Euro Top Tech Jobs - Week 51
Coaching program update
Wassup guys
Today I thought I’d give a little update on my coaching program
It won’t be just promotional content, but it’ll also provide material to discuss the current market situation for devs in Europe, and recent trends.
It’ll also be a quick one.
How’s the program been going so far?
Quite good.
In general, I keep it to a low number of participants (usually less than 5 each month), such that:
I don’t have too many meetings on a given week, which is a somewhat high priority of my CoastFIREd life
I get to socialise a bit and meet new people :)
Being selective on the entrance means that most of the people entering are a good/great fit and the work together is both pleasant and effective
I stay up-to-date on the recent developments in the market: it allows me to always be interviewing and job searching even if I’m personally not
It’s a prime way for me to understand what are the highest leverages and the best systems for people to land the top roles on ETTJ, and serve as a basis to create guides like these ones
It’s good business: the success rate of the candidates (measured by the ROI people in the program get) is very high. Many participants spends a few thousands bucks over a few months, and land a job that pays tens of thousands of euros more (so basically a 10x return even just in the first year).
The fact that it gives results and is a solid proposition also make it a stable income stream, which is nice now that I work for myself.
Together with ETTJ, it gives me enough income to pay my bills, while being fun and enjoyable. So, it fits my current CoastFIRE framework.
Recently, thanks to the content and products I put out, I was offered a fully-remote, six-figure CPO / Head of Product Engineering job from a recently funded startup that works on topics somewhat related to mine, and I gave it some thoughts.
It was a nice offer.
But all in all, my goal right now is mostly to enjoy my day-to-day life as long as it pays the bills, and, given that I’m already getting it with the coaching program and the job board, I’ll stick to that for now :)
Recent results and insights from the coaching program
Case 1: Full-Stack dev in Spain
I had a very short but pleasant stint with a dev in Spain, who got a nice 50% salary increase in just two months:
Bootcamp graduate, clever, great communication skills, very hard-working.
In general:
Being hard-working (spending 20+ hours/week on the coaching program inputs and job search)
Having a good sense of what to do to “position and sell himself”
Being able to convey his value thanks to very solid communication skills and can-do attitude
These were some of the positive traits I’ve seen in him and that I think allowed him to strike a good role so quickly.
In addition to that, I think being based in Spain might have helped as well.
From my experience in the coaching program, and from what I see on the job board, it seems like Spain is a good spot right now to job search:
Case 2: Machine Learning Engineer targeting big tech and remote companies
This is a bit more of a crazy story.
This person’s been in the program for about 6 months.
Really talented engineer:
Few years of good real-world experience
Good knowledge of ML and DE and SWE
Good data structure and algorithms prep
Decent brand names on CV
Very hard-working:
Executed on all the feedback and tips provided in the program
Never skipped a day
Built a structured routine that allowed them to allocate 2 hours+ per day on the effort
Basically passed all the interviews presented to them
Succeeded but in a weird way:
Got 2 big tech offers from top companies, top teams in top locations: Google and Meta 200-300k+ offers
While initially they would have been more than happy with these offers, they ended up turning them down
The reason is that they got very close to landing a 150-200k+ offer from a young fully-remote startup
And given their preference for remote, young teams and wlb, they turned down the FAANG offers with the goal of keep pursuing the top fully-remote companies on Euro Top Tech Jobs
I’ll be honest: I suggested them to take the FAANG offers.
I think it would have been strategically beneficial.
Cause these offers were in:
Top AI teams → Great for CV and skills buildup
Top brand companies → Great for CV and networking
Also in good cities → Interesting to live there even if just for a little bit
But they decided to stick to their values and preference, and so we built some other strategies that they can keep in place to up-skill and get closer to their ultimate goal of working for a top remote company on new tech with good wlb.
I’m sure they’ll get there: I give it 6 to 18 months ;)
Hopefully, after that, we can do a podcast similar to this one (with better microphones xD) and I think it’ll be a very interesting episode!
Case 3: Data Scientist with little grind
In this case, we didn’t get to a significant result (some juicy job offer).
And this sometimes happens.
I still think and hope that they took value from the program, and that this will help them in the future in their career.
Here are the reasons why in my opinion they didn’t get to a result:
Too much back and forth on the strategy. In the program, and I think in career strategy in general, there should be an initial phase where you brainstorm several, potentially different options, to find the one that fits you best. But after you’ve chosen one, what pays off is progress. Lining up one significant step after the other, getting closer to the finish line. Doing a few steps and then introducing too much brainstorming in the middle of the journey, is gonna set the time back to 0. Do this too many times, and you’ll just end up stuck despite the efforts.
Not enough intensity. Landing top tech roles in Europe is no easy fit. Competition is fierce. The sad reality is that putting 15/20+ hours/week for some months (outside of your daily job) is almost the bare minimum to get to a result. This is not easy and not everyone is able or willing to go through that. It’s fair to be honest with ourselves on if our career ambitions match the levels of sacrifice we’re willing to take. And this is not a judgment: many of my best friends don’t work a 6 figure top tech role. I don’t think people working such jobs are “better” or “cooler” than the ones who don’t. It’s fine to prioritise different things in life. But if you want a top job, you need to grind.
Who next
Right now I have:
An ML Engineer about to exit the program to fund his startup (2nd time this happens since I started the program xD)
A FullStack dev who’s been a bit slow in their progress so far, but that hopefully now will increase intensity and unlock some cool opportunities
A recently joined ML Engineer who has all the cards to get to something significant relatively quickly
From June, the startup founder will exit, the other 2 will stay, and 2 more devs will join: senior devs - one looking for top-pay remote from Central Europe, the other looking for top-pay Switzerland.
If you’re interested and want to join: it’s probably not possible to join in June, but if you want to join later on - as people exit the program and new spots become available - now it’s a good time to apply and get into the applicants’ list (FIFO).
Cheers and have a great weekend!
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