r/cscareerquestionsEU

Hi, first time posting on reddit so sorry for any mistakes.

I'm 26 (about to be 27), and have a bachelor's in CS, I've always liked low level programming and I've finally managed to land a job in that field something like 3 months ago for 24k a year (after tax around 1600 a month, I've gotten multiple offers but they were all 24k). My previous job experience was some substitute teaching for a high school and some very limited work at a paintball field.

However I have no idea how to move out of my parents house while maintaining some emergency margin every month as rent is expensive where I live and my work is in a pretty remote place. (1 hour commute from the major close cities and high which are Brescia and Bergamo. )

Adding that the cost of renting a small place in these cities isn't exactly cheap from what I've seen online and factoring in fuel costs (around 80kms a day, no public transport available) I feel like I'm gonna be pretty stretched with my salary.

I'll try to gain at least 1 yoe before trying to hop to something better paid but I just don't see this country getting any better from both a salary and cost of living point of view.

Some info about what I do at work and context of what I do at work:

- company sells custom PCBs and firmware so a lot of variety and a lot of weird stuff.

- previous dude before me was thought by his dad how to program and they made most of the firmware for their clients.

Sadly I have no idea what his dad liked to smoke because I would've loved some of it: all the software up till 2008 is written in assembly, from 2008 onwards it's c, both me and my coworker won't touch the assembly stuff with a 10ft pole. All his c stuff is basically written like this: 1 file with all the global variables, a big ass main function, and some uncommented helper functions from other projects when necessary. Absolutely no documentation.

- clients often require us to modify old firmware or fix bugs because they sent untested features out, I had to catch one and it was basically an overflow on a 16 bit cpu because of some math they did.

- they used outdated microchip mcus many of which don't have library support and is raw register manipulation (they didn't abstract anything because the previous dude didn't like c I guess) , many of their projects include either CAN or radio communication, while I've gotten pretty much autonomous on CAN, I still need some help from my older coworker with radio stuff.

- They put me on a new project which was basically a cabled modbus Rtu slave remote with some buttons and an lcd, I handled everything from the software architecture to the implementation, documentation and testing of each feature. Thankfully they let me use an stm32 MCU so development was much simpler on that one. I managed to hit a response time of 10 MS on a very short cable length, so optimal conditions. I've also had to adapt some libraries to the MCU I was using or change them to add functionality I needed. Client is very happy with it so far.

So getting to the final question: where do I go? Is staying in (northern) Italy my best best and try to job hop until I get something with decent pay or is it better to just get out of the country, and where should I move to?

I know my experience is quite limited for my age but it is what it is and I'm trying to catch up I guess.

TLDR: junior firmware dude doesn't know where to go or if reality is just hitting him. Feels kinda lost needs some guidance from people in that field because relatives are basically useless in giving advice.

(Formatted on phone sry for wall of text I guess)

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i have been living in poland for almost four years now and i really love it here the country is developing fast the quality of life is decent you can live in a modern apartment and monthly expenses and taxes are reasonable overall I'm happy with my life here

my main motivation to move is getting a european passport and my current blocker in poland is the language i just got a job offer in ireland and I'm seriously considering it.

but from my research it seems like everything good in poland is the opposite in ireland im worried about sacrificing the ease of getting a decent apartment with a decent amount. i know there is a major housing crisis and everything is expensive im also not sure about the general infrastructure like internet public transport and how modern the country feels overall

if you have had the chance to live in both countries id love to hear your opinions. thanks!

Got a verbal offer today for a SWE in London around an hour after the final interview.

During the initial recruiter screen I mentioned I was looking somewhere around £55k–70k depending on the overall role/package, and was told £55k was within budget.

Later on I got a call with the good news that they wanted to make an offer at £55k. During that same call, they also apologised because I had accidentally been sent another candidate’s offer email for the exact same role showing £60k before it was recalled and corrected.

I reacted positively on the phone because the offer came unexpectedly, but I haven’t formally accepted in writing yet.

Would it still be reasonable to negotiate closer to £60k? Or even slightly higher? How would you leverage this situation professionally without it coming across badly?

I have sent at least 40 applications within the span of one month and got to only the first interview in one company. Everyone else either declined or ghosted me.

How realistic is it to get a job as a devops/platform engineer with 3 years of experience, without an EU citizenship and without knowledge of German?

Would it be better to expand the search on the rest of EU?

Hello everyone . I’m interested in a Data Engineering career. I’ve spent the past 8 months learning many of the common stacks listed in DE jobs, including Azure Databricks, and I was wondering if you have any advice for someone trying to get into it without tech background.
I’m already aware of the general tips like having end-to-end projects on my portfolio, practicing Leetcode(and similar websites) and networking on LinkedIn. However, I’m looking for a bit more specific things, like what kind of projects to have on my portfolio, practical networking tips, or how to present myself as a professional even though I have no tech background.
Junior roles postings are either scarce or not very junior, so my goal is to be good enough for a medium position. Any tips are welcome.
Thank you!

So I got summer internship offers in analytics from both Wise and Bolt in Tallinn. The salaries and perks are practically the same. In terms of actual work, both align with my professional goals (which is why I'm having a hard time choosing lol). What I'm concerned the most is securing full time position after the internship, which I believe is going to be harder for me as a non-EU passport-holder.

Is there anyone informed about or has experience going from an intern to full-time in either firms? I would love to know what's the process like, what are the chances of staying after and whether both companies are okay to sponsor work authorisation for non-EUs at junior positions? As far as I know, Bolt does not sponsor visas for junior positions.

And general thoughts on working in Wise vs Bolt are also appreciated!

Thanks.

I applied to a company for a software developer working student role.

2 weeks later they scheduled an interview.

2 weeks later they sent me a mail asking about

- my working hours that I will be available considering my course schedule.

- asking to send my enrolment form from my uni.

- willing to come to office regularly etc.

I just replied back with all the answers.

What does this mean?

Did I get the job or not?

Fyi,

The position has been marked filled on all platforms.

I work in England (£31k / 35,8€ TC) doing jr model based design embedded systems, and have been offered to do work in jr Ultra Low Power embedded systems in Lithuania (€31,200 + month bonus TC).

The reason I want to move is because at my current job with lots of firefighting during my tenure I've learnt very little outside of model-based design hard skills. Where these skills in England are mostly used by defence/aerospace, jobs which are often blocked only for UK citizens, while I am not a UK national.

The ULP job is offering to do "old-school" embedded on 16/32 bit microcontrollers for a positively growing utilities company, which I feel would course-correct my skills a lot faster and then put me in a market where there are a lot more IoT companies that don't require me having citizenship.

Obvious downsides are a significant financial loss, both in raw money and the extra taxation in Lithuania, moving away from friends - upsides being a chance to steer my career in a direction I know I would want to go, and have more chances to explore later on in a big city compared to a small town.

I think after 2 years or so, I'd probably have the skills to return to England's small IoT market if I want to, but I find myself struggling to break into it while doing model-based embedded here.

There is very minimal friction to move outside of the above.

Hi, I am currently in a TM for L3 swe role in Google. Yesterday got offer letter from other company for 3-month internship. Should I accept it while in a Team match in Google? Also what do you think about communication with recruiter in Google, should I inform her about the situation?

I got the possibility of postponing start date by month, but will it change anything if I sign offer?

Thank you for answers >3

Not talking about Switzerland and Luxembourg, it’s getting harder and harder to land a +100k€ job in Europe, and the job market is dying

The benefits are non-existant, Europe does not have a strong RSU or rent coverage culture

Lead engineer here, 7 years experience, working on embedded software. Living in Western Europe (no Swiss, no Lux), the best offer I got was 90k€ TC. Not even one reached 100k; out of 8 offers.
3/4 years ago, while only junior/middle, I got offers at 80/85 already. It seems nothing has changed since

1. does everyone here share the same opinion ?
2. if anyone has recently got +100k€: where, when and with whom ? Yes, I know tech can pay a little more, but it does not seem that 6 figures are the general rule

Hey everyone,

I recently graduated in Germany and I’m currently looking for my first full-time job. Next week I have two final-round interviews:

• one with a startup
• one with a Big4 company

For both processes I already went through several rounds (technical interviews, coding challenge, etc.), so these are really the final steps.

Honestly, what stresses me the most right now is what happens afterwards. I’ve never received a job offer before, so I don’t really know how to handle these situations professionally.

My main goal right now is simply to get at least one of the two jobs 😅
(Of course, I’m also aware that I might end up getting rejected by both.)

But at the same time, I keep wondering:

• What happens if I actually get two offers?
• Do companies usually give enough time to decide?
• Is asking for 1–2 weeks to think about it considered normal?

And especially my biggest concern:

What if the startup gives me an offer very quickly, but the Big4 company still needs 1–2 more weeks to make a decision?
Is it acceptable in that situation to politely ask the startup for more time without risking losing the offer?

If anyone has experience with a similar situation in Germany, I’d really appreciate any advice.

Hey everyone, looking for a quick sanity check on a German labor dispute/negotiation.

I’m a developer contracted and paid at a junior/mid level. However, for the past 12 months, I’ve been entirely performing project coordinator duties.

• When I took over, the founder publicly announced to the team via Slack: "X is transitioning to the role of project coordinator similarly to Y's [male colleague] role."
• This male colleague was hired after me directly into the highest tier and gets paid significantly more. While his higher pay also covered team leadership and other technical tasks on the side, the founder explicitly equated my responsibilities to his coordination role. Even though they publicly matched our responsibilities for this specific function, my pay was never adjusted to account for the upgrade.
• I have written Slack messages from HR acknowledging I performed these coordinating tasks.
• I also have a formal recommendation letter signed by the Managing Partner explicitly praising my "coordination and execution" and stating I am transitioning into a "broader leadership role."

During a recent corporate restructure, HR told me my coordinator role is "no longer needed," trying to push me back to pure dev work at my lower salary, claiming I'm not "fit" for leadership titles.

But here is the kicker: the company is currently in the middle of a multi-million euro acquisition by an investor, and the deal officially closes at the end of this month.

Has anyone used an active M&A deadline or an Equal Pay claim as leverage for a severance negotiation in Germany? How did the employer react?

As they were pushing Claude Code usage to everyone at my work, they got rid of one person that was on probation period in a tech team of 6 people (now 5). Weve been pumping out features and bug fixes and refactos as the same rate with one fewer member. However, Ive been communicated the discontent of my tech lead and higher ups about how we do not move as fast even with Claude Code and yada yada. How do I convey the fact that LLMs dont necessarily make everything faster since they give out tons of branching paths whenever you want to do anything and you have to explore it all to pick the right ones, and then there's the higher amount of codes that you have to review, I also believe there's a cap to code a person can review before letting everything go wrong.

I honestly find myself working more ever since agentic AI become the norm.

I have recently completed my 3rd year of professional experience as a fronend developer. I have been working mainly with react and its libraries in a large corporation so there hasn't been much opportunities to dive into something else during work. On the side I also have experience with Node.js and Express. I've also gained some very beginner CI/CD experience during work.
Things have been going great but lately I feel I have started sitting in the same place. I really want to upgrade my skills and diversify them. I feel like focusing only of Fronend is not a good idea, but I'm clueless on what should I start learning as an additional skills.
My main motivation for this is to upgrade my tech stack for better pay and/or work opportunities but also as something to do in my free time because I love programming.
I'm sure there's at least anyone how has been at the same spot like me, so what would you recommend me to focus on? What skills are currently valued or will become valued in today's job market? I've been thinking into diving into another programming language primarly Java for backend. I've also been interested in mobile app development lately as well and also in CI/CD stuff too.
But what can you recommend me that is the best to focus on given my current situation and experience?

Thanks!

Hey all,
I have a 75-minute technical interview coming up at Pliant (Berlin fintech, corporate card and spend management). The role is backend focused around integrations. They said no coding, so likely system design and technical discussion.
Has anyone interviewed at Pliant before or have tips on what to expect? Any insight into their interview style or what topics they focus on would be helpful.
My stack is Java/Spring Boot with Kafka. Planning to prepare around idempotency, retry patterns, outbox pattern, and API backward compatibility. Does that sound right?
Thanks.

Hey everybody :)

I spent the weekend with this idea boiling in my head.

For context I am a 3 years of experience Analog IC Design Engineer.

I failed my career choice. I have chosen a career path full of heavy stress, a very complex field (spent the weekend debugging a design that doesn't seem to get right) with little to no rewarding. The industry is very old, conservatove, jobs are sparse and in terrible locations , companies reject modern policies such as WFH, etc.. And the pay here in Europe is awful. I have been trying to change jobs for almost 2 years now as I am so unsatisfied yet I only get insulting offers, completely disadjusted from the cost of living.

I feel heavily burned-out and depressed and I keep trying to think of exits for my situation.

I have thought about software but I feel like now it would be a bad path to take from what I read in this sub. Not that many entry-level jobs anymore thanks to the economical crisis and the AI push, and in no way I could compete with CS major at this point. I would probably need to go back to university for a master's perhaps... in that aspect I am a bit lore shielded in my field as analog design can't be yet automated.

I don't know what to do, I am writing this post as a bit of a vent out and asking for advice. I feel like my career is completely ruined and no path I can take will bring me happiness, through a well-paid well-located good benefits job. In no scenario I can win.

Any advice is welcome and I am sorry if this annoyed some of you.

Hi guys,

German/EU citizen, final-year CS Master's, no US work history. Want to end up working in the US long-term. Deciding between two offers, deadline soon.

Offer A — EU big-tech, SWE, day-1 FTE (Dublin)

• ~€70K base + ~$20K stock (4–5yr vest, schedule TBC) + 0–20% bonus
• ~$8K relocation lump sum
• No visa needed (EU citizen)
• Lower ceiling, basically zero variance

Offer B — US big-tech, NYC (12-month structured intern→FTE program)

• ~$125K/yr under J-1 visa
• FTE conversion depends on H-1B lottery (~30% odds) → Oct 2027 NYC start
• Fallback if H-1B doesn't clear: FTE at the company's European office → L-1 transfer back to the US after ~1yr
• Higher ceiling if the pathway clears, multi-stage variance

My read: COL-adjusted, year 1 is roughly a wash as NYC landing costs can eat the headline cash advantage. The real question is the EU offer's day-1 certainty vs the US offer's higher ceiling that's gated behind a visa lottery. My gut leans US (I want to be there long-term and prefer the NYC culture), so I'm trying to stress-test that bias.

Questions for an EU audience specifically:

• Anyone gone from EU big-tech → US via an internal L-1 transfer? Realistic in 2–3 years, or does it rarely materialize?
• The London → L-1 fallback: has anyone actually seen the EU-bridge-to-US route work?
• EU grads who took a US opportunity over a stable EU FTE, regrets either way?
• Am I underweighting how good a day-1 EU FTE actually is, given how much harder the US path keeps getting?

Honest takes welcome!

Hello everyone, I have been into computer science ever since I started high school, and as I approach the end of my high school career, I question what to do.

I have done several personal projects and basically taught myself multiple languages, data structures, algorithms, a little graphics programming and am working on making my own language for fun. I enjoy to code and find myself doing it in my spare time.

My current plans are to study at the University of London's online program for the bachelor degree in computer science with the specialization for data science via coursera. This program works best for me because I live in the States, however I am unable to attend a physical college. Nor am I able to get any form of scholarships or funding. So this course allows me to pay out of pocket, and study on a flexible schedule. I currently live in the States, but eventually plan to live in Europe after I graduate given I have a passport that let's me do so.

The issue is however that with all of the doom posts and fear mongering, I am scared of pursuing computer science. My family is saving up this money to let me get a college education, and there is expectation of it paying off. Should I go into just data science on it's own? Or even stats or something? I need my education to be online so the choice is hard. Any advice is welcome, and I apologize if this post doesn't fit in this community, I do not use Reddit too often, and am just looking for some help and insight.

Hi everyone,

I have a 1.5-hour technical interview for an SRE role at Deutsche Bank, and the recruiter mentioned Codility.

For anyone who interviewed there for SRE/DevOps: what should I expect?
Is the coding more algorithms, or more practical things like log parsing, Linux scripting, SQL, Kubernetes, networking, and troubleshooting?

Any tips would be appreciated.