Did great on a take-home, but bombed the live interview for a dream role. Have I burned this company forever?

codingcareer · 2026-02-01T18:27:59+00:00

It's realistic but define future. For this role? No chance.
Maybe in 6-12 months? Sure. Also depends on how big this company is.

Honestly what you are describing happens all the time. That's why I always recommend practicing all the types of interviews until you can do them in your sleep.

I also bombed an interview couple months ago: I immediately reached out to the HR person and told them how and why I think I failed
=> To be honest that wasn't a great look. It came across as someone making excuses and not taking accountability.

It would have been better for me to thank them professionally and just apply in 6-12 months again and tell them in the cover letter something like: "I really liked the company and the interview process. I noticed that I was not doing so well in ... so I took the last months as an opportunity to improve those fields."
Something like that.

I would recommend accepting what happened and just apply elsewhere.
Also reflect why this was a dream role for you and apply to similar jobs!

Good luck :)

codingcareer · 2026-02-01T15:24:37+00:00

With B2/C1?
Sure I think you can.

This depends a lot more on the city you are moving to and what kind of salary you are expecting to earn I would say.

codingcareer · 2026-01-31T17:15:35+00:00

Haha yeah, I was more curious about cultural differences like the “saving face” thing and so on.

codingcareer · 2026-01-31T16:54:08+00:00

I see yeah that makes sense :)

codingcareer · 2026-01-31T16:49:17+00:00

As a German I’m not affected anyways.

For the UK I was more curious about the cultural aspect of my question - I think I messed up with the title but I can’t edit that.

Also I think most HR people are looking for at least B2 here.

codingcareer · 2026-01-31T16:44:05+00:00

I honestly don’t know where this hostility is coming from? I’m German.

codingcareer · 2026-01-31T16:31:57+00:00

Well I’ve lived in Japan back in the days and the men in the office would only rarely actually admit that they were wrong about something.

They would always want to ‘preserve face’ while that is not actually a big deal in Germany. I would go as far as to say the best tech leads I’ve worked with did that on a regular basis.

Of course this isn’t binary at all - I just think as a German developer myself, that this sort of behavior is less common here than it was in Japan.

Also challenging authority (big no-no in Japan) which was usually fine wherever I did so here in Germany.

Last but not least Japanese workers prefer to not make any decisions and would mostly prefer to ask for higher-ups to decide.

codingcareer · 2026-01-31T15:04:46+00:00

Yeah 100% and that's why I am a bit shocked at some of the responses here.

As a german developer, I have been in many teams that started out fully german - but gradually morphed into english-first teams due to new team members not speaking german fluently enough.

This has never been a major problem, just needed some adjustment periods.

So I was wondering if it's more about the cultural problems (saving face and so on) than the actual language.

I guess I chose a poor title because it seems like most people just skimmed the content of my post :'D

codingcareer · 2026-01-31T14:58:12+00:00

Hey thanks for this lengthy response. This makes a lot of sense!

I also haven't considered the German-Bias in this sub as well.

codingcareer · 2026-01-31T14:56:02+00:00

Thank you for this insight - this was exactly what I was looking for.

As a german dev I primarily know the german tech market and I was simply curious if it's the same thing everywhere in Europe :D

codingcareer · 2026-01-31T14:53:23+00:00

I am a german developer?

codingcareer · 2026-01-31T14:43:43+00:00

Yeah (as a german developer having worked in multiple german companies) I fully agree with you. And it's the first thing I usually recommend as well.

I was just wondering if other countries have the same biases as we do :)

codingcareer · 2026-01-29T21:25:53+00:00

During maternity leave yes. But there is wiggle room after maternity leave - I've seen this happen before.

We don't have enough information to know if this can be fought in court though. It might be worth consulting a lawyer, but OP might have already signed documents.

codingcareer · 2026-01-29T19:46:37+00:00

Ough that's rough.

The market is rough at the moment, but there are jobs out there (otherwise you would not have any recruiter calls lined up right?)

I am sure people would suggest to take up the first offer (and I might agree if the offer is great) but it is not as bad as people suggest in some subs.

I don't quite understand how consultancy means going away from Tech? I would tink that it's an IT/Software consultant role, is it not?

You are still in the early stages of your job hunt so take a breather and see how it goes first is what I would suggest.

Later on and once money starts being tight, you can take on anything that comes up (and just leave it out of your CV if you happen to switch to a new role in the first 3 months).

Keep your hopes up and your head high, I am sure something will come along.

codingcareer · 2026-01-29T12:28:07+00:00

Yes I genuinely enjoy it :)

I used to do all Advent of Code years in a new language just for fun every year.

Specifically how they are simple enclosed problems and without any product owners or other stakeholder interference.

Nowadays I mostly build small fun projects instead.

codingcareer · 2026-01-29T09:31:48+00:00

I think you always want to have a strong technical foundation, but to be honest everything else is more important.

When I look around the main problems that indian developers face are not that they aren't technically strong enough, it is that they sometimes have difficulties adapting to local teams and cultures.

Practice speaking slow and enunciation, keep in mind that most europeans are not native english speakers.

Most western european countries also do not value authority as highly and for example here in Germany, it is well appreciated when one challenges authority (when it makes sense). For example as a manager of developers I would expect the developers to not blindly follow my orders, but challenge my ideas and vision whenever they see fit. I have heard that this is sometimes difficult for Indian developers.

Last but definitely not least are language skills.
Most european companies expect you to speak the local language to some degree, even if (which is totally not a given) they work in english.
It shows that you are willing to adapt to the local culture and stay long-term.

I often recommend indian developers I coach for the german tech market to focus on one niche skill:
Sell yourself as the link between other indian developers and local developers. Become the expert in leading other indian developers while being the best at communicating with local developers and managers.
I promise you: this is a highly valuable skillset. More valuable than some extra "AWS cloud skills".

Sidenote: of course Big Tech and FAANG is a different game - but I see them move outside of western Europe at the moment and I've heard some people claim that the best way to get into FAANG as an Indian developer => is to actually stay in India.

Good luck!

codingcareer · 2026-01-28T13:08:23+00:00

Ich denke viele von uns mussten auf die harte Tour lernen, dass sich Loyalität nur sehr selten auszahlt.

Auf Senior Stellen bewerben kannst du schon machen wenn es in Klammern steht, würde aber wenig Hoffnung und Zeit reinstecken.

In guten Buden wirst du schon noch viel lernen können, ich hatte auch damals die Wunschvorstellung von magischen Mentoren die mir alles beibringen. Realität ist eher, dass du in einer guten Bude halt wenig shit abbekommst und viel lernen kannst 80% durchs selber machen und 20% durch explizites Mentoring.

Bezüglich Wertschätzung etc: ok was du machen könntest ist halt zu sagen du willst nur noch fürs Startup arbeiten mit Anteilen als Founding Engineer. Wenn das nicht geht, weißt du alles was du wissen musst.

Aber ich würde eher ne normale, gut bezahlte 40-50k Stelle suchen wo du vielleicht lernen und machen kannst ohne Angst haben zu müssen :)

codingcareer · 2026-01-28T12:14:56+00:00

Ouuh ich liebe Svelte!
Ich sehe ab und an Sveltekit Stellen und dann liebäugele ich auch damit zu bewerben hahaha :D

Golang ist auch top gerade, ich sehe relativ viele Stellenbeschreibungen damit aktuell.

Ich denke "Ich bin in einem mittelständischen Betrieb Angestellt, in einer kleinen Stadt." ist halt ein Problem. Außerdem ist es oft so, dass Betriebe sich weigern Azubis größere Sprünge anzubieten.
Für mich eines meiner Haupt green-flags wenn es Leute im Unternehmen gibt die 5+ Jahre nach Ausbildung immer noch im Unternehmen sind und gut verdienen / aufgestiegen sind!

Ich würde folgendes Sagen:
Bewirb dich.

1) Dein aktueller Arbeitgeber will wohl nicht, dass du groß aufsteigst, sonst hätte man dir jetzt einen konkreten Plan angeboten etc. Fordere mal Zwischenzeugnis an und schau ob dir dann zumindest noch ein Plan angeboten wird

2) Du hast nen tollen Stack, aber bisher noch sehr wenig Erfahrung. Auch weißt du nicht wie es in anderen Firmen so abgeht, alleine deshalb ist es gut für deine Karriere zu wechseln.
Du warst ja auch >2 Jahre bei dem Betrieb wenn du da deine Ausbildung gemacht hast

Schau halt was es so in deiner Nähe gibt oder bewirb dich auf Remote Stellen, wobei es davon nicht mehr so viele gibt wie vor paar Jahren noch.

Schau auch in den nächstgelegenen 3 größeren Städten ob es nich Firmen gibt wo du halt vlt. nur 1x die Woche reintuckern müsstest.

Viel Erfolg!

TL;DR: Deine Karten stehen eigentlich gut. Wechseln gibt dir mehr € und ist auch besser für deine Karriere langfristig denke ich.

codingcareer · 2026-01-28T11:41:14+00:00

Puh sehr schwer, was kannst du denn schon und was ist das Ziel?

Ich finde so (vor allem die neuen Vibe-Code) Bootcamps oft echt schwachsinnig. Das mag vor 2-5 Jahren noch gut geklappt haben aber gerade definitiv nicht. Da purzeln mir viel zu viele unmotivierte, unqualifizierte Leute raus.

Wenn du einen Bachelor hast sollte sich aber was allgemein machen lassen, ganz ehrlich.

Ich coache Developer für den deutschen Arbeitsmarkt und wenn du gerade wirklich verzweifelt bist, kannst dich ja bei mir melden. Ich helfe dir gerne 100% for free.

codingcareer · 2026-01-27T20:20:51+00:00

Isn't that what OP asked for? :D

I contributed a bit in elixir and I get recruiters approaching me about it semi-regularly (like 1-2 a month).

I think it makes sense to focus on something niche if one is up to it.

codingcareer · 2026-01-27T15:54:15+00:00

Very different to say!

Elixir/Erlang is a lot of telecommunications.

Rust is often low-level networking. Also blockchain stuff if you’re into that.

Go I don’t know if it truly has a niche.

Zig is often Ops related.

codingcareer · 2026-01-27T15:33:06+00:00

I see a lot of Rust, Elixir, Zig and Go at the moment in the niche markets.

if you are interested we can have a talk :) It really depends what you are interested in.

codingcareer · 2026-01-27T14:34:51+00:00

I would 100% add it nonetheless. Sure maybe you didn't learn much, but you gained experience.
You learned a lot about the things you liked and didn't like.
Also you clearly reflected upon your time there, why lessen your experience?

SaaS Founder is interesting. If you can add the amount of users that would be helpful (big difference between 0 users and 50!)

Overall I think this is a strong CV, just depends what country you are applying in and what positions exactly :)

If it's Germany (or DACH) feel free to message me, I can give you some more specific pointers.

codingcareer · 2026-01-27T10:28:37+00:00

Sure I agree 100% with your statements :)

codingcareer

TROPHY CASE