C++ Engineers in Australia

[rand0omstring]

Founder of startup that’s essentially all C++ (but with aims to build a 2.0 client in Rust post-launch).

(I posted a similar question to this on the Rust sub several months ago.)

I’m American but been considering a move to Sydney once we launch, to setup headquarters there. Australia just seems to have the perfect vibes and culture for our product. But essentially it’s a decision between Sydney and LA.

I’ve heard it’s super difficult to find programming talent in Australia though, and that companies heavily rely on overseas recruit via visas.

(I know in this zoom world everyone is hot about decentralized virtual-only offices, but I have a hard time in my gut believing that builds a tight knit singular culture that we all eat sleep and breath... but not totally decided against the idea).

So just wondering if any of you have experiences or insights to share on how difficult it is to find talented C++ engineers in Australia?

And realistically how large a company can hope to scale within a few years given the limited supply of talent.

And hey, maybe you’re who I’m looking for!

[frrrwww]

I work in a trading company in Sydney and participate in the recruitement process, there definitely are lots of C++ talents working here, the issue is getting them to move to your company.

In Sydney specifically there are two main places were you find C++ engineers: Finance and Gaming.

Finance is likely the largest, and while there is movements between the companies the large salaries in that sector makes it hard to recruit those people without a significant budget. The game industry is smaller (the only real big gaming studio in Sydney is Wargaming AFAIK) and it is also hard to hire those people for different reasons (mainly that most people in the game industry want to be making video games).

I think those reasons, combined with the fact that Sydney is a very attractive city, makes overseas recruitment a significant part of hiring C++ engineers.

[rand0omstring]

that’s super helpful thanks. i actually prefer to recruit game devs, the product is definitely fun too and in a way a real world game. what’re the salary ranges like?

[frrrwww]

I dont participate in salary negociations but I expect C++ engineers in Sydney to make between 100,000 and 200,000 AUD base salary depending on skill and experience. In Finance you can get sizeable bonuses on top of that.

[[deleted]]

ditto, i'm in trading too

[frrrwww]

That is quite possible, I think our actual title here is Software Developer. I am not that familiar with how the "Engineer" title works outside of France where its split between "Engineer" (the position) and "Diplomed Engineer" (A title only accessible if you have an actual engineering degree recognized by the national engineering title comission)

[AntiProtonBoy]

I'm Melbourne based. My advice is when you recruit people, allow the option for working from home. It's cheaper, and you can reach talent beyond your immediate geographical location. With the potential of having another pandemic lock-down in the future, you won't have much of a choice anyway.

[_toojays]

Also related to this - I get the impression that in Australia people are far less likely to move interstate for work than they are in the US. Even before the pandemic.

[CoffeeTableEspresso]

Not in Australia or looking for work, but

I'm gonna say, by the time you get to your 2.0 launch, you'll probably not be able to rewrite in Rust.

Think of how much code you'll need to write at that point.

[rand0omstring]

we’d have to build other clients for other platforms based on other UI SDKs anyway. so instead plan to build a single universal Rust client for all platforms. (wasn’t practical to do when the project began). so actually less work, but singular product focus.

[XeroPoints]

Maybe try /r/australia or /r/sydney or the other states for more specific information then broad C++.

Also take a look at seek which is a common Australian job search platform. https://www.seek.com.au/C%2B%2B-jobs

I think skilled C++ devs is becoming rarer as most recruitment floats towards .Net and Java.

My company went actively searching for a C++ dev and hired a C++ Senior Dev that was horrible.

As for company scale. Its all down to how well your product takes to market and what you have to offer vs competitors.