Rates are mostly meaningless without knowing sector and technology. There are vast differences in what, say, education and finance can pay. There are vast differences between what a PHP developer and a Scala developer can expect.
For context, here are some of my experiences:
- Finance jobs as a long-term contractor seem to start at about £600 per day for Java developers, with £700pd being more typical. For Scala you can probably get a £50-100 more. For short term work or a good candidate you can easily get >£800.
- Ruby / PHP and other commoditised work of the like seems to top out at around £400-500 pd. iOS might get you a bit higher, but I think the shine is coming off app development.
As always, the key to a high rate is differentiating your offering. Update: This doesn't have to be by offering rarer skills, though this is an easy to a higher rate. Being better known in your community, by writing blog posts, speaking at conferences, and so on, will allow you to command a higher rate as well.
Apply for finance jobs. If you can't get them, make yourself more attractive in future. How to do this? Some suggestions:
- Do you interview well? If not, improve this. Take interviews to practice.
- Banks prefer people with experience in finance. If you don't have any, join a consultancy or a company like LMAX that can get you that experience and which are more open to outsiders.
I'd agree with all this, and if you don't have financial experience I'd suggest doing some Coursera courses that cover the relevant areas and putting those on your CV. At the very least it would show willing.
For context, here are some of my experiences:
- Finance jobs as a long-term contractor seem to start at about £600 per day for Java developers, with £700pd being more typical. For Scala you can probably get a £50-100 more. For short term work or a good candidate you can easily get >£800.
- Ruby / PHP and other commoditised work of the like seems to top out at around £400-500 pd. iOS might get you a bit higher, but I think the shine is coming off app development.
As always, the key to a high rate is differentiating your offering. Update: This doesn't have to be by offering rarer skills, though this is an easy to a higher rate. Being better known in your community, by writing blog posts, speaking at conferences, and so on, will allow you to command a higher rate as well.