Hi all.

​​​​​​My wife and I have made the decision to emigrate to Italy.

The plan is to move out once I've finished my Open University degree in Computing and IT.

I'm training myself as a Web Developer which I'm treating as an advantage as I can free-lance from anywhere. But I wondered if there are any other people on here working in the same or a simular industry that could shed some light on things for me?

What is it like being a developer in Italy?

-Tom

It might be best to build up a few customers with your web development in the UK and then move to Italy. Italian universities produce a lot of bilingual IT graduates who find it difficult to get any paid employment even in the North. Good luck with your project.

Hello

My husband is a senior web developer, I'm afraid it's badly paid in Italy. He's Italian, many of his colleagues have worked in and around Europe and say for even highly qualified developers the salary elsewhere, such as UK or Amsterdam are much higher. There are a lot of opportunities however, but for the amount of hard work and continuous study a developer has to do, the salary is low. Someone with over 10 years experience, might make around €35k per year pre tax.

Well one thing I would add is that the quality of websites here is very poor, so anyone good may have a chance, however it may also be quite frustrating. A command of Italian I think would be a must.

Yes websites are usually filled with out of date information that is replicated all over the place. For example our local music college has a web site that shows its summer concerts and it ceased to be updated 2 years ago even though the concerts are still performed. I expect a lot of that work is done for nothing.

The obvious question. Have you now replaced your website with an app?

Most websites that are self-made are made by using basic web builder software. A quick look without viewing the results and it seems “app-builder” software is now out there. Okay none may be brilliant, but they serve an adequate purpose for any small business.