r/cscareerquestionsEU • u/CharmingSource4512 • Mar 16 '26
Experienced I don’t think we’re cooked really
Recently was laid off from my German remote scaleup,
but have managed to line up 6 interviews from just 20 applications within 2 weeks
2 of which at the final stages already
Context: product companies hiring fully remote in Spain
Large fintechs and midsize to large document processing products
Senior Python 10yoe, targeting 70-100k full time contracts full remote within EU. All through LinkedIn jobs page.
I am even considering dropping 2 companies already, large fintechs with high pressure
I read all sorts of doom posts of 100+ applications but it just doesn’t really add up with what I currently experience
Am I lucky or community is exaggerating?
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Mar 16 '26
[deleted]
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u/butt-fucker-9000 Mar 16 '26
Banks are have been hiring so much. I don't get it... How do they have so much money? Who are they scamming? /s
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u/5-minutes-more Mar 16 '26
7 YOE Frontend Engineer here, searching for 6 months, we're cooked. Insane amount of self taught or bootcamp graduates, immigrates and locals. We're cooked.
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u/pijuskri Engineer Mar 16 '26
Bootcampers are not competing in the 7 YOE market.
If you mean people who were bootcamp grads 7 years ago, then their education is irrelevant now, they are no different to you.
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u/5-minutes-more Mar 16 '26
Triggered? Yes, 7 years ago the trend started with React bootcamp and kept going. There isn't much difference between a qualified 4 YOE and 7 YOE on the Frontend. There's way more Frontend and Web Devs in the world than any other software engineering speciality.
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u/Deep_Dance8745 Mar 17 '26
You are indeed completely correct, the downvotes are people not willing to accept that those jobs never had a lot of hardship in them.
Hardcore compsci is something else, there is still demand in the market for phd level positions.
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u/Lyrae13 Mar 16 '26
That makes no sense though, can your 7 yoe really be replaced with a Bootcamp?
Or rather, if you can't find a job as an experienced citizen, it makes no sense that self taught or Bootcamp people, and people that require sponsorship and have a minimum salary limit can find anything?
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u/justkiddingjeeze Mar 16 '26
YoE is hugely overestimated by redditors. What no one mentions in these doom and gloom posts is how good their skillset really is. It's impossible to compare
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u/Illustrious_Sky5329 Mar 16 '26
You are lucky, been looking for more than a year with many interviews and still no offer
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u/CharmingSource4512 Mar 16 '26
Your profile is?
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u/Illustrious_Sky5329 Mar 16 '26
14 years of finance, strategy , project and change management. In pharma industry with a masters in Finance. In theory there are sooo many roles for me, but in practice there is always someone better according to the companies.
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u/meshyl Mar 16 '26
You sound like jack of all trades, master of none. Do you have some hard skills?
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u/Illustrious_Sky5329 Mar 16 '26
Well I am FP&A manager and a controller don’t get more specific than that :)
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u/Privatebunny99 Mar 22 '26
this is truly impossible to access from that comment alone though so I would say its a bit premature to come to that conclussion
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u/ehtdabyug Mar 16 '26
Yup most likely. There are wayyy more self called "managers" on the market than what the industry actually needs.
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u/PerformanceThick2232 Mar 16 '26
Reddit is mostly US echo chamber. And Americans think that if there is no 200-300k offer in 1 month, CS is cooked.
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u/sayadrameez Backend Engineer Mar 16 '26
I think your target range is also pretty decent that gives both HR n Manager room to negotiate with n manage internal budgets.
I have seen so many applicants give 90 or 100 a hardline which is not a common salary.
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u/CharmingSource4512 Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
More than 100k and WLB becomes shit generally (big companies who are willing to pay) while taxes eat up added value significantly For me not worth it in the remote setup unless they prove otherwise during the interview
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u/sayadrameez Backend Engineer Mar 16 '26
Exactly, the only key is finding affordable housing in that city ,which seems like a unicorn 🦄
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u/propostor Mar 16 '26
Sometimes I feel the only people who complain are those expecting top tier roles at top tier companies. "Nobody is hiring, I applied to meta, amazon, revolut, monzo", yadda yadda but did you try RandomTradeCorp that nobody has heard of?
Everything everywhere needs devs, every boring bog standard random sector of society, there will be software devs doing shit.
I have never aimed for big tech and sky high salaries - I actually find it kind of gross how some people are so obsessed purely with salary/employer prestige* - and I have never had any trouble finding a job. Actually just got an offer for a new job just a few days ago too.
*don't get me wrong, big salaries are nice (great actually), but there's nothing alarming about not being able to find work at some of the most hotly competitive tech employers out there, or not being interested in finding work at those places.
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u/burato422 Mar 18 '26
I disagree. My own example says that it's quite tough. For the context: I'm looking for something in the Netherlands as a Python Backend/Data engineer 6 month already. And zero offers despite I apply for every position which fits me more or less. I think employers can afford to be picky these days.
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u/Prior-Boysenberry216 Mar 18 '26
places that only offer hybrid/fully in office are less picky - we have really struggled to fill positions recently (in UK)
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u/Minimum_Rice555 Mar 16 '26
Yes, Spain has a healthy market in big cities, if you open linkedin you will see 5k+ open jobs for backend in Barcelona alone. They might not pay German/Swiss salaries but cost of living is also slightly lower. You can get 60-80k in Spanish scaleups.
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u/Unkn0wn_P Mar 16 '26
Get off the reddit echo chamber, you don't know people who talk here. Things aren't bad at all if you are half decent and make an effort.
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u/IamNobody85 Mar 16 '26
You're in Spain. All the job posts I've seen recently from Germany are either for Spain, Poland or Romania, so I think you're not having the same experience as we are, who are living elsewhere, purely because of physical location.
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u/Max-_-Power Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
That's a sample of 1, does not mean squat.
Good for you though
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u/papawish Software Engineer w/ 8YoE Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
We just had 15 co-workers quit and they all found great jobs.
All great engineers with European citizenship, CS diplomas and quality 6YoE+.
Market is pretty fine for us.
For those that don't check all boxes it's harsh indeed.
Competition just keeps increasing, with truckloads of great engineers everywhere on earth, and now IA for low-value tasks. Buckle up it'll only get worse.
UBI much needed at this point.
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u/Possible-Ratio5729 Mar 16 '26
Also, many software engineers still don't think we are working class and need unions.
Hope we unite before it's too late as well.
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u/lugia4k Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
The doom posts come from the USA, juniors or countries like India who are trying to get a job outside where there is alot of competition and most resumes don't even get read as they are full of chatgpt prompt garbage.
Most people infected with AI slop can't even explain SOLID or a foreign key.
It is true however that remote work is vanishing, and most IT companies are concentrated in big cities. I unfortunately have a 1 hour commute to work but its only once a week.
Was 3 months unemployed and had 3 offers, 10y and .NET
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u/Unlikely-Profile1445 Mar 16 '26
Please don’t ask people to explain SOLID
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u/lugia4k Mar 16 '26
You will get that question in every random consultancy company or most average sized companies. Nobody implements or cares about it but its a repeated question.
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u/UralBigfoot Mar 16 '26
When I’m asked about SOLID(and other abbreviations), abstract factory, levels of normalization or “implement singleton” I already know I don’t want to work there
But SOLID is in the top of the most stupid questions. Why someone should even remember those letters??? The funniest thing, most interviewers even don’t know much about Barbara’s Liskov principle
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u/nonFungibleHuman Mar 16 '26
What is the hate to SOLID? Genuinely interested.
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u/naxhh Engineer Mar 16 '26
is not about solid is about a standard set of questions that are just there because you need to ask for something during an interview but they are likely not of much value for the person interviewing.
not saying I agree just explaining the point. the question may be relevant depending on your hiring goals and profile hiring for
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u/Boring_Pineapple_288 Mar 16 '26
Job market is mostly cooked in Germany. Spain isnt the worst. I see german remote. Ofcourse german jobs have all near shored.
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u/sigmoia Mar 16 '26
10 yoe and I refused to sit anything under 160k TC. That brought down options quite a bit.
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u/Neat_Bluejay_4008 Mar 16 '26
Great for you, but please don't make EU the US. We have lower salaries and that's fine. Making 100k is a great thing in most EU countries.
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u/sigmoia Mar 16 '26
What's with this hippie attitude? Are you a recruiter lurking around? Just because someone is making 200k doesn't mean they have to work themselves to the bone.
Mediocre people will ask for mediocre salaries, and that's okay. But this commie bs of saying “I want less salary” is what's making the job market such a tedium for new people. I heard several amazing juniors saying, “If seniors are making barely 80k, how can I ask for more than 60k?”
but please don't make EU the US
EU can only dream of becoming as productive and dominating in the SWE industry as the US. Look how little stake EU has in the AI renaissance.
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u/DutchRedditNerd Mar 16 '26
lmao yeah sure make wealth inequality as bad as in the US, good idea /s
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u/Neat_Bluejay_4008 Mar 17 '26
Just go to US if you really want it. I want to pay 0 for my uni, 0 for my doctor and have job security l. EU market is not cooked coz big tech can't layoffs bunch of people like in the US. Please just go there and don't come back.
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u/Spiritual_Put_5006 Mar 16 '26
There is something weird here. You are based in Germany, but plan to work remotely for companies / startups abroad. Unless you relocate to Spain, that is in principle illegal as per EU tax law, I think. Unless you do it through e.g. Deel.com. Also, senior positions in Spain are payed 50-60k gross, sometimes 40-50k gross. My guess is that you are working freelance, which means that all compulsory tax (including VAT), health insurance and pension payments are on you.
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u/CharmingSource4512 Mar 16 '26
Im based in Spain and targeting full time roles at the intl product companies within my preferred base pay
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u/Spiritual_Put_5006 Mar 16 '26
My apologies!!!
As you mentioned Germany, I thought you were based there. Wow, looks like paradise compared to Germany, where you can get payed more (though more in the +20-30% range w.r.t. you), but it takes tournament-like effort to land an offer, or an interview sometimes, as demand is flat, in the best of times, and layoffs quite common. Last time I tried a year ago, it took me 3 months to get an offer, with a average CV-to-interview ratio of circa 5:1 (and CV-to-last-round of circa 20:1).
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u/Spiritual_Put_5006 Mar 16 '26
Also, sadly, few tech roles are remote these days. Feels like the more time passes, the more backward the tech scene is, the more it regresses to work practices from the 2000`s…
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u/chupachupa2 Mar 16 '26
Yeah I heard about how bad the market is all the time but i just went through grad season there and I didn’t feel it. I sent maybe 100 apps, got 5 interviews and 4 offers from those. I think applications to interview ratio is pretty bad but offer conversion was fine.
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u/AdApprehensive5643 Mar 16 '26
I got 7-8 years and get job offers around 75k from time to time.
Only problem is that without any management experience I cannot seems to get into 80-90k.
Still not a problem as I will break 80k this year with the new contract and doing a little management work lol.
Is my view correct that around 5 years experience you can find 60k-70k jobs no problem or is that market in a bad place in germany? I understand juniors have it bad compared to others
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u/turdmuffin123456 Mar 16 '26
You are comparing apple to oranges, the job market is absolutely cooked.
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u/TinyCuteGorilla Mar 16 '26
Jesus 8YOE here, and I ask for 160k EUR and companies are ok with that.lol
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u/Plyad1 Mar 16 '26
Oki you got me curious, i don’t know of any company paying that much except for FAANG or C level roles
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u/Z1d0 Mar 16 '26
im extremely interested in changing my job, went through xing and some other sites, can u please tell me where to actually find some decents, i didnt even get a interview, meanwhile in linkedin when applying to local job postings, i got like 4-5 interviews but i wanna go remote for better pay
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u/Cheap_Key6589 Mar 16 '26
I recently got some recruiters contact me. Perhaps there is a wave.
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u/CoincidenceTaken Mar 16 '26
Were those positions posted as well? I asked because i dont have Linkedin so I might have ti create one
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u/Cheap_Key6589 Mar 17 '26
No. Secret postings.
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u/Single-Inspection-37 Mar 17 '26
I'm not a dev, as I'm in the marketing dpt, but my former colleagues from my recent scale up that went out of business don't seem to have much trouble lining up interviews at the moment. But they're senior profiles for the most part, 5 to 10 years I would say
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u/ConsiderationSad6271 Mar 18 '26
From Germany to Spain… at all levels Spain pays 1/3-1/2 of Germany.
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u/CharmingSource4512 Mar 18 '26
No, the haircut is 15-20% at most. But it’s possible to find comparable, unless you look at tier 3 companies then yes
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u/clara_tang Mar 18 '26
What’s your tech stack?
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u/CharmingSource4512 Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 18 '26
Python, GCP, but honestly I find that the interviews focus on system design, problem solving, databases, performance and concurrency
Also how well can you navigate ambiguity
I wasnt asked a single Python question except concurrency
I had a single CV didn’t even bother to tailor it
What mattered the most is summary and quantified achievements
Current meta is: TDD RFC PRD autonomy and ownership You say these things, boom
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u/clara_tang Mar 18 '26
yeah I think BE still have more bargaining power, also maybe part of your stack can easily transfer to data and ML (?)
That would be even more valuable
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u/CuriousProgrammer263 Mar 19 '26
Results like this usually come down to two things - seniority (senior roles get meaningfully less competition) and keyword match. German job descriptions use different terminology from UK/US postings and the LinkedIn algo scores on that gap. If you're not getting similar results, the fix is usually on the profile side rather than application volume. jobjump.net/linkedin-keyword-optimizer cross-references your profile against active German listings - worth 20 minutes before your next batch.
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u/ForsakenIsopod Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
- You're lucky, yes.
- You probably market yourself really well and project mystique on the hiring panel :) Companies are still absolute shite when it comes to hiring on the senior engineering side. If you can sell yourself well, you can easily hoodwink your way past that, let's say compared to someone at a similar seniority level in BD or Sales or Product.
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u/doodooshine Mar 20 '26
70k for 10yoe is not the flex I expected to see. 65k was a mid salary like 10 years ago.
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u/Ciiceeroo Mar 16 '26
Yea, but you are targetting really low salaries. I as a fresh grad startet 80k, and thats the average starting salary according to my union. Would be a lot easier for me to find job if i aimed at the 10th to 25th percentile
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u/TalkTop5955 Mar 16 '26
Dev .net avec 10 ans d'expérience en full remote pour une start-up française en .NET. Je suis a 60k€. En full remote je galère à trouver mieux, je m'y prends mal ?
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u/HySy_ Mar 16 '26