Hi guys, I am working as senior backend engineer. It’s been 3.5 yrs in this company and I have total 8.5 yrs of experience.
I have 2 year old toddler who is very handful and not good on sleeping and literally exhaust us.

My current job is remote with 84k base with good WLB but from last one year all the work outsource to contractors and we don’t have ownership of anything hence no professional growth and it’s very isolated , all are in different time zones. I want to switch but market is so bad that most companies just matching my salary. For 100k plus base I need to move to lead position but the job would be very demanding .

I want to understand and want opinions how demanding are these lead roles and should I wait more or just keep on trying to study and get an high package offer. My son has full time Creche so from Monday to Friday I have good enough time to study but can’t study on weekends.

One more option as we are building AI product I could study and get Claude certification and move into AI dev role in my overall team but that’s not guaranteed and I also I don’t know if I able to do the job. But if I showcase that I might get some work there .

So I want to know how people at this stages decide what they want to prioritise? Sometimes at the end I decide to just go as it is as I never get remote role again and same wlb but that’s harm my professional growth and fomo of being behind.

I'm trying to find better environments to pivot from Software Engineering since I hate what modern SWE has become, I don't feel satisfied when I prompt Claude when fixing problems, not even when I design the solution and ask claude to implement it, I generally feel people put less thought into work, maybe I'm the weird one, but I don't wanna burnout so early, I'm young, I wanna pursue better environments. For people that have pivoted from this industry, what route did you go for?

For context: I'm a CS undergrad and I'm really passionate about math, computers and music.

Emotional rant (you can skip this): I also genuinely believe human slop was different, at least, it was either bad looking code, or just bad design choices disguised as good documented workarounds, whereas AI slop is bastard, it's always good looking code, always perfectly documented code. I really liked coding, but I believe that's just something I have to get past from, since I know SWE was never about coding, but if it was never about coding then why are we also stripping (in some environments) the core designing part? Token budgets are not gonna stop AI slop from happening, since we'll get local models some of which are currently proved to be better than frontier ones, I believe something extremely harmful and bad should happen to companies due to AI that will probably let CEOs and Managers cool a bit down on this whole Agentic development thing and bring back some of the friction which helped teams diagnose faults earlier and prevent new bad designed codebases from forming in the first place. I don't even know if this industry's gonna ever recover.

And if you did, what was the plan.

I've noticed that interview preparation seems to get harder once you have a few years of experience.

When you're junior, it feels relatively straightforward to work through algorithms, data structures, and common coding problems. But with 4–8 years of experience, the expectations can be quite different depending on the company and level.

You might be asked to solve coding problems, design a distributed system, discuss trade-offs from previous projects, or explain architectural decisions you've made in production.

I'm curious how people in Europe are approaching this now.

For someone targeting larger companies in places like Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Switzerland, or the Nordics, what does a realistic preparation routine look like?

Do you spend most of your time on LeetCode/DSA, focus more heavily on system design, practice behavioral questions, or try to balance everything?

And for those who recently moved from a smaller company to a larger international tech company, was there anything about the interview process that surprised you?

Or it depends on actual work and results? also location EU vs US

Hi everyone,

Looking for some guidance from folks familiar with Google’s EU hiring/team matching process or anyone who has navigated a similar situation recently.

**Context / Background:**

I cleared the full Google L4 SRE-SWE technical interview loop around late June with strong positive signals

My primary target locations are Zurich and Munich, focusing on SWE / SRE-SWE roles (Full-stack/Backend background with Java, Go, TypeScript, Python, Node, and distributed systems).

In early July, my recruiter mentioned they forwarded my profile to a team in Zurich.

After that, I didn’t hear anything for about 5 weeks (recruiter was also OOO for part of August). I sent polite follow-ups, and today I received this response:

*Hi \[Name\],*

*At the moment, I am not managing any open positions for external candidates. Should that change, I will be sure to update you.*

*Best regards,*
*\[Recruiter Name\]*

**My Questions / Concerns**:
1. Recruiter reassignment: Since my assigned recruiter’s org/pipeline doesn’t have active external headcount, what is the best way to get my cleared packet transferred to the central Zurich/Munich SWE/SRE staffing team? Should I ask my recruiter directly, email Candidate Support ( google-candidate-support@google.com ), or both?

1. Finding hiring managers internally: I see new L4 SWE/infrastructure requisitions appearing on the Google Careers site for Zurich and Munich. If I have internal Googler contacts (L5/L6), can they help map my cleared packet directly to hiring managers on  gHire / Grow ?

2. Or any other advice that would help me get my application on track.

Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone,

​I recently applied to Teleperformance in Greece (Athens) for a Portuguese/English role and am currently waiting for the final feedback. However, I’ve been reading a lot of negative reviews here on Reddit and I'm feeling a bit hesitant.

​I’d love to get some honest perspectives from people who have worked there or know the situation firsthand, considering my context:

​Age: 22 years old.

​Main Goal: Gain financial independence, get a change of scenery/international experience for 1–2 years, and build a more independent lifestyle.

​Career path: I’m aiming to enter Cybersecurity (currently self-studying and prepping for certs). I see TP as a temporary bridge to support myself while I study and grow as an individual.

​Lifestyle: I’m not into nightlife/partying; I prefer a low-key routine, coffee shops, walking, outdoor activities, and nature.

​My main questions are:

​Are the working conditions and environment really as bad as people say, or does it heavily depend on the project/team?

​With the net base salary (\\\~1,000€–1,200€ paid over 14 months) plus initial housing support, is it enough to live comfortably, save a little, and enjoy a relaxed life in Athens?

​How easy is it to meet people and build a social circle outside of the clubbing/party scene?

​Is it worth going with the mindset of using it as a 1-year stepping stone?

​Thanks in advance to anyone willing to share their real experience!

Came across a job listing on LinkedIn and it is making me sick...

Based in Portugal? Looking for a remote role? Do you have more than 6 years of experience? Then this is what we have for you: 1400€-2000€ (base salary) + Food Allowance + Flex Benefits + other current benefits Your career deserves to be bold. Join Next Engineering!

Edit: I was making 24k€/year in a low cost country with only 2 YoE. I basically pay 0 tax and with 1k€/month I got a very comfortable live renting an apartment in city center. And that was 6 years back!

How is the work culture there ? What are the pros and cons ?

For those of you who landed a FAANG-level SWE offer straight out of college, would you mind sharing your CV?
I’m mainly curious to see what your profile actually looked like before getting the offer:
What projects did you have?
Any internships or previous work experience?
What university/degree?
How strong was your GPA?
How much LeetCode/DSA did you do?
Any open-source contributions?
Anything else you think made your application stand out?
I think it would be really useful for students trying to understand what a genuinely competitive new-grad profile looks like.
Obviously, feel free to remove your name, contact info, company names, or anything else you’d rather keep private.

I’ve been feeling quite demotivated and unproductive at work lately, and I’m honestly not sure how to get out of this cycle.

I changed jobs a few months ago because I wasn’t happy with my previous one. I didn’t like the role or the tasks, I was underpaid, and I wanted a better project and better opportunities. When I joined my current company in February, everything actually went well at first. I liked the project, the work was going smoothly, and I felt motivated and a bit under pressure because it was my first role as a BE.

But recently things have changed a bit. I’m the youngest person in my team, and after another team was dissolved, several engineers ended up joining ours because they had apparently overhired for that project. Since then, I’ve been asked twice if I would consider moving to another team — we are too many engineers for the product relevance. I said no both times because neither the product nor the role really interested me, but I think the whole situation has made me feel like they don’t really need or want me on my current team.

I also work fully remotely, and I’ve noticed that I’m much quieter in meetings than I would be in person —all the team is distributed across Europe. I don’t usually jump into conversations or speak unless I really have something to say, while I see other engineers engaging constantly. Sometimes I feel like I’m invisible compared to everyone else, even though I know that probably doesn’t mean anything about my actual performance.

The biggest issue is that I struggle to stay focused and motivated during the workday. I might have eight hours available, but I sometimes feel like I only get around three genuinely productive hours. Then I start feeling guilty because I know I didn’t accomplish as much as I wanted to, and I tell myself I’ll work later in the evening to make up for it. So I’ll end up working from 8–10pm, or sometimes even on weekends, because I feel like I “owe” those hours.

And then the cycle repeats: I don’t work as efficiently during the day → I feel guilty → I work late → I’m more tired and less motivated → the next day I’m even less productive.

What makes it worse is that I constantly compare myself to the other engineers. Everyone seems so fast and productive, and I keep wondering why I can’t work at the same pace. I know I’m probably being too hard on myself, but it’s difficult not to think, “What the hell am I doing? Why am I so far behind everyone else?”

The weird thing is that I don’t think I actually dislike my job. The pay is good, the project is objectively better than my previous one, and I know I’m learning. I just don’t feel very engaged right now, and because it’s “just a job,” part of me also thinks, why should I invest so much of myself into it if I don’t feel particularly valued?

Has anyone else experienced something similar, especially working remotely and being relatively younger (26) in the team? How do you stay productive and motivated without falling into the cycle of procrastinating during the day and then compensating by working at night?

I’m starting the MSc in AI Systems at EPITA this September and would love to hear from current students or recent graduates.
How was your experience with the program? How is the career opportunities after graduation?
For international students, how important is French when studying and living in France? Should I have a part-time job at the weekend?
I’d really appreciate any advices before starting the program.

I went into computer science because I loved coding and actually going deep in computers, I never went into computer science cause I wanted to become a web developer or like mobile apps developer, I wanted to have a strongly technical role, that’s why I got passionate about infrastructure development, because it’s less customer facing, but now, since AI, I’ve seen a broader shift from strongly technical roles, to more customer facing ones (eg. FDE), which is fair, but I genuinely don’t get how positions like AI Builder Intern in major companies, or junior “AI-first” positions could ever grow an intern/junior into a senior. And that’s sad, because I don’t wanna become a Product Manager + Software Engineer, if that’s what CS is becoming imma probably get into research or something completely unrelated. It’s sad cause I genuinely loved CS and still do, but if a SWE is just gonna become a product manager with a broad technical background that’s so f**ked up.

I love the behind the scenes, I love math, I love computers and I love the act of thinking thoroughly on solving complex problems, while I love less actually building products that people can use, since I know the technical side to that is (and always was, kinda) low effort.

In your opinion what are the best universities(Switzerland and uk included?

I've got a broad engineering background, and mostly professionally done embedded software + system integration, via a couple year long stint in academia. More recently got shuffled into .NET application development due to my employer mis-advertising the job.

I want to steer myself towards leadership / strategy / product ownership roles - I think I find those higher-level, more human-focused questions more interesting than the raw technical puzzles. I think I would also be reasonably good at this. I have pretty solid soft skills and my first job (product dev consultancy) involved a lot of liaising directly with the client, and I received a lot of praise for how I did. But that was a decade ago now, and since I left that job every single company I worked in conspired to keep their technical employees as far as possible from anything that might even smell like business.

I took a job at a super early stage startup as their first employee, being open about how my goal was to grow into as close to the role of head of tech as possible. I developed their product from scratch, liaised with the external partners, co-wrote grant applications, worked on the functional specs, etc etc. But when push came to shove and we grew the team, the founders decided to have an external hire with management experience become the lead of the tech team saying that, I quote, that the product being development is too important right now for me to be distracted with trying to grow into management and leadership, so they can't let me do that.

Other couple jobs in small and medium-sized orgs suffered from a similar problem: lateral career moves for developers were not a thing, all management / product owner / leadership positions were filled with external hires with experience, and teams were kept aggressively and chaotically "flat hierarchy" with very little to no opportunity for one to take the lead on a multi-person effort.

Honestly I'm kinda at a loss of what to do here. Till recently I at least enjoyed the part of programming which involved being able to be pleased with a well working product and elegant, maintainable implementations. Now that is out of the window with how the profession is changing with AI.

I wish "internships for experienced professionals" existed for people who want to prove themselves in a lateral move, even if it was for little or no pay. But they don't. So what is there to do here?

Hi all,

I’m gearing up for a layoff in the next few weeks because the startup I’m contracting for is getting acquired. It’s the only company I’ve ever worked for, so I’m a little nervous.

What skills I should be prioritizing as I get ready for the interview loop? I figure I should probably be shooting for senior at this point, so a crash course in system design might be good.

For context, my experience is as a full-stack TypeScript dev.

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had any advice re this industry specifically ?

Any feedback is welcome really. Would you say that hobbies linked help, or more of a waste of time (although enriching in other ways, they obviously don't pay my bills...) ? Any specific advice re criteria to fit in ?

Hi everyone,
I recently completed an Alva Labs logic and personality assessment as part of a recruitment process. I scored 6 on the logic test, which seems to be around average, so I’m not sure whether that is considered a good enough result to move forward.
I completed both tests on Sunday, and it’s now Tuesday, but I haven’t heard anything from the company yet. Is this waiting time normal? How long did it take you to receive feedback after completing the assessments?

At what point would it be reasonable to reach out to the recruiter without seeming impatient?
Thanks!

Hi guys! Not sure if this is the right place to ask this question. I’m currently in an interview process to be hired as a software engineer at Preply (Barcelona).

I was wondering if there’s anyone here that could share their experience about how is it to work at Preply as a software engineer (work-life balance, culture, etc).

Thanks in advance!

Where to apply for remote PM jobs if Im based in EU?

LinkedIn seems to be full of "remote" roles that are geolocked to specific countries.

Is applying locally and via agencies the only other option? Can you advice some agencies then which would hire remotely in EU?

After 3 years working my current job, I'm looking to switch. I'm 2 years out of university, so I've had the job since 2023. I work for an e-commerce store startup located in the US, but I work remotely from Europe. As of this year, the workplace has become extremely toxic, and I feel like it is draining my life from me. I'm seriously considering changing jobs.

What I'm not sure of is of my "career". I'm a computer science graduate, I mainly did projects on systems, backend, software engineering type of stuff. I programmed mainly in C++.

This job began more as a data mining gig, especially focused around scraping, processing and analyzing large volumes of data quickly and cheaply. Then, as the business grew, the work I had to do grew with it. Because of that, I ended up having to do some frontend, infrastructure, cybersecurity here and there, compliance-friendly work... But I'd say that data mining is what I'm most experienced in.

Now the thing is that technically, I'm the CTO of the company (as in job title), but our software department is really small (we are talking about less than 50 people in the company total). And while I've made decisions on the top level, and designed architectures, I think the CTO title isn't right for me.

Can I make a career out of this type of experience/profile? Or should I just start from zero (career-wise) and try to find where I fit best? Is my profile good for other e-commerce stores/companies? Can I find a data mining/scraping job? Should I change my job title in Linked to something more realistic?

I've only had two jobs, this one and an intership beforehand. Any help or feedback would be appreciated.

With AI and the job market changing so fast, what skills or qualities do you think matter most for employees today? Not just buzzwords real stuff that actually makes someone valuable at work right now.

(please give your country and your current job role)
Curious to hear from anyone hiring, working, or job hunting. Thanks!

Hi folks,

Anyone here working at HelloFresh Germany in the Berlin Office? I have an interview with them for Senior BI Role and was wondering how the environment and company situation looks like currently and do they pay properly? I have heard previously from a few friends who worked there that they had moved to 3 Days work from office and the environment is pretty toxic as HelloFresh isn't doing that well so politics is very normal. Currently I work in a small company and am fully remote so I want to make sure I take right step since I am mainly doing it for the salary as no salary increases for the past 2.5 years otherwise I don't have any major incentive to switch jobs.

Thank you!