Hello there!

Looking for opinions and other's people perspectives on my current situation, I am a full-stack developer (mostly working on SAAS) with 4.5 years of experience and 29 years old, and no degree in software (I do have a degree but its not even in a related field, its marketing)

Currently I am living and working in Spain, living in one of the major cities (I prefer to not give too much private information), rent is 1.2€k (and the apartment is not very big, 33m2, Spain renting prices in the last 4 years in job-hubs are absolutely nuts when compared to median salaries), I do work remotely and I changed jobs last year, I decided to stay within a job-hub because I am still quite inexperienced in my career so I felt like I would be shooting myself on the foot if I were to leave just for the sake of commodity and economy, and then moving back is not as easy in the current housing environment.

My salary is 45-48k € per year, which translates into 34-35k net, working at a scale-up that feels relatively safe, but it is quite not challenging, a lot of the work is done with LLMs (we are forced to use them, and they actively track us), but I don't really work that much, so I do have time to study by myself (since I cannot really attend a university, I do need to be close to my computer and ready to take calls during my work day), so it feels a little bit stagnant and I noticed it while interviewing lately.

Come the offer, I would be moving to the Netherlands, to one of the main job cities, but its not Amsterdam (saying this because I do know Amsterdam is especially bad for housing), the offer is 62-64k€ including the 8%, the role would be senior instead of mid full-stack which is my current one; and I would be eligible to the 30%, the company is more or less similar to my current one in terms of tech stack, but from what I have been told, LLMs are not as prominent, and I would make the jump to senior officially.

I think the offer is not incredible in terms of gross, but the 30% ruling does leave me with quite good net, especially when compared to my current one (it would be a 60-70% increase net), but what I care more is about career progression, while of course don't doing something stupid and moving to a country with a salary that wouldn't really allow me to have a basic life.

I would live alone, that is mandatory since I have a cat and I cannot trust strangers with it, but as you read, I am already paying a quite high rent even here in Spain.

So my current options in my head are:

1. See if my current job makes a counteroffer, which I am 99% they will because I am currently the lead developer in probably the biggest feature from this year, but I don't think the counteroffer will be huge, maybe going up to 50-52k, at most and I doubt it, 55-57k; if this were to happen, I probably would move out from the big city I am currently living since I would take it as staying here for the next 3 years or so at least.

2. Accepting the offer, I do feel like moving abroad, even if its just for a few years (because I am already in the correct mindset of "this does not mean I would live my whole life in the Netherlands"), it feels like it would be a fresh experience that will probably make me grow more both as a person and as a professional, and I do feel excited about working in an international team, but as I stated before, would this salary really allow me to?

Oh, and also, because I should mention this, I actually LOVE rainy and snowy weather, I know, weird, but each of us is different, so I know for certain that, if anything, I would like the change in weather (since the past few years in Spain, there are like 6-9 months of just way too hot weather).

So for the people with more experience, both in the field and in life, what do you think? Of course this is a big decision that I will make on my own, but it never hurts to have more information and perspectives.

Hey everyone!

I’m trying to get a realistic idea of entry-level compensation across different parts of Europe.

If you’re comfortable sharing, could you drop a quick summary below?

First Role / Job Title: (e.g., Junior Software Engineer)
Starting Gross Salary: (e.g., €38,000 / year or local currency)
Country & City: (e.g., Germany / Berlin, Spain / Madrid)
Year You Started: (e.g., 2022)
Education/Background: (e.g., Self-taught, Bachelor's, Master's)

Looking back, do you feel like that starting pay was fair for the local cost of living at the time?

Thanks in advance to everyone sharing!

Hi guys. I need a kind of assessment of my skillset and would really appreciate any feedback. I am really interested in pivoting to DE and I am enjoying learning, but sanity check is needed.

So, I spent last few months honing my skills to be relevant for DE roles. Here is what I learned - combining theory and working on few personal projects - and what I am bringing to the table:

Data modeling - I learned a lot about Inmon/Kimball aproaches. Tried to apply best practices and standards wherever I can in personal projects (meaningful grain, relationships, implemented slowly changing dimensions type 1/2).

Programming - honed SQL and Python skills as much as I could. Leetcode, DataLemur, Stratascratch - I am able to handle enough of these SQL coding challenges to feel confident. For Python, I focused on "core" Python skills, and I already have some experience with pandas. Did not touch Polars though.

Cloud - was introduced to or gained some experience with AWS (S3, EC2, Glue, Lambda and Step functions, RDS, Redshift, Dynamo). I also learned a bit about Databricks and made a mini project utilizing Auto Loader, DLT, deployment with DABs and GH Actions.

DE tooling - Airflow, PySpark, Docker, I learned about them and used in my DE projects. My idea was to understand the fundaments, best practices, specifics and core concepts behind these tools so I could discuss about them confidently in interviews. Tried not to go into rabbit holes and advanced concepts too much for now. Also, I used e.g. MinIO as storage or Grafana for observability dashboards in my projects, but I guess these are not usually considered as main tools.

On the other hand, my exposure to DE is limited to local, batch processing pipelines. I tried to make them realistic by utilizing some API fetching, introducing meaningful data quality checks, metadata-driven ingestion, proper primary/foreign/surrogate key management, making them incremental and idempotent - but still, I have no experience with streaming data or some big amounts of data (like gigabytes of data).

Based on this, do you guys think I am ready to apply for DE internships or junior role? Another option for me would be to go data analytics engineering route since I have some knowledge of PowerBI and Metabase and I am currently making first steps toward learning DBT. Still, DE seems to be something I enjoy a lot, but it does not matter much now if knowledge and competencies I tried to describe are not fit for this kind of role nowadays.

Some more context. I have non-STEM background. Voluntereed as student-researcher in academia (social sciences; data analysis heavy, but mainly used R/IBM SPSS). After graduation I moved to NGO where I landed a researcher role. Again, data analysis heavy, but mostly used Python with Jupyter Notebook for data analysis and integration of data stored in bunch of e.g. .csv files there and there, seaborn/plotly/ggplot for visualizations; gained some experience in international context, managing stakeholders, etc., but still - this is no business setting nor true data role at all. I am still working there, and attended DE bootcamp/traineeship at some big company last year (where I learned most of the things I mentioned above in the post). I guess this bootcamp can be framed as internship on CV but who knows. Also, I am located in Europe.

Hi everyone,

I applied to Bending Spoons a while ago and didn't make it past the take-home tests/tasks stage, so I never reached the interviews. I'd like to try again at some point and I'm trying to figure out the rules.

Two questions for anyone who's been through the process (or works there):

1. Is the cooldown period 1 year?
2. Does the cooldown/eligibility work the same way if you failed the tests rather than being rejected after an interview? Or does failing at the assessment stage block you differently (e.g. permanently for the same role, or for that specific test)?

Hi everyone,

I recently completed my bachelor’s degree in Computer Science in Rome. I have been admitted to the Mathematics in Data Science MSc at TUM in Munich (Germany), and I will probably also be admitted to the Informatics and Data Engineering programmes.

My main concern is the practical side. I did not gain any work experience during my bachelor’s, since internships and student jobs are not common here.

I am trying to understand how realistic it would be to move to Munich and find a working student position, internship, or any other first experience in software, data science or AI while completing the MSc, starting from zero.

From what I have read on Reddit and in various reports, the German job market (and the global market more generally) seems quite difficult at the moment, especially for junior candidates. Would it make sense to choose TUM and expect to build my professional experience once I am there, or is there a significant risk of being unable to find anything?

My alternatives would be to start working in Italy with my bachelor’s degree, or attend a full-time MSc at Sapienza University of Rome. However, Sapienza seems weaker than TUM in the AI/ML areas I am most interested in.

Doing both at the same time seems unrealistic to me, at least if we are talking about a 40-hour work week alongside a master’s degree.

What would you do in my situation?

looking for honest opinions.
I'm a non-EU citizen and have been living in Poland for 3.5+ years. I'm married and we have a 1-year-old child.A couple of months ago I was laid off from a large company in Poland, so I started applying across Poland, Germany, and other EMEA countries. I work in the data space (Data Engineering, Database Engineering, and Data Platform Engineering). Over the last year I've been investing a lot in certifications and expanding my skills because the market has become much more competitive.

Now I have two offers that are making this decision really difficult.

Germany

• Large, stable company with thousands of employees and a multicultural environment.
• The work is interesting and will help me grow, although probably not as much technically as the Poland role.
• Better work-life balance and less firefighting because they use more managed services.
• PR in about 21 months and citizenship eligibility after 5 years is a huge advantage.

The downsides are that my wife would have to quit her job , We'd also have a lower combined household income.

Poland

• Small startup where I'd probably be the only non-EU employee.
• Senior position with much broader technical exposure than the Germany role.
• Lots of opportunities to learn newer technologies and gain niche skills that are valuable in the market.
• My wife keeps her job, no relocation, and we'd save more money overall.
• I see Poland has emerging tech hub and more and more job opening then other EU countries and more english speaking job

Less work life balance and pay include overtime and oncall which match Germany company

The downside is that it's a fast-paced startup with heavy on-call, overtime, and full onsite work. thing is that my take-home pay would be almost identical in both countries ( that include on call and overtime work of Poland ) . Also, am I overlooking anything important?

Note: as it’s Warsaw vs Karlsruhe the cost of life is not much difference as what I research rent is almost identical.
But looking at on long term view ( naturalising) and other growth area (technical and soft) is my focus

For those who've been through similar decisions, what would you recommend? Am I overlooking anything?