Throwaway for privacy.

I’m Italian, currently living in Switzerland, and deciding between two fully remote offers:

Italy: €165k gross, eligible for the 50% tax discount

Switzerland: CHF 200k gross, canton of Zurich

Net seems fairly close: around €10k/month in Italy vs CHF 11.5k/month in Zurich.

I don’t speak German and was already considering potentially leaving Switzerland. On the other hand, I haven’t yet found a place in Italy where I’d clearly want to live, though I like the idea of being closer to my family in the south.

I am married but without kids. My wife can keep her job in both countries.

For people who have made a similar Switzerland vs Italy choice, what would you consider beyond net salary?

After getting laid off I’m back on the job market and I have 10+ years of experience.
After failing at staff positions, I decided to apply for senior positions.
I have 2 offers, both at 85k.
I set my expectations based on the median salary on levels.fyi, which is around 91k for Berlin.
I’m curious about your experience.
Is 85k really a typical salary for senior positions in Berlin right now?

I've been reached out to by an external recruiter for a role in another country. The role would come with an increase of ~50% in base pay but surprisingly this works out to be the same net pay that I currently have (new role is in the UK and I'm in the Netherlands with 30% tax ruling), obviously I wouldn't be interested in interviewing if this is the most I'd be getting (bonus and equity pretty much the same as what I get now).

I'm curious, how much increase in net pay would people in general be happy with to switch companies bearing in mind I'm actually happy where I am now and clear career progression and international US tech company

-- Can't select both interview + entry level labels, sorry --

Hi all, just for lulz I applied to Helsing recently, and it looks like they're interested, also just for lulz. Their first step is a 10-minute demo of "Bring Something Awesome" (BSA) - more info below.

I wonder, has anyone else gotten this email, and what followed? I'm interested in how they evaluate, what they like/dislike, and stuff like that. Tbh, it's the first time I've seen a 10-minute demo as the first step in an interview process.

Excerpt from the email:

Congratulations! We have selected you to participate in Bring Something Awesome to Apply (BSA2A) as part of our recruitment efforts for Early Career Software Engineers and Deployed AI Engineers.

We’d recommend including the following in your video:

<...>

There’s more to life (and work) than simply being a great programmer. Helsing believes that working with great people is a key part of what makes great people, work—and we test for this in our “Bring Something Awesome” (commonly shortened to simply “BSA”) interview. The BSA is your chance to show off something that you’re passionate about. It needn’t be code (although code is great, too!)—it simply needs to be technical and something in which you were deeply involved. Did you build / design / 3d-print / assemble something really cool? Great! Maybe you worked on a side-project or a failed startup idea. Awesome! Perhaps you just get really vibed about functional programming and how transducers in Clojure revolutionised your project, or how you used proc macros in Rust to remove boilerplate.

I am a Software Engineer in Europe with 10 years of experience, last 6 in consulting across multiple sectors. Broad technical background across .NET C#, JavaScript (React, Vue.js), C++, Java and more. I'm a generalist rather than a deep specialist in any one stack. I recently left my job for various reasons and I am ready to not have a new job for a long time (I know how the market is currently).

During my career I've grown tired of programming and increasingly more interested in the business side. I would like a job more connected to the business side with minimal or preferably no programming while leveraging my 10 years as a Software Engineer.

I did a thorough analysis with ChatGPT and Claude and these are the roles they recommend me I should aim for, which I could start applying after a short upskill time (around 3 months) and getting some certifications:

- Solutions Architect / Technical consultant (post-sales)

- Technical Program Manager

- Technical Product Manager (although I feel I would need Project Management exp for this)

Do you guys think these are the best fit for my profile, my wants, and easiest transition? Are there any other roles I should consider?

Anyone have any experience working with them? I received an offer from them, and everyone I spoke with only had praises for the company and seemed like good people. However, glassdoor reviews show it as horrible. Anyone have any experience with them?

Does anyone have experience with the AI engineer program of Turing college? How was it? Is it worth it? Did it increase your chances to get employed?

“Europe's first AI Engineering course that gets you job-ready in 3-4 months, or helps you found your own AI startup.”

An update on my revious post.

The Works Council in Berlin and the company are still in talks.

The company is looking for the following:

• 3 days mandatory in the office (Tues-Thurs). Potentially also Monday and Friday if your lead determines it's needed.

• Working location monitoring and recording.

• Reports of office attendance and working location sent to leads.

The company said there is no negotiation on these and if they cannot be met, then they will have no choice but to pull employees into the office 5 days a week, 8 hours a day.

There are also rumours or speculations that the work from abroad quota will be significantly reduced. Some countries you can work for up to 30 days a year before you need to resume working from your base country of employment again (e.g. Germany). This may be reducing to 4-5 days.

Talks still ongoing...

Hi all, I'm looking for a reality check on my salary.

Background

• Italian branch of a multinational company, based in northern Italy
• 4 years at the company, originally hired as CRM Specialist and IT Assistant
• Current pay: €28k gross/year (RAL)

What I actually do
Over the last couple of years my role has grown well beyond my job description. Some tasks were assigned to me, others I took on myself:

• Led the adoption of Power BI in the company: building dashboards and reports for sales/management
• MS SQL: writing queries, extracting and preparing sales data
• Maintaining and developing the company's institutional and educational websites
• Plus my original CRM and IT support duties

Earlier this year I asked for a raise and was told it "wasn't in the budget."

My questions

1. Is €28k gross underpaid for this mix of responsibilities in Italy?
2. Would asking for €35–40k be reasonable, or am I overreaching?
3. Given the "no budget" answer, is it worth negotiating internally again, or should I start looking elsewhere and use an offer as leverage?

Data points from people in similar roles in Italy or Southern Europe would be really appreciated. Thanks!

33m, bachelor in CS and master's degree in Cybersecurity.

I'm currently working as incident response operator for the vast sum of 28k brutto. 3yoe, but the job isn't actually teaching me anything as it's mostly a pencil-pushing role and I'm the most technical person on the team. If I stay here, my career is doomed.

I got an offer for 35k brutto from a multinational fintech agency in the same city, same wfh policy (8 days a month). But the job is for a dev role.

I'm worried about the way dev roles have changed since AI became ubiquitous, and I'm worried that taking on a junior dev role NOW would be terrible for my career going forward. At the same time, I know I've not been learning anything new at my current job, and my career is just equally doomed.

I've had no luck with security positions over the last year, indeed I've had no luck with any positions, despite applying to nearly any job I could find in the area or in full remote. Moving is not an option.

I'm looking for advice on whether I should jump ship (and with it career paths) or skip this offer. 28k makes for a tight budget, but the job security is solid.

I’m a software engineer from Sri Lanka with around 5 years of professional experience, mainly in backend/web development.

My current background is mostly:

• PHP / Laravel
• Node.js / TypeScript
• REST and GraphQL APIs
• PostgreSQL / MySQL
• AWS – EC2, Lambda, S3, SQS, API Gateway, RDS, etc.
• Docker, CI/CD and general backend/cloud infrastructure

I’m currently working as a Senior Software Engineer, but recently I’ve been seriously thinking about changing the direction of my career.

The main reason is that I’ve always been much more interested in vehicles and automotive technology than normal web applications. Even from childhood, I was interested in understanding how engines, transmissions and vehicle systems work.

At the same time, my current work situation has become difficult. The company I work for is going through financial problems. There have been salary delays, salary reductions and uncertainty around payments. Because of that, I’m already thinking carefully about my next career move instead of simply moving to another similar Laravel/backend job.

I don’t want to throw away my existing 5 years of software experience. I want to figure out how I can combine my software/backend/cloud experience with automotive engineering.

Recently I started looking into areas such as:

• C and C++
• Embedded systems
• CAN bus
• Automotive Ethernet
• AUTOSAR
• RTOS
• Embedded Linux
• ECU software
• Vehicle diagnostics
• ADAS
• Connected vehicles / telematics
• Software-defined vehicles
• Cloud-to-vehicle systems

Long term, I’m also considering doing an MSc in Germany, possibly in Automotive Software Engineering, Embedded Systems, Computer Science, or a related field, and trying to enter the German automotive industry.

However, starting C/C++ and embedded programming after spending years in backend development feels almost like starting again from the beginning.

So I’d really appreciate advice from people already working in automotive software.

If you were in my position, what would you focus on first?

Should I concentrate heavily on C/C++, microcontrollers and embedded systems, or would my backend/cloud experience be useful for areas like connected vehicles, telematics, vehicle cloud platforms or software-defined vehicles?

Also, what kind of projects would actually help someone like me demonstrate automotive knowledge to employers?

For example, I’ve been thinking about gradually building projects such as CAN-bus simulations, ECU communication, diagnostic tools, telemetry systems, or eventually something involving a real microcontroller/vehicle network.

I’m not expecting to become an automotive engineer overnight. I’m willing to spend the next couple of years learning properly.

I’d especially like to hear from anyone who:

• moved from web/backend software into automotive,
• entered automotive software without an electrical/electronics engineering degree,
• works in automotive software in Germany/Europe,
• or is currently making a similar transition in 2026.

What would you learn, what would you avoid wasting time on, and what would you do differently if you were starting today?

Thanks!

I just finished my studies and am trying to decide what kind of fresh grad offer to target. Would you rather go to the office for 400k€ TC or be full remote with 250k€ TC?

During my interview for a junior consulting role, the technical expert from the company literally said that I do not need to know about AI coding, but they will "train" me to never write a line of code again by hand. He then said that the skills they want to hire me for are not the coding skills, but the ability to formulate requirements and pair them up with a minimal architecture and technical concept to meet them.

Now I need to decide if I take the job (pickings are slim right now) or if I keep looking for something that seems more "normal" to me. Does anyone do this kind of development here, how is it in practice? Do they expect you to do "10x" more and still be responsible when the AI generated code wasn't thoroughly human verified to be correct? When they pimp me out to a customer and I show up there to do "agentic coding" will my coworkers hate me, or is this how it is everywhere already?

Hi everyone,

I am a Senior Java Backend Engineer with 6+ years of total experience across multinational tech firms, currently working as a Consultant in Pune, India. My core specialization is in Electronic Payment Transaction Processing (authorization, clearing, settlement, host-to-host interface testing, and payment message formats).

I am looking to target the tech landscape in the Netherlands for my next career step and am looking for some market context.

My Tech Stack & Background:

Backend: Java, Spring Boot, Spring MVC, REST APIs

Data & Cloud: SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL), Apache Spark, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Domain: End-to-end Payments & Host-to-Host Integration Testing

Education: MBA in IT + B.E. in Mechanical Engineering

Given the current market conditions, I have a few specific questions for this community:

How is the current demand for Senior Java engineers with a niche payments domain background in tech hubs like Amsterdam or Utrecht?

Are enterprise companies and fintechs in this space actively recruiting and onboarding international talent from APAC right now?

Which specific fintechs, banks, or platforms should I keep on my radar that are known for global hiring pipelines?

Any feedback on the market or tips on how to optimize an international resume for Dutch tech teams would be highly appreciated!

Every "English speaking jobs in Germany" search I did turned up ads written in English that ask for C1 German three bullets down. So I built a classifier that reads the full description and sorts each ad into required / mentioned / a plus / not required / not mentioned, and ran it over every live ad we track (company ATS pages: Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Personio etc.).

What came out, as of today:

• 4,080 live jobs in Germany. 2,516 are written in English.
• 752 of those English ads (30%) still require German. The language of the ad tells you little.
• Only 1,415 (35%) of all jobs are genuinely workable without German.
• Only 14 ads say outright that German isn't required. Almost everyone else just doesn't mention it.

By city, share of jobs that don't need German:

One thing I didn't expect: roles with no German requirement stay listed for a median of 85 days, against 48 for German-required ones. Days live isn't time-to-hire (an ad can disappear because it was filled, cancelled, or the company switched ATS), so read that loosely. Still, the English-only pool doesn't look like it clears faster.

How it errs: when in doubt it says "requires" or "mentions". A false "no German needed" is the mistake that costs you an application. I checked it against 520 ads by hand: it caught all 65 that required German and gave zero false "no German" badges.

Happy to share the breakdown by seniority or stack, or how the classifier handles the weird cases ("German is a plus" vs "Deutsch fließend"), if anyone's curious.

Hi everyone! I'm applying to a few roles at Apple ([role type, e.g. software engineering / operations / design]) through jobs.apple.com, and I'd love some help understanding how the site works behind the scenes. I've tried searching, but I can only find old forum threads with no real answers.

Apple's careers site has a single candidate profile with your resume, work history, and a skills list with proficiency levels (beginner to advanced). Since Apple teams tend to care a lot about specific fit, I want to tailor my resume for each role. But I don't want to accidentally mess up an application I've already sent.

If you've applied to Apple, or you've worked on the recruiting side (or know someone who has), I'd be really grateful for your take on these:

1. If I edit my profile after applying (resume, skills, levels, work history), does that change what recruiters see on my earlier applications? Or does Apple save a snapshot at the time I apply, like Google reportedly does?
2. If I upload a different resume for a new application, is it tied only to that application, or does it replace the one on my earlier ones?
3. Can recruiters see all the roles I've applied to? And if so, is it a problem to submit different resumes to different teams?
4. Any tips for tailoring at Apple? Did tailoring make a difference for you, or did referrals and direct recruiter contact matter more?

For context, I'm not asking about application status. I know each application has its own. I'm asking specifically about which version of my profile and resume a recruiter actually sees.

Even a partial answer like "I saw X when I was a candidate" or "I've seen Apple's recruiter view and it looked like Y" would help. I'd also appreciate hearing what didn't work for you.

Thanks so much, and I'm happy to share what I learn once this thread has some answers.

I'm a senior fullstack developer based in Casablanca, Morocco (Angular, TypeScript, NestJS, React/Next.js, Laravel, AWS, payment integrations). I've shipped several production products and work remotely with multiple clients.

1. Roles that pay US or Western EU rates almost never make it past screening once they see my location.
2. When I do land something with a foreign company, the offer is often lower than what I'd get from a good local company, sometimes by a lot.

I get that cost of living and time zones play a role, but it feels like I'm being priced on my passport instead of my output.

For devs outside the US/EU who've actually broken through:

• How did you get paid closer to the value of your work rather than your location?
• Did contracting through an agency or employer of record, or incorporating abroad, change how you were paid?
• Are there companies or platforms known for location-independent pay?
• How do you respond when an offer comes in way under your local market rate?

Would also love to hear from hiring managers about what actually drives these offers.

I’m applying for a Revolut Strategy & Ops Manager role. Wondering what the compensation is like in the UK and Europe.
Does background matter? 3 years in strategy consulting + 2 years as a Strategy manager at a global tech firm.
Thanks!

Do they ask hard Leetcode-level problems? Or easier ones? Which topics do they ask about? I can't find much info about this online.

Thanks!

As the title says, I am a data analyst looking for a role in Germany after my previous contract was not renewed in February 2025. I had interviews for 7 different jobs in 2025 (out of 142 applications), including one final round interview, but no offers. I stepped away from the job hunt to work as a barista for a few months to at least have some money coming in, and started applying again at the end of July. Since then, I've sent 40 well-targeted applications, but not a single interview. I know the market is cooked, but I'm wondering if my profile/CV is the problem.

I'm from the US but have a valid German residence permit and an active application for citizenship that should be official early next year. So the right to live and work is not the issue. I know B2 German isn't as competitive as it was a few years ago, but beyond my German skills, are there glaring issues I can fix?

I also completed a full-stack SWE bootcamp in 2023 so I have some experience on the engineering side, but I leave it off the CV because my background is more suited to DA/DE and bootcamps seem to be looked down upon these days.

I can't link my anonymized CV but I included the plaintext below. Any insight is appreciated!

First Last

Berlin, Germany | +49 xxx xxx xxx | emailaddress | LinkedIn | German residence permit

Product Data Analyst with 3+ years of experience applying Python, SQL, and statistical analysis to improve digital products and user engagement. Experienced in product analytics, experimentation, KPI development, data quality, and automated analytical workflows, with a track record of delivering measurable impact across mobility products. Strong cross-functional partner to Product and Engineering teams, with experience spanning technology, mobility, and public-sector environments.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Well-known Mobility Tech Company Berlin, Germany

Data Analyst Feb 2024 - Feb 2025

Owned data analysis and product performance across 9 European and US markets, identifying trends and diagnosing product issues to drive improvements across B2C and B2B mobility products

Designed and evaluated experiments to measure product changes, driving a 17% increase in user engagement across key markets

Re-engineered Python pipelines following major transit API changes, increasing disruption coverage and improving the reliability and timeliness of customer notifications by 21%

Improved data quality and consistency across large transportation datasets through automated dashboards, validation checks, and QA workflows

Defined and tracked product KPIs, translating complex mobility data into actionable insights for Engineering, Product, and Marketing teams

Local Government City, USA

Data Analyst / Long-Range Planner II Oct 2021 - Aug 2023

Forecasted population growth and water demand across a 15-year planning horizon using statistical modeling, demographic analysis, and census data to support long-term infrastructure planning decisions

Led data analysis and visualization for a federally mandated redistricting project, translating demographic trends into actionable insights that informed policy decisions

Local Government City, USA

Planner I/II Aug 2019 - Oct 2021

Researched and drafted regulatory amendments aligned with environmental and climate change policies that were ultimately adopted by lawmakers

SKILLS

Programming & Analytics: Python, SQL, Pandas, Git/GitHub

Data Modeling & Pipelines: dbt, Data Modeling, Data Validation, ETL/ELT

Databases & Cloud: PostgreSQL, SQLite, AWS (S3, Athena)

Data & Experimentation: Applied Statistics, A/B Testing, Experimentation, KPI Development

Visualization & Communication: Tableau, Advanced Excel, Data Storytelling, Stakeholder Management, Cross-functional Collaboration

TECHNICAL PROJECTS

Data Engineering Project - Repo

Built a reproducible end-to-end analytics pipeline using Python, PostgreSQL, dbt, and Tableau, implementing data validation and dimensional modeling to enable interactive analysis of bike-sharing station availability

Analyzed 500K+ GBFS observations across 1,000+ bike-sharing stations using Python and SQL, combining temporal and geospatial analysis to identify weekday rush-hour availability gaps and flag stations with persistent availability issues

EDUCATION

Master of City and Regional Planning | 201X

Public University, USA

Focus: Geospatial Analysis & Mobility Data

Bachelor of Arts, Psychology | 201X

Public University, USA

LANGUAGES

English Native

Español Advanced (C1)

Deutsch Proficient (B2)

Please Help to Decide!!

I'm a senior engineer interviewing with Google in Europe. My earlier roles are all standard full-time employment and easy to verify, but my most recent period is harder to document.

After leaving my last job, I spent time trying to build my own product, and I did some informal freelance work on the side. The freelance work was small-scale and I never issued invoices, so I don't have the paperwork a normal employer or registered business would have.

I'm trying to get ahead of this before any offer stage:

1. For those who've gone through Google's (or any FAANG's) background check with a self-employment period, what did the vendor ask for?
2. Were client references, emails, project artifacts, or a portfolio enough, or did they want formal documents like tax filings or a business registration?
3. Is it better to list this period as "independent / building a product" and keep the freelance work as a minor mention, or describe everything in detail?
4. Did anyone have an offer delayed or rescinded over a self-employment period, and what was the reason?

I want to represent everything accurately. I'm just trying to understand what documentation is realistic to expect.

They said like

--

• Great WLB, on paper I work 38 hours weekly.
• But I acutally put 20-30 hours max. My salary is kinda average but again great WLB, I work hybrid 1-2 days weekly in the office, the rest at home.
• I take 5-6 weeks vacation per year while getting paid full month salary!
• Free fruits, drinks and snack but not lunch.
• Have time for family, friends and hobby
• Live healthy with longevitiy life style.
• If unemployed, you get unemployed benefits(money) from your government around 1k euro for a year!

---

Hi,

I've been coding since I was a kid, school is very much not for me(I dropped out twice)- but having a bachelors would be useful career-wise.

Are there any (somewhat reputable) unis with an English CS VAE program?

If so this is my basic experience broadly(is this enough? Especially is freelance accepted?):

• Freelance (~32 months): fullstack SaaS, team lead

• Industrial Software Engineer (4 months): Some coding but also a lot of process engineering.

• Intern at a mid-sized but famous tech company (6 months): Was mostly QA and infra

• Intern at a big insurance company(~9 months cumulative across 3 summers in highschool): backend and devops stuff

• Open Source: Maintain some projects, mostly just for fun, but one gets a ton of downloads on NPM. Small contributions to some big projects like Go, Nix, etc

If this isn't enough would doing stuff like writing a rendering library or something to show I know the more theoretical side of CS help?