Job wanted for under challenged coder
Discussion
My son is job hunting for a more challenging role. He has been doing testing and coding for 5 years since uni and is struggling to find something less mundane.
Obviously as his dad I'm not objective but he is smart in a way you don't find regularly. Mind like a fast moving thing moving fast.
He was always the 'try hard' kid at school, learned piano on his own, taught himself conversational Danish when he fancied a Danish girl. Did an extra A level (Chemistry) just for fun in the last month before the exams. Taught himself to code and hack when games became boring.
If there are any recruiters / employers who might have an opening for a lad with a mind like a sponge then send me a message and I'll put you in touch with him.
Brief details I've cribbed from his cv, none of which mean anything to me.
Java, JavaScript, Typescript, Python, SQL
Selenium, Playwright, Cucumber, Gerkin, REST
mongoDB, Postman, MobaXTerm, Git, Jira
Degree in Astronautics from Southampton, A levels in Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry.
Has been at Meta for the last few years but wants to find something that allows him to work on things that are more challenging.
Obviously he is talking to recruiters himself but I thought I might interfere and I know the PH collective is broad so thought it worth a shot.
Obviously as his dad I'm not objective but he is smart in a way you don't find regularly. Mind like a fast moving thing moving fast.
He was always the 'try hard' kid at school, learned piano on his own, taught himself conversational Danish when he fancied a Danish girl. Did an extra A level (Chemistry) just for fun in the last month before the exams. Taught himself to code and hack when games became boring.
If there are any recruiters / employers who might have an opening for a lad with a mind like a sponge then send me a message and I'll put you in touch with him.
Brief details I've cribbed from his cv, none of which mean anything to me.
Java, JavaScript, Typescript, Python, SQL
Selenium, Playwright, Cucumber, Gerkin, REST
mongoDB, Postman, MobaXTerm, Git, Jira
Degree in Astronautics from Southampton, A levels in Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry.
Has been at Meta for the last few years but wants to find something that allows him to work on things that are more challenging.
Obviously he is talking to recruiters himself but I thought I might interfere and I know the PH collective is broad so thought it worth a shot.
He's at Meta? Although it reportedly has a toxic reputation these days, it's still on of the most sought after companies as an engineer. They pay very well and is usually a high degree of pressure but working on big tech products. That's dependent on team obviously.
From meta he could easily pivot to other companies, including the mainstream tech companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft etc
But for more challenging work either AI companies like Anthropic, OpenAI or startups would be good
On a side note, I would imagine Meta would be incredibly challenging. If it's not, then I'd encourage him to try to move internally - like I said, there are many online trying constantly to join the company
From meta he could easily pivot to other companies, including the mainstream tech companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft etc
But for more challenging work either AI companies like Anthropic, OpenAI or startups would be good
On a side note, I would imagine Meta would be incredibly challenging. If it's not, then I'd encourage him to try to move internally - like I said, there are many online trying constantly to join the company
Edited by redrabbit29 on Monday 24th August 18:19
redrabbit29 said:
He's at Meta? Although it reportedly has a toxic reputation these days, it's still on of the most sought after companies as an engineer. They pay very well and is usually a high degree of pressure but working on big tech products. That's dependent on team obviously.
From meta he could easily pivot to other companies, including the mainstream tech companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft etc
But for more challenging work either AI companies like Anthropic, OpenAI or startups would be good
On a side note, I would imagine Meta would be incredibly challenging. If it's not, then I'd encourage him to try to move internally - like I said, there are many online trying constantly to join the company
He tried to get shifted onto other projects but it seems like they labelled him as a one trick pony and weren't interested in using him in other areas. From meta he could easily pivot to other companies, including the mainstream tech companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft etc
But for more challenging work either AI companies like Anthropic, OpenAI or startups would be good
On a side note, I would imagine Meta would be incredibly challenging. If it's not, then I'd encourage him to try to move internally - like I said, there are many online trying constantly to join the company
Edited by redrabbit29 on Monday 24th August 18:19
I think he might end up somewhere smaller where he is less of numbered grunt and valued more as an individual.
It isn't a money thing for him the sector seems to pay well enough for him without chasing it.
My son's in a similar position with a US firm. As RedRabbit suggests Meta is one of the companies that lots of young Software Engineers aspire to so surprising that he wants to move. At that level I guess he'd be looking for a sideways move to Google, Amazon etc, or maybe an Investment Bank?
When my son was looking for his second role after University most of the interviews he got were generated from his LinkedIn profile so it would b worth making sure that was up to date.
When my son was looking for his second role after University most of the interviews he got were generated from his LinkedIn profile so it would b worth making sure that was up to date.
1690cc said:
He tried to get shifted onto other projects but it seems like they labelled him as a one trick pony and weren't interested in using him in other areas.
I think he might end up somewhere smaller where he is less of numbered grunt and valued more as an individual.
It isn't a money thing for him the sector seems to pay well enough for him without chasing it.
Don't take this the wrong way, however is he a rounded individual? A lot of very clever (which he sounds) people are not exactly the sort of individuals that are either team players or people that work well in more varied role (I say this having worked with hundreds of coders over my career). I think he might end up somewhere smaller where he is less of numbered grunt and valued more as an individual.
It isn't a money thing for him the sector seems to pay well enough for him without chasing it.
My step son is a prime example of this in that he is a doctor in mathematics, is doing research in squiggly numbers at some university however he has no social skills or awareness of other people (I'm sure he is on a spectrum somewhere) so has boxed himself into a career in an ever shrinking "industry" if he had a little more social skills then I'm sure the world could have been his lobster.
The only reason I say this is that if your son is as good technically as you/ he says then something else is holding him back at somewhere like Meta, they tend to want to fully utilise their talent.
Anyway just a thought and it might be worth looking at why Meta aren't promoting/ moving him and see if that reveals the sort of place that he would fit in better.
Maybe he should be looking at start ups if he wants this challenge. I left one of the companies mentioned above to join a start up and it was tremendous fun. We genuinely started with a blank piece of paper (or screen at least) and created everything. It lasted 15 months and we reached a soft launch at which point a competitor turned up to buy us which wasn't all bad. I then went to another start up which I hated and have now returned to a large company but with my eye open for the next step. I'm towards the end of my career but I think startups are great at either end, just trickier of course when you have more commitments.
1690cc said:
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It isn't a money thing for him the sector seems to pay well enough for him without chasing it.
Just to pick up on this, that may be the case at the top end but there are a whole load of jobs advertised at < £40k add in the recent big tech layoffs and there is a glut of very very experienced and skilled candidates all looking for work, The market has shifted and at the moment it is very definitely a buyers market.It isn't a money thing for him the sector seems to pay well enough for him without chasing it.
He's quite normally adjusted not your typical spectrum IT savant. He likes football, drinks in pubs and socialises with non geeky people.
He has found Meta to be more compartmentalized than he expected. He wanted to break out from the project he was on after a couple of years but found it impossible to do.
He is getting in front of various companies at the moment but he doesn't want to be pigeonholed again which most seem keen to do.
He has found Meta to be more compartmentalized than he expected. He wanted to break out from the project he was on after a couple of years but found it impossible to do.
He is getting in front of various companies at the moment but he doesn't want to be pigeonholed again which most seem keen to do.
The ex Meta tag does seem to mean something when job hunting. However they employ a lot of people and in his experience not that many are really that great at his fairly junior level. They can perform their role but nothing more challenging. He appreciated the constant food, snacks and seeming endless budget for equipment.
I’ve found that automated test engineers can be looked down on by people who consider themselves proper software engineers. I’d recommend dropping selenium and cucumber from his cv and then approaching a few startups to see what’s available.
They’ll be looking for people with real systems design experience rather than test engineering experience as most will be passing that work off onto AI by now. A lot of them will jump on an ex meta engineer.
Once he’s done the startup thing for a few years he might then be able to head back to a big tech company and get a better role.
They’ll be looking for people with real systems design experience rather than test engineering experience as most will be passing that work off onto AI by now. A lot of them will jump on an ex meta engineer.
Once he’s done the startup thing for a few years he might then be able to head back to a big tech company and get a better role.
A possibility...
You may find your son is never challenged sufficiently. I always 'got bored' of perfectly good roles and was in my forties before the deployed-at-random self-destruct button stopped featuring. I've been where I am now for 9 years and that is nearly double my previous best.
You may find your son is never challenged sufficiently. I always 'got bored' of perfectly good roles and was in my forties before the deployed-at-random self-destruct button stopped featuring. I've been where I am now for 9 years and that is nearly double my previous best.
1690cc said:
He's quite normally adjusted not your typical spectrum IT savant. He likes football, drinks in pubs and socialises with non geeky people.
He has found Meta to be more compartmentalized than he expected. He wanted to break out from the project he was on after a couple of years but found it impossible to do.
He is getting in front of various companies at the moment but he doesn't want to be pigeonholed again which most seem keen to do.
It is quite possible he is too valuable for the project or to get someone else in or rotate him to different department would be more hassle getting someone else up to speed.He has found Meta to be more compartmentalized than he expected. He wanted to break out from the project he was on after a couple of years but found it impossible to do.
He is getting in front of various companies at the moment but he doesn't want to be pigeonholed again which most seem keen to do.
161BMW said:
1690cc said:
He's quite normally adjusted not your typical spectrum IT savant. He likes football, drinks in pubs and socialises with non geeky people.
He has found Meta to be more compartmentalized than he expected. He wanted to break out from the project he was on after a couple of years but found it impossible to do.
He is getting in front of various companies at the moment but he doesn't want to be pigeonholed again which most seem keen to do.
It is quite possible he is too valuable for the project or to get someone else in or rotate him to different department would be more hassle getting someone else up to speed.He has found Meta to be more compartmentalized than he expected. He wanted to break out from the project he was on after a couple of years but found it impossible to do.
He is getting in front of various companies at the moment but he doesn't want to be pigeonholed again which most seem keen to do.
If Meta is a bore then hes going to struggle in a lot of places.
I suspect the bigger issue is hes doing QA automation grunt work, not building software. As the person a few posts up said, drop the automation frameworks and reframe the CV as a pure software engineer.
If he doesn't already tell him to get some experience using agents coding tools like Claude Code. Love or hate AI its being used by many companies and having some knowledge will help.
Then for him I would suggest looking at a role a seeded startup. There is risk with these as they can burn through their cash and then got any more, but it will be exciting as youre building the system from the ground up and there is pressure to get to production. There is also the chance of a good reward if you get some stock and it takes off.
I suspect the bigger issue is hes doing QA automation grunt work, not building software. As the person a few posts up said, drop the automation frameworks and reframe the CV as a pure software engineer.
If he doesn't already tell him to get some experience using agents coding tools like Claude Code. Love or hate AI its being used by many companies and having some knowledge will help.
Then for him I would suggest looking at a role a seeded startup. There is risk with these as they can burn through their cash and then got any more, but it will be exciting as youre building the system from the ground up and there is pressure to get to production. There is also the chance of a good reward if you get some stock and it takes off.
It is certainly the case that he is stuck doing grunt work. His managers at Meta talk a good story of opportunities but without actual employed experience in other roles he has struggled to get considered. He obviously has things he can show that he has done in his own time to demonstrate other abilities but with the number of other similarly experienced workers now looking for work he is in a big pond of talent now.
He can move to another similar job but it is making the leap across into more interesting project work that he is finding difficult as understandably employers are playing it safe and only considering applicants with employed experience in those roles.
I think it will end in him moving elsewhere, probably to a much smaller company where he might get noticed more easily as capable beyond his employed position.
He can move to another similar job but it is making the leap across into more interesting project work that he is finding difficult as understandably employers are playing it safe and only considering applicants with employed experience in those roles.
I think it will end in him moving elsewhere, probably to a much smaller company where he might get noticed more easily as capable beyond his employed position.
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