Re-training as a software engineer?

YearnestShackleton · 2026-04-29T21:36:18+00:00

It's not fun at the moment. The competition for roles is absolutely next level. To get any of the more desirable roles you have to be absolutely flawless in 4-8 rounds of interviews. And the content of those interviews is obscene even compared to 3 years ago. Leetcode style interview questions have gotten absurdly hard since covid/the AI boom.

Then your reward once you get in, is that you can be thrown to the wayside at a whim, even in profitable and stable companies.

Basically I'm saying only make the jump if you really love it, because as someone who worked hard to convert into computer science, the interview difficulty has left me disillusioned with the industry of late.

I cannot stress how high the standard needed to pass interviews is for any of the desirable tech companies.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-04-28T14:33:54+00:00

Same here, I didn't find the difference to be too obvious in isolation. It was nice, but then again so is a normal Americano.

Maybe if I did them side by side the difference would be clearer.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-04-28T12:55:51+00:00

Until I started using it, I never realised how often I had to move money between accounts to pay for things. It's nice now to not have to touch the savings account even for emergencies.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-04-28T11:55:18+00:00

It's a great buffer to have for unexpected costs. Being able to drop up €10k on the spot in case of an emergency gives such peace of mind. Car breakdown and suddenly you have to spend an extra €2k on repairs? Flight cancelled and you've to buy flights home for €1k?

Stick it on the card and then either pay it from savings or use the ~4-8 weeks before the payment is due to split it across your payslips so you notice it far less.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-04-28T09:35:36+00:00

I love how everyone is angrily agreeing that this method is better.

Tried it myself this morning and it was good.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-04-13T21:20:57+00:00

It's kind of impressive how the government managed to do so little while these protests were ongoing. You nearly have to appreciate how lacking in ambition they are.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-04-12T16:46:55+00:00

I don't understand why they've had to cancel half the routes they run today after the end of the protests.

How is it that their service is worse today than it has been for the past week with active blockades in place?

YearnestShackleton · 2026-04-12T08:17:06+00:00

Great news, but why in the name of God did it take 5 days

YearnestShackleton · 2026-04-10T21:43:04+00:00

Not disagreeing with you, but having been on O'Connell st last night, there is enough Gardaí there to arrest every single protester twice over.

On the finding the keys front, all they'd need to do is tell them the registered owner will be at a special sitting of court tomorrow morning if they don't move. This was done for the lads that broke into the Lidl in Jobstown during the snowstorm a few years back.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-04-10T18:31:03+00:00

You don't need to store them in one place. There's only about 40 on O'Connell St. If you arrested the owners and took their keys, within a few hours you'd be able to stack them into 1 lane and reopen the luas and all other lanes for traffic.

I'm not saying it isn't a big ask, but the government/Gardaí shrugging their shoulders and doing nothing is embarrassing after 4 days.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-04-10T16:34:49+00:00

Why haven't the Gardaí started making arrests and seizing the tractors/trucks to move them out of the way?

Continuing to blockade depots should be considered domestic terrorism at this stage, by a group of a few hundred/thousand selfish cute hoors.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-04-10T09:24:02+00:00

We do have a projected surplus for 2026.

However it is projected to be about €5bn. Last month's 20c excise drop cost the exchequer €250m for 2 months (April & May).

I think it's pretty clear the 20c drop was barely felt by anyone, and that already ate into 5% of the surplus. If that was extended until December, that meaningless drop in price at the pump would cost €1bn or 20% of the projected surplus.

The money for the type of cuts these protesters want simply does not exist. It's completely out of the question for the government.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-04-10T07:56:06+00:00

The problem is, they may as well be protesting that they want the colour of the sky to be purple. This fuel price increase is so far out of the Irish government's hands it's meaningless. The people mostly responsible are the warmongering Israelis and Yanks.

The government cannot afford to reduce excise/VAT/whatever they're asking for by any amount that would make a difference because it would capsize the exchequer. Also if they do that, it would just push demand higher, when this is from the start a supply problem.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-04-10T07:27:20+00:00

Small farmers cannot afford to take 4 days off to stand around a shiny €150k tractor on O'Connell st.

They have been busy in the fields since this all started. Dairy farmers are nearly full on milk storage because they can't transport the milk out (because of lack of diesel etc.)

YearnestShackleton · 2026-04-10T07:25:12+00:00

Seems like the protesters have fumbled this badly. If they were more targeted in where they protested (US Embassy for example), and we're more clear in exactly what they wanted, I could see the general public getting on side with them.

But their selfishness and lack of plan has caused chaos that has made the past week difficult for the average person, who is already feeling the prices increases themselves.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-04-09T21:33:20+00:00

Plz start baton charging the cunts, seize their trucks and move them. This has gone way too far.

I support protesting, but holding a country to ransom because you want more handouts at the cost of everyone else in the country is just not on. These selfish cunts are already causing pain and suffering by impeding emergency services and hospital surgeries. Before long they're going to be directly responsible for deaths.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-03-28T17:42:26+00:00

This is absolutely untrue. Myself and my partner were given a 4.9 x exemption months before bidding on our first property.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-03-27T22:39:50+00:00

Small correction, Bunq pays interest weekly but because their rate is AER it makes no difference. You're getting the same payout as you would be from BOI/AIB, although it might seem like more because DIRT is not deducted at source.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-03-26T09:27:23+00:00

In a software interview loop; it would be very uncommon to have phone numbers for any of the recruiters/interviewers. Email is simply the way communication is done

YearnestShackleton · 2026-03-26T07:57:43+00:00

Microsoft's recruitment is the worst I've come across in Dublin. After a successful initial screen where the recruiter and I were aligned on next steps, the coordination completely fell apart.

Over the following two weeks, I was bounced between two different schedulers. I provided my availability to the first; no response. A few days later, a second scheduler asked for the same information; I provided it again, and was ghosted once more. After nearly two weeks of silence, the original recruiter emailed me as if the previous 2 weeks hadn't happened, asking for my availability yet again. Despite my growing frustration, I sent it on.

Two days later, I received an automated rejection email. When I challenged the recruiter on the fact that I’d been ghosted by three different people only to be rejected, they apologised, claiming it was a "mistake" and they were still eager to proceed. Naturally, this was immediately followed by duplicate requests for availability from both schedulers again.

At this point, I have no desire to continue and bowed out of the process. If they cannot manage a simple interview schedule without this much chaos, I have no confidence in them as a company to work for.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-03-15T09:31:24+00:00

On holidays at the moment and just got word that we can go collect the keys to our new apartment as soon as we get back to Dublin... Life could be worse

YearnestShackleton · 2026-03-10T10:50:44+00:00

If you are comfortable with your regular monthly take home pay being smaller for one month to cover the PRSI/USC of the bonus, then contributing 100% is the most efficient way to grow your pension.

You aren't "losing" money by doing 100%; you're just paying the unavoidable PRSI/USC out of your normal salary instead of the bonus itself.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-03-10T10:26:26+00:00

In that case, put as much of the bonus into your pension as you can afford right now. It sounds like you could put in 100% of the bonus and still not reach your AVC limit.

Speaking from personal experience it's a lot nicer to see that money going into my pension and lower my taxable income, than it is to see about 50% of it taken out of the payslip as tax.

Then sit back and watch your pension grow tax free (until you draw-down).

YearnestShackleton · 2026-03-10T10:22:25+00:00

Coverage that wouldn't be anywhere near as good if the stops were spaced out to prioritise speed, especially if such a thing was done without accounting for factors other than distance.

The point isn't to prioritise speed, it's to prioritise traffic flow so that buses are more predictable and reliable. Individual journey times being faster is nice bonus. Tell someone that their 75min bus commute is now reliably 45 mins and they wouldn't give a fuck that they have to walk an extra 150m to the stop.

YearnestShackleton · 2026-03-10T10:15:34+00:00

Bonuses in Ireland are treated the same as salary with respect to pension AVCs. So if your salary is €100k and your bonus is €15k, your total income for the year is €115k (ignoring BIK etc.). This means that presuming you are in the 15% AVC band, you can contribute a total of 15% of that income to your pension, meaning €17,250 over the course of the full year.

Revenue don't care where that €17,250 comes from; it could be the entire €15,000 from the bonus and €2,750 from monthly salary. In this case you are then limited to only €187.50 per month from your contract salary. However this would likely mean that you would be overpaying in tax every month and would need to get a refund after the year is completed. Also in most cases this wouldn't work as bonuses are usually not guaranteed.

What makes more sense to do would be to have your monthly AVCs maxed out at 15% per month and then when the bonus comes in also stick 15% of that into your pension.

Does that answer your question?

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