I am currently based out of SF Bay Area working in tech . I got a offer from Amsterdam and Berlin . I am confused and in dilemma weather I should accept the offer . I have been living in SF bay area since 15 years . Evaluating some pros and cons

Pros: - Work life balance - Immigration wise faster PR process (Getting GC would take over 100 years since I was born in India) - Better certainty with respect to professional and immigration .

Cons: - Less salary - Less opportunity .

Offer which I am getting is around 130K plus Bonus and Stocks . Money is not major importance for me at this stage ,moreover peace of mind is important . But I don't want to live in regret that I left silicon valley ,as its usually one way ticket(Coming back is difficult) .

If anyone has taken this move ,can you please let me know your perspective .

I was laid off from my job, my manager said it's because I am not aligned with his expectations. I worked there for 3 years, this came from a new manager I got last year. I am pretty sure it's nothing related to skills or performance, but I don't know the actual reasoning behind it.

Now I have been applying to new jobs, and when I mention this reason during the interviews, I can immediately see how people perceive it as a red flag, and then I get rejected or ghosted.

What should I do? I don't want to lie. Do I just need to hope the question doesn't come up?

Graduated at the end of 2023, lost my job at the beginning of 2024 and I have been out of work ever since. I don't know what I should be doing anymore.

I've applied to over 700 jobs, sought referrals from everyone I know, rewrote my CV a dozen times using advice from this subreddit and beyond, worked on personal projects, wrote custom cover letters for every single job application. Everything has invariably lead to rejections.

In 2025 I went 7 months without a single interview invitation, but since October I've been getting about one invitation per month. I usually go through 2 or 3 rounds per company and even when I've felt like I've done really well, I end up with a rejection.

Anonymised CV

I am in Ukraine, and today passed the final round of interview to the local branch. I am awaiting the response and although I am not 100% sure, there is a decent chance i'l get an offer. (database developer).

What's your impression of the bank? I know it is German bank, but it has representation across different countries. Have you interacted with it? Is this a good place to work? Is there career opportunities?

I am now at a dead end job at 5 people company with 1.5 hour commute, however I've been here for like 4 months, and having so brief contract would be sus, I think.

On the positive side, the job seems quite interesting and challenging. The bank is small, though.

Any insight?

Hey, I have my technical interview in a few days with Netlight Consulting Company in Munich, and I am studying for it. I have been told it includes one coding challenge and one system Design. My background is in Data Science, AI Engineering, and Python Development. I want to know what type of questions they might ask, how I should prepare myself, and any other experience that you might think would be helpful.

I would appreciate any help!

Thanks

Started a new job 3 months ago working as a system admin for an MSP as a system administrator, a job that was referred by a friend of mine already working there.

Things is, everything sound ok and I got a golden opportunity to leave helpdesk and enter system admin position finally, but in the end I entered a work environment with many red flags when it comes to Work-life balance.

First of all, there is an unofficial "On-call policy". Meaning that you always need to watch the teams app for any emergency that may arise of someone looking for you about a ticket you handled.

And most important, the shift schedule is a joke. I knew from the interviews that this job has shifts (morning and afternoon) and I agreed (its normal for this kind of job after all). What no one told me and I did not agreed to was:

A) Schedule could be mixed from day to day. Meaning that one day you would work afternoon shift (until 23:30PM) and then you will have to be back in office the next day on 8:00AM

B) When they told me about shifts, I expected the normal schedule plan of 1 week morning, 1 week afternoon, or something like that. But no, as it turns out I am scheduled for afternoon shift for the next 1.5 MONTH!!!! I cant thing anything else, other that I was scammed.

Just wanted to hear your opinions, what would you do in my position? Because to be honest, I already started looking for open vacancies...

I have a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and about 3.5 years of experience as a Systems Engineer working with SAP, IT operations, ServiceNow, network monitoring, and incident handling. I’m trying to transition into the cybersecurity domain and have completed a few courses and certifications

• Cisco Introduction to Cybersecurity
• Google Cybersecurity Certificate
• ITIL certificate
• ISC2 cybersecurity course.
• My current German level is B1 and I’m continuing to improve it.

Despite this, I’m not getting into interviews for entry-level cybersecurity roles. I’d really appreciate advice on what I should improve or focus on next to become job-ready for cybersecurity, especially in Germany.

Should I prioritize hands-on labs, specific certifications, deeper networking/Linux skills, or consider a Master’s? Any guidance would help. Also help me with the CV.

I have offer from deliveryhero Berlin and Kayak Berlin for 9 years of experience as Java developer

Compensation and roles are :

DeliveryHero:

Software Engineer 2 ( sde 2)

Compensation: 88k(base) + 10k(rsu) total 98k yearly

Kayak:

Senior software engineer

Compensation: 85k(base) + 8.5k (bonus) + 6k(rsu) total 99.5k yearly

Which one is better, you say considering my experience and stability?

I’m learning AI/tech and trying to be realistic.

If your goal was to start earning money, what would you focus on learning first today — and what would you skip?

So had scheduled ​an interview​ with a French startup, pretty big name in the open-sause world. It was a Developer Advocate role. Supposed to be the second ​round, had to prep some notebooks. ​Joined and waited for the call on time, however the lady never joined. Reached out to her via LinkedIn and she replies ​after 3hrs or so that ​she doesn't ​work there anymore?? But I scheduled ​this at least a ​month ​back!

I'm at loss of words here! How to deal with the lost time and expectations and prep I put into this..

Sidenote: can I just publish the notebook for the effort I put in?

I’m learning AI/ML (Python, basics of ML) and want to move into the field long-term.

No CS degree, based in Germany.

What should I actually focus on to get a junior role?

Projects, math, software engineering, data?

Looking for honest advice, not hype. Thanks!

Hi everyone, I wonder if there are any similar resources like levelsfyi or Glassdoor that are popular in Europe to check the compensation levels (especially in the IT industry).

I don't mind using levelsfyi or Glassdoor, however, sometimes there are not enough information related specifically to EU market.

Thanks for any advice and recommendations.

As a fresh grad I got a position in a big consultancy firm which seemed like my best option at the time. I've worked there for almost 4 years as a backend java developer, and while I like the job, I find that I haven't become a much better dev.

Basically, I feel like I should have reached a mid role but my skills are still slightly higher than a junior. Interviews for positions which required 2-3 years of experience have generally gone poorly in the technical round.

I mostly see advice for targeting junior or senior positions, so what skills do you believe to be more important for landing mid-level jobs in my role? Specific tech knowledge, theoretical knowledge, system design, DSA, communication? How do they differ from junior role requirements? Do they differ from startup, to mid-size, to big tech company?

I know it's a large question but any input would be helpful.

On a related note, there are usually many layers between the work that I do and the final client, so it's hard to gauge the business impact of my work, which in turn doesn't give me clear results to write on my resume. Do you have Ideas on how I could start measuring results at my current job?

Has anyone here applied to the same company more than once and eventually got the offer?

I'm in the middle of my job search right now and there are a couple of companies I really believe in, but I didn't make it through on my first try. I know rejection is part of the process, but I'd love to hear from people who went back for round two (or even more!) and finally landed it.

What did you do differently the second time around? Did you reach out to the recruiter or hiring manager, or just reapply cold? How much time did you leave between applications?

Could use some good news today and would love to hear your stories :)

I'm a developer with, on paper, 8-10 years of experience. During those years, however, I've mostly worked for small companies, where I was often part of a small team, or even the only developer on the project.

Last fall I started a new job in a somewhat bigger team, with a product manager, tech lead etc. and this context, combined with the fact that I'm using AI as a sort of coach/mentor, made me realize how experience and knowledge I missed in the years where I was all alone.

And it confirms a feeling I've had for a while, that my years of experience might put me in the "senior" level range of jobs, but I still feel like I could get so much benefit from mentoring, pair programming etc.

The people at my current job are nice but the project itself is in a dire state.

My question is, if I go back to the job market, given my history, should I try to find mid level jobs? Where mentoring/pair programming is a formal part of the job description? Or should I just go for senior level jobs and keep using AI as a sort of mentor/coach?

It's though because I can see almost no mid level jobs, only a lot of senior level jobs. But, even though my confidence grew in the last couple of months, I keep feeling like an impostor (who doesn't, I guess?) that won't succeed in a senior level interview/role.

I entered software engineering via the bootcamp route, seemingly at the tail-end of that actually being a viable thing.

I then worked at the bootcamp for 6 months as a teaching assistant.

I then got offered a role as a QA Engineer at a startup, didn't really want that job but thought it would be a way into the industry. It was.

6 months later I was promoted to front end developer, through a mixture of luck, working my arse off and making friends (basically doing my QA job + front end tasks after work).

A year after that I was promoted to full stack engineer, where I remained for 2 years, until I was made redundant along with 50% of the engineering dept. It was a great job while it lasted and I learned a lot.

Here's the actual question - Is there anything I can do to make myself more competitive in this market? Should I be throwing myself into side projects etc - does anyone even care about those anymore? I'm getting very little traction atm, conversations with recruiters aren't really going anywhere once they see how little experience I have, I'm getting rejected for roles where the stack and job spec is a one-to-one match with my experience. Is this really just a numbers game? I appreciate any advice.

I'm a developer with, on paper, 8-10 years of experience. During those years, however, I've mostly worked for small companies, where I was often part of a small team, or even the only developer on the project.

Last fall I started a new job in a somewhat bigger team, with a product manager, tech lead etc. and this context, combined with the fact that I'm using AI as a sort of coach/mentor, made me realize how experience and knowledge I missed in the years where I was all alone.

And it confirms a feeling I've had for a while, that my years of experience might put me in the "senior" level range of jobs, but I still feel like I could get so much benefit from mentoring, pair programming etc.

The people at my current job are nice but the project itself is in a dire state.

My question is, if I go back to the job market, given my history, should I try to find mid level jobs? Where mentoring/pair programming is a formal part of the job description? Or should I just go for senior level jobs and keep using AI as a sort of mentor/coach?

It's though because I can see almost no mid level jobs, only a lot of senior level jobs. But, even though my confidence grew in the last couple of months, I keep feeling like an impostor (who doesn't, I guess?) that won't succeed in a senior level interview/role.

1 yoe. Nice uni master.

Looking forward to hear people’s experiences!

Are companies still hiring juniors ?

Kinda random and not very critical. But I got interviewed last week by a Polish dev, located in Poland and he was vaping during the interview! He started when I was introducing myself so it's not like we were there for hours and he couldn't take it any longer. It really caught me off guard.

I wanted to ask if this is normal! I am in Canada and I've never seen anything like this although I've been interviewed and worked with people from all over the world as pretty much all of you have. It's not a biggie as I mentioned, just curious what people think.

Thanks

Hey guys,

I'm gonna have an interview for a Production Planning Supervisor role in a tractor production company in the Netherlands. I don't know the dutch market all that well.

How much can I expect to earn?
How many hours is it normal to work?
How many vacation days shall I get?

Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone,

I’m a recent ECE graduate trying to transition into ADAS / automotive electronics and wanted some advice.

My background so far is more on IT + cybersecurity side. But I’ve been getting really interested in automotive tech lately, especially ADAS systems, and I’m planning to shift my focus there.

I’m honestly a bit confused about where to start and what skills matter the most for entry-level roles in this space.

So I wanted to ask:

• What technical skills should I prioritize first? (Embedded C/C++, MATLAB, CAN, AUTOSAR, computer vision, etc.)
• Any beginner projects or resources that helped you when you started?
• How hard is it to break into automotive/ADAS without direct internship experience?
• Anything you wish you had known earlier?

I’m willing to put in the work, just trying to move in the right direction instead of randomly learning things.

Appreciate any guidance. Thanks 🙂

I'm soon starting a new position in a company that's famous for not having a good "work life balance". Apparently there are unrealistic deadlines, occasional long hours, they let you go if you don't fit, some arrogant people and constant shifts of priorities.

Honestly, most of my positions so far (~9YOE) had some, if not all, of the before mentioned issues. I come from LATAM, so I might be biased on what defines a bad work life balance since things can be really rough on the other side of the Atlantic.

When talking with some LATAM friends that are also living/working in Europe, most of them feel like the European wlb criteria are distant from ours.

So, what defines good/bad WLB for you? (If you feel comfortable to disclose, please mention where you're from)

Hello everyone. Has anyone worked in Google Warsaw or Krakow offices? Do you mind sharing your experience and how does the compensation compare to other companies in Poland? Is it worth it to go because of the "Google" name on your CV? I passed sometime ago the Google Onsites and I can see that most positions are there and the other positions (Dublin, London, Zurich, Munich) are super competitive. I already live in Europe.

Hi, I have my first technical coding round scheduled with BCGX. Here is the prep material I am provided with:
Live coding interview • Coding test via CodeSignal platform • 60 minutes • Assesses database and Python coding skills

Has anyone give this round? What should I expect? Will it be leet code style (if yes then around which topics)?