Domain-specific knowledge, having no relation to software engineering per se, is a necessary skill set.
The best analogy I can find, if not a tired one, is the equivalence of software engineering to tool-and-die making.
In prior generations where manufacturing was king, it was a necessary operational skill set in order to produce things at scale, yet is much less (if no longer) relevant in the age of additive or subtractive manufacturing, where quantities can be varied according to immediate requirements.
Along the same lines, a skill set in traditional software engineering is less enamored in the age of AI agents that can better regurgitate boilerplate code.
The corresponding next-level-up analogy is the tool-and-die maker that learns 3D modeling + additive manufacturing, with FE analysis and CNC skills as a fallback. For software engineers, it's AI agent prompt engineering and data modeling, according to use cases defined by business needs.
You need to put on your entrepreneurial hat and figure out how to do things faster, with greater accuracy, relevant to business needs - not navel-gazing at package management and build automation exclusively.
This is, of course, an extremely naïve view of the state of things, though I cannot imagine, as a generalist, how one could survive with increasingly niche skills that, a decade ago, would have commanded six-figure salaries.
Quality still matters sometimes. You can make a lot of things by AI, but you can't make them good. The same is true of 3D printing.
Also 3D printing is good at making unique objects, but if you want to make ten thousand of the same object, you definitely need someone who knows the "old" ways. They're not irrelevant at all. And you can even use a 3D printer to help make your tools and dies.
I understand that the market in the UK is particularly tough now, across many sectors.
Is there a particular specialisation you have, and then how does someone who needs that specialisation find you?
Particularly if the job is 100pct remote, you’re participating in a global market.
Or if there’s a local
company that needs you… even if the work isn’t the most challenging… Can at least leverage the real-world relationships? Anyone at prior jobs who can help with connections? (Never hurts to ask).
I hope you are able to find something that provides at least an emotional boost while the broader search continues!
> Is there a particular specialisation you have, and then how does someone who needs that specialisation find you?
Being a generalist and having experience delivering products all the way its what makes me stand out. That being said, I've done some cool pieces with backoffices and dev tooling and developer experience
> Or if there’s a local company that needs you… even if the work isn’t the most challenging… Can at least leverage the real-world relationships? Anyone at prior jobs who can help with connections? (Never hurts to ask).
I've done my best and decided to take any job even if it doesn't pay as much. I have exhausted all of my prior connections
I'm fortunate to still be in a role, but I've always kept an eye out for other opportunities, and it looks very rough out there in the UK job market.
I don't know if companies are just in a "wait and see" stance to see the effect of AI coding agents, or if it's the sign of a wider slowdown.
100% remote is also a tough ask. I've noticed increasingly job roles are listed as 2-3 days in the office as companies awkwardly transition back to the office.
The massive rounds of layoffs in the US over the past 3 years mean there are a ridiculous number of software engineers looking for jobs. AI has compounded this by automating applications such that a single opening might get multiple thousands of submissions.
Your best bet to find a job in this market is to have some connection to the hiring manager. It might be a friend of a friend of a former colleague. Or both having membership in the same semi-open community. But you need a way to say “hey, I’m a real human being and especially interested in this job; please at least take a look at my resume!”
> 100% remote is also a tough ask. I've noticed increasingly job roles are listed as 2-3 days in the office as companies awkwardly transition back to the office.
Keep in mind that at some places this is general policy, and that tech is given an exception. For example, my company has 2-3 days in-office, but everyone in tech is allowed to be 100% remote, even though that’s not written anywhere.
If the op is looking only for remote roles then I'd emphasise that competition for these is extremely high. My advice would be to broaden your search to include hybrid and-in person roles.
I wish that rto was being handled with more flexibility and empathy, and I appreciate that travelling to work can be very difficult to reconcile with location and parental/caring responsibilities, but this is unfortunately where we are.
I'd also recommend looking beyond startups and pure software/tech companies. There are many businesses in eg manufacturing, or in less mainstream locations, that struggle to hire decent devs.
For context: I'm a UK-based developer and have recent experience of a fairly substantial period of unemployment. I now have a job with a great business, but also with a substantial commute.
> I'd also recommend looking beyond startups and pure software/tech companies. There are many businesses in eg manufacturing, or in less mainstream locations, that struggle to hire decent devs.
That's where I'm aiming for.
I know there's a million companies that would benefit from my work and can pay well, but they're just not the ones that find you on Linkedin, or post on Hacker News
Beggars can't be choosers. If you are having the worst career winter of your life shouldn't you be taking whatever you can get? Whether its 5 days a week in office or full remote or anything in between?
What covid did to office work lasted many years and now there is finally a reverse reaction where people (not just office managers) are rediscovering that hey we actually get things going if we sit in the same room, at the same time, working on the same problem.
AI is a bit like outsourcing / off-shoring. Best results are on tasks that are well-defined, of a fair size, and well-documented. Incidentally the tasks that used to go to someone sitting remote.
Honestly, like the international landscape for salaries has kind off like normalised itself. Wages for SWEs are more or less the same across the globe when you look at remote work.
Intelligent people are cutting costs instead of trying to earn more money
In the US I have noticed that the tier 2/3 tech cities SWE salaries seemed to raise a bit with covid and level off. The Tier 1 tech cities they seem to (outside of AI) have dropped a bit after the covid boom amid massive layoffs. Remote seems to be kind of independent of location but I see some remote places paying more Tier 2/3 level salaries
Very similar situation. I have been cancelled, and I can't face going back to employment, but finding a way to earn a crust as a solo engineer is proving somewhat hopeless. At least I'm not paying tax any more. Checkmate Rachel Reeves.
Not necessarily. Basic food is zero-rated for VAT, and if you qualify you can get council tax reduction. For example, I get a 25% council tax discount. If you're unemployed with no income, you may genuinely pay very little direct tax, it depends on circumstances.
Remember that for remote roles you are competing against the best talent in the world, and most of them can afford to work for a tiny fraction of what you are asking for.
There are still plenty of jobs at local software shops, banks, consulting firms, hospitals, government agencies and more, and you are at the front of the line for all of those. A lot of them enforce as little as 2-3 days in the office. Apply there instead.
For fully remote jobs - agreed. Some job sites have the ability to filter by Remote + Country - roles which are still WFH but require you to be a resident/citizen of a specific country. OP might look into those as well. It'll cut down on the competition.
> The last permanent role I negotiated had a TC of £160,000/year.
If you want that £160k+/year, you might as well either go to a quant firm like Citadel or Jane Street (But there is a 0% chance it will be remote) or build your own startup.
> I'm open to go down to £90,000/year or even less for the right opportunity
£90k is not bad, but not the best either, but anything higher than 120k in the UK means you lose 45% of that.
But the risk is that someone else will go even lower than your offer until the role can be done internally by another person using an AI agent.
The point is, most businesses that are non-quant and non-big tech, non-big AI do not want to pay the extortionate level of taxes in the UK and it makes SWEs in the UK look very expensive and the jobs + office move off-shore.
There is much innovation, hacking, etc. in "regular software jobs". Many companies that get launched are about improving efficiency or solving problems that these "regular software jobs" face. Once a startup grows, the product may continue to be interesting and new, but the day to day for the engineers building it begins to resemble a "regular software job".
That was back then when we were in our infancy as an industry and everything was about spitting out some cool graphics in less than 100 lines of JavaScript
Right now(specially looking at the world economy) It's all about getting yourself a nice, stable placement.
I haven't stopped hacking away, but I need an income
Agreed, although the issue is that it's damn difficult to find something real that is at the intersection of: (1) pleasing users, (2) making them pay, (3) actually being useful, (4) being possible to get off the ground without a multi-year investment in time or money, and (5) remaining profitable or even revenue-generating for at least say three years before competition or evolution gets to it. It's a lot easier to hack something nice when you don't have to sell it.
I've been going through the same thing for over a year now. I dropped out of the job search and started focusing on building my own product instead (though I can't say that's going particularly well either). Since I don't have physical access to EU/US markets, I'm only looking for remote positions.
After the post-COVID boom, companies started laying off people in large numbers. Couple that with tightening restrictions on remote work, most US companies now require work authorization, EU companies have tax compliance requirements, etc.and remote options without a formal employment relationship have become nearly impossible to find.
I don't think learning new programming languages will make much difference at this point. There isn't a new shiny technology that everyone's chasing, and AI companies are hiring very few people. Your best bet is probably finding an in-person job and relocating.
Yeah not planning on but idk how to manage future interviews where it looks like I've done nothing significant, not lead projects or did anything notable erc. It looks like I'm coasting.
Hopefully future employers are sympathetic to the situation some of us (alot of us?) are in
> Unless the company is a FAANG company or hedge fund, the UK tech scene is dead.
Try to look beyond startups and pure software companies. There are many businesses in eg manufacturing or in less fashionable locations that struggle to hire decent devs and will often pay pretty good† money.
I can, I have an EU nationality so working for an EU client is seamless to me.
> Unless the company is a FAANG company or hedge fund, the UK tech scene is dead.
That is VERY, VERY true
> I don’t see any good UK startups worth joining in the UK. All the good ones are in SF / NY, etc.
There's a few popping up all over the EU too but from my search a single hub in the US(Say Austin, TX) has a bigger and better ecosystem than the entirety of UK+EU.
That seems pretty overzealous, companies like SAP or Heinlein are doing well-ish and the recent push for digital sovereignty has induced some money. There also is a bunch of mixed shops (doing he and software or integration work).
The primary difference is that many expect on-site and they pay is generally not US-startup scale.
Many companies also expect you to at least have some knowledge of their local language (e. G., German, Spanish or Polnish) and not just English. One has to adapt to be competitive here.
When I was starting out (in the US), I didn’t have a CS degree, but I did have one very cheap client connection who was interested in a large project; and almost a decade of hobbyist experience.
It was $22 an hour. No benefits, not even healthcare. Solo, no other developers. Before AI. My theory - $22 an hour is better than school debt, and if it works, then I’ve got money + experience at a level I can’t get anywhere else, which will overcome the lack of a paper degree.
I stuck at that job for almost half a decade, under those conditions, building experience. It paid off - I joined a startup, doubled my salary, got a benefits package, and know some technologies we’re using better than anyone else on the team. The point though is that it took embracing conditions that most people consider themselves too good for, or almost unthinkably difficult.
My recommendation: I think you should entertain the idea that if there is a God who cares about us, praying earnestly is a good idea. He gave me that new job on my first application anywhere, a complete cold call, in a personal moment of weakness, in the Summer of 2025. With nothing but a solo project on the resume at a company nobody knows.
> I think you should entertain the idea that if there is a God who cares about us, praying earnestly is a good idea
If there was such then no one would go through job loss, it can't be that such God can give you a job but not be the one who took it away if it's that powerful. So if there's a God it doesn't care about us.
Funny story: in 2025 I interviewed with multiple Ruby/Rails companies in San Francisco. I performed really well in the interviews. For one company, I went through a full on-site interview at their office. And still — no offer. The interview went great.
I have ~20 years of experience. I wrote a book about Ruby. I have GitHub repositories with thousands of stars. I have my own successful projects written in Ruby/Rails. I’ve spoken at conferences and contributed a lot to the Ruby/Rails community. I was a perfect match — and I still wasn’t hired.
This wasn’t a one-off. The same thing happened with several Ruby/Rails startups.
You know what I did next? I switched to Gen/Applied AI. And the difference was huge. The feedback became much better, and salaries were 25–50% higher. The tech itself wasn’t that different — mostly dynamic languages. I had to learn new things, but it took months, not years.
I also pushed myself deeper toward understanding AI properly. I genuinely enjoy this space. I started learning the fundamentals and even built my own learning materials (for example, howllmworks.com). You don’t need to go that deep to get hired, but I wanted to. The field is fascinating.
What’s funny is that many companies hiring “AI engineers” don’t really know what they’re doing. I’ve had interviews where they openly said: “We don’t really have AI expertise, but we know we need AI.” That’s how things are right now. It’s both good and bad. They can’t really judge your skills properly — but that also means your chances of passing are higher.
As for the Ruby/Rails world — I’m honestly very disappointed. The market feels completely saturated. There are too many experienced engineers competing for too few roles. Being good is no longer enough.
One company literally told me my interview performance was too good. They suspected I was using AI. That was the feedback. Twenty years of experience, open-source work, a published book — none of that mattered. “You’re too good, and there are too many candidates like you.” That’s how I understood it.
I’ve seen this happen repeatedly. It’s not just one bad experience.
At this point, I genuinely believe the Ruby/Rails ecosystem is shrinking. The whole “one-person framework” idea that DHH has been promoting made sense years ago, but not anymore. The problems it was solving simply don’t exist in the same way today.
With LLMs, the world changed. You take the best tools available. Next.js with standardized React components instead of Stimulus and Turbo. Hosted auth instead of rolling your own. When I needed to integrate something like Clerk, I just dropped in a component and moved on. There are tons of ready-made solutions in the React ecosystem.
Now compare that to Ruby. Are there modern AI libraries? Yes, technically. Are they well-maintained? Not really. You’re often dealing with abandonware. LangChain officially supports Python and TypeScript — not Ruby. And like it or not, AI today is happening in Python.
The more time you spend clinging to Ruby/Rails, the further behind you get. That’s just reality. My advice is simple: if you can, move on. The opportunity window in AI is wide open right now, but it won’t stay that way forever. 2026 is probably the last really good entry point.
> What’s funny is that many companies hiring “AI engineers” don’t really know what they’re doing. I’ve had interviews where they openly said: “We don’t really have AI expertise, but we know we need AI.” That’s how things are right now. It’s both good and bad. They can’t really judge your skills properly — but that also means your chances of passing are higher.
A lot of money is being thrown around at AI, it's a good time to open a company :) I agree.
> As for the Ruby/Rails world — I’m honestly very disappointed. The market feels completely saturated. There are too many experienced engineers competing for too few roles. Being good is no longer enough.
Ruby/Rails, and other platforms NEED deep AI integration. That wave is coming.
I am surprised that people don't do a rails new for their new startups. I still see it as the king of web frameworks.
> With LLMs, the world changed. You take the best tools available. Next.js with standardized React components instead of Stimulus and Turbo. Hosted auth instead of rolling your own. When I needed to integrate something like Clerk, I just dropped in a component and moved on. There are tons of ready-made solutions in the React ecosystem.
Show me those ready made solutions? I haven't used them commercially so I can't vouch for them
> Now compare that to Ruby. Are there modern AI libraries? Yes, technically. Are they well-maintained? Not really. You’re often dealing with abandonware. LangChain officially supports Python and TypeScript — not Ruby. And like it or not, AI today is happening in Python.
True, I should probably ship something in Python and just add that to my inventory.
> The more time you spend clinging to Ruby/Rails, the further behind you get. That’s just reality. My advice is simple: if you can, move on. The opportunity window in AI is wide open right now, but it won’t stay that way forever. 2026 is probably the last really good entry point.
Domain-specific knowledge, having no relation to software engineering per se, is a necessary skill set.
The best analogy I can find, if not a tired one, is the equivalence of software engineering to tool-and-die making.
In prior generations where manufacturing was king, it was a necessary operational skill set in order to produce things at scale, yet is much less (if no longer) relevant in the age of additive or subtractive manufacturing, where quantities can be varied according to immediate requirements.
Along the same lines, a skill set in traditional software engineering is less enamored in the age of AI agents that can better regurgitate boilerplate code.
The corresponding next-level-up analogy is the tool-and-die maker that learns 3D modeling + additive manufacturing, with FE analysis and CNC skills as a fallback. For software engineers, it's AI agent prompt engineering and data modeling, according to use cases defined by business needs.
You need to put on your entrepreneurial hat and figure out how to do things faster, with greater accuracy, relevant to business needs - not navel-gazing at package management and build automation exclusively.
This is, of course, an extremely naïve view of the state of things, though I cannot imagine, as a generalist, how one could survive with increasingly niche skills that, a decade ago, would have commanded six-figure salaries.
Good luck!
I have successfully explored AI & prompt engineering. I already feel I'm "augmented" vs when I didn't had access to these tools.
I do 100% agree with you, thanks for the good wishes
> Domain-specific knowledge, having no relation to software engineering per se, is a necessary skill set.
In other words, you wasted time and energy becoming a programmer/software developer/whatever.
Should have done something else.
This is only true if you weren't paid for your work all those years (which, then, it was just a hobby).
But more importantly, this is only relevant for vomiting boilerplate code. I don't know about you but I always did a lot more than that.
Quality still matters sometimes. You can make a lot of things by AI, but you can't make them good. The same is true of 3D printing.
Also 3D printing is good at making unique objects, but if you want to make ten thousand of the same object, you definitely need someone who knows the "old" ways. They're not irrelevant at all. And you can even use a 3D printer to help make your tools and dies.
@Mario - I looked for contact details in your profile but did not find any. We are currently hiring senior Rails engineers, fully remote in Europe (see an older job ad here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42923191 EDIT and a current one here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46466732).
Please feel free to reach out, and then we can see if there is a good match.
Thanks Marius! Here's my contact details
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mario-gintili-software-engineer/ https://github.com/shellandbull
I'll send an application over. my contact email is code.mario.gintili [at] gmail [dot] com
Perfect, I just sent you an email. Looking forward!
I understand that the market in the UK is particularly tough now, across many sectors.
Is there a particular specialisation you have, and then how does someone who needs that specialisation find you?
Particularly if the job is 100pct remote, you’re participating in a global market.
Or if there’s a local company that needs you… even if the work isn’t the most challenging… Can at least leverage the real-world relationships? Anyone at prior jobs who can help with connections? (Never hurts to ask).
I hope you are able to find something that provides at least an emotional boost while the broader search continues!
> Is there a particular specialisation you have, and then how does someone who needs that specialisation find you?
Being a generalist and having experience delivering products all the way its what makes me stand out. That being said, I've done some cool pieces with backoffices and dev tooling and developer experience
> Or if there’s a local company that needs you… even if the work isn’t the most challenging… Can at least leverage the real-world relationships? Anyone at prior jobs who can help with connections? (Never hurts to ask).
I've done my best and decided to take any job even if it doesn't pay as much. I have exhausted all of my prior connections
Thanks for the good wishes
I'm fortunate to still be in a role, but I've always kept an eye out for other opportunities, and it looks very rough out there in the UK job market.
I don't know if companies are just in a "wait and see" stance to see the effect of AI coding agents, or if it's the sign of a wider slowdown.
100% remote is also a tough ask. I've noticed increasingly job roles are listed as 2-3 days in the office as companies awkwardly transition back to the office.
I’d try applying to in office roles too - I suspect that most places have a soft hiring freeze regardless of work status.
At least, that way you know it’s not the remote work portion that’s keeping you from a job.
I’m in the US and everyone I’ve talked to who wants to move have been discussing the challenges of getting a foot in the door anywhere.
My commute is not in a realistic location for commutes.
> I’m in the US and everyone I’ve talked to who wants to move have been discussing the challenges of getting a foot in the door anywhere.
Really? I thought the US was doing extremely well
The massive rounds of layoffs in the US over the past 3 years mean there are a ridiculous number of software engineers looking for jobs. AI has compounded this by automating applications such that a single opening might get multiple thousands of submissions.
Your best bet to find a job in this market is to have some connection to the hiring manager. It might be a friend of a friend of a former colleague. Or both having membership in the same semi-open community. But you need a way to say “hey, I’m a real human being and especially interested in this job; please at least take a look at my resume!”
> 100% remote is also a tough ask. I've noticed increasingly job roles are listed as 2-3 days in the office as companies awkwardly transition back to the office.
Keep in mind that at some places this is general policy, and that tech is given an exception. For example, my company has 2-3 days in-office, but everyone in tech is allowed to be 100% remote, even though that’s not written anywhere.
The UK market is doing poorly but I changed to a commute where 3 days a week is unrealistic. I can be onsite once a month :)
I'm sorry if I'm being too blunt, but it looks like you just cannot afford that location any more. It could really be wise to consider moving.
your comment honors your handle,
That being said, this is about unemployment not affordability. I can afford where I am, if I had a job
If you can afford it, carry on! But your other comments suggest otherwise.
Hypothetically being able to afford something if things were hypothetically different is not an indicator of what is affordable in reality.
If the op is looking only for remote roles then I'd emphasise that competition for these is extremely high. My advice would be to broaden your search to include hybrid and-in person roles.
I wish that rto was being handled with more flexibility and empathy, and I appreciate that travelling to work can be very difficult to reconcile with location and parental/caring responsibilities, but this is unfortunately where we are.
I'd also recommend looking beyond startups and pure software/tech companies. There are many businesses in eg manufacturing, or in less mainstream locations, that struggle to hire decent devs.
For context: I'm a UK-based developer and have recent experience of a fairly substantial period of unemployment. I now have a job with a great business, but also with a substantial commute.
> I'd also recommend looking beyond startups and pure software/tech companies. There are many businesses in eg manufacturing, or in less mainstream locations, that struggle to hire decent devs.
That's where I'm aiming for.
I know there's a million companies that would benefit from my work and can pay well, but they're just not the ones that find you on Linkedin, or post on Hacker News
Stop chasing remote roles - show up at the office and then maybe go remote after a while.
I'm open to be partially onsite
Beggars can't be choosers. If you are having the worst career winter of your life shouldn't you be taking whatever you can get? Whether its 5 days a week in office or full remote or anything in between?
I'm no longer in a location where is easy to commute to a major city. I can't choose to get a job in a big city anymore that's 5 days a week
Just stop asking to work remote - you will get the opportunity when it becomes in vogue again.
It is happening as a reaction to covid and ai.
What covid did to office work lasted many years and now there is finally a reverse reaction where people (not just office managers) are rediscovering that hey we actually get things going if we sit in the same room, at the same time, working on the same problem.
AI is a bit like outsourcing / off-shoring. Best results are on tasks that are well-defined, of a fair size, and well-documented. Incidentally the tasks that used to go to someone sitting remote.
Remote role? Why would anybody pay UK wages instead of $developing_country wages?
Everyone in the thread is saying that, but in my experience, not many companies are even hiring remote employees abroad.
Honestly, like the international landscape for salaries has kind off like normalised itself. Wages for SWEs are more or less the same across the globe when you look at remote work.
Intelligent people are cutting costs instead of trying to earn more money
In the US I have noticed that the tier 2/3 tech cities SWE salaries seemed to raise a bit with covid and level off. The Tier 1 tech cities they seem to (outside of AI) have dropped a bit after the covid boom amid massive layoffs. Remote seems to be kind of independent of location but I see some remote places paying more Tier 2/3 level salaries
How do people find jobs in the US?
In the UK you're usually "discovered" by a company's talent team or independent recruiters.
I've had very little to no success with direct applications
Very similar situation. I have been cancelled, and I can't face going back to employment, but finding a way to earn a crust as a solo engineer is proving somewhat hopeless. At least I'm not paying tax any more. Checkmate Rachel Reeves.
How did you get cancelled? I think the same happened to a friend
You still pay taxes through VAT, property, and other schemes.
Not necessarily. Basic food is zero-rated for VAT, and if you qualify you can get council tax reduction. For example, I get a 25% council tax discount. If you're unemployed with no income, you may genuinely pay very little direct tax, it depends on circumstances.
Remember that for remote roles you are competing against the best talent in the world, and most of them can afford to work for a tiny fraction of what you are asking for.
There are still plenty of jobs at local software shops, banks, consulting firms, hospitals, government agencies and more, and you are at the front of the line for all of those. A lot of them enforce as little as 2-3 days in the office. Apply there instead.
For fully remote jobs - agreed. Some job sites have the ability to filter by Remote + Country - roles which are still WFH but require you to be a resident/citizen of a specific country. OP might look into those as well. It'll cut down on the competition.
I applied for those(hybrid), still the same reach :(
Just out of curiosity, what is the reasonable range of pay for an engineer of your caliber in the UK?
hmm it depends really, I go below and above my "market rate"
I've come to learn that your salary as an engineer is more directly tied to your company's success rather than your personal outcomes as an engineer.
I've seen people padding buttons for £700/day working for large brands
I've seen people train open weight models for £350/day trying to ship an MVP.
The last permanent role I negotiated had a TC of £160,000/year. I'm open to go down to £90,000/year or even less for the right opportunity
As for contract work, my last 3 projects were £600/day, £700/day and £550/day. Again, I can go down for something stable.
> The last permanent role I negotiated had a TC of £160,000/year.
If you want that £160k+/year, you might as well either go to a quant firm like Citadel or Jane Street (But there is a 0% chance it will be remote) or build your own startup.
> I'm open to go down to £90,000/year or even less for the right opportunity
£90k is not bad, but not the best either, but anything higher than 120k in the UK means you lose 45% of that.
But the risk is that someone else will go even lower than your offer until the role can be done internally by another person using an AI agent.
The point is, most businesses that are non-quant and non-big tech, non-big AI do not want to pay the extortionate level of taxes in the UK and it makes SWEs in the UK look very expensive and the jobs + office move off-shore.
Why is Hacker News so interested in regular software jobs?
Isn't the idea of the site to "hack" as in thinking outside the box, building your own projects and companies, doing things in interesting new ways?
There is much innovation, hacking, etc. in "regular software jobs". Many companies that get launched are about improving efficiency or solving problems that these "regular software jobs" face. Once a startup grows, the product may continue to be interesting and new, but the day to day for the engineers building it begins to resemble a "regular software job".
That was back then when we were in our infancy as an industry and everything was about spitting out some cool graphics in less than 100 lines of JavaScript
Right now(specially looking at the world economy) It's all about getting yourself a nice, stable placement.
I haven't stopped hacking away, but I need an income
Because people have families, mortgages, rent.
It's all fun and games until the bank takes back your house.
Also, while I love programming, I have zero interest in owning a business.
Because having a golden cushion on which to rest and create isn't something most people have.
Agreed, although the issue is that it's damn difficult to find something real that is at the intersection of: (1) pleasing users, (2) making them pay, (3) actually being useful, (4) being possible to get off the ground without a multi-year investment in time or money, and (5) remaining profitable or even revenue-generating for at least say three years before competition or evolution gets to it. It's a lot easier to hack something nice when you don't have to sell it.
true!
I do believe in the 1 man SaaS legends. Any of us could build a little app overnight and watch it succeed.
I just don't have the sales/marketing muscle to my efforts
There are different kinds of folks on HN. I, for one, just don't have any business ideas worth quitting a job for.
email sam@corgi.insure hiring full stack engineers in london
disclaimer: we are 7 days a week in person
Is this you?: https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/1ohpta3/...
Hi Sam. As you wrote you are 7 days a week, how many hours is it per week?
thanks, email sent
>7 days a week in person
Is this sarcasm?
I've been going through the same thing for over a year now. I dropped out of the job search and started focusing on building my own product instead (though I can't say that's going particularly well either). Since I don't have physical access to EU/US markets, I'm only looking for remote positions.
After the post-COVID boom, companies started laying off people in large numbers. Couple that with tightening restrictions on remote work, most US companies now require work authorization, EU companies have tax compliance requirements, etc.and remote options without a formal employment relationship have become nearly impossible to find.
I don't think learning new programming languages will make much difference at this point. There isn't a new shiny technology that everyone's chasing, and AI companies are hiring very few people. Your best bet is probably finding an in-person job and relocating.
Still have a job but I'm stuck in a role with no growth and no challenging or even valuable work.
Idk how I'm supposed to talk about the last 2 years in interviews and every move up and out. I would have left earlier but it's challenging
I strongly advice you not to leave, this is a hard market
Yeah not planning on but idk how to manage future interviews where it looks like I've done nothing significant, not lead projects or did anything notable erc. It looks like I'm coasting.
Hopefully future employers are sympathetic to the situation some of us (alot of us?) are in
Can you provide a link to a resume ?
Here it is :) https://www.linkedin.com/in/mario-gintili-software-engineer/
And my Github https://www.linkedin.com/in/mario-gintili-software-engineer/
Are you able to move / relocate away from the UK?
Unless the company is a FAANG company or hedge fund, the UK tech scene is dead.
I don’t see any good UK startups worth joining in the UK. All the good ones are in SF / NY, etc.
> Unless the company is a FAANG company or hedge fund, the UK tech scene is dead.
Try to look beyond startups and pure software companies. There are many businesses in eg manufacturing or in less fashionable locations that struggle to hire decent devs and will often pay pretty good† money.
† obviously not London/SV/NY/FAANG money
I can, I have an EU nationality so working for an EU client is seamless to me.
> Unless the company is a FAANG company or hedge fund, the UK tech scene is dead.
That is VERY, VERY true
> I don’t see any good UK startups worth joining in the UK. All the good ones are in SF / NY, etc.
There's a few popping up all over the EU too but from my search a single hub in the US(Say Austin, TX) has a bigger and better ecosystem than the entirety of UK+EU.
Funding is better over there too
Extend the statement to mostly all Europe. Tech ecosystem is dead in EU.
I must be a necromancer when I can afford a mortgage and a family being a Dev in EU.
Software Development Lich. Does have a nice ring to it.
Maybe my old Nintendo Switch can be my phylactery. I have a particular fondness for it.
That seems pretty overzealous, companies like SAP or Heinlein are doing well-ish and the recent push for digital sovereignty has induced some money. There also is a bunch of mixed shops (doing he and software or integration work).
The primary difference is that many expect on-site and they pay is generally not US-startup scale.
Many companies also expect you to at least have some knowledge of their local language (e. G., German, Spanish or Polnish) and not just English. One has to adapt to be competitive here.
So Uk dead, Eu dead.. How is Asia doin?
Meanwhile there are 5m+ devs in Europe, more than in the US apparently.
Nah, definitely not.
And programmers haven't gotten any better in the last 5 years
Rubbish - you guys are spending too much time on twitter x.
When I was starting out (in the US), I didn’t have a CS degree, but I did have one very cheap client connection who was interested in a large project; and almost a decade of hobbyist experience.
It was $22 an hour. No benefits, not even healthcare. Solo, no other developers. Before AI. My theory - $22 an hour is better than school debt, and if it works, then I’ve got money + experience at a level I can’t get anywhere else, which will overcome the lack of a paper degree.
I stuck at that job for almost half a decade, under those conditions, building experience. It paid off - I joined a startup, doubled my salary, got a benefits package, and know some technologies we’re using better than anyone else on the team. The point though is that it took embracing conditions that most people consider themselves too good for, or almost unthinkably difficult.
My recommendation: I think you should entertain the idea that if there is a God who cares about us, praying earnestly is a good idea. He gave me that new job on my first application anywhere, a complete cold call, in a personal moment of weakness, in the Summer of 2025. With nothing but a solo project on the resume at a company nobody knows.
> I think you should entertain the idea that if there is a God who cares about us, praying earnestly is a good idea
If there was such then no one would go through job loss, it can't be that such God can give you a job but not be the one who took it away if it's that powerful. So if there's a God it doesn't care about us.
Funny story: in 2025 I interviewed with multiple Ruby/Rails companies in San Francisco. I performed really well in the interviews. For one company, I went through a full on-site interview at their office. And still — no offer. The interview went great.
I have ~20 years of experience. I wrote a book about Ruby. I have GitHub repositories with thousands of stars. I have my own successful projects written in Ruby/Rails. I’ve spoken at conferences and contributed a lot to the Ruby/Rails community. I was a perfect match — and I still wasn’t hired.
This wasn’t a one-off. The same thing happened with several Ruby/Rails startups.
You know what I did next? I switched to Gen/Applied AI. And the difference was huge. The feedback became much better, and salaries were 25–50% higher. The tech itself wasn’t that different — mostly dynamic languages. I had to learn new things, but it took months, not years.
I also pushed myself deeper toward understanding AI properly. I genuinely enjoy this space. I started learning the fundamentals and even built my own learning materials (for example, howllmworks.com). You don’t need to go that deep to get hired, but I wanted to. The field is fascinating.
What’s funny is that many companies hiring “AI engineers” don’t really know what they’re doing. I’ve had interviews where they openly said: “We don’t really have AI expertise, but we know we need AI.” That’s how things are right now. It’s both good and bad. They can’t really judge your skills properly — but that also means your chances of passing are higher.
As for the Ruby/Rails world — I’m honestly very disappointed. The market feels completely saturated. There are too many experienced engineers competing for too few roles. Being good is no longer enough.
One company literally told me my interview performance was too good. They suspected I was using AI. That was the feedback. Twenty years of experience, open-source work, a published book — none of that mattered. “You’re too good, and there are too many candidates like you.” That’s how I understood it.
I’ve seen this happen repeatedly. It’s not just one bad experience.
At this point, I genuinely believe the Ruby/Rails ecosystem is shrinking. The whole “one-person framework” idea that DHH has been promoting made sense years ago, but not anymore. The problems it was solving simply don’t exist in the same way today.
With LLMs, the world changed. You take the best tools available. Next.js with standardized React components instead of Stimulus and Turbo. Hosted auth instead of rolling your own. When I needed to integrate something like Clerk, I just dropped in a component and moved on. There are tons of ready-made solutions in the React ecosystem.
Now compare that to Ruby. Are there modern AI libraries? Yes, technically. Are they well-maintained? Not really. You’re often dealing with abandonware. LangChain officially supports Python and TypeScript — not Ruby. And like it or not, AI today is happening in Python.
The more time you spend clinging to Ruby/Rails, the further behind you get. That’s just reality. My advice is simple: if you can, move on. The opportunity window in AI is wide open right now, but it won’t stay that way forever. 2026 is probably the last really good entry point.
> What’s funny is that many companies hiring “AI engineers” don’t really know what they’re doing. I’ve had interviews where they openly said: “We don’t really have AI expertise, but we know we need AI.” That’s how things are right now. It’s both good and bad. They can’t really judge your skills properly — but that also means your chances of passing are higher.
A lot of money is being thrown around at AI, it's a good time to open a company :) I agree.
> As for the Ruby/Rails world — I’m honestly very disappointed. The market feels completely saturated. There are too many experienced engineers competing for too few roles. Being good is no longer enough.
Ruby/Rails, and other platforms NEED deep AI integration. That wave is coming.
I am surprised that people don't do a rails new for their new startups. I still see it as the king of web frameworks.
> With LLMs, the world changed. You take the best tools available. Next.js with standardized React components instead of Stimulus and Turbo. Hosted auth instead of rolling your own. When I needed to integrate something like Clerk, I just dropped in a component and moved on. There are tons of ready-made solutions in the React ecosystem.
Show me those ready made solutions? I haven't used them commercially so I can't vouch for them
> Now compare that to Ruby. Are there modern AI libraries? Yes, technically. Are they well-maintained? Not really. You’re often dealing with abandonware. LangChain officially supports Python and TypeScript — not Ruby. And like it or not, AI today is happening in Python.
True, I should probably ship something in Python and just add that to my inventory.
> The more time you spend clinging to Ruby/Rails, the further behind you get. That’s just reality. My advice is simple: if you can, move on. The opportunity window in AI is wide open right now, but it won’t stay that way forever. 2026 is probably the last really good entry point.
I agree with you! time to move to new pastures