Feeling stuck in my software engineering career (UK, solo dev, thinking about US move)
I’m a 28M software engineer from Pakistan, graduated in 2019. Back home, I was earning around 300k PKR/month by 2022.
At the end of 2022, I moved to the UK for my master’s and luckily managed to land a job in my field soon after. Since then, I’ve been working at the same company (2023–2026).
The situation is a bit unusual — I’ve essentially been working as a solo developer. I built and deployed a SaaS product that is currently used internally, and also by 3 external companies on a yearly B2B subscription basis (though it’s not a fully structured product setup — they also use other systems alongside it, so I’m not even fully sure how “formal” the adoption is).
My role has slowly expanded into everything: full-stack development, mobile, DevOps, QA, UI/UX, onboarding, basically everything. But I don’t really have a team, no mentorship, and very little technical exposure outside my own bubble.
To be honest, I feel stuck and a bit burned out. My employer sponsored my Skilled Worker visa, but I don’t feel valued there. I’m sometimes treated like I’m just “there”, and I’ve even been called on Sundays for random ideas that come to mind.
In the last 2 years, I got married and now have a baby, so there’s also a lot of personal responsibility.
My concerns right now:
* I feel like I’m falling behind my peers from university * No mentorship or team environment is affecting my growth * UK job market feels difficult for sponsorship right now * I feel stuck waiting for ILR (indefinite leave to remain), but also unsure if that’s the right strategy * I’m thinking about moving to the US eventually, but don’t know how realistic that is * I’m even considering whether a PhD route makes sense just to open doors
What I’m really looking for is sincere advice:
Should I stay and wait for ILR and stability?
Should I aggressively try to switch employers despite sponsorship difficulty?
Should I consider PhD or some other pathway for the US?
Or am I overthinking my situation and should just keep building where I am?
Any guidance from people who’ve been through something similar would really help.
Thanks for reading.