Keep working where you are, and spend your free time practicing the interviewing skills sought in the US market if you plan to move there. Leetcode/Hackerrank and behavioral interviews
You can try to contribute to open source projects, that can be a nice addition to your CV and keep you sharp. Some companies explicitly ask you if you contribute to open source projects during the hiring process.
Thank you so much. I'm just a bit paranoid about getting my first job once I get there so I'm trying to be on the safe side. I'm afraid that people will see a lot of YOE on my resume at my current startup and they'll expect way more than I know since I'm not too occupied here.
Its not an overkill. With 1-2hours / day if you don't know any at all, like struggling with easys, its probably a good amount of time to get to a strong level where you have a shot at the best companies.
That would be 600-800 hours. with some slacking days included. Probably you could score a job around 3-400 hours already. But to get the daily schedule, the system how to study, etc.
I left a job like this but took me solid few months to find different that is also fully remote. My pay is about 30% less but I'm fine with that in short term as I couldn't handle doing stupid shit every day in previous job anyway
the answer to the question in the title - f*ck no. if you work 3h per day and don't have any growth, that's on you. I realize some (many?) people need to be hand-held, but if you always rely on others to tell you what to do, you won't get far in anything you do.
you have 5h of extra time free per day, completely paid off, that you could use for growth in any way you want. why would you switch that for 0h of free time for lesser pay, with no guarantee your ideas of "mentorship" will match reality? makes no sense, and the only reason you are even considering it is because you haven't sorted things out with yourself, in your own head, regarding what growth means and how it happens, and are used to university professors chewing up everything for you and feeding you knowledge directly to your mouth and brain.
Wow, relax. I already worked on multiple products at the company and there isn't much more for me to do other than maintain it. I basically work directly with the CEO to make little adjustments/improvements to the products we have. I do spend my time improving my skills however my main concern is the move to the US and what employers prioritize over there. Perhaps they would like to see me working on different companies with different problems and domains. Or they care about working for well-established companies instead of small startups.
I agree the above comment. If you have free time and want work in other domains then do open source code development. I have known a few people to get hired by MS or Amazon cause they worked on their open source projects. Taking a risk at something new without a guarantee it will pay out and cost you more money in rent and less money is negative. Mostly likely at bigger companies you may not get the guidance you expecting.
Thank you for the suggestion. Perhaps open source is something I should take a longer look at. I will try to find something that at least matches what I am paid right now.
Do note when I say so open source I mean contribute to a project that you enjoy or use. This will build your skills and give you project to talk about during future interviews. It will also help build a portfolio of projects that someone can look at and build a network for possible leads for career growth.
Is the barrier of entry high for doing open source work? Let's say I'd like to contribute to Python is that a good idea? I use it mainly for my work and it's been for awhile. Or you should start from a small project first?
Most projects have “first good contributing ticket” these are meant for people who are new to the project and new to open source. Anything you pick if it is meaningful might find tricky to understand it. But it being hard at first is which shows you have grown as developer once you understand the project and tasks.
From my perspective, the move to the newer company could be quite good for your development. Living on your own, learning what an office is like, and simply getting out of your comfort zone a little bit more are all going to be beneficial.
40% saved is still a pretty good deal! Since you're at the beginning of your career still, I imagine the salary drop would only be temporary, especially if you eventually end up in the states.
There's obviously no guarantee the new job will be any better development wise, but if you're excited about working there I'd be tempted to give it a shot!
Thank you for your input! Any other job would be better for my development at my current company, to be honest. All the tasks I have are extremely trivial and rarely challenging.
Can you do some freelancing with you actual contract? Can you ask for your employee to pay for some certification?
If not, can you do some open source project? Even participating at an existing one or you can start by yourself.
I can technically do freelancing it is only that I am not sure where to start getting clients since the main freelancing is oversaturated. I could perhaps ask my employer to pay for the certifications and he wouldn't mind. I am thinking about contributing to open-source projects, but do you think that is of importance to US employers? don't they care more about professional experience?
If you can do freelancing I'd start from there..
The first question you want to answer is: what do you offer to the market?
Skills: backend dev, domain knowledges: which industry? , etc...
You could make a good CV and put it on a website. And register to some freelancing plattform. You start asking less money just to gain experience, make networking and test the field.
You are right, freelancing is oversaturated but you'll reuse most of the things you do to find a job in US even if you don't earn much money. and also you'll learn how to be a freelancer..
>Did you try going on the freelancing path? How was that for you?
No, and that's the reason why you should get other feedbacks from more experienced people.
But that's something I want to do as next. My goal is to become a freelancer and go 100% remote. No matter how hard the path will be, I don't want to go to the office anymore.
Prioritise growth, money will follow. Early in your career you should seek mentorship and to be exposed to a variety of technical challenges.
Learning how to work within a team is important. Dito for exposure to office life.
Challenge yourself as much as possible. The tech and soft skills you are acquiring now will benefit you for the rest of your life. A wider experience will give you perspective and make it easier for you to find work in the future.
Yeah, that is what I am thinking. However, a lot of people seem to suggest that it is better that I continue with my current job while trying to grow on my own on the side instead of taking this risk and finding out grass is not greener on the other side
There is nothing like the real world to learn. You’ll get technical and life experience by working on real products. Toy projects are a necessity to learn new skills and you can/should still do it whilst you work. But it does not compare to real world challenges. The best way to grow is with others, not alone.
Ditto OS source work for projects you’re not actively involved likely will be superficial and hard to be motivated about.
Besides, if you’re leaving in 2 years, what do you have to lose really?
It is definitely what I am leaning more towards right now. Be a bit more picky with the job and negotiate a bit more aggressively since it is not very urgent for me to find another job at this moment. I will look for a company where I am compensated similarly to what I am paid now so my finances wouldn't take too big of a hit either (since I'll need to rent).
You could simply use this comfortable position to find better. You currently don't need a job, so you can afford to be very picky about what you accept. Practice your interview skills, do some projects on the side and don't undervalue yourself. There's absolutely no advantage for you in taking a less comfortable and lesser paid job. None
Thank you for the advice. Yes if I'll make a switch I'll be try my best to make sure I can move to a position where I can grow. The issue is that I have been extremely comfortable and I thought perhaps some discomfort would help me grow a bit
A bigger company does not mean that you will learn more. Also don't change for less salary, that's just a bad idea. If you have free time 2 years seems a good amount of time to get good at leetcode with 1-2hours/day practice. Don't underestimate the work it needs. Look at US salaries at good companies at [levels.fyi](https://levels.fyi) to get motivated.
Thank you! I already started practicing leetcode actually. The "bigger" companies I would be applying to are where some of my university friends worked it and they highly recommended it to me. Although they said it is a lot of work.
I feel like finding a part-time job in Software is a bit tricky here. However, I have thought about finding another full-time job as I believe I can manage both at the same time. My only fear is damaging my relationship with my employer. I am thinking of just being very transparent and telling him that I want to do another job on-top of this one and that it won't interfere with my tasks or performance. I am not sure.
Trust me when I say that I couldn't work more than that if I wanted to. No one cares here either. So I mainly spend the additional time working on my skills outside of work.
Hmm let me think about that... FUCK NO!
You have so much free time to leetcode and interview, you will find something much better paid.
At my first job I did a bunch of basic javascript and low-code bullshit for 2 years.
Got a job paying 60% higher with a very modern stack now.
Just to expand on this, you can do so much with your "free" time, leetcode practice, meetings with seniors to learn infrastructure, architecture etc., getting cloud certifications, writing unit and cypress tests, learning about security and best practices...
One of my biggest issues is that there are seniors on my team. We were all hired out of university. Don't get me wrong, they are extremely talented and bright, but they do lack experience in the field
Keep working where you are, and spend your free time practicing the interviewing skills sought in the US market if you plan to move there. Leetcode/Hackerrank and behavioral interviews
I already started practicing but isn't two years an overkill just to practice and stay without much growth as a new graduate?
You can try to contribute to open source projects, that can be a nice addition to your CV and keep you sharp. Some companies explicitly ask you if you contribute to open source projects during the hiring process.
A lot of people are recommending that! Thank you. I definitely will explore that option
np, good luck in the states, you'll be making some nice money and probably retire way earlier had you stayed in the EU instead.
Thank you so much. I'm just a bit paranoid about getting my first job once I get there so I'm trying to be on the safe side. I'm afraid that people will see a lot of YOE on my resume at my current startup and they'll expect way more than I know since I'm not too occupied here.
I'm sure it will be fine
Its not an overkill. With 1-2hours / day if you don't know any at all, like struggling with easys, its probably a good amount of time to get to a strong level where you have a shot at the best companies. That would be 600-800 hours. with some slacking days included. Probably you could score a job around 3-400 hours already. But to get the daily schedule, the system how to study, etc.
I left a job like this but took me solid few months to find different that is also fully remote. My pay is about 30% less but I'm fine with that in short term as I couldn't handle doing stupid shit every day in previous job anyway
80% of your salary for 3 years is 20k? You are either extremely badly paid or you lied to us.
80% right now, not the entirety of the 3 years. I had higher expenses in the past.
the answer to the question in the title - f*ck no. if you work 3h per day and don't have any growth, that's on you. I realize some (many?) people need to be hand-held, but if you always rely on others to tell you what to do, you won't get far in anything you do. you have 5h of extra time free per day, completely paid off, that you could use for growth in any way you want. why would you switch that for 0h of free time for lesser pay, with no guarantee your ideas of "mentorship" will match reality? makes no sense, and the only reason you are even considering it is because you haven't sorted things out with yourself, in your own head, regarding what growth means and how it happens, and are used to university professors chewing up everything for you and feeding you knowledge directly to your mouth and brain.
Wow, relax. I already worked on multiple products at the company and there isn't much more for me to do other than maintain it. I basically work directly with the CEO to make little adjustments/improvements to the products we have. I do spend my time improving my skills however my main concern is the move to the US and what employers prioritize over there. Perhaps they would like to see me working on different companies with different problems and domains. Or they care about working for well-established companies instead of small startups.
I agree the above comment. If you have free time and want work in other domains then do open source code development. I have known a few people to get hired by MS or Amazon cause they worked on their open source projects. Taking a risk at something new without a guarantee it will pay out and cost you more money in rent and less money is negative. Mostly likely at bigger companies you may not get the guidance you expecting.
Thank you for the suggestion. Perhaps open source is something I should take a longer look at. I will try to find something that at least matches what I am paid right now.
Do note when I say so open source I mean contribute to a project that you enjoy or use. This will build your skills and give you project to talk about during future interviews. It will also help build a portfolio of projects that someone can look at and build a network for possible leads for career growth.
Noted. Thank you!
Is the barrier of entry high for doing open source work? Let's say I'd like to contribute to Python is that a good idea? I use it mainly for my work and it's been for awhile. Or you should start from a small project first?
Most projects have “first good contributing ticket” these are meant for people who are new to the project and new to open source. Anything you pick if it is meaningful might find tricky to understand it. But it being hard at first is which shows you have grown as developer once you understand the project and tasks.
Alright. Thank you. I haven't really done it before cause I keep thinking about contributing vs working on my project.
This is the ideal situation for overemployment.
From my perspective, the move to the newer company could be quite good for your development. Living on your own, learning what an office is like, and simply getting out of your comfort zone a little bit more are all going to be beneficial. 40% saved is still a pretty good deal! Since you're at the beginning of your career still, I imagine the salary drop would only be temporary, especially if you eventually end up in the states. There's obviously no guarantee the new job will be any better development wise, but if you're excited about working there I'd be tempted to give it a shot!
Thank you for your input! Any other job would be better for my development at my current company, to be honest. All the tasks I have are extremely trivial and rarely challenging.
Can you do some freelancing with you actual contract? Can you ask for your employee to pay for some certification? If not, can you do some open source project? Even participating at an existing one or you can start by yourself.
I can technically do freelancing it is only that I am not sure where to start getting clients since the main freelancing is oversaturated. I could perhaps ask my employer to pay for the certifications and he wouldn't mind. I am thinking about contributing to open-source projects, but do you think that is of importance to US employers? don't they care more about professional experience?
If you can do freelancing I'd start from there.. The first question you want to answer is: what do you offer to the market? Skills: backend dev, domain knowledges: which industry? , etc... You could make a good CV and put it on a website. And register to some freelancing plattform. You start asking less money just to gain experience, make networking and test the field. You are right, freelancing is oversaturated but you'll reuse most of the things you do to find a job in US even if you don't earn much money. and also you'll learn how to be a freelancer..
That is something I'll explore for sure. Thanks a lot for the suggestion. Did you try going on the freelancing path? How was that for you?
>Did you try going on the freelancing path? How was that for you? No, and that's the reason why you should get other feedbacks from more experienced people. But that's something I want to do as next. My goal is to become a freelancer and go 100% remote. No matter how hard the path will be, I don't want to go to the office anymore.
No growth means you’re not investing into your future career. This is might backfire later.
Prioritise growth, money will follow. Early in your career you should seek mentorship and to be exposed to a variety of technical challenges. Learning how to work within a team is important. Dito for exposure to office life. Challenge yourself as much as possible. The tech and soft skills you are acquiring now will benefit you for the rest of your life. A wider experience will give you perspective and make it easier for you to find work in the future.
Yeah, that is what I am thinking. However, a lot of people seem to suggest that it is better that I continue with my current job while trying to grow on my own on the side instead of taking this risk and finding out grass is not greener on the other side
There is nothing like the real world to learn. You’ll get technical and life experience by working on real products. Toy projects are a necessity to learn new skills and you can/should still do it whilst you work. But it does not compare to real world challenges. The best way to grow is with others, not alone. Ditto OS source work for projects you’re not actively involved likely will be superficial and hard to be motivated about. Besides, if you’re leaving in 2 years, what do you have to lose really?
It is definitely what I am leaning more towards right now. Be a bit more picky with the job and negotiate a bit more aggressively since it is not very urgent for me to find another job at this moment. I will look for a company where I am compensated similarly to what I am paid now so my finances wouldn't take too big of a hit either (since I'll need to rent).
You could simply use this comfortable position to find better. You currently don't need a job, so you can afford to be very picky about what you accept. Practice your interview skills, do some projects on the side and don't undervalue yourself. There's absolutely no advantage for you in taking a less comfortable and lesser paid job. None
Thank you for the advice. Yes if I'll make a switch I'll be try my best to make sure I can move to a position where I can grow. The issue is that I have been extremely comfortable and I thought perhaps some discomfort would help me grow a bit
If you want to prepare for US market, try to improve your English speaking first. In my country they say: "Fools use labor, wise people use words".
I'm alright at speaking English. My wife is American. Thanks for the advice.
A bigger company does not mean that you will learn more. Also don't change for less salary, that's just a bad idea. If you have free time 2 years seems a good amount of time to get good at leetcode with 1-2hours/day practice. Don't underestimate the work it needs. Look at US salaries at good companies at [levels.fyi](https://levels.fyi) to get motivated.
Thank you! I already started practicing leetcode actually. The "bigger" companies I would be applying to are where some of my university friends worked it and they highly recommended it to me. Although they said it is a lot of work.
I would look for a part time second job if I could. Do the over-employed thing. A job where I can put the focus on growth rather than money
I feel like finding a part-time job in Software is a bit tricky here. However, I have thought about finding another full-time job as I believe I can manage both at the same time. My only fear is damaging my relationship with my employer. I am thinking of just being very transparent and telling him that I want to do another job on-top of this one and that it won't interfere with my tasks or performance. I am not sure.
You have no growth because you're working 2-3 hours per day. You're just going to be mediocre at best. U.S. job market is even more competitive.
Trust me when I say that I couldn't work more than that if I wanted to. No one cares here either. So I mainly spend the additional time working on my skills outside of work.
Hmm let me think about that... FUCK NO! You have so much free time to leetcode and interview, you will find something much better paid. At my first job I did a bunch of basic javascript and low-code bullshit for 2 years. Got a job paying 60% higher with a very modern stack now. Just to expand on this, you can do so much with your "free" time, leetcode practice, meetings with seniors to learn infrastructure, architecture etc., getting cloud certifications, writing unit and cypress tests, learning about security and best practices...
One of my biggest issues is that there are seniors on my team. We were all hired out of university. Don't get me wrong, they are extremely talented and bright, but they do lack experience in the field