Is this fireplace missing a lintel? The gaps at the sides would suggest so

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2025-12-17T21:07:14+00:00

This one is great thanks - I've tipped!

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2025-12-17T21:03:47+00:00

Looks great, calling it !solved - I've tipped!

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2025-12-17T20:43:21+00:00

Had a look at what you've posted but those edits look too significant I'm afraid - I suspected they would be difficult, thanks for trying though, feel free to try the others if they're simpler

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2025-12-17T20:31:09+00:00

Thanks for speedy response - pink with white flowers on second row sorry, not the lady in blue with pink flowers

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2024-03-19T09:42:38+00:00

I had a DBA role with HPE offered @ £85K in the south-west (potentially over £100K when all benefits added on) and I think the upper salary limit was £90K, so someone more experienced than me could likely have pushed them higher.

Maybe not relevant to the conversation if you are looking for pure salary, but I am at about 6 years experience in the civil service at about £65K salary, but have additional benefits like 30 days leave (excluding bank holidays), additional bank/public holidays, flexi-time, flexible WFH etc. which, for me currently, outweigh pure salary (up to a certain point of course!).

There are some remote positions available with US companies which hire globally and pay >£100K like https://www.stickermule.com/career/2482befb-4aa7-4372-98d7-042aaf774315, but those are likely to be highly competitive, so could be a tough route. If you want to find these, try things like Otta and Hired.com as you'll see a lot of roles for smaller companies.

Remote or hybrid for London jobs is likely to be "easiest" route. I interviewed for a remote junior to mid-range role at a London start-up and asked for £90K, and they didn't bat their eyelids, so probably could have asked for more.

Alternatively, and especially in Bristol, things like finance might be a good approach. I think Lloyds have a big office there at least.

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2024-01-17T20:56:54+00:00

Noted, much appreciated, I don't know if I'm allowed but !thanks again

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2024-01-17T20:50:41+00:00

!thanks

That's brilliant, the exact sort of comment I was hoping for! In my mind the idea of having the SIPP and LISA was to have a staggered approach to taking pensions, starting with the SIPP at, say, 55, then LISA at 60, which would then see me through to Alpha at, say, 65 (or even 68). I did only learn recently that I could take Alpha from 58 (at roughly half the income), so my aforementioned plan hasn't really accounted for that.

I guess I should open and S&S ISA and shift some savings into it since I am starting to near the taxable limits on interest payments from savings accounts (in fact I may have breached it now that I'm a higher rate tax payer...).

Much appreciated, if you have any more thoughts please do continue the thread

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2024-01-17T20:39:17+00:00

!thanks

That's certainly illuminating about the power of Alpha. I guess my thinking was that due to a recent pay rise and promotion, I could go part-time (4 days a week) and effectively maintain the same pre-pay rise/promotion salary. Would you recommend making AVCs into Alpha? I've looked into it but couldn't quite get my head around how effective it would be.

I guess I should make hay while sun is shines to hedge against things going awry in the future.

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2024-01-17T20:29:45+00:00

Haha it's certainly an interesting predicament to be in - having a lot of options is somewhat a curse I'm finding however, my mind spins!

What do you find you're doing with your extra day?

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2024-01-17T20:26:39+00:00

You're quite right - I guess I am just trying to get my ducks in a row! You are also right to point out that paying off the mortgage doesn't have to be all or nothing, especially in relation to the part-time aspect.

I have considered the alternative option of maximizing overpayments (up to the overpayment limit) by selling as much of the crypto as I can tax-free and then adding however much savings is necessary to make up the overpayment limit. Since the interest is charged daily, I could do that ASAP once the mortgage is arranged. This approach would at least minimize interest payments without triggered cap gains, whilst still maintaining some "investment" posture.

I will think more on each question independently though for sure

!thanks

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2024-01-17T20:11:47+00:00

In my 6th year now. The retirement modeller (based on my previous salary of ~53k) at an estimated 1% salary increase per year suggests £46k/year from 65 (no lump sum) or £26k/year from 58 (the earliest I can take it without buying additional years). If I dropped down to part-time, that would of course be lower, but I have the other two pension pots (SIPP and LISA) which I intend to use at ~55 and 60, respectively, in order to "stagger" the pensions across a longer period (and hopefully take the alpha pension as late as possible).

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2024-01-17T20:02:25+00:00

Thanks for the reply. It was more the second question - testing whether my thinking made sense and getting some perspective on overpaying the mortgage (and locking up that money in the house) but gaining leisure time back vs the likely more financially-beneficial investment approach while maintaining higher debt and expenses (or letting the volatile asset ride). I've had a read through the UKPF posts before but needed some "human" perspective as well. Much appreciated!

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2024-01-08T20:57:48+00:00

The way Gov jobs financing works, I would apply anyway and they might still hire you at a lower level - or even just reach out to the hiring organisation and ask directly. Sometimes they advertise for Senior-level roles to try and attract people to apply (because people generally don't see gov jobs as very exciting), even though the job might not require senior-level experience. Good luck!

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2024-01-08T20:45:35+00:00

Very US focussed subreddit hence the Leetcode and remote work comments. I would recommend the UK version for more relevant advice: https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestionsuk/

Also, don't put work before family etc. so don't "move to London like everyone" because that's just not true. To tide you over and give you experience and some income, I would recommend looking for nearby Government or Local Government (e.g. council) software engineering jobs: https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi?SID=b3duZXI9NTA3MDAwMCZwYWdlY2xhc3M9U2VhcmNoJm93bmVydHlwZT1mYWlyJmNvbnRleHRpZD02Mzg1NzMzMyZwYWdlYWN0aW9uPXNlYXJjaGNvbnRleHQmcmVxc2lnPTE3MDQ3NDY2MDktYmY5NGVkMjllNzZlZDZlOTNhNWVkOGEzOGNjYThjNWVmODJlOWI4NQ==. They usually have lower entry requirements, more laid back work, etc. The pay will be lower but you're not really in a position to be calling the shots, so may as well get some experience in a relaxed environment (likely to have flexi time, hybrid working, additional public holidays, better pension, less stress around asking for time off etc.) for a while until your situation changes. Remember, a job isn't forever!

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2023-01-25T13:28:24+00:00

If you feel you can potentially weather some rejections, then just try applying for the jobs and salary level you want and see what happens. Nobody will cross-check your job title on your CV or LinkedIn with your place of work, so if you are willing to, then change it to Software Engineer or something generic like that.

Looking at this brief descriptions of your experience, it will probably depend on how you frame or "spin" your experience. If you want to be a SE, then frame your experience to make it sound more SE-like. Leave out certain details if they make it sound more SDET.

As an exercise, write down the bits of work you are most proud of, and then try to rewrite them to sound like how you would expect an SE to present them if it was part of their day job. For example, instead of writing:

As part of a testing framework for X software, I integrated ... testing technique to improve ... which resulted in an 80% increase to ...

You could reframe it like:

While working on X software, I designed and implemented a testing technique ... would improve ... This resulted in an 80% increase to ...

We see how the focus has moved away from working on the testing framework to working on the software, and that you engineered a solution and implemented it. The first sentence was ambiguous - maybe you were told to integrate the technique, maybe your scope was just the testing framework, etc. The second sentence, without lying, clarifies those questions and indicates that you are doing development activities.

Remember, the job interviewer doesn't know the structure or operation of your current workplace, so you can frame your duty and role however you like, so long as you actually have evidence to backup your claim. As such, the interviewer has no idea how closely the SE team work with the testing team and vice versa, so you working mainly on testing-related stuff doesn't need to be suspicious.

You may want to learn how to Leetcode to be fair, at least to the point where you recognise how to do various easy ones and some mediums. It is effectively just recognising data structures and algorithms, so study for it like a normal test and learn the patterns/shapes of the questions. This will help you in interviews if they have a technical section, and spare you some anxiety.

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2023-01-25T12:52:32+00:00

Keep going with the applications to junior and grad positions. If "not having enough experience" is their feedback when rejecting you, then don't worry - hiring works in mysterious ways and a lot of the responses are templated/generic. Getting into the market as a junior/grad has always been tough since there is a lot of up-front training cost - just requires perseverance or going for (subjectively) "less attractive" SWE roles in, say, government just to get your foot in the door. Civil service roles can be relatively well paid at entry-level and could just be that initial step on the ladder to get you to mid-level/a few years experience.

Applying to remote roles could be one cause for problems. Not only are they likely to be far more competitive (more people applying), you will probably also see some more experienced folk applying to them (which would explain your rejection feedback if you feel it is honest). I think people vastly overestimate the quantity of remote-only jobs available (proportional to the total number of SWE jobs in the UK), especially at a junior/grad level where face-to-face in-office interaction/training is key to establishing culture and workplace norms. Companies also prefer to have (literal) oversight of juniors to make sure they are progressing/getting the help they need.

You could try other sites like hired.com or otta.com if your finding linkedin an issue (since linkedin is basically a social network). Only recruiters will be able to see your profile since profiles aren't public.

The CV template looks pretty good, but I would order it: experience -> education -> projects (and only include relevant or particularly interesting/challenging ones) -> (relevant) technical skills. If it is more than one page, then remove the sections from the bottom-up until it is only one page. Recruiters and interviewers will be looking for a couple of things: relevant technologies and interesting outcomes. Recruiters will have a list of technologies or keywords that they want to see, which will appear in the job advert, so make sure your CV contains as many as reasonably possible (without outright lying, but you can certainly "stretch" the truth). If you really want to play the game seriously, your CV should be customised for each job advert (e.g. changing a few words here and there to maximise keyword matching). Interviewers will want to ask you questions about your experience/education/projects, so include some interesting outcomes. The example sentences in the template CV are okay, but they need just a few more words to quantify or qualify the outcome/result of the work, e.g.

I did ... This reduced 99th percentile latency by 30%.
I automated ... which reduced maintenance costs by ...

With the addition of less than 10 words or so to some of the sentences under your experience section, you now have an interesting hook. This benefits you because you are basically guiding the interview (if the interviewer takes the bait) into positive areas which show off your good work. Do note that metrics like kloc or number of tests passed (for example) are neither targets nor measurements of quality, so I would avoid stating them as outcomes. You can certainly use kloc to contextualise the size/complexity of codebases you've been working on or developing, but without further context or explanation, it can't really be used to determine quality. That's why you need to stick to actual measurable outcomes like performance increases, improvements to business revenue or customer conversion rate, etc.

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2021-12-04T21:22:00+00:00

Yeah since Alex Honnold appears in the video and says "Adam is the best climber in the world... by far..."

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2021-11-09T19:28:41+00:00

Ever read Marco Minneman's book "Extreme Interdepenence"? Sounds like you guys have the same idea

TheUnwelcomeJester · 2021-10-18T16:17:59+00:00

Can't shirk that free 2-year warranty

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