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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

Please feel free to reach out, and then we can see if there is a good match.

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?

disclaimer: we are 7 days a week in person

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.

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

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.