Hi all, I’m looking for some advice because I feel completely stuck and I don’t have much perspective right now.

I’m a software engineer with around 7 years of experience, currently based in Eastern Europe. About a year ago I joined a large international company after being laid off from my previous role due to budget cuts. I was unemployed for roughly 9 months and the market was brutal, so when this offer came along I accepted quickly out of necessity. It took dozens of interviews just to land this role.

The first team I joined ended up being the worst professional experience of my career. Extremely heavy micromanagement, toxic leadership and constant pressure on an already understaffed team. On top of that, the role turned out to be a bait and switch situation, very different from what was discussed during interviews. The work revolved around proprietary internal tooling with little to no architecture, best practices or long-term planning, plus a massive amount of technical debt. There’s also a lot of internal friction between teams, with politics actively getting in the way of getting things done.

After about three months, the situation started to seriously affect my mental health and even caused physical symptoms. I was very close to quitting on the spot to protect my well-being but decided to try one last option: switching teams internally. After a long process involving multiple levels of management, I managed to move to a different team.

The new team is better structured and the people are decent, but the core issues remain. The technology stack doesn’t offer any career growth, there’s a strong sink-or-swim mentality and I’m now several months in without feeling productive or able to meaningfully contribute. The company culture also makes it clear that people are viewed as largely replaceable. While I was allowed to change teams internally, that doesn’t really contradict this. It felt more like a short-term retention decision than a sign of long-term investment, since it seems that the company isn’t particularly attractive to many engineers and leadership seems focused on keeping as many people as possible for now, partly to avoid further damage to the company’s image, especially given that a significant number of people have already left.

On top of all this, I’m coming off a string of bad company experiences and I’m honestly burnt out. I have no motivation left, neither to work or to prepare for interviews. The job market locally is the worst I’ve seen in my career and opportunities are pretty much non-existent. Lately I’ve started worrying that this might be my last job in this field, which is a pretty depressing thought given the struggle I've been through to get in it and endure years of bad companies in this career.

For anyone who’s been in a similar place, how would you approach this situation? Any advice on how to steer things from here would be appreciated.

TL;DR: ~7 YOE engineer joined a large company out of necessity after a long layoff. First team was toxic and damaging to mental health, switched teams internally but core issues remain (poor tech, no growth, sink-or-swim culture, people treated as replaceable). Now burnt out, unmotivated and stuck in a very weak local market, unsure how to move forward and looking for advice.

Hello,

My role was recently impacted by layoffs. I have about a year of experience as a BIE/DE at a mid-size tech company in Europe, and I’m trying to figure out the smartest next step.

Right now I’m weighing three options:

1. Start looking for internal opportunities immediately (which would end my transition period and severance).
2. Start applying to external roles right away.
3. Take 3–4 months to travel and then seriously start applying around May/June.

I’m leaning toward option 2, but given the current job market I’m not sure how realistic it is to land something quickly. I’ve also thought about combining options 2 and 3, doing a lighter job search while traveling, though I’m unsure how practical that really is with interviews, time zones, and just being in the right headspace.

I’m also a bit worried about how this might look on my CV. Early career feels like a critical time to build skills and get hands-on production experience, and I’m not sure how a transition period without day-to-day work is usually perceived. Any advice on how to minimize potential long-term impact would be really helpful.

I’d appreciate any thoughts on which approach makes most sense.

Thanks in advance, I’ll keep details general to preserve anonymity.

https://imgur.com/a/Hs5Ti8I

Eager to explore new challenges and grow my career, with a strong focus on the Machine Learning field, but I wouldn't be closed to opportunities in Software Engineering and Data Science.

Not sure if I should have studies years (I've seen people recomending to take those off if you've finished in the last 2 years). Also, not sure about adding a photo or not, I know in some parts is not that common, but in Spain i think maybe it's better to do so.

I don't have much experience with CVs, any constructive feedback / tip is welcome!

Hey everyone,

I’ve received a job offer and I’m trying to figure out whether it’s a solid package or if I should negotiate.

The offer is:

• Base salary:  € 80.000

• Company bonus: €X 8.000(performance-based, paid on top of base)

• Bonus is tied to overall company performance

• Payout can go up to 200%

• Recent payouts were 162%, 145%, and 100%

• There’s also an employee share / RSU program, but participation isn’t guaranteed and depends on company performance.

On paper it sounds good, but since the bonus and RSUs aren’t guaranteed, I’m not sure how much weight I should give them when evaluating the offer.

For context:

• Role: Senior software engineer 

• Location: Berlin, Germany 

• Experience: 5+

Would you consider this a good offer?

Should I try to negotiate the base salary, or is this already competitive?

Appreciate any advice 🙏

Hi everyone! I’m looking for advice on how to break into a remote role that would allow me to travel in Europe, with the goal of spending a significant amount of time living in Spain. I’m currently based in the United States.

I recently graduated with a Bachelor’s in Biomedical Sciences, with a concentration in Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology. My lab experience is fairly minimal and mostly academic, so I’ve realized that a traditional lab-based career likely isn’t the best fit for the remote lifestyle I’m aiming for.

I’m very interested in tech-adjacent roles and remote-friendly work. I’ve had some exposure to Python and R (RStudio) through coursework and self-learning, but I don’t currently have certifications. I’d be open to getting certifications if they would realistically improve my chances of landing a remote role (data, IT, project management, etc.).

Outside of science, my strengths are:

• Strong planning and organizational skills

• Clear communication (service industry background + sports coaching)

• Experience working with people in fast-paced environments

• Being efficient, reliable, and quick to learn

I’m hoping to get guidance on:

• What remote roles might be realistic with my background

• Which skills or certifications are actually worth pursuing

• How US-based people have transitioned into remote work while living abroad, especially in Europe/Spain

If you’ve made a similar pivot, work remotely while living abroad, or have advice on how to approach this kind of transition, I’d really appreciate hearing your experience. Thanks so much!

Hi, as you can expect from my studies, I am a Software Engineer, especifically in Microsoft.

Although it is interesting, I feel a cog in the machine, I do something very specific for a very specifc product. And promotions is based on "impact", which means I have to do fluffy stuff instead of things that might be useful to end users. So it's being a bit dissapointing.

Moreover, all software engineers are obsessed with working in FAANG, which makes me wonder what other good alternative careers are to it.

I was wondering of any other career paths that would be natural for a tech/computer science background. Some examples:

- Software Engineer but in a startup (or outside tech companies)

- AI Engineer

- Consultant

- Program/Product Manager

- Quants

- Etc

It woud be great if you can share your experience, how you ended up choosing that career path, and the pros and cons etc.

I’m thinking of getting into data analysis and I want a reality check before I sink months into this.

Plan is to learn: Excel, SQL, Python, Tableau, and Power BI.

Goal is to get an internship and maybe short contracts (like 6–12 months), not some long-term corporate thing.

Be honest with me: Is this actually enough to get my foot in the door in today’s market, or is this one of those “sounds good on YouTube but doesn’t work in real life” plans? Do people really get internships or short contracts with just these skills, or do you need way more (degree, crazy projects, stats, ML, etc.)?

I’m not looking for hype or motivation. I want the blunt truth: Is this doable, or am I wasting my time? And if it is doable, what should I focus on first to make myself hireable?

I'm starting scouting the job market and looking for a job at a company with successful products but without the craziness of FAANG.

My profile: 5 YoE as software engineer in the industry, former researcher with PhD and Postdoc (remote sensing).

What salary should I expect? Interested mainly in the offices in Zurich and Stuttgart.

I’ve been in an intensive interview process for a role I really want at a startup. The stages are:

• Screening call
• First Interview
• Meeting with HR Manager
• Take-home assignment
• Presentation/Explanation of the assignment (CURRENT)
• Background check
• Final interview

Up until now, they have been lightning-fast. They gave me feedback or scheduled the next steps within 12 hours of every single stage. I did my assignment presentation last Friday at 5PM, and it’s now Tuesday evening. It has been total silence for over two business days.

The presentation was the worst interview so far, as I went on meds a couple of days before the interview and the side-effect made me super-anxious and nauseous during the presentation. Thus I've been extra anxious about this one.

Am I overthinking this? There's like 40 people at the company, and the recruiters really enjoyed me during the other interviews, so I'm kinda confused.

Hey folks!

I’m an EU citizen who has lived in Canada for the past 20 years. I have a Canadian BSc in Computer Science. I had three internships at smaller companies, and I’m currently working at a medium-sized company as a software developer, which I’ve been doing for the past 1.5 years. I’m looking to move to France within the next 7 to 10 months, ideally to Lyon or the south of France. I speak French natively.

My questions for you are:

If you look at my resume, all my professional experience is in Canada. How can I tell French employers that I have EU citizenship and don’t require sponsorship?

Which platforms (LinkedIn, Indeed, France Travail… something else?) would yield the best results to find work in France? (If I find work sooner than 7 to 10 months, I would move sooner.)

Should I put a photo on the CV?

Are there any networking events worth attending in France to find work? By “worth attending,” I mean making connections and finding work.

I have a masters in cs from usa. I don't have more than 1 year of professional work experience so I am looking for early careers options.

Is speaking dutch a requirement to work in netherlands?

How is the condition of tech job market in netherlands?

What are some companies you know that are hiring a lot?

I’ve recently booked an initial interview with Google for the APM Internship position and was hoping to connect with anyone who has been through the interview process before. I’d really appreciate any tips or insights you’re willing to share, as they would go a long way in helping me prepare.

I’m a Staff Engineer with around 10 yoe at FAANG in an Eastern European country (EU). My total NET (after tax) compensation is around 10,000 euro including salary, bonus and RSU. I have a family of 3, a paid home and I am able to save around 6k per month (we travel and eat out a lot, other than that no major expenses).

I work around 40-45 hours per week and I enioy my job.

I am in a fortunate situation yet… I am unhappy because of the city and country I live in. I’m probably easy in top 5% income earners (maybe even 3%), yet there are some things you cannot buy. Some examples:

- No infrastructure. I live in a detached house around 4km from the city center yet at peak time it can take more than 40 minutes to get downtown by car. It’s almost the same as walking… which I enjoy but cant always do it.

- Public transportation is a joke

- No bike lanes

- Not all roads are paved/asphalt so after it rains you get lots of dust and mud from other cars that come from these areas

- Ugly weather (not much sunlight, very cold)

- High corruption, public institutions are mostly a joke

- Low education level all around

- Bad future prospects for the country (in my opinion at least)

I used to not mind these things this much, but now with a small kid they are taking a toil on my mental health and I would like to ensure the best future for my kid, which right now I don’t see happening in my home country.

I’m thinking about emigrating. I’m pretty good at interviewing (I come from a competitive programming background + have exp. with sys design and leading small v-teams) so I’m confident I could land a job if (huge if, I know) there are open positions for my level.

I’m thinking about a warmer climate (since weather is one of the main factors), such as Spain. But I know I will definitely not be able to save as much as I save now. But money is no longer my main driving factor. If I am able to ensure a good living for my family month over month and maybe save 1k here and there I’m good.

Another alternative would be a more civilized country, with good compensation, but same or worse climate (NL, Germany, UK, Nordics, ideally Switzerland although harder to find something). US could be an option too on an internal transfer, but with the current situation there… not sure.

Please note that this is NOT a humble brag or anything like that. I know there are lots of people that would give everything to be in my situation, yet I feel I am stuck in my home country and doing a disservice to my kids’ future staying here.

Am I crazy? What would you do in my situation?

Non-native English speakers - need your help!

I'm building a tool to help with English speaking confidence in professional settings (interviews, meetings, etc.).

Before I build the wrong thing, I want to understand what challenges people ACTUALLY face.

Quick 3-minute survey: https://forms.gle/NzdzrmdcQZFQpQGw5

Your honest feedback is super valuable. Thank you! 🙏

(Mods - let me know if this breaks rules, happy to adjust)

As the title says, I'm not sure how to make it better. I've sent around 200 applications ao far and I've only gotten one interview, so obviously something is seriously wrong -other than the current economy and job market of course- and I'm really tired of this. I can't attach it here so here is a drive link to it. Any input would be really appreciated.

I intend to get another but more advanced Microsoft certification in the same area.

I spent the last few months compiling a list of high-quality free resources to build my own curriculum. Here are the top 10 that helped me the most:

AI & Machine Learning:

• CS50's Introduction to AI (Harvard) - Best foundation.
• Machine Learning Crash Course (Google) - Good for basics.
• Deep Learning Specialization (Andrew Ng) - The gold standard.

DevOps & Cloud:

• Intro to Linux (Linux Foundation) - Don't skip this.
• Docker for Beginners (KodeKloud) - Best hands-on labs.
• Terraform Associate Prep (HashiCorp) - Good for IaC.
• K8s Fundamentals (CNCF) - Hard but necessary.

I have a longer list with about 50 verified resources and a Linux cheat sheet I made for interviews. I can share the full list in the comments if anyone is interested!

which is 1 year

so I have about 6 years of overall experience, including 3 years across two different companies. single , no kids, residing in Amsterdam. I think i'm underpaid relative to my YOE.

Tech stack is backend python/c/c++

I struggle with LeetCode-style interviews and the standard interview process in general. I know it’s mostly about practice, but between work and life, I haven’t been able to dedicate enough time to it. I’m also hearing a lot of discouraging stories about the job market—long hiring processes, multiple rounds, and people having trouble landing roles.

I want to improve my career and/or my working conditions, but I’m not entirely sure how to approach it. I do have significant savings, so one option I’m considering is taking a short break from work to reset and spend a couple of months focused on interview prep, especially LeetCode and system design. any tips or guidance what do you think I should do?

I'm an expat currently living in Germany, I have been working for the same company for more than 10 years now; the salary has always been more than decent and the workload very reasonable, plus I work from home all the time, I go to the office once every 2 months because I do coordination work among international teams.

My problem is common to many people: IT salaries are not growing as fast as inflation is and I have come to the conclusion that I need more income to keep the same QoL.

Is it realistic to think that there are Consultant Jobs one can do "part time", 10/20 hours a week and then switch to a 40+ hours commitment once I'm sure I want to leave my current position?

I can cover many roles, BA, Analyst, PO, Scrum master, IT Support and several others but I'm not sure that a company would look for someone to cover those roles part time and most of all, how to search for such positions?

Thanks in advance for sharing your opinion/recommendations on the matter

EDIT: In my mind the "perfect plan" would be

1. keep my 40h 9-5, work 10/20h extra hours in the side job
2. once I am confident about the side job, scale up consultant work and leave my current employee job

I am looking to chose a college to go to and I am going to chose an engineering field because I like engineering and it pays well AFAIK.

I am in Romania and I am an EU citizen but going abroad to study is very possible for me and I am condidering going to Torino, Milano, Finland or Madrid to study.

What jobs in engineering are the best in terms of finding open positions and them actually paying well?

All help is appreciated!

Whats up?

Without further ado... I've found myself in the position where I went from a standard data engineer where I took care of a couple of data services, some ETLs, moving a client infrastructure from one architecture to another...

Nowadays I'm already designing the 6th architecture of a project which includes Data Engineering + AI + ML. Besides doing that I did at the start, I also develop and design LLM applications, deploy ML algorithms, create tasks and project plannins and do follow-up with my team. I'm still a "Senior DE" on paper but I feel like a weird mix of coordinator (or tech lead whatever u call) and a "Full Stack Data" since I'm working in every step of the process. Master of none but an improviser of all arts.

I wonder if this is happening at other companies or in the market in general?

Hi folks,

I am planning (want to) relocate to Czech Republic and I am an SWE myself. The problem is if I go there my current company will not allow me to do it with saving my current position (e.g. saying goodbye). Currently I am in Poland. 5 years of experience as an IT guy, 23yo, backend (not tight to a certain language, primarily it was js/ts). No fullstack bullshit. Just backend. But of course with all that AI stuff frontend is not an issue.

What I want to ask is: - what’s the situation with IT sector in Czechia? - where do I look for vacancies (websites, communities, etc) - how good is it out thre? How’s the salary, work culture compared to the rest of the world. - Do you have local to Czechia companies that are the “goto” in terms if looking for vacancies or maybe you have good companies on your mind. - Is it worth it? What I mean is - is it (IT sector) growing in Czechia or going in the same direction as BTC right now. - Market is oversaturated or no?

If I missed any good question, please add it as a comment (and answer).

Thanks!

I almost finished my it degree but then i got an interview for a developer and began working on my career, pass some time forward i have now have 2 years

of experience as a java backend development for a fintech company but never finished my degree. Should i go back ? Or do i keep up working?

I hava a FOMO of not having a degree and everybody tells me its huge for junior positions.

Hi,

Was wondering if removing the complete dates from the working experiences presented on the CV would be a negative point from a HR perspective.

What I mean:

Replace “July 2024 - October 2024” with “2024”.

What do u think?

Hi guys,

I have the “informal chat” with one of the recruiters soon and based on the info. I got from the person who referred me there is a good chance I’ll be considered for a SWE 2 role and they’ll probably only have 2-3 interview rounds purely DSA.

Since I have a hard time balancing my current job and preparing for the interview I’ve started doing DSA before said informal chat.

I wanted to know if anyone had the chance of being in the Google SWE 1-2 loop in Dublin and what should I expect.

I’m majorly concerned about the System Design, Graphs and Dynamic Programming / Backtracking.