bit North from there (still in Uusimaa). The typical salary at our company is around 3.5-4K a month for the seniour level, 3-3.5K otherwise.

[finlandforumuser]

Yes, you are right, salary lever for experienced C++ developer is about 5k per month at Helsinki. Under experienced I mean 8+ years of professional C++ development, preferably in Finland. Of course, the company should look for geeks and develop some known well sellable products.

Just to proof what I wrote check this link: http://www.payscale.com/research/FI/Cou ... and/Salary

* 10-19 years of experience the average salary is 56 K. It also includes other, less paid regions like Tampere, Oulu.

It is very clear from where such salaries come from, as it is very profitable to hire such people. Properly managed team of 4-5 people can develop a 500 K worth technology, let's say in 6 months. The expense would be 8000 (incl. social taxes) x 6mo x 5=240 K. It is very good investment. By the way, 500 K is very low return value for a IT products, normally it counts over millions.

[risto777]

5000 per month is not really much, it is typical just starting salary. In real life, with bonus all the benefits it is more than 70K a year.
This kind of people is in great demand.

Typically they are found through friend's introduction.

It is known in HR, that, you should always find class A person, never class B. Since a class A person join your company, he will invite more his class A friends. But if you hire a class B person, he will only hire more class C person.

The best programmer, come from Helsinki Univeristy computer science, or HUT. Lots of top programmer today active in Helsinki is from this circle.