I.T. Salary meter

The french website www.Cadremploi.fr, dedicated to managers job ads and news, offers a “salary-meter” based on data provided by companies and applicants.

For information technology positions in Midi-Pyrénées (Region of south-west France), salary-meter results are quite surprising.

According to applicants who have uploaded their CV on this website, their gross annual salary is under 35000€ for more than 50% of them (and close to 60%), and under 30000€ for almost 40% of them (*).

According to companies who have posted job ads, only 25% of salaries are under 35000€, and only 8% are under 30000€.

So, who tells the truth ? I have my own theory about that.


This salary-meter is here (in french) : http://www.cadremploi.fr/emploi/resultat_comparer_salaire?fonction=20500&secteur=70000&region=16&experience=5&niveau_formation=13


(*) For foreign readers who would think these are extremely high salaries, keep in mind that life-cost in France is quite high, that you have to cut them by 23-24% because of different taxes (and even more later with annual income tax “impôt sur le revenu”), and that these jobs require master's degrees and years of relevant work experience.

Happy new year

Bonne année !

Manigong bagong taon !

Feliz año nuevo !

Happy new year !

新年快乐 !

European headhunter

A few days ago, I had a message on my cell phone.

Nothing special about that, until I listened to it : all in English (1), very good accent, the person seemed to be a native English speaker.

But there was a problem : even if I scored high on the TOEIC test, it was almost impossible for me to understand what he meant : it sounded like he was calling from a noisy train in a collapsing tunnel while eating marshmallows.

But I finally got his phone number and the reason for his call : it was about a job in Belgium, for a client whose nationality will forever remain incomprehensible.

I have quite a good CV, but not enough to think that a headhunter from England would call me in France for a job in Belgium.

And I don't intend spending the little money I still have just to call an Englishman who does not know he could have sent me a email, for free, and being sure I would get it.

(1) Keep in mind that I'm in France, and not used to such calls

I.T. job hunting throes

It has now become a common (but bad) practice, job ads in IT look more and more like this:

“I am a recruiting officer for an interplanetary software firm, world leader in wobbly solutions for inefficient and greying managers.

I'm looking for ABAP/C++/Cobol/PHP/C# programmers under 25yo, having more than 15 years of work experience, ideally in aeronautics embedded systems on tanker in low orbit and/or space probes in rain forests.

Ideal candidates will have to be graduated from an engineering school (ideally from the best french engineering school) with postgraduate degree (MBA or doctorate) in international high finance and repopulation of exoplanets.

Fluent English, Spanish, Russian, German, Portuguese and Italian are mandatory, working knowledge of Aramean, tagalog, and Chinese is a plus.

Salaries start at 10 euros per month as the job will take place in a developing country.

For more information about these positions, throw your ego out, and contact me by email slavery@bad.job”

Thus, with my non-specialized work experience, my great age (soon 40 yo!) and a diploma of a nonprestigious school, I only have to sign on at the unemployment office. That's what I do.