Tech-recruiter gold rush
The money-makers in a gold rush are not the miners, but the people who sell the picks and shovels.
Nick Workman is country manager for UK and Ireland at recruitment firm Global Solutions. He recruits IT recruiters - but says he's running out of picks and shovels and is having to look as far afield as Australia for IT recruiters.
Ireland's IT recruitment agencies face both shortages of IT job candidates and shortages of contract-market focused IT recruiters, who provide candidates with placements of up to three years.
Workman says a contract IT recruiter can earn €140k a year (€50k base and €90k in commission and bonus), while a specialist in permanent recruitment will earn a total of only €80k to €120k a year. Rates have risen 25% since 2007.
Meanwhile, Kate O'Riordan, manager at Reed Technology, is at the mine face and she confirms that IT candidates are thin on the ground too.
How much can an experienced IT project manager earn in Ireland these days? "You name it," says O'Riordan. Contractors can command in excess of €700 a day; permanent staff can earn €100k plus a range of performance-related bonus rates. Last year the base was €80k.
The shortage of IT contract candidates means O'Riordan is sourcing staff from Australia, Poland and Bulgaria and the UK. But the Green Card scheme, which should make getting work permission for foreigners easier, is dogged by bureaucracy. "Things go into the black hole of the immigration department but do not come out again," she laments.
