r/cscareerquestionsuk

So im planning to study a cs degree but the more research i do, the more i see people complaining how difficult the job market is right now and how AI is taking over. Cs is like the only topic im passionate about but choosing a career that has a bad job market just for 'passion' is not wise. I dont wanna end up with a good-for-nothing degree working at mcdonalds for the rest of my life. I thought cs was at least more stable than creative/artistic careers but at this rate who knows. Lowkey might be better if i switch to something stable, even if i hate it at least I will have enough money to survive. Im pretty decent at maths so finance could be a option.

BASICALLY got my A level results and got A* AA in bio, chem and physics(regret not taking math but oh well). I know a guy just posted this same question and got negative responses. However many of them were taking about how going into debt for it isnt worth it. If I'm getting substantially reduced fees from Aston university(I have to pay 4000 gbp per year- which I can cover myself by living at home and from my job at maccies) and graduate without incurring any debt, Is that a good option? I've been studious and also working alongside my A levels to save up money for med school in a country like Italy or georgia and had enough saved for a year hoping my parents could fund the rest (as they promised) but they suddenly needed money for an emergency so that wiped away my fund. I'm directionless but I have always known that if I wasnt a doctor, I'd be in fintech. Should I avail my offer of CS at aston? Is it a good enough uni?

Hi all, as the title reads, I've been hired into a (very fortunate) position as an AI Engineer for a cybersecurity firm in London. They support various companies, the most notable of which include robotics companies such as Boston Dynamics.

While this opportunity is very exciting, I'm really not sure about what to expect! What skills, tools, etc should I prepare & develop for my role? I'm supposed to be officially starting later this week

I work as a mid level software engineer at a large UK bank and recently accepted an internal transfer to another engineering team.

Since accepting, another internal opportunity I’d previously considered has become available again, and I’m now seriously considering taking that instead.

Very broadly, the two roles are:
Role A: backend engineering around payments. Mostly Java, Kafka/event driven systems, validation/integration work and services that sit around payment processing. It sounds technically solid and fairly infrastructure/backend focused.

Role B: backend engineering in customer services/operations, also involving Java, but with the opportunity to work on GenAI/agentic use cases, automating parts of customer servicing and integrating AI capabilities into existing systems. The team seem more relaxed and working set up could also suit my personal circumstances a bit better.

Both are similar in level and compensation, so this isn’t really about money.
My concern is that I’ve already formally accepted Role A and the team is expecting me to join shortly.

How damaging is it reputationally to pull out of an internal move at this stage?

Would you expect this to burn the bridge mainly with that particular manager/team, or can something like this follow you around internally and affect future opportunities years down the line ?

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Hello! Has anyone got anything in their contracts about opting out of maximum working hours per week?

If so, what's the catch and what's your experiences with it?

Thanks!

Hi! I’m a Service Designer currently working in the UK public sector. I have almost 6 years of experience overall, around 3 years in the private sector in Colombia and 3 years in UK government.

Lately, I’ve been having a bit of a career crisis and questioning whether I actually want to continue as a Service Designer.

I’d really like to hear from people working in Service Design in the private sector in the UK. What has your experience been like? How different is it from the public sector? What are the culture, pace, responsibilities and day-to-day work like in other industries?

I think I’m mainly trying to understand whether I’m tired of Service Design itself, or whether it’s more about the organisation/environment I’m currently in.
Would really appreciate hearing about other people’s experiences!!!

Hey everyone, I’m feeling really stuck on what I should be applying for at this point.

I used to live in the UK and did my Master’s in London in translation. I managed to land a Big 4 audit job after graduating, but unfortunately after four months got laid off at the end of 2023.

I spent most of 2024 job hunting but didn’t manage to find a proper role. Because of visa issues, I had to leave London. Since then, I’ve been freelancing remotely, mainly doing language and content-related work.

The thing is, I’ve realised how much I miss my life in London, and I really want to move back. The biggest issue now is obviously sponsorship.

I’ve been looking at localisation and language-related roles, but I don’t necessarily want to limit myself to localisation. I’m pretty open to anything related to content, languages, language services, etc.

What worries me is that my work experience isn’t exactly consistent, especially with the career gap and the switch from audit to language or content work. Do you guys think I’m wasting my time trying to find a sponsored job in London with my background?

I honestly feel pretty lost at the moment and don’t really know what my next move should be. Would really appreciate any thoughts, especially from people working in content or language services.😭Many thx!!

Hi everyone! I (31f, london based) am thinking about my next career move.

I work for a fintech as a software dev, and i enjoy the role and my team.

I finished my L4 software dev apprenticeship months early to distinction level because I wanted to prove that I could. My promotion at work came a few months later to the equivalent of "junior developer" level, and i was annoyed at the time because I wasnt promoted straight away, but when the other apprentices were (at the normal pacing).

I want to hit a 50k min salary, which I wont make at the junior dev level at my company.

Heres the thing - as a graduate apprentice, im not eligible for grad roles, which from my linkedin searching tend to start from around 50k in the fintech sector. As we know the junior dev market is saturated atm, but I was offered a 45k software dev job in a diff sector (which i turned down due to sector) a few months ago, so maybe that means theres hope still for salaries at what im looking for?

Im wondering if it would make sense to apply to do the L6 with my company, as our provider gives us a degree as well so i can apply to grad roles in the future, though the degree wouldnt be from one of the big unis (so may not help with grad role applications anyway), OR just focus on growing to mid level roles without having to do coursework/dissertations etc and hope that in a similar timeframe of 9 months the market will have calmed down a bit.

Getting the L6 wouldn't automatically promote me to mid level at my current company, so this would purely be for external applications.

Would love some thoughts!

So I took 2 gap years and during the past year, I was spending all my time on applying to degree apprenticeships but unfortunately didn't land a role but was very close as i got into many acs. If i did, then I would easily take it over a cs degree. I could take another gap year and spend time applying to more degree apprenticeships but Im in a toxic housing situation and need to move out of my parents house so I guess uni will help me move out sooner. Should i just go ahead with the CS degree or switch to another course (maths is probably the only other thing I would consider but im genuinly just way more interested in tech). I will apply to apprenticeships during uni but probably wont have much time to anway. Btw the uni i chose is like top 20 rg uni not top 10 tho.

but my main concern is that i end up getting into alot of debt for nothing

Hey everyone,

I have ~2 years of general IT operations/support experience and Im trying to move away from typical support/ticketing work

I currently have two opportunities:

1. Junior windows engineer (Telecommunication corpo )

• Windows Server / Active Directory
• PowerShell and scripting
• Automation of deployments and configuration
• Git, CI/CD, Ansible
• More infrastructure/engineering focused, no helpdesk work
• Internal project, potentially involving legacy technologies, outdated documentation
• Better salary

2. Intern ServiceNow Developer (Big4 firm)

• ServiceNow development and configuration
• ITSM / ITIL
• JavaScript
• More consulting focused, working for clients
• Worse salary

Both seem decent ways to move forward, but they are so different and Im having a hard time deciding which one would be better long-term career prospect

Im mainly wondering which path gives better opportunities after few years and which one is easier to build on later. For example, does Windows/AD automation make sense as a path toward DevOps/Cloud/Platform Engineering, or is it easy to get stuck in older legacy Microsoft infrastructure?

On the other hand is ServiceNow a good long term specialization or does it limit you too much to one platform?

I would really appreciate opinions and insights from people who have worked in either of these areas, especially if you made a similar transition early in your career

I am in dire need of some advice. Quick background on me - I've worked for myself for effectively 16 years, I'm late 30s and after years of hobby coding on and off for 8 years I decided to look for a developer job. I recently have completed a year course in AI/ML engineering (junior) but a couple of months ago I was offered a role as a general software engineer at a small environmental planning consultancy with no code assessments or anything like that. I've a few more seasoned developer friends that I've spoken to and they have all said that really at a junior stage you should be getting feedback on the code you're writing, working on small issues that don't have (huge) consequences on the overall structure of the system, and basically learning how the system works.

I've written things in points below as it sort of sets out my thoughts a bit easier:

- Zero onboarding: I was dropped into the company without a proper introduction to the technology, architecture, processes or codebase.

- No structured junior support: I haven't had regular 1 on 1s. I don't have stand-ups or mentoring.

- There isn't really anyone working alongside me day-to-day.

- No code review: I'm completing work and being told whether it's right or wrong afterwards, rather than having someone review my approach and teach me from it.

- Unclear requirements: I'm often given work through an ad-hoc Slack message rather than a properly defined ticket. I've found that things are frequently wrong because the problem and instructions weren't explained.

- Very little work most times: I've had multiple days with essentially nothing to do (I've had 6 consecutive days doing nothing at all). Other times I've received only very small tasks, such as adding a button.

- A sudden jump in responsibility: After five weeks I was given a national-dataset/data-engineering project which had system wide architecture implications. I was given the task to work through a large unfamiliar technical area but not told what the outcome should be.

- The level of independence doesn't seem matched to my experience: I'm still a very early-career developer and haven't been given the foundations/context to do that comfortably. The role appears to require me to make decisions and navigate an unfamiliar system independently that I don't understand.

- Heavy reliance on AI without enough underlying understanding: I'm allowed/encouraged to use Claude extensively. My actual workflow has become something like: requirement → Claude → code → test → submit. I understand the industry is moving that way but I genuinely don't even know what I'm doing to a) use Claude correctly b) the task/solution in general. I'm concerned I'm producing working code without developing a proper mental model of the technology.

- I don't feel I understand the tech stack: After 2 months I still don't feel I understand how the company's technology fits together. That's particularly concerning to me because I'm trying to establish my fundamental engineering skills.

- I'm not getting the feedback loop needed to develop: I'm not just lacking knowledge - I'm lacking the mechanism by which a junior normally acquires it ie. attempt something, reviewed, explain it, correct it etc

- The technical leadership structure is extremely thin: The team is essentially me and one other developer/technical person.

- Both the CTO and tech lead are both away at the same time, leaving me alone despite having only been there around 6 weeks. I don't feel equipped to be left alone. My concern isn't simply that they're went away. It's that I'm being left without the people who understand the company's technology while I still feel I don't understand it myself.

- My responsibilities don't seem aligned with my career stage: Some work is completely appropriate for a junior. Other work, particularly the ambiguous dataset project and degree of ownership, feels closer to what I'd expect from someone with considerably more experience.

- The role isn't giving me the experience I thought I was getting. This is probably the biggest issue for me.

I'm worried that in 6–12 months my CV could say "6–12 months software development experience", but internally I'd feel that I hadn't actually gained 6–12 months' worth of development experience because I was mostly using AI to get tasks completed without properly understanding the tech/system.

I'm also regularly feeling out of my depth and stressed. I know that being out of your depth is normal as a junior, so I'm not expecting to understand everything. The problem is that I don't feel like I'm being given the feedback/support needed to gradually get less out of my depth.

I don't necessarily think the company is badly run. I think they may simply need someone who can operate with a lot of independence in a very small team and probably by someone trying to move from junior to mid, whereas I need an environment where I can learn, receive feedback and gradually build that independence.

So I'm trying to work out whether this is simply what being a junior developer is actually like, or whether I've ended up in a role that probably isn't particularly suitable for someone at my level.

What I'd really appreciate advice on is whether this is normal for a junior role to not have any support/feedback/1 on 1s/reviews? Are there any red flags that I'm not seeing at this stage that maybe people with more experience can see? Realistically, what you'd be likely to do if this were your first job in the industry?

EDIT: Forgot to mention that usually when I use Ai for home I will generally use it to maybe help create a workflow for a personal project or to explain some code I've seen that I can't wrap my head around. So I do understand how it is useful as a tool to learn. But in this role I find that I am mostly using it to make the code fit in with the general structure of the codebase and finding how to make it all link together.

Hi 👋🏼

I'm an Android Developer with around 6 years of professional experience in India, and I'm currently looking for an android development role in the UK.

I already have a British passport, so I have the right to work in the UK and do not require visa sponsorship.

My CV PDF

I've been applying for Android/Java engineering roles, but I'm getting far fewer responses than I expected. I'm starting to wonder whether the issue is with my CV, how I'm presenting my experience, or whether I'm targeting the wrong roles.

I'm also considering changing domains if that would give me a better chance of getting a job in the UK.

My immediate goal is fairly simple: I want to start working in the UK and earn around £25k+. I'm not necessarily looking for a high-paying senior role right away, and I'm open to taking a step back if it helps me get UK experience, currently not looking at the salary.

I'd really appreciate some honest advice on:

Is my CV suitable for the UK job market?

Does my 6 years of Android experience come across clearly?

Are there any obvious reasons recruiters might reject it?

Should I continue pursuing Android development?

If I should change domains, which domain would be realistic for someone with my background to move into and get a job around £25k+?

Would backend, Java role, QA automation, makes more sense?

Is there a particular course/certification I should consider, or would you recommend improving my existing CV?

My priority right now is simply to get my foot in the door, start working, and build UK experience.

I've attached my CV. Any honest and constructive feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much

I’m an 8-year .NET full-stack developer in London and I’m really struggling with the current job market. I’d appreciate some honest advice from other experienced developers.

I spent 7 of those 8 years at the same company, starting as an apprentice and working my way up to Lead Software Engineer. I’ve gained a lot of practical experience working on a large production system, using C#, .NET, SQL, APIs, frontend development, Azure, etc.

However, I think a lot of my experience became quite specific to the company’s product and existing architecture, which was also fairly dated. Now that I’m looking for a new role, I’m finding gaps in areas that I haven’t had as much exposure to.

Seems like the market is pretty tough atm and any jobs I’m getting interviews for I seem to do well then struggle on the technical tests/interview sections.

I’m being asked about things like system design, architecture, scalability, cloud infrastructure and virtual machines. Some of these are things I’ve worked with professionally, but I haven’t necessarily had to understand them deeply enough to sit down and design a system from scratch and explain all the decisions.

It’s made me question whether I’ve got quite a few knowledge gaps because I didn’t go to university and most of my learning has been through practical experience.

I have been trying to learn areas I think I’m lacking in but it seems like a never ending list of things I should know and things I wouldn’t of thought would be linked to a developer role.

I guess I’m looking for some advice from people who have been in a similar position. Is this a common situation after spending most of your career at one company? How much system design and architecture knowledge would you expect from a senior/lead developer? Are personal GitHub projects actually important when you already have years of commercial experience?

At the moment I’m feeling pretty defeated and worried that staying at one company for so long has held my career back. I’d really appreciate some honest advice from other developers who have been through something similar.

Hi everyone,

I recently applied for Google's Customer Engineer, AI Native – Junior Talent Programme in London a few months ago, and I was contacted by a recruiter this week to move forward in the process.

The recruiter explained that the process will involve 3 interviews across September, with the first interview likely in the first week of September. I've also been invited to a group preparation session on 24 August, and I have a recruiter call coming up on 21 August.

I'm at an early stage in my career and I'm really interested in understanding both what the Customer Engineer role is actually like day-to-day and how I should prepare for the interview process.

I'd especially love to hear from anyone who:

• currently works as a Google Cloud Customer Engineer;
• previously worked as a Customer Engineer at Google;
• has recently interviewed for a Google Cloud CE role; or
• has gone through an early-career / Junior Talent programme.

I'm particularly interested in understanding:

• what the different interview stages tend to assess;
• how technical the interviews are;
• how much emphasis is placed on architecture, AI/LLMs, cloud, APIs, coding, etc.;
• whether there are presentations or customer/technical scenarios;
• what the day-to-day CE role is actually like;
• and what you wish you had known before interviewing.

I'm not looking for confidential interview questions or anything that shouldn't be shared — I'd just really appreciate advice from people who've experienced the role or process themselves.

If anyone would be willing to share their experience here or have a quick chat, I'd be extremely grateful!

Thank you!

I am fortunate enough to have offers for a grad job at a finance firm I interned at this summer or I can also take an internship next year at a another major finance firm which would mean I can also do a masters and then perhaps jump to a better opportunity?

what would you choose? Having more varied and more internship experience and a masters or interning and taking the grad job at the same company? intern pay would be 45k pro rata in Glasgow , similar to their new grad if I go down that route, or London grad job around 60k TC. I'm international btw if that makes any difference.

Is is advisable to do a 6 months certificate course on AI/ ML from IIT Kharagpur ?

I know IIT Kharagpur has very good reputation in India. But i am currently looking for jobs in UK market, Will this course help ?

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PSW ends in December and honestly I'm starting to feel like there's no hope of getting a job, let alone one that can sponsor me.

Right now I'm working in Amazon just to earn and pay off the loan I have back home.

I do want to stay back and continue my journey here, but the uncertainty is exhausting. Applying everywhere, seeing "must have right to work/sponsorship available" and knowing the clock is ticking is a difficult feeling

hi guys, I’m a Java/backend with four years of experience currently working at a large multinational company in London. However, I would like to break into big tech or maybe some US companies and really expand my knowledge (and paycheck to be honest).

firstly, I’m looking for a mentor with more years of experience than me and who can guide me on what kind of actions to take towards finding a better position.

Secondly, I’m open to mentor maybe new grads and help with some of the things that helped me when I was starting out.

I'm looking to move to Manchester for lifestyle reasons. I'm currently 4 YOE as a Software Engineer in AI Native Platforms (think RAG/Langgraph chatbots, internal AI tooling, ML infra etc.) on 60k p/a

I like my workplace. But the only issue is I'm 50% in the office (and I refuse to get a car in this economy) so I'm stuck in a small UK town where company is headquartered. I'm 28. Its lonely as fk, its one of those families with kids in their late 30s towns.

So I'm exploring my options. Ideally the jump would involve a salary upgrade (I'm looking at around 75k). Recommendations? I'm not afraid of challenge and I'm quite talented. Should I hit startups or established company for this? Cheers!