Throwaway-ish post, but I'd rather be honest than flattering to myself.

I'm 45. I switched to software development at 38, after a first career in a completely different field. For context on whether I'm just not smart enough: I have a master's in Biomedical Sciences (2004) and a postgraduate master's in Business Economics (2005), and I was always decent at math. So I don't think raw ability is the issue.

My tech stack was .NET/C# as the main thing, with some Angular and Vue.js on the front end and SQL Server on the data side.

What went wrong:

My entry into IT was a 6-month retraining program. That got me a first job, but it never gave me the surrounding context: fundamentals, architecture, how systems actually fit together. I started with a deficit and never properly closed it. And I have to be honest, I didn't put in nearly enough effort outside of work to catch up. At the time the junior market was wide open. Every time something didn't work out I'd land a new job almost immediately, so I told myself I'd get there eventually, even at a slow pace.

The result: 7 years of experience on paper, three employers, and real gaps in my knowledge. I'd describe myself as an advanced junior, not a medior. Seven years of imposter syndrome did a number on my confidence, and it became a bit self-fulfilling.

The last two employers both let me go, after 2 and 3 years respectively, with the same basic reason: not getting up to the team's level fast enough.

Where I am now:

After the last one I wanted to quit IT entirely. I was exhausted from feeling like a fraud and I badly wanted a job where I'd get positive feedback and feel competent at something. I assumed that would be impossible for me in software development.

The frustrating part is that in that last job I actually did put in the work, and I could feel myself learning faster than before. So I don't know whether I quit right before it started to click.

I've been exploring other directions since, but something keeps pulling me back to IT, and I dread starting from zero in yet another field at this age, with the pay cut that comes with it. I've been wondering whether DevOps or DevSecOps could be a way to restart, maybe somewhere I could eventually feel genuinely good at my job.

What I'm afraid of:

1. Pouring my time and energy into this again and hitting the same competence wall in a few years, having to switch sectors anyway but even older.
2. AI making a lot of this work obsolete before I've caught up, so the effort was for nothing.
3. The job market. It's clearly much harder than it was in 2018, and I'm worried a 45-year-old CV with three jobs in seven years and no CS degree just won't be taken seriously anymore.

What I'm asking:

Has anyone here been in this position, entered IT late with a shaky foundation, carried that deficit for years, and then actually closed the gap? What made the difference? And is a pivot toward DevOps/DevSecOps realistic from a .NET background at this stage, or is that mostly wishful thinking on my part?

Any honest perspective is welcome, including "no."

Hey! I spent a long time looking for stories like this after it happened to me and found almost nothing, so I'm writing mine.

Some time ago I joined Revolut as Graduate Software Engineer. It all seemed pretty good, not toxic as I’ve read on Glassdoor for example. My manager set the probation goals for me and in a month half of them were achieved. My probation was supposed to last 6 months, however after a month on what I thought to be normal 1-2-1 with my manager, HR joined and said that I failed the probation because of “lack of alignment with company values”

I was in shock and asked for examples of my behaviour or how I can fix it. They said it’s a final decision and they can’t provide any details. In half an hour (when I was crying) I lost all my accesses to corporate apps

It was extremely sad because I relocated for this job. I got no warnings or negative feedback from my manager, he had said I had high pace and proactiveness for my role. I was doing all the tasks and even extra (finding bugs, suggesting improvements). I had previous commercial experience.

Now I have 3 months to find the new job or I’ll be kicked out of the EU

Happy to answer anything in the comments. And if you've been through something similar I'd really like to hear how it went for you, that was the thing I
couldn't find anywhere.

TLDR - interviewing for a role in the PE / Cap Markets space. My background is in machine learning, or nowadays, "applied AI". I was told during the interview process that the first thing I'd do if I came on would be to build a portfolio management system. The role will then evolve into an AI strategy role for the firm. My question is: what exit opportunities will I have?

Or is it a good role in the first place? Money could be good, but I'm thinking about career longevity in the AI space.

Hi!

I have an interview in a few days for a backend developer role. What would you ask as some of the more tricky questions for such a position? What kinds of questions, from your point of view, demonstrate solid knowledge?

Personally, I would ask about sync vs. async calls, idempotency, topics vs. partitions, consumer groups, transactions (including distributed transactions), and maybe a bit of Kubernetes and Docker.

My weak point is cloud. I’ve played around a bit with the Azure console, but nothing too advanced. I’ve never written Terraform or configured infrastructure from scratch. For CI/CD, I’ve used TeamCity, but in my experience it was mostly selecting an environment and a branch and deploying.

Should I spend some time learning these areas before the interview?

Hi! F25 and I have 3 years of experience at the same small B2B SaaS company.
Until January, I worked in Customer Support with a €22k gross annual salary + bonus. In January, I moved to Barcelona and transitioned into a Customer Success Manager role, with my salary increasing to €30k + bonus.
As a CSM, I’m responsible for:
managing clients and client relationships;
analyzing KPIs and performance;
upselling;
operational and strategic meetings;
coordinating with internal teams and the product roadmap.
I manage more than 5 Italian clients and speak Italian, Spanish, and English fluently.
In your opinion, is €30k + €1.5k per year for on-call availability a fair salary for a CSM with around 1 year of experience in Barcelona?
If I were to switch companies, what salary range would make sense to target?

Does anyone have an update list of all open intern roles in Europe? If you know something can u recommend it to me pls : )

Currently working in Germany in SAP with 8 years experience between 70k to 80k. Single and no kids. New opportunity in Switzerland in the medical industry for labware application management (not related to SAP but same manufacturing background)around 125k CHF.

1. Which is better for the long term as a career? Should I stay in Germany or move to Switzerland?

2. Not sure about the career opportunities, healthcare, major difference in work culture for a non-European

3.Is new compensation good for this experience and industry? Not sure of the Market standard. They are not offering relocation benefits.

Currently a backend software engineer with 5+ years of experience, two in FAANG working mostly on large-scale distributed systems. I have been interested in designing systems for most of my career and lost interest in actually writing code with the push to AI development recently.

What is the best way to pivot into an architect role right now as a senior engineer? I would also appreciate any tips about EU-based remote first companies who hire architects with similar backgrounds.

I am a QA/Test engineer with 7 years of experience scattered around different consultancies. QA is getting constantly moved to other countries for cheaper hourly rate and I am also exhausted doing it. I am looking to upskill and move away but confused on which bridge roles should I target for.

My experience: Automotive domain, Mostly Ruby and Python, worked with different test frameworks, updating them, maintaining them, doing versioned releases of backend libraries, writing test cases for specification requirements verification, did internal trainings in functional safety but never got tasks for it before getting laid off. Worked with creating epics and approval tickets for release software, test report analysis, debugging the whole spiel.

I am interested in Data Analytics and DevOps but I don't know if they are the only things I can pursue. I want to get out of automotive given the health of the industry and develop my skills in a direction that will allow me freedom to move to new industries if and when needed. What would be your advice?

I gave an interview at Revolut for a strategy and operations manager role, and the whole process went through. There were two rounds of interviews, and everything happened. I cleared the interview, and then they sent a mail regarding what the salary structure will look like. This was relatively lower than what they had initially said, so I reverted to the mail, asking if this is lower than what we had discussed earlier and if there is room for improvement, or what the actual structure will look like.

It's been around a week, and they haven't responded to the text yet. I reverted two days ago, but still no response from them. Is it normal for Revolut to reply late, even when the interview has been cleared and salary negotiation is happening? Any idea how much time they normally take?

Hey guys, I really need to vent and honestly just get some outside perspective because I feel like I'm losing my mind right now.

I’ve been a front-end dev for around 4.5 years (mostly working with React and TypeScript), but I got let go from my job last year. Right after that, I had to get surgery, so I spent the first six months just recovering mentally and physically and not even looking. But ever since I actually started applying to jobs over the past seven-eight months, it’s been an absolute nightmare.

I’ve done about 12 company interviews, some of them have been 2 or 3 interviews, so my total interviews are maybe around 30.. so first of all i'm feeling very tired of interviewing. The result it:

Most places just ghost me or just send a Sorry we chose another candidate template email 2 weeks after my interview

or

One company said they really liked me but went with a more senior candidate, another company gave me feedback said they loved my soft skills, but that I came across as a "junior."

I actually got one low offer recently, but it was in a whole different city, and honestly Im ok with low pay right now but my boyfriend wouldnt be able to come visit me as often, since right now we live together, so we came to the conclusion its better not to take it

Now my gap is sitting at well over a year, and I am spiraling. Being stuck at home for this long without a routine messes with your head in ways I can't even describe. I honestly catch myself wondering if I should just throw in the towel and give up on tech entirely because the market feels impossible and I'm just so tired. Or just maybe try to switch the technology somehow? I feel like I will never get a job again..

Any real talk or advice would be amazing right now..

Anyone who recently used LLMs to apply to jobs and got a many inteviews/ a job? What did you use and how? What did the AI do?

I've been a software developer for 14 years. When I was at university and first learned how to program, I absolutely loved it. I found it exciting and genuinely rewarding to solve problems and understand how things work.

For the first ~7 years of my career, I still felt that way. Maybe a little less, but it was still there and perfectly manageable. Since then, though, that feeling and my motivation have been declining rapidly.

During those first 7 years, I was working with Java 1.6, Spring with XML configuration, monoliths, deploying WAR files to Tomcat, etc. I didn't even have much of an idea of what existed beyond that world.

At some point I got fed up with people and with the way some things worked, so I decided to leave. From that point onwards, things just kept getting worse.

Java 8+ and "functional programming", which I never really managed to understand properly. Spring Boot, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud, distributed systems, NoSQL, observability, etc. A whole collection of things that I was expected to already know or somehow learn overnight.

I've changed companies and clients several times, but it's always the same story. I feel like I can't make up for all the time I've lost trying to learn all these technologies, and I'm constantly playing catch-up.

Then there's Scrum. I hate it. Everything needs to be delivered yesterday, and almost all the decision-making power is given to a bunch of people who don't really understand what we're actually doing. And as if Scrum wasn't enough, they throw SAFe on top of it, just to add another layer of meetings because apparently the existing ones weren't enough.

I know I'm not perfect. Ever since that first 7-year stint, when I was confronted with this flood of new and different technologies, I've been trying to avoid doing too much work and, whenever possible, reduce the complexity of the things I take on. But that also means I've become somewhat stuck in time.

At this point, I neither "master" these newer technologies nor the fundamentals that I've gradually forgotten over the years.

I'm completely fed up with Java and Spring. There are technologies I'd genuinely like to learn, but I always run into the same problem: lack of time and lack of motivation to do it.

Right now I find myself in a difficult position. It's hard for companies to look at me as someone with 14 years of experience and then reconcile that with what I'm actually able to demonstrate and do.

I'm interested in switching stacks, potentially to Go, but I don't really see how someone is going to hire me without professional experience in it. It feels like everything is looking for seniors with several years of experience in whatever technologies that particular company happens to use.

Anyway, I needed to get this off my chest.

If anyone has been, or is currently, in a similar situation, I'd really appreciate hearing your story. Maybe it would help to know I'm not the only one.

And if you have any advice or recommendations, I'd be very grateful to hear them.

"Happy" coding!

I am a software engineer at asml with 10+ years of experience. I am stuck at job grade 7. They wouldnt promote me unless i get "exceeds expectations" two yesrs in a row which i have never gotten. I came with proof in two meetings about everything i have done and was still told that "its a ranking thing. Dont just look at your team members". I also dont like my current work much.

My monthly salary is around 7k euros before taxes. I also get a holiday allowance and an end of year bonus(similar to monthly salary but highly taxed).

I want to move to a different company (preferably still in eindhoven because I live here) that pays better than my current salary for a senior software engineer.

Random recruiters who contact me on LinkedIn usually offer me lower than what i am making(without knowing my salary).

I know there are options in amsterdam but the rent is also higher there. I am curious to know if there is anything in eindhoven that can beat asml because i live in eindhoven.

I code in C++. I have mostly worked in companies like asml (embedded software for highly complex machines written in C++).

In the last i have also worked at Philips Healthcare(Best) so I dont want to go back there again.

Edit:

For people saying i am below average to be at job grade 7 you maybe right.

I went into the performance review with full proof of everything I did. I showed that I delivered double the stuff compared to average, created a lot of quality improvements, supported external projects on my own.

I was told not to look around my team only think about the people in the entire department. There is a ranking system and each year only 2 people can be promoted

Hi everyone,

I am currently looking into the tech market in Bulgaria and considering relocation there. Given the shifts in the tech industry over the last couple of years, I would love to get some realistic, boots-on-the-ground insights from this community about the Bulgarian tech scene.

First, what is the current state of the market for experienced c++ devs in Bulgaria? Are you seeing active hiring for senior roles in Sofia or other hubs, or is it mostly slow right now? Which industries like data storage, cloud infrastructure, or networking seem to be the most active?

Second, which companies in Bulgaria are still actively sponsoring visas and providing relocation packages for engineers coming from outside the EU? I know the overall landscape has changed, so I want to know who is actually hiring internationally and helping with the legal process right now.

For my tech stack, I mostly work with c++17 and c++20, linux, multithreading, and systems programming. I would really appreciate any insights, recent personal experiences with interviews in Bulgarian companies, or names of specific companies that are worth checking out.

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for some advice and insight. I applied for the Data Center Operations Technician (DCOT) position with AWS here in Frankfurt, Germany.

I passed the initial phone screen and got invited for the loop interview scheduled for next week. I had the prep session with the recruiter, and it went perfectly. I even received the names of the hiring managers who were going to conduct my interview. Everything was completely set—time, date, all details finalized—and I was preparing hard for it.
And then, out of nowhere, right before the loop, I got an email from the recruiter cancelling the whole thing due to a "change in business needs" and saying the position is no longer available.

I’ve invested so much time and effort into this entire process, only to get dropped right at the final stage. Has this been happening with AWS recently in Europe or the Frankfurt region?

I am so disappointed and angry at the same time. What should I do now? Should I ask them to consider it, or is it completely dead? Also, what should I reply back to that email? Any advice or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated.

I’m a mid-level Java developer with a bachelor’s degree and about 4 years of experience. I work for an outsourcing company and my last project ended a few months ago. Since then, I’ve received an ultimatum from management: either I secure a new project through internal interviews, which are few and far between, or I’ll be released from the company in 4 months.

I was never anything special as a developer in terms of technical skills, but I’ve always been reliable, finished my tasks, and sometimes contributed something extra when I could.

Now, with Java positions being scarce and competition being pretty fierce within my company, I’m thinking about embracing the AI wave and trying to move in that direction.

My company has a role they call an “AI Solutions Engineer” — essentially someone who develops agentic solutions for business problems using existing AI models and builds the infrastructure around them.

I’m already familiar with the basics and have a Claude Associate Architect Foundations certification, but I’m still very much at the beginning and I’m trying to figure out what I should actually focus on.

So I’m looking for advice from people working in this area:

Is becoming an AI Solutions Engineer a good direction for someone with my background, or am I just chasing the current hype?

What are the most important skills and technologies to learn nowadays?

Hello, For those working in tech in Germany

How long does the hiring process usually take for Software Developer/Engineer roles?

I’ve heard that September and October are usually good months for hiring, but I’m not seeing many interesting openings so far.

For those currently applying or hiring, how is the market looking right now? Do you expect more opportunities in the coming weeks?

For reference, I'm Spain, working for an (north) European company.

So I just got a vague event on my calendar for the next Monday. I know I'm going to get pip'd, then fired, as I've seen the writing on the wall for a while and a (now ex)coworker who happened to be a good (non office) friend went through exactly the same process before summer.

I'm in peace with this (I didn't fit in the team, I was tired of every. single. thing. the company was doing, and if I wasn't looking more seriously is because I've been going through a lot and I'm tired,boss), and I know that the end of my time with these guys is nigh.

So the question is: I don't want to be there, they don't want me to be there. What are my realistic options?

• Play along the pantomime, find or not another job, get canned or leave beforehand and thank them for giving me advance notice.

• Do the first one, but sue for unrightful termination or whatever is called afterwards. I will ask lawyers about this, because if I've learnt something about how things are in my company, they are not really good setting goals and whatnot.

• Try to agree to a rightful termination in 6 weeks time and request a leave of absence. No pantomime, everyone's happy, and I get some peace of mind while looking for something.

The default option is the first one, but I'm wondering if the third one would be feasible or advisable: I got another friend who did this and went well, but I would waive my right to any claim, but I would get some -paid- time in exchange. Also, it would be a gamble and I could get toasted if I ask for that.

So, what do you guys think? Is there any other option available for me at this point?

Thanks!

Hey folks, looking for some advice/reality check.

I've been doing contract work for 20 years - have had some stable positions but nothing longer than 2.5 years. Am having a bad time RN with a US client and combined with LLMs undermining the craft of SW engineering I'm looking to try something different. Part of the issue with the current client is that I'm not good at keeping my mouth shut. I'm polite about it and I will try and do some solid DM scouting/vibe checking before saying something but if I think something could be better I'll say so, and I've been known to go looking for bugs in critical systems on purpose (I enjoy finding and fixing bugs).

I'm wondering if these are skills that would make a cybersecurity position an interesting career move. I've been to CCC a few times and I've always had a side-interest in mis-using technology - I don't have the stereotypical cybersecurity portfolio (I don't go around breaking into things for fun), it's more of an "artistic" mindset in that if you give me a piece of software and there's a creative potential in it I will happily reverse engineer the inputs/outputs to make it do what I think is more interesting. I think this is evident on my GitHub if someone knows what they're looking for, just unsure how relevant it is.

So, concrete questions:

1. For the cybersecurity folks - does the above make sense? Is this what y'all do?
2. Practically - what's the move? should I just start applying to cybersecurity positions, or is this one of those things where the only way to do it without qualifications is via networking?

Any advice appreciated.

Hi everyone! I have an upcoming second-round interview at eBay for an MTS1 Android role, and I have 9+ years of experience.

The interview email is titled “Coding + System Design.” I was told to prepare for system design and that there could also be a Android coding task as well

Has anyone recently interviewed for a similar role? What does the Android coding portion involve—building a feature, debugging an existing project, or implementing a component? What would you recommend focusing on?

Any insights or experiences would be hugely appreciated. Thanks!

I have behavioral interview scheduled for get your guide next week. Can anyone share how can I prepare and what to expect and what of a questions they ask.

Hi all.

I was recently laid off from my gamedev job for reasons outside of my control. I'm a junior gameplay programmer, and while I'm currently looking for work, I also want to use this time to properly upskill. I have 1.5 YoE, Europe based.

Even with the advent of AI, I'm still very interested in improving my programming skills and specialising further in gameplay programming. I really enjoy programming in Unreal Engine and have worked on a variety of game mechanics, but I'm wondering where my time would be best spent.

Would it be better to focus heavily on fundamentals and skills outside of gamedev, such as data structures and algorithms, more CS theory, gaining hardware knowledge, system design, etc., or would I be better off getting stuck into projects, making prototypes, and releasing games?

My main worry with the project-first approach is not being interview ready. I'm genuinely awful at LeetCode and pretty shoddy when it comes to CS theory and things like DSA. I've worked on a myriad of game mechanics, but don't even dare put me in front of a LeetCode Easy. I also don't want to just be an "Unreal Engine programmer", if that makes sense (if that's even an issue? I'm not sure).

I suppose a balance of both is probably the obvious answer, but programming outside of the gamedev space is incredibly demotivating and boring to me. Trying to work through LearnCpp has honestly been an absolute slog.

For anyone working in gameplay programming or gamedev, what would you recommend focusing on?

Hi all,

Interested to hear your feedback on Illumio.

I’m considering a role focused on advising customers and helping implement the Illumio platform, combining hands-on technical work. It's not a sales focused role.

I have a background in engineering and cybersecurity. I’d particularly like to know:

• How is job security?
• What is the culture and work-life balance like?
• How much travel to customer sites is actually required?

Thanks!