I'm bilingual so that shouldn't be a problem, I've family/friends here and over there too.
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Is the situation really this bad?
- Thread starter neverminder
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Soldato
What language?I'm bilingual so that shouldn't be a problem, I've family/friends here and over there too.
Soldato
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May have to post this in programming forum, but do any of you have any suggestions for tech stack mobility (or examples of how you managed)? how does one switch stacks when my CV seems to be going in the bin. Do I learn in my own time then just wack stuff I know well enough onto my CV?
Seems daft to take a first role, be so fresh to the industry and feel like you can't change course at all or switch it up tech stack wise. First job then just becomes a death sentence if you don't go into right stack?
From what im feeling like recently and reading a lot of reddit etc, industry being in a downturn like this is making jobs want candidates that tick every single box.
Seems daft to take a first role, be so fresh to the industry and feel like you can't change course at all or switch it up tech stack wise. First job then just becomes a death sentence if you don't go into right stack?
From what im feeling like recently and reading a lot of reddit etc, industry being in a downturn like this is making jobs want candidates that tick every single box.
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Everyone's journey is different and a lot of it is hustling and luck. I essentially bluffed my way into my first LAMP role 15 years ago. Apparently I was the only guy who completed their take home test, spent a sleepless night doing it and that was the only PHP code I ever wrote. Then at my second company I introduced Java, because PHP wasn't quite cutting it at the time, built on it and got into a Java role. Used the same strategy to get into Scala and eventually Rust which now that I'm unemployed again I am pursuing more aggressively in terms of personal projects.
Personal projects, open source contributions - stuff like that can help you to get into a new stack. A healthy degree of exaggeration on your CV is also fine, as long as you are confident you can pull it off.
lol about the South Africa thing - I know of large UK companies who have outsourced part of their IT roles to SA, it's because their salaries are way lower than the UK and it's the same time zone and they speak good English. After quick google, average salary for programmer in UK is apparently 47 thousand pounds, in South Africa it's around 20 thousand
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It also becomes a power play - we had a merger, many moons ago, where the director and SLT had a strategy to move all the product under the director within the dutch office. The fly in the ointment was our products were selected over theirs in the rationalisation. So it became a game of negative performance reviews by their SLT on our staff.. everyone then ended up getting pushed. I don't know if the company survived but I do know the CEO wasn't aware of it because I told him 
Soldato
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Most roles are ASP.NET for backend, so yeah im feeling like I can off the mobile stuff (not really where I want to go in terms of direction anyway) luckily I use c# in my job, exagerrate my backend experience and build a more complicated back-end api project I guess?
One of the issues with CVs is they tend to focus on what you've done, not what you're capable of. Obviously, you can infer the latter from the former in many cases but typically we learn new skills in every job. Just because I've done a job for 5 years doesn't mean I'll be better at it in the medium term than someone who's never done it.
As in your example, this is quite prevalent with technical skills like exposure to different programming languages. Good programmers can adapt to different stacks so I can see why people would big up their experience in things mentioned in the job spec.
Soldato
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From the past few months of reading its seeming now like a checkbox exercise, I gather pre 2019 things seemed different? why a lot of the advice is you'll be picking up a lot of stuff over your career. Perhaps its because im fresh to the industry too it doesnt help, if you have 5+ yoe you probably experience less of it, although on reddit I still hear of it happening to people with lots of experience. I just feel like with the way the industry is I guess they now have a lot to pick from and if a candidate doesnt tick every box, CV goes in the bin. Hopefully the market picks back up again properly in the next 1-3 years?
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Yes, if you get hundreds of applications for a role then you need to do a sift to whittle it down to a manageable number. If there are 20 people who tick all the boxes then just throw the others that don't in in the bin (obviously with a message confirming that their application is being rejected), unless there's some sort of hidden box they tick unrelated to their CV (e.g. a recommendation). The ones you discard might actually include better candidates than what you take forward, but you don't have the time to progress that many applications to find out and there's a good chance one of those 20 will be good enough.
I wouldn't say pre-2019 is a cutoff, the market tends to be cyclical. The late 00s were bad for obvious reasons. During 2021-22 there was a sort of tech bubble that sprang up partly because coming out the pandemic there was a surge in digitisation etc. So there's probably a generation that considered that period to be kinda 'normal' making it more a surprising contrast to the current state (Boom and Bust). Instead of getting spammed by recruiters hawking jobs at you and taking your pick from multiple offers, you have to put your hat in the ring alongside many others, some of whom will probably be a better fit.
Basically checkboxes is a filter system that is needed when there is a surplus of supply of candidates. It can actually work the other way round when there is a surplus of jobs, i.e. candidates can dismiss jobs out of hand if they don't like headline factors like working style.
I wouldn't say pre-2019 is a cutoff, the market tends to be cyclical. The late 00s were bad for obvious reasons. During 2021-22 there was a sort of tech bubble that sprang up partly because coming out the pandemic there was a surge in digitisation etc. So there's probably a generation that considered that period to be kinda 'normal' making it more a surprising contrast to the current state (Boom and Bust). Instead of getting spammed by recruiters hawking jobs at you and taking your pick from multiple offers, you have to put your hat in the ring alongside many others, some of whom will probably be a better fit.
Basically checkboxes is a filter system that is needed when there is a surplus of supply of candidates. It can actually work the other way round when there is a surplus of jobs, i.e. candidates can dismiss jobs out of hand if they don't like headline factors like working style.
An update from me! After three months since I was laid off, I’ve finally received my first job offer in writing from a company back 'home'. They’ve offered me the maximum within their salary range. The job is fully remote, with the flexibility to work in other countries within Europe, and even the option to relocate to a different country. My friend's property will be available for rent in January, and they've offered it to me at mate's rates. It feels like the universe is trying to tell me to move, lol. The property is in a great little town with some great scenery.
The companies I started the process with in the UK are either taking forever or I’m struggling to get past the clueless HR people. None of the roles I’m interviewing for are what I’m really looking for, and it’s getting to the point where I just need a job or I'll go insane from all the interview BS...
I'm gonna give it a shot, I think. It's better than being miserable and having to commute 2-3+ days a week to London. The difference in salaries after deducting taxes and other spendings seem negligible when I look at all the pros and cons.
Edit:
I've accepted the offer.
The companies I started the process with in the UK are either taking forever or I’m struggling to get past the clueless HR people. None of the roles I’m interviewing for are what I’m really looking for, and it’s getting to the point where I just need a job or I'll go insane from all the interview BS...
I'm gonna give it a shot, I think. It's better than being miserable and having to commute 2-3+ days a week to London. The difference in salaries after deducting taxes and other spendings seem negligible when I look at all the pros and cons.
Edit:
I've accepted the offer.
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Soldato
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Life really isn't all about money as cliche as it is, i'd take a lower paid remote role over a full office role + commute any day of the week.
What is your speciality in? IT? coding? and where is your home country?
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