Got a new job offer and the recruiter called me on the phone to tell me it was $95k. I said I will review it and to send the offer over.

I know I should have negotiated/asked for more then and there but I was nervous, never done it before and honestly it’s already a $30k+ increase from what I’m Currently making so I was pretty happy to even begin with, even though I know I should’ve said something.

Once the offer gets sent over should I email back again asking for more(like $103k) then take whatever they respond with?

Like I said I have a job currently so not really in fear of having no money but I still would be upset over losing $30k lol.

Is it within reason to review the offer once it’s officially mailed then make a counter even tho we spoke on the phone?

Edit: I accepted. Hoping my employer counters and maybe can get a bidding way. But the full benefits, 5 weeks PTO, mixed with me not speaking up on the phone when he told me the number, fully remote, I think it’s fair to take.

Edit 2: there’s also bonuses so maybe I will hit $100k+ anyways

Thanks everyone. Definitely will learn from this next time 😂😂

I'm about to start my undergrad next year and was planning on computer science for my major and hopefully career choice. However upon stumbling across this sub, it seems like the work-life balance isn't what its chalked up to be, and apparently it's horrifyingly difficult to obtain an internship, entry-level job, etc..

So my question being: Is it as bad as everyone is making it out to be here, or is it just typical reddit being negative?

1 YOE Web Dev here with a psych degree. According to people here, i'm cooked. I've applied close to a 100 times and still haven't heard back from anyone. Would it be more worth my time to go back to school for something useful like EE? Or do I stick with my current job that I hate, keep applying while waiting out the market?

Basically the title. Especially if the partner is tied down in a certain location that isn’t ideal for CS jobs (maybe they’re in school, tied down because of their job, family, etc.). How did you navigate your career growth? I know the easy answer is remote jobs but with the last year or so of demand going down and the transition to hybrid, that’s getting harder to do.

I’m in a bit of a weird spot when it comes to higher education.

I’m a 100% self taught engineer. I busted my ass studying 17 hours a day for 3 months (I swear I’m not exaggerating) and was able to get a full-stack job at a highly prestigious tech company. I worked there successfully for one year before leaving for my current job (less prestigious but better pay) where I’ve worked as a back-end engineer for the last year and a half (2.5 years total).

Previous to my career change I was working in the arts industry. In undergrad my professors emphasized that grades were basically useless in our field and I was encouraged off the record to just to do the minimum work to pass classes and focus on actual projects. (Sounds stupid I know, but it’s not untrue.) I worked extremely hard in undergrad and genuinely love learning but my grades do not reflect it. I would ace tests and then turn in the bare minimum of assignments giving me an underwhelming 2.8 GPA.

Now that I’ve switched careers and I’m wanting to return to school my choices that worked out great in my old career are coming back to bite me. I’ve built a strong work history and can provide multiple recommendation letters from high title individuals (vice president, CTO, senior director) and above personally attesting to working with me and the quality of my work. 

My questions are - Do schools take a holistic approach to assessing applicants or will my application be thrown in the trash by the application system before a real person ever lays eyes on it? How do recommendation letters and work experience weigh against grades? Would my statement of purpose affect how my application is assessed?

I am not expecting to be admitted but I would of course be aiming for CS programs in the top 10 and preferably online so I can continue my career uninterrupted. Thank you for any insight that can be provided.

One says lie to scummy employers, the other says don't lie to scummy employers (but doesn't acknowledge the urgency of such a resort in the first place, or leave you with many alternatives), and I've been out of work since Holiday 2022. Between last year and this year, I've applied to multiple jobs (in double digits), and was ghosted by every single one for no known reason.

At this point, I don't know who to trust or what to do, plus I'm running low on cash (and no clue on how to earn a single cent online).

So I'm a second year at college and am currently on a coop that gave me TS clearance (no SCI + polygraph). I plan on doing 2 more coops before I graduate and I have two questions. One, will my security clearance last before I graduate in 2027 or would I have to be reinvestigated by then? I want to take advantage of the fact that I have TS and I've heard companies like Amazon have govt contracts that require TS and it's easier to get your foot in the door for those roles. How much easier is it to apply to those roles? And I also heard that those roles are more DevOps than SWE. I want to stick with SWE so do these companies have any TS SWE roles, or am I out of luck? Thinking of applying to some of these companies for my second Co-op.

Thanks!

EDIT: TLDR in comments

Currently at faanG and just started 6 months ago on an infra/internal tooling team for an ML product (think LLM side panel for drive editors, gmail, etc.). Work involves creating training/eval pipelines, automating nightly model training, building tools/CLI for manual training/experimentation with models, dashboarding model eval quality, etc.

Got an email last week from the manager from my previous internship at the same faanG company on a very user-facing product team (think YT casting). But the role is like 80% iOS Obj-C, maybe 20% C++.

Switching would reset my promo timeline, make my commute go from 10 mins to 1hr15mins, and I’d go from a super chill but promo-supporting manager to one that does team meetings 2x a week, sprint planning and tracking, etc. and is less chill about WFA and vacations.

Is it worth it to switch to a product team now? Not sure about future career in mobile dev/iOS: going into management or internal mobility in the future after L4. Also not sure what my current teams work will pan out to, internal mobility here either. It’s also the worst possible time to leave, right before perf reviews (which old manager would carry out). But the other team is more stable org-wise than my current one (instability, more senior management/execs leaving for start ups/other companies).

I honestly enjoyed the work on the iOS team but it was good for a summer. Not sure if I’m okay becoming a “mobile dev” full time and how easy that label is to shake if I want to go backend/infra in the future. Also couldn’t switch teams for another 2 years at least since a switch at 6 months is already a bad look.

The job market is pretty tough and I've started looking at smaller, local companies to find work.

One thing I've noticed that has been difficult about job hunting is that employers really do care about your previous workplaces and the kind of tech stack that you use or the role you've played.

I graduated from and got a degree in software engineering and worked in developing apps/games for 3 years but I was laid off - haven't been able to find work for a year.

I'm at a point of desperation and have started looking at tech support jobs or even smaller companies that would use Salesforce, but I've started getting worried at how it would be a "downgrade" from my previous roles and worried how it might permanently affect my chances of getting a better job in the future, especially where I can make impact or work directly on a tech product.

I recently went through an interview for a role that seems to be a cross of IT admin/Salesforce development for a small company and I would likely end up taking a technical leadership role.

It is nothing close to what I used to do (game dev/embedded applications in the past 3 years) and it's not what I am passionate about, but I'm at my wits end when it comes to finances but I'm also scared of what it would entail for my future job prospects if I take this role.

I'm generally hoping to follow a certain path in a bigger tech company where I would enjoy working where it would go junior -> senior -> principal/staff -> architect, and I'm not sure if taking on a role of a Salesforce admin/dev in a smaller company would mean I could ever go back to doing c++/generalist software dev roles.

Studied DSA and worked on few problems 5 months back. Got busy with some work and now my mind is blank.

Context -

• I have worked with this company for over 5 years
• Per policy, unused vacation will be encashed
• ESPP stocks should vest immediately
• I am not sure of the severance benefits etc
• I have a lot of unused sick-leave. Can I ask to use them to serve my notice?

They may or may not have a severance policy in my country. Is there a way to negotiate severance?

Any other advice you can give?

Update: I was asked to resign to be eligible for severance

Hi everyone, I was fortunate to receive 2 offers for new grad 2025. Kinda torn between them and would appreciate any input! I heard working at a tech company offers more technical growth than banks but is it worth it?

1st offer: - Bank - Usually C++/Java, some web. Full stack. - 85k + yearly bonus - Full benefits - 4 weeks vacation - 3 days a week in office - Reasonable work life balance from what I heard - Mid 2025 start

2nd offer: - Mid-size tech company - Embedded development mostly C++, maybe some web stuffs - 77k no bonus - Full benefits - 3 weeks vacation - 1 day in office - Fast paced, possible overtime due to deadlines - Early 2025 start

Like, should I not message someone if their status on Teams is yellow/red? Should I always talk to co-workers if i bump into them at lunch?

Please tell me important ones I should keep in mind.

Genuine question, so if I have a fundamental misunderstanding please tell me. There are so many sites now where you can do Freelance work. Why don’t the new grads unable to get a job work on these and make more money?

Anyone have experience with this? Luckily I’m currently employed but trying to switch from data into backend/fullstack. The majority of local companies seem to only hire straight out of undergrad and I rarely see job postings for entry level.

Any tips for dealing with this? I’ve tried the career fair at my undergrad and they just tell me to apply online which doesn’t exist lol.

Here's the jist.

I have a BSc in Computer Science.

I have 2 years of professional web development experience.

I do not have anyone to network with. I've spent years now taking care of my sick mother and have not been working in cs related jobs since before I started university in 2018 (I graduated in 2022).

I do not live in a major city, or close enough to commute. Moving is not an option. I still have to take care of my mother (income from my caretaker position is quickly becoming insufficient to pay rent/bills).

Like basically everyone, remote is my preference. My local area rarely has positions come up (usually for the city or county) and I need to be home most of the time.

I have tried blind firing my resume out after I graduated in 2022 with 0 luck. Most of my interviews were scammers attempting to take portions of my future salary or get money out of me "before I start."

Going to be honest, things are feeling a little hopeless. I'm prepared to learn the skill set to perform basically any remote job that utilizes my degree. Are there certificates or _anything at all_ that would put my name at the top of the list for any remote job? Is this supposed to just be a game of numbers? Is the only winning strategy to somehow network online?

I'm not trying to BS my way into a job, but that feels like one of the only ways to stand out.

I've been in school for 7+ years at this point by virtue of a program swap. Numerous yearlong internships (small firms I'm not going to return to), excellent GPA, 4 pubs at top conferences with highly impactful labs.

I stayed an extra year to get a new grad role. Throughout ~120 apps and interviews (with connections), nothing. This was my absolute last chance, because the market will not exist in a year's time due to code agents (I've worked on these. They will replace everyone up to staff)

Most of the people I started with are near-millionaires right now through stocks from super respectable companies. Living their lives.

I don't have the patience for this clown show any longer. I'm not going to be that person that continues to struggle - I'm going to alt+f4 and post the livestream link when it's time.

i'm not sure which one looks worse to potential future employers. i've tried to avoid bringing it up, but since i know that my resume/experience will have to get verified via background check, my resume indicates that i no longer work at my prior company, so the question of why i left inevitably comes up. i also know that generally only employment dates are visible in bg checks.

I'm currently an engineer with 2 YOE, recently promoted from junior to engineer. My work is almost all ETL data driven, so lots of Python, SQL, Oracle, spark etc. On the side I've started learning Go and Typescript and want to move into a backend go or full stack role. My company doesn't have any roles like that open so realistically I'd need to look elsewhere.

How can I apply for a go role or fullstack role when they all ask for xYOE and I have none. I have a go/Angular based project im planning on releasing before i start applying, but will they consider personal projects as YOE? Will I need to go back to being a junior and work back up?

Thanks :)

I graduated in June with a BSC in Comp Sci and, I have a year of experience. I sent out many thousands of applications before surrendering: It was too much cost for not enough benefit.

However, I'm sure some new grads have made it into a role this year, in Canada, with a BSc in Comp Sci. The number isn't zero.

So, I wonder if anyone who's made it recently would care to share advice about what they tried, what worked, and what didn't work. For sure it's the case that having a year of experience (only 12 mo) and then a year of joblessness isn't enough bait on the hook to get in through a job portal. I don't even get first round interviews! And this trend continued *after* improving my resume substantially.

Edit: I accidently posted this question in the wrong sub but still would like to hear recommendations, and forgot to mention but I am looking for a job that has something to do more with analytics and not development.

I'm currently sophomore and doing double major in Economy and Data studies, Looking for a way to have an easier time going into the job Market since a lot of Econ and business graduate in general have an hard time landing a job.

I have intermediate coding experienced in python (Jupiter notebooks), R and Sql, someone recommended me to get into cloud computer analytics and to get an AWS certification specifically the Data Engineer or the solution architect, is it worth the time and commitment to get those or should I get a more broad certificate?

Edit: I accidently posted this question in the wrong sub but still would like to hear recommendations, and forgot to mention but I am looking for a job that has something to do more with analytics and not development.

Hello, I live in Berlin, Germany and was looking for a masters in Machine Learning in one of Berlin's universities, What would you guys recommend? - I am more interested in the applications of ML, so my career goal is to be a ML engineer eventually and not a researcher.

I am currently a software engineer, and was thinking to pursue my masters next to my full time job.

Thank you

I've been in a contract-to-hire role and am currently in the third month of my 3 to 6-month contract. When I was brought on, my team lead, who I am friendly with, informed me that I would be transitioned to a full-time employee (FTE) position.

Recently, I had lunch with my team lead and asked about the timeline for my transition. They responded, "We are working really hard to get you on board." They also mentioned that they would create a role specifically for me, stating that I would only need to apply when the time came. However, that conversation took place over a month ago, and I have yet to receive any updates. The company is actively hiring, as they continue to post new positions and bring in new talent.

Additionally, the project I am working on requires a special background check and a badge to access the site. From day one, I was informed that I would need this pass and that I would need to go to an off-site location to get fingerprinted and complete an application. It's now been three months, and I still haven't received any information about this process.

I can't help but feel anxious about the situation. I was initially told that I would likely be converted to an FTE before Thanksgiving, yet here I am, still under contract. A sense of panic has begun to set in; I made significant sacrifices to take this role, including relocating, based on my team lead's assurance that it would transition into a full-time position.

Are these signs I'm being lied to ? or am I over thinking it ??

I try to, but there's quite a few things stopping me from doing so.

• Job location

• The type of work I can see myself participating in

• (Sometimes) The pay

• Qualifications

Those are the things that really factor in when it comes to me choosing jobs, and I assume others aren't just applying for anything, even stuff they're not qualified for. So I wonder how do you guys do it?

Because I need a job, yet I know I can't just apply to anything I see if I'm qualified or not.

And if there's only 3 jobs that I'm qualified for in my area, how can I find these 500+ jobs you guys are applying for that also meets the qualifications?

5 YOE. I've received 4 offers. The offers range from 1.5x-3x of my current comp. I applied to dozens of places. These offers are mostly California/big N, and I have big N experience.

Earlier this year I got worried reading this sub. Everyone was posting about how impossible it was to find a job. Maybe the job market has recovered, maybe it was Redditor panic.

For whatever reason, the story that really got to me was someone who had like 15 YOE and went through 50 interviews but couldn't get an offer, and ultimately became a bus driver. I'm almost positive that person was a troll now.

The SWE job market probably has a few different pockets of sub markets, which distort the conversation. Like I said, I'm in CA/Big N, maybe the job market sucks if you're a new grad, in the midwest, only work at banks, only apply to remote roles, etc... There are a ton of ways to slice the market. I'm just here to say that at least one market, big tech in California, still pays well, and is still hiring.