There might be 14 per cent unemployment across the economy as a whole, but the big tech companies that populate Dublin’s Silicon Docks are feeling the heat when it comes to finding multi-lingual sales staff. And it is costing them.

The payment of finder’s fees to existing employees who put forward successful candidates for interview is now standard practice in the Dublin technology industry. It is the level of the fees that catches the eye.

There is a rumour doing the rounds within the industry – unconfirmed, it must be said – that Twitter has raised the bar by bumping up its finder's fee to a hefty €10,000. Yes, that's allegedly a 10 grand bonus for getting your friend a job. I asked Twitter several times to confirm it one way or the other, but it declined to comment.

Other tech companies pay rates not terribly far off that level. Industry sources tell me that in many companies a Dutch candidate or someone fluent in one of the Nordic languages, with the requisite sales skills, would net you €6,000. Most other languages are worth between €2,000 and €3,000.

Cork referrals
And it is not just Dublin. Cork is home to many of the biggest names in the computer gaming sector. Multilingual sales staff referrals down by the Lee are worth at least €1,500, although one company is apparently considering upping it to €4,000.

There really is two economies in Ireland at the moment.