Hey everyone, I'm looking for some perspective on a career decision that's been causing me quite a bit of stress lately. I have recently received three incredible offers and I am really stuck in picking the right one. I have been frozen by the stress of making the wrong choice. I am trying not to dox myself so sorry if its a bit vague in parts, happy to expand on my background a bit in the comments.

For a bit of background about me, I previously worked at Google in London until I was impacted by layoffs this year. I ended up moving back home up north with my partner who has now found a job she loves in her field. I was looking to eventually settle down here (I was planning to buy a house before I was laid off). A recruiter reached out to me last month from Google and very quickly I received a return offer for a really great team in Zurich.

I listed the offers below to get a bit more perspective on what I have been debating between:

1. Google Zurich
   • Total comp ~£165k (including base + RSU + bonus)
2. Crypto Platform
   • Fully remote (UK-based)
   • £70k base + $20k RSU per annum
3. Microsoft Subsidiary
   • Fully remote (UK-based)
   • £70k base + $40k RSU
   • 1-year cliff on RSUs (25% after first year)

Heres my main areas of consideration so far:

Work life balance: At Google previously, I was traveling frequently and ended up very burnt out by the time I was laid off. The crypto company has concerning reviews about work-life balance and high turnover. The Microsoft subsidiary is known for excellent work-life balance and culture, similar to Google.

Family: After living in London and traveling home most weekends, I really value being near family now. It's been great having that support system again.

Partners Career: My partner is very supportive and willing to move to Zurich, but she's already relocated twice for my career (to London and back). While she's always managed to find work, I can tell she's upset about potentially leaving another job she loves. I'm struggling with the idea of disrupting her career again.

Career Growth: Family and friends say I'm crazy to even consider declining Google. While I already have Google on my CV, I worry about missing a career-advancing opportunity. The Zurich tax rates could help us save significantly for a few years before moving back anyway.

I'm trying to balance career advancement with personal life and stability. The Microsoft subsidiary offers great work-life balance and stability, but Google offers prestige and significantly higher compensation. The crypto option seems risky given the industry volatility and concerning reviews but there is reward that also comes with the risk.

Would love to just hear your opinions or thoughts, I feel I am leaning towards taking the Microsoft offer but I worry I am doing it from a place of anxiety and just wanting safe and simple over taking a risk and going through change again.

Hi everyone,

I recently received offers for SDE internships at both Amazon and Microsoft in the UK and could really use some advice. The Amazon offer is for Prime Video in London, while the Microsoft offer is based in Cheltenham, specifically with a team in digital security. I hadn't heard much about Microsoft’s Cheltenham office before, and from what I can tell, it’s much smaller than Amazon’s London office.

I’m a bit hesitant about relocating to Cheltenham, especially since I've read that your internship location at Microsoft often determines where you’d be placed full-time if you receive a return offer. Has anyone here heard about the Microsoft Cheltenham office? What’s the experience like, and is it possible to negotiate for a different location? The job description listed multiple locations, so I wonder if I might have a chance to request a change, particularly as I also have an offer from Amazon in London.

Lastly, I’d love to hear any insights on the return rates and company culture for SDE roles at both Amazon and Microsoft in the UK. Any advice on which offer might be the better choice?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi everyone,

I’m a 21-year-old currently in my second year studying a BSc in Biomedical Engineering abroad in Denmark. Higher education is free here, hence the choice to come here, but I’ve realised that my true passion lies in software development. I’ve been self-teaching programming for a while, and I really want to make the switch into tech once I finish my degree. However, I’m not sure which path is best for me, and I’m feeling a bit stuck, so I’d love to hear some advice from people who have been in a similar situation.

Here are my questions:

1. Can I apply for software development internships and placements with a non-CS degree?

While I’ve been teaching myself coding (Java, Spring Boot, etc.) through projects and online courses, I’m worried I might be at a disadvantage when competing against CS students for internships. Should I still apply, or will I be overlooked because of my degree?

2. Is it possible to apply for internships or placements after graduation, or are they strictly for students?

If I don’t get into a role during my degree, can I still apply for internships or placements after I’ve graduated? Or would companies expect to hire only current students?

3. Also, do software grad schemes care about your specific degree, or is any STEM degree fine?

4. My main question and most important one: Should I pursue a master’s in Data Science/Machine learning?

As mentioned before, higher education here in Denmark is free, but I’d need to live abroad for two more years (MSc is two years here), which has been tough (living alone, missing family, etc.). I’m also not sure if it’s worth it for a career in software development—will a master’s make me more competitive when applying for graduate jobs, or is it unnecessary if I just want to work in software? I say master’s in DS/Machine learning as I am guaranteed to be admitted to this particular program at my uni, and it’s unlikely that I will meet the requirements for the CS MSc here. Is a CS MSc conversion in the UK a better choice, although it will cost me a lot more?

I’m really torn between staying for the master’s here as it’s free or moving back to the UK after my BSc and use the time instead to start applying for jobs/internships/placements and gain experience. The cost of living abroad and missing out on family time has been tough, and I’m feeling a bit lost about what to do next.

Any advice or insights from those who have been through similar transitions would be hugely appreciated. Thanks so much!

For the people who have had experience with the EU junior market especially for the new grads( please dont be a troll and tell everyone how bad it is like everyone should go eat dirt. I know it is a rough time). What country currently has the best SWE junior market in your opinion and how much openings are for the english speakers? Thanks a lot for the help I hope for the best for the fellow tech geeks!

Hey,

I am about to finish my masters degree in Computer Science at Vienna University of Technology, and have 2 years as a Software Dev ( part time ) in a small team, it was only me and another part time student implementing in house software. I am now looking to get a full time position, what is a realistic yearly salary? I am totally lost here, if I was to guess I would say around 60k , is this realistic ?

My manager made it clear that I shouldn’t bring up the on-call rotation when I’m interviewing candidates, and that we’re expected to avoid mentioning it unless the candidate specifically asks. I’ve always wondered why such an important aspect of the job isn’t discussed openly, especially when it’s a major responsibility for developers.

Many colleagues I’ve worked with have complained about the lack of a clear clause in their contracts regarding on-call duties. Actually, my company policy is pretty tough, either you are in the on-call rotation (with no extra pay, just some days off) or you won’t get a chance to grow within the company.

Isn't that immoral? And in many places, could it even be considered illegal? Wdyt?

Hi all! I am 37 year old and I am physics teacher holding an msc in ict in physics teaching and an Msc in management.. also I have 15 years of teaching experience and i would like to pivot to an online tech job.. what is your opinion for prompt engineering? What should i do to become prompt engineer? Should i know coding? And in what level? Thank you!!!

Hi everyone, simple question:
I've used python (Django) at work for 1.5 years and this is my first job.

Should I ignore job postings which require others programming languages? What's your experience? Should I stick to one language or not?

Hello,

I have recently got job offer in Malaga for the software product that I really like and I would be happy to work on. The problem is that I'm currently living in Slovakia and they are not offering remote job and it is mandatory to move to Malaga. I have few question that I want to ask, if anybody can help.

1. They are offering 60k a year brutto and I'm not sure what that will be monthly netto salary?
2. I'm looking at renting in Malaga and the offers that I find are not really great. Like the cheapest ones are about 800€ per month and they are either really old, or far away and it seems to me too high for that kind of apartment.

My job in Slovakia pays similar to this offer (55k) and I already have bought apartment here and paying mortgage for it. So I have to decide, if this would be beneficial for me.

I love Spain and when I was thinking about living abroad, Spain was always at the top of my list. And also, like I mentioned, the company I would be working for has software that is dear to my heart and it would be great to work on something that I personally use for years rather than some random company. My only worries are if I would be able to sustain myself, since I have to pay like 800€ here in Slovakia. So everything depends what kind of rent I will find what netto salary I would receive.

Thank you for any advice!

I (28f) have been unemployed since last November. I have degree in CS so been applying to software engineering or front end dev/design jobs like crazy. I really don't want to think I am screwed but so far interviewers seem really not impressed at my physical appearance and dont want to hire me in position where clients will see me. In order for me to look normal, I need constructive jaw surgery and my health insurance doesnt pay that, so I need to find a job with my current face.

I (28f) have been unemployed since last November. I have degree in CS so been applying to software engineering or front end dev/design jobs like crazy. I really don't want to think I am screwed but so far interviewers seem really not impressed at my physical appearance and dont want to hire me in position where clients will see me. In order for me to look normal, I need constructive jaw surgery and my health insurance doesnt pay that, so I need to find a job with my current face.

Hi

So I have a pretty good deal going on. Decent pay, remote and I go to the office when I want, I can just not go in months if i wished but I like to go there and hang out once a week.

However for the last 6-8 months, due to new company policies, my work has stagnated a lot. I'm just doing boring tasks when I used to do SOTA NLP. Haven't learned a thing, moved to a boring project. But again, people, pay and WLB is amazing.

Got an invite for a big tech company and now I have an full remote offer. 35% pay increase. Tech seems interesting, it's a project kickstart. People seem great, everyone I asked said WLB is top notch. Having that name on the CV seems like a plus too

But I fear making the jump. Scared of isolation a bit tbh. I have 3yoe and I feel like I shouldn't coasting as I am, later in life my current position would be the perfect job I feel.

Should I risk the social aspect for growth? Tbh, I'd like to come back once I'm more mature and want a relaxed life...

I was watching a jon blow video recently. He stated that at this point in age early stage, so no further than serie Seed startups are safer. Therefore serie D have a high likelyhood of failing. Does mean serie Seed is safe either, but relatively safer than serie D in today's market.

Basically his reasoning is that existing startups were aimed for yester market, cost heavy for quick expansion, so if a startup is starting now, they're aimed at today's market therefore lean and cost conscious, if those startups stay alive during the bad market, they'll be well positionned to profit in the next good market.

Also he's a game dev, maybe it applies only to game dev.

What do you think ? Is his take tethered to reality ?

Hey people I have a question and I'm happy to hear your point of view/experiences. I am finishing my master in biomedical engineering with focus on computer vision/Ai at an good technical university in German. I probably want to work in R&D after studies and I have an offer for an R&D internship (computer vision & robotics) after my thesis at at an quite big company (3400 employee). The topic of the internship sound really interesting but the payment is bad (minimum wage). Do you think it is a good career step or is it better to directly search for a full time position/ phd. Also I'm not sure how easy it is to get a full time position directly after studies. I'm not 100 percent sure if I want to do an PhD.

Hey! After 2 months of lots of cvs, technical assessments and interviews, I'm starting to get to the final processes of some companies. I've been told today that I've gotten to the last step of the visa process for senior fullstack developer. I've only have to pass the "behavioral interview" that I guess is more a formality than a hard interview cause it's nothing technical (I could be wrong here, you can correct me). My question is: how much should I ask or settle with? I'm almost 6 yoe, I was hoping for 24k pln monthly gross, (based on the offers of similar jobs I've seen but I don't know). Other question is: how works the intellectual property thing with developers? I've heard that you can have 50% of your salary as net, is this like that? I would really appreciate some light in this, because I want to accept the offer and start working again but I don't want to accept a shitty salsry. Thanks in advance guys :)

Hey all, so I'm 1.5 years into my first job at a bank, pretty steady stuff. Tech stack is C# although our product is incredibly old and we don't use much modern tooling. I've been working pretty much on CRUD apps, which has been mostly backend, and for the most part I've enjoyed it.

My manager keeps saying that my next project will be using react, as we're essentially rebuilding our product with a new Web UI. He wants to handover some interfaces and get me to build new ones. I can see this taking months. Personally, I have no interest in frontend as I don't think the problems are as interesting as backend, I've got some experience with frontend using Winforms and I just don't enjoy it. Since I will be looking to leave this role in the next year I want to focus on getting really good with C#. I don't want the significant time I'll spend learning react and JS to takeaway from that

Am I being too narrow minded? Could this he more valuable for me than focussing on .Net alone? I've got a performance review soon, and I want to bring this up, but I'm not sure how to get the point across as he is significantly more senior than me (25 YOE) and ultimately it will be up to him. In general I'd like to actually ask for the opposite, and work on harder business problems. Any tips?

Thank you :)

I will post the answer later, any CV advice is welcome! thanks

https://imgur.com/a/UNzMuFA

Hi everyone,

I'm an 18 year old (turning 19 in January) Irish citzen currently working in full stack web through an apprenticeship with a big bank in Dublin. I have over a year of hands on experience in full stack development, mainly working with Golang and Typescript/Express on the backend, React on the frontend, and working with APIs and databases such as MongoDB, and OracleSQL .I’ve also developed skills in CI/CD workflows and have a strong portfolio of real-world projects.

I'm interested in moving to mainland Europe (preferably Germany or the Netherlands) to continue my tech career. I don't have a university degree, only practical experience, and a portfolio to showcase my skills

Questions:

1. How realistic is it for me to be able to find a job within this space without a degreee, and are there any specific cities or types of companies I should be looking at?
2. What resources would be beneficial for finding jobs? I currently know about "Welcome to the Jungle", Indeed, and LinkedIn, any other suggestions would be great!
3. At 18, could my age be seen as a disadvantage, and would there be many companies looking to hire people of my age if they have hands on experience?

Any insights would be really appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Hi, I haven't looked for a job for over 6 years, and I was never very good at the resume thing, so asking for some advice.

Resume link: https://imgur.com/a/36F4JI7

I am aware that my lack of German language will hurt a lot, but I am going to learn it as fast as I can. Until then, I can only hope to be competitive for one of the limited tech jobs that are ok with English only.

Anything else I am hurting my chances on for finding a new job in Germany or EU? Appreciate your time in advance.

I've been getting rejected after HR interviews, and I keep assuming that it's because of my age, lack of degree, one keyword that I was missing, etc.

It's so hard to keep myself motivated to the daily grind when I'm feeling like I might be betting in the wrong horse for months.

"You have React experience? That's great! But we also wanted .NET Core as a bonus, and you have Python and node".

"You have FastAPI experience? That's awesome! But we wanted some Django".

Do I really have to become a prophet and predict what type of companies will have openings, and what languages and frameworks they'll choose? Sorry for sounding pissed but living indoors (mostly) for weeks and seeing my bank account getting drained doesn't let me accept rejection peacefully.

As a reference, I got rejected from a telephone screener, and I felt GLAD about it, because it was obvious that I had some knowledge gaps to work on. So I'm not pissed by rejections, I'm pissed that most of the time I'm left in the dark.

So I'm currently still a CS BSc student, and I may have a chance to join a team working on the curriculum for a Data Science BSc

At my Uni, changes to an existing, or creation of a new curriculum requires a mixed Team of Professors, Researchers, and Students to draft the curriculum - they want to start offering a BSc of Data Science in the future, and are now looking for folks

While I'm not fully confident if I'm advanced enough in my studies, being only in my 2nd year of my Bachelor and only beginning to specialise into Data Science this semester, I'm considering registering as being interested in joining, and letting them decide if I'm qualified enough

Does anyone have any thoughts on whether this might be beneficial for a future career (industry, not academia) in data science/whether this would look good or standout on a CV?

Thanks :)

I’m an Android developer with 5 years at the same mid-size consultancy, where I wear multiple hats. I lead Android development on my project, teach a university course thanks to a collaboration between the company and a local university, and conduct technical interviews.

Informally, I also support the Android team by organizing regular meetings and sharing knowledge.

I love my work, team, and the company culture, but I’m ready to take on a more substantial role.

I have the following interests:

• Technical Leadership: improving development processes, making architectural decisions, and setting standards.

• Project leadership: prioritisation, planning, and coordinating with everyone to have a finished quality product.

• Mentorship: Growing junior developers’ skills and fostering a learning culture.

I'm seeking guidance on a role that fits both my interests as well as provides real tangible value for my company.

I have spent two months going through the recruitment process for amazon in an AM role.

For various reasons I had a huge amount riding on getting this role and I've put a lot of effort into being successful.

I have experience and qualifications which I considered highly relevant for this role. This was also referenced by one of my interviewers.

I had my panel interviews, went well in my opinion. Not sure fire "I've smashed it", but I felt fairly confident following the four interview process. Although it was a very unique process and was not really sure what to make of it.

I've received a message to "schedule a call" with my recruiter. I've done this and contacted the recruiters to confirm the nature of the call. I'm extremely anxious.

After searching reddit, I've found this can mean either I'm successful or I'm not with amazon, but when I login to the careers portal it says my application is "no longer under consideration". This means I don't have it, surely?

I don't get why they give this slither of hope for a rejection.

Uk based.

Has a single person also had this and miraculously gotten the job?

Hello again, my fellow pilgrims,

This is a continuation of this post. I got an offer to work in a town within 35 minutes commute distance to Vienna. The salary would be 65k euros gross annual plus a yearly bonus equivalent to a monthly salary. I would most likely be looking into moving to the town instead of Vienna since the rent would be lower, but I haven't made a decision yet.

My first question is if my salary is good. I'll leave a brief description of my profile below:

• Role: Sr. Software QA Automation Engineer with 6 years of experience working for cybersecurity, med-tech, and e-commerce platforms.
• Skills: Selenium, Cucumber, Protractor, and Serenity BDD, with Java and TypeScript. API, mobile, and performance testing using Postman, Appium, and JMeter.
• Responsibilities: CI/CD integrations, automated test execution with Jenkins and Docker, and compliance efforts in cybersecurity.
• Education: Bachelor’s in Computer Software Engineering.
• Certifications: Multiple Microsoft Azure certifications, CertNexus AIBIZ, and advanced training in Python and Scrum.
• Languages: English proficiency at an IELTS 8.0 level.

My second question is about housing; most places I was able to find are asking for a 3-year contract, which is terrifying. What if I lose the job and can't find a new one? I came across a post of a person that is going to be living abroad and is lending her apartment out for 4 months, but would this arrangement be safe or a scam? Also, I know that I will need a permanent residence to open a bank account and get Meldezettel and Anmeldebescheinigung as an EU citizen, so would this be impossible from the get-go, and do I need to risk it from the start?

Am I just too excited to be leaving the Balkans and missing some things that will bite me later on, or is this a good deal? What other things should I watch out for? The salary seems to fall within the average range, but I would appreciate any information or help.

Love you all,

B

I accepted an internship in Infrastructure Engineering and I’m quite excited since I never actually thought I’d land an intern .Since this is my first role in the field and I’m an intern I’d love to not be an eejit

So that leads me to ask yous What’s something you wish you’d known as a beginner? Any tips on learning cloud tools, automation, or working with a team? Or even things to avoid as an intern?

Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated

When I asked this question, the common consensus seem to be that "as long as you are average and above, looks doesnt matter." I am savin up for a lefort surgery so I can be average after that, but untill I got my surgery, I cant find a job in this field?

Did someone manage to successfully continue working for their employer remotely from another EU country without company approval (basically never telling them)?

Let's say I am hired on a B2B basis and allowed to work remotely from the country I am hired in. Now let's say I want to move to another EU country and work from there full-time. Can I somehow make this work legally without informing my employer about my country change? My gut tells me "no", as I assume that my limited company would need to be registered in the new country and the employer would see it. I just wanted to ask if somehow someone managed to pull that off.

Also, I assume that ignoring the tax implications and paying the tax in the country where I am hired but living in another country is even more difficult to pull off?

I am asking because I am considering moving to a country where there aren't many CS jobs and finding a position that allows EMEA remote is getting more and more difficult.

Ingegneria Informatica e Comunicazioni (Computer Science and Engineering + Telecommunications) at Politecnico di Milano or Computer Science, Communications and Electronics at University of Trento?

Hey guys I'm planning to do my masters in computer science in Ireland. What salary can I expect as a fresher? By the way I'm non EU student

I found a role that really fits my background and I was talking to someone about it from Amazon and they asked me if I am based in Europe. I replied I am not and they are yet to respond to me. It was really an unexpected question because I thought FAANG companies don't have issues with sponsoring and only the US visa process is something off limits, and even for that they make exceptions for some strong candidates?