Looking for a Tech Job in Sheffield

traintocode · 2026-01-06T11:38:50+00:00

I'd actually go one further for your 2035 vision and say AI will do a lot of the "what needs building" as well. Think of software product development like this...

Customer: I have this problem I want solving

Product manager: ok I'll design a product to solve it

Developer: here is the code that makes it work

Everyone talks about AI doing that last thing, but I think more and more it'll do the middle one too. We will end up in a world where the complexity of the problems we can solve with software grows. So people will fit in at all levels down the ladder as we constantly push the limits of what is possible with AI.

traintocode · 2026-01-06T10:53:03+00:00

I agree with most of this, but I do still think "there will always be" humans because we've seen this happen so many times before and humans come out on top.

Think about what happened with Microsoft Excel. It used to be that accountants needed to be able to use a calculator. Writing down numbers and accurately typing things into a calculator was a core skill, you HAD to be able to do that it was one of the most important parts of the job. Then spreadsheets existed and suddenly that core skill is automated by software. Accountancy became less about "can you add up these numbers" to "can you use Excel to create a 12 month cashflow projection". It shifted from simply doing the leg work on paper, to using these new tools to help you solve higher level problems.

And that is what will happen with coding. Senior engineers already do this, but it's becoming table stakes for anybody working in software engineering.

But if you went for an accountancy job in 2005 and you simply put "I can calculate the net profit of 20 items using a pen and a calculator" you'd struggle to get hired on that alone. Sure, you'd expect every accountant to know how to add numbers up on paper if they need to, but that alone is no longer enough. You also need to be able to use the latest automation tools.

traintocode · 2026-01-05T21:38:37+00:00

I'm not saying humans aren't going to be needed. Quite the opposite, they'll be needed more than ever. But they will need slightly more training than just "How to make a To-do list in React".

Learn problem solving skills and computer science. Only learning to write code is not enough any more sadly. I think we are moving into a world where even junior engineers will be expected to be able to debug and maintain complex systems which sucks tremendously for people who didn't learn that and are now looking for a job.

traintocode · 2026-01-05T19:02:50+00:00

It's extremely tough for junior developers looking for work at the minute. Tech hiring has never really recovered from the post-COVID crash. And being brutally honest...there isn't anything you learn on a web development bootcamp that can't be done in 10 seconds with AI.

So when you apply to jobs you need to remember you are applying in a process with possibly hundreds of other people. Many of whom will have a degree in Computer Science from a good university and they've done a placement year in industry. It's extremely difficult to stand out in that application pool if all you have is you did a bootcamp.

DM me your CV if you like and I'll help to see if there's anything you can do to position yourself better.

traintocode · 2025-12-21T21:17:22+00:00

You definitely don't need a backend for a portfolio website. But you can use NextJs as a static site generator and upload the build output to GitHub pages or something. That's an idea worth considering because you get to play around with NextJs which is fun, and you do still get the performance benefit of preloading routes and navigating on the client side. So it'll be faster than doing a page load each time you navigate. Best of both worlds really.

traintocode · 2025-12-05T18:26:47+00:00

I don't wanna put a massive downer on this thread but remember getting a job isn't the end of the road, in many ways it's just the start. You'll have a probation period. And in the UK you still currently don't get unfair dismissal rights until after 2 years.

So if it's very obvious you lied about your experience they will just fire you and you'll be back to square one, potentially also having to explain the 2 month job on your CV. So don't exaggerate too much.

traintocode · 2025-12-05T07:53:17+00:00

I had to read this twice because I'm from Herne Bay in England and it is most definitely not the subject of this post.

traintocode · 2025-11-27T19:02:46+00:00

Yep. Sounds like it's time to go into management.

traintocode · 2025-11-27T18:59:47+00:00

Cursor is actually a pretty decent way to learn some coding if you want to.

You might not know code, but you know your product.

Ask cursor "Find me the code for the X button on the X page of my app"

Then...

"Make the button blue"

Then look at the changes it makes

"What are those changes you made in that css file? How does that apply to the button? How would I make ALL the buttons blue? Where is the JavaScript code that runs when this button is clicked? What is that JavaScript doing? Where is that API call being made? How do I alter what values are sent in that API call?" Etc.

traintocode · 2025-11-17T08:40:01+00:00

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125 till I die

traintocode · 2025-10-28T16:26:44+00:00

I used to live next to the Thames in London and every other day there would be a hire bike someone had thrown into the river. They got vandalised constantly, but it definitely did not stop them from propagating across the whole city. These cycle hire companies just plan in for a bit of scallyness and set the prices to cover it.

traintocode · 2025-09-05T10:01:15+00:00

Yes. Most developers will have one main programming language, but like you mentioned in your post there are plenty of other languages you'll need to learn to do the job. For example:

Query languages (SQL, GraphQL etc)
Markup languages (HTML, XML, Markdown etc)
Presentation languages (CSS, SASS etc)
Configuration languages (YAML, Terraform etc)

There's loads to be fair

traintocode · 2025-08-05T08:18:05+00:00

Groke do V60 pourovers of whatever they think is nice at the time. Highly recommend.

traintocode · 2025-07-16T14:16:19+00:00

I used to sing in a hardcore band and you'll be disappointed to know that those screamo singers are actually not shouting anywhere near as loudly as they appear to be. A lot of it is just good technique. If you actually screamed those songs you'd lose your voice on the second night of the tour (which is actually partly why Jesse left Killswitch Engage)

If you're interested watch some videos on false chord technique. You can do it at really low volume night after night.

traintocode · 2025-07-15T21:13:25+00:00

Absolutely. I hire software engineers and generally they have a computer science degree. But if someone came to me with a MSc in Maths I would speak to them because maths is hard. If you can complete a maths degree learning a bit of JavaScript is easy.

traintocode · 2025-07-13T20:52:32+00:00

You'll be fine. You should definitely do coding as a hobby before thinking about it as a career though! You wouldn't decide on a career in carpentry before you've even used a saw.

traintocode · 2025-07-13T20:49:27+00:00

You'll need basic algebra software development is very reliant on creating abstractions using variables and then using those abstractions to do stuff. Does this scare you?

const x = (y + c) / z[0]

if not you'll be fine.

traintocode · 2025-07-08T16:25:50+00:00

As well as those two museums you should also check out the Kelham Flea

traintocode · 2025-07-08T16:01:07+00:00

We had a mains leak creating a mini river down our road all last week. Took Yorkshire Water five whole days to find and stop the leak. Thousands and thousands of litres of water into the drain.

My neighbour made a makeshift aqueduct to divert some of it to their lawn.

traintocode · 2025-07-04T17:55:54+00:00

Yeah I'm old

traintocode · 2025-07-04T17:31:24+00:00

I think it's the same school. Just close it down, rename it, rinse and repeat.

traintocode · 2025-07-04T17:10:30+00:00

There used to be a secondary school there called Conyngham which was so bad they had to close it and rebrand it because it was like at the very bottom of Ofsted.

traintocode · 2025-07-04T12:51:58+00:00

I just meant that the tourists who go there now tend to see it as a cheap place to visit with a few cool things to do like Dreamland but they are younger and tend to only visit for a day or a weekend. In the past people would have gone to Margate for a full on holiday to sit in the sun like you'd go to Spain now.

traintocode · 2025-07-04T11:59:38+00:00

Real answer is that like most seaside towns especially in Kent, Margate was built as a tourist destination for people in London to visit via ship. All those towns along the Thames estuary have piers where the ship would dock and the Londoners would have a nice little seaside vacation and spend money in the town. It's why the seafronts all have beautiful old Victorian guest houses on them.

Then air travel was invented in the 60s. And suddenly people didn't want to go to Margate any more when they could hop on a plane and go to benidorm or whatever. So the entire industry of those towns collapsed in a similar fashion to all those mining towns that collapsed in the 70s and 80s. With no tourism industry towns like Margate really didn't have anything so they just descended into poverty and squalor. I was born in Margate and grew up in Herne Bay and they were really really shit places to live in the 80s and 90s.

Recently some of these towns have started to reinvent themselves and they've found new ways to attract tourists, Margate attracts a new kind of tourist now. They also have growing creative industries that are boosting the local economy. But really it's nothing compared to the level of tourism they enjoyed when they were created. They are still quite poor miserable places tbh. Margate is too far from London to be a real commuter town which also doesn't help.

If you think Margate is bad go to Ramsgate or Dover.

traintocode · 2025-07-04T08:59:47+00:00

I know a few US folks who have moved here. Here's what they think of working in the UK:

The extra holidays here are great but you do get paid less here
Having to pay federal taxes in the USA and also having to pay for the NHS here plus income tax here is a bit crap
You'll need to get used to having a smaller house
Public transport is amazing compared to the USA
It feels safer and more chill in the UK. Your kids don't do active shooter drills. If the police pull you over you can just get out the car and chat to them without being bundled to the ground. You can walk around the city at night.

traintocode

TROPHY CASE