It seems like staying loyal to one company can leave you behind financially, but constantly moving also means you might miss out on deeper experience. Where's the balance?

I'm 8+ years into security, and twice now I've been the first security hire at a company, built the whole function from scratch both times (AdTech/MarkTech, then Defence tech). Currently working at the said defence tech company on a decent salary and fairly content.

Got offered basically the same deal again recently, small startup, ~40 people, I'd own security completely, report straight to the founders. Good money bump (~230k base) + equity.

I am almost convinced to turn it down. Here's why:

• I've already built security from zero, twice. Doing it a third time just feels like running the same play again, not actually getting better at anything new.
• I'd be the only security person there. No one to discuss with, no security minded sounding board to challenge mee, just generalist software engineers. I feel like I won't be leveling up in my career.
• I poked around their actual product during the interview process (long story, part of a take-home) and found some pretty basic stuff, tokens that never expire, no MFA. What I am worried about is the exposure, complexity and scale. My current company's bigger now, more happening, more complexity, more exposure to new things at real scale.
• They have ambition to do more with AI eventually. However, no real plan, no timeline, nothing in production. So even exposure to AI and the opportunity to secure AI is missing. This is something I want to explore. Current AI usage is Claude Code for engineers and Gemini as a chatbot.

What's good about the role

• Startup culture, people are genuinely good
• Lots of flexibility
• The money bump plus equity, which could be a real long-term play if the company does well

My Current situation

• Current base - 200k AUD
• No dependents yet - expecting baby in Jan
• No mortgage - renting
• 3 days in the office

Has anyone been through this exact fork, repeat founding ownership roles vs staying somewhere more complex/mature but less exciting on paper?

How'd you decide, and if you've got a few years' hindsight now, how'd it play out? Genuinely want an outside read, still have some doubt I'm missing something, or making the wrong call.

I have a technical (SWE) job interview in Sydney, Australia scheduled for Thursday and I’m keen to do well.

However, I’ve had a pretty traumatic few weeks - I had a miscarriage two weeks ago and am still mentally and physically recovering (not to mention the hormonal shifts which have left me feeling like a shell of myself for the past week)

I wasn’t planning on interviewing so soon, but this opportunity came through unexpectedly.

I have been trying my best to prepare, but it has been much harder and slower than it usually would be. Whilst I might typically be able to push through, in my current state it doesn’t feel possible. As my first interview of late, I fear I’ll be very underprepared and lose a great opportunity.

My question is (for those with experience in the recruitment space): is requesting to reschedule a 24-48 hours before an interview a big no? My situation isn’t a last minute emergency, but has legitimately made the preparation process very difficult.

I also obviously cannot detail my exact circumstances, so I am wondering how to best frame my request?

Thanks so much for reading and for any advice.

I'm watching the 2026 job market from the outside (I'm a recent grad, MCA, India, building a startup).

What I see:
- Average CS student applies to 300-500 jobs
- 80%+ of resumes use AI-generated bullets that all sound identical
- Most "portfolio projects" are the same MERN tutorial clone - Bootcamps cost $5K-$15K and don't guarantee outcomes
- Free content on YouTube is endless but generic

So the question: if you're a CS student or new grad trying to break in RIGHT NOW, with a real budget constraint (let's say under $500 total, not $5K), what does the path actually look like?

What I'd want to know from people who actually did it in 2025-2026:

1. What did you spend money on? (be specific, dollar amounts)
2. What did you do for free that actually mattered?
3. What "free" advice turned out to be a waste of time?
4. What's the one thing you'd do differently if you were starting over?

Not looking for "grind leetcode" or "network on LinkedIn" platitudes. Real answers from people who actually landed a role in this market. If you got hired in 2025 or 2026 and you had a budget under $500 for the whole job search, I'd love to hear what you did.

As someone from big tech using AI to write 100% of my code, I genuinely have yet to see it replace me. I've loved using it to propel me forward on code as well as handle ops issues and data crunching research. The hard business problems are still left unanswered and using AI has seriously helped draw the line between business-level questions (hard, unanswered) and technical questions.

I've yet to experience debilitating AI fatigue, but I think that's just circumvented from my genuine willingness to work.

Do you agree?

Hi all, I have an interview for the Networks team at NBN. Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with this and could provide any tips? Much appreciated.

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How do I manage CS with regular college?.. can someone who is doing CS with regular college or someone who has already done CS with regular college guide me?

Hey guys,

So a buddy of mine referred me for a Level 3 Application Support Engineer role at a B2B SaaS company (fintech/compliance space). I somehow passed the first round, which was basically just a culture fit / vibe-check chat. I asked what I should prepare for the technical round, and they said they’re actually still putting it together, so it won’t happen for another 2 to 3 weeks and they haven't given me any study guidelines.

Here’s the problem: I straight up don't know what an L3 Application Support Engineer actually does. My friend is not in that sector, he is in the QA, so he cannot help me much.

For context, I have my Bachelor's in IT and I’m finishing up my Master's in AI (going to graduate soon). I know how to code, build basic full-stack apps, and query databases, but my brain has always been in a student/dev mindset. Support is totally alien to me. I know their stack is .NET for the backend, Angular for the frontend, and MySQL for the database.

Honestly, I just want to know what this job actually looks like day-to-day. Since I have a few weeks to study completely blind, what should I actually be prepping? I'm worried they're going to hand me something completely alien to me, especially since my background as a student is mostly frontend and data. I really don't have much backend (.NET) experience.

Any reality checks or advice on how to spend these next couple of weeks prepping would be a massive help!

Hi everyone,

I’m currently trying to land my first proper IT/software role in Australia and would really appreciate any advice, leads, referrals, or feedback from people already working in the industry.

A little about me:

● Master of Information Technology – Deakin University

● BSc (Hons) Information Technology – Software Engineering

● Previous Trainee Software Engineer experience

● Experience with React, TypeScript, JavaScript, Node.js, REST APIs, PostgreSQL, Git/GitHub, Docker, Kubernetes and CI/CD

● Frontend/UI experience with React, Tailwind CSS and Figma

● Experience with API testing, UAT, Postman and UiPath automation

● Based in Melbourne but willing to relocate anywhere in Australia at my own cost

● Full Australian working rights

I’ve been applying for roles such as:

Graduate Software Engineer / Junior Software Developer / Frontend Developer / Junior Full Stack Developer / IT Graduate / Software Engineering Intern

I’ve been applying through LinkedIn, SEEK, Jora and company career pages, but breaking into the industry has been much harder than I expected.

I’m not expecting anyone to simply hand me a job. I’d genuinely appreciate advice on what Australian employers are currently looking for from junior developers, what I could improve, or whether there are companies that are more open to junior candidates.

If anyone knows of a company hiring, is willing to refer me, or would be happy to look over my resume/GitHub/portfolio, I would be extremely grateful.

Happy to share my resume, LinkedIn, GitHub and portfolio in the comments or via DM.

Thanks everyone 🙏

How does a SWE internship at Rivian & Volkswagen Group Technologies look on a resume compared to more traditional big tech / big-tech-adjacent companies like AMD or Stripe? Is it a strong resume booster, or is it viewed differently since they're automotive companies?

Hi all, looking for feedback on my resume. I'm on a 485 visa in Australia with full work rights, ~1 YOE as an SWE plus a research internship and a master's in AI. Currently working as the sole engineer on a small product, previously did backend work at a couple of other companies.

I'm targeting backend/full-stack SWE roles. Would appreciate feedback on:

- Whether the bullets read as too vague/generic

- If the technical depth actually comes through

- Anything that reads as filler or should be cut

Thanks in advance for the roasting.

This is my first white collar job interview at a decently sized company! I don't fully know how to approach interviews like this.

This is a pretty technical Helpdesk level 1 role. They expect candidates to know SQL, some stuff on APIs and to know stuff about Cloud and web servers. I'm a 3rd year SWE student, so obs I know everything.

This role is unique cause it's only open to Australians, and no previous helpdesk exp is required. I got the interview despite only have retail exp. This indicates that they want grow their employees

I'm obviously studying up on the company, brushing up on my customer service skills, and revising a bit on tech skills.

But I'm kinda concerned about what questions I should ask. They know my degree, so they know I probably don't want to stay help desk forever. They also know I'm pretty close to graduation, so I don't know if they want to keep me long term. They talk about supporting the growth of their employees on the job ad, but I don't know what is appropriate to ask them.

Personally I want to pivot to Network Engineering. But asking about doing such an advanced role from such a low level job indicates that I'll jump ship as soon as a better opportunity comes, and am using them for exp.

here are some questions I've come up with

"I'm interested in my growth within the technology sector, I'm wondering what programs/certifications does COMPANY assists employees with getting?"

"How does internal mobility within COMPANY look?"

"What internal programs does COMPANY use to solve customer problems?"

"What stakeholders will I be in charge of assisting?"'

What do you guys think I should do?

Hi everyone,

I just finished my IT degree this year. I was lucky to get a part-time job while studying, and I’ve now moved into full-time work.

I’m still not very clear about my future career direction, so I’d like to hear some advice...

I currently work at a university as a Functional Analyst, but my role also includes some frontend development.

Most of my work is understanding requirements, breaking them into smaller tasks/components, talking with stakeholders, and then developing the solution. I mainly use React, Git/Azure DevOps and Sourcetree.

So, my questions are,

1. If I want to move towards full-stack, what kind of tasks should I try to get involved in at work?
2. What skills or experience should I try to learn and take away from my current role?
3. Apart from coding, what other skills would be useful? I also have some background in marketing and UX.

Long term, I’m more interested in small/medium companies or government rather than big tech.

Would also be happy to hear about your own career experience after graduation!

What are peoples experience with recruiters lately looking for IT roles (Srn. Engineer/Tech Lead/SA style roles). Or are a genuinely a highly skilled candidate are you getting interviews?

Being trying to recruit a number of positions across different areas and have been getting what feels like the braindead pile. Using the top firms, and they all seem to present the same rubbish.

Initially I thought it was the candidate pool, but we are paying top rate(at or even above covid rates, so attracting candidates should not be an issue), so for one of our roles I applied (changed name). My CV is way more technical and capable then needed. Out of the 3 firms used, only 1 reached out, 1 said I was not qualified enough (I am the one who is technically vetting these guys) and 3rd did not respond.

The one that did reach out and claimed they would fwd my CV. Well they never did and from all we got a bunch idiots and some of candidates that were straight up reading AI off the screen and too stupid to even to hide it.

I refuse to believe it's a lack of capable candidates as we filled one of the role with a person I previously worked with whom apparently was looking for over 6mth.

What is going on? Are these firms just sending candidates across that are willing to say YES to a reduce rate and keep the difference, sending over only their bffs. Or is there some sort of grant/benefit scheme as most the candidates where of a certain demographic. One even asked if we were going to sponsor his visa, for a role that advertised as aus citizens/residents only.

This is really frustrating and a huge waist of time to go through a bunch of CVs and interviews knowing full well the candidate useless.

I’m running the first MobileCodeAI hackathon!

Simply build a web app, entirely from your phone, that solves a problem you actually have

• Aug 31 – Sep 4
• Virtual, solo or team
• Any skill level
• Build with MobileCodeAI
• Prizes: LLM credits + recognition

Registration: mobilecode.ai/hackathon

Happy to answer any questions!

I’m a Software Engineering student in Adelaide (final semester) and need an internship/WIL placement to graduate.

I’ve got an ok GPA and several projects in React/TS, Node, Python, C++, SQL, including a real client project, but no previous professional SWE experience.

I’ve been applying for internships but keep getting rejected after interview stage. A lot of roles also require PR/citizenship. I recently got rejected by AEMO after their gamified assessment, which made me pretty worried.
At this point I’m considering paid internship placement services.

Has anyone here used one in Australia for software/IT? Was it legit, useful, and accepted by your uni for WIL? Any providers to recommend or avoid?

I am in 4th year university studying computer science, and my resume is 2 pages long. I have read online and there is no strict requirement for having a 1 page resume for most companies (I may be wrong so please correct me). What do you guys think is the ideal resume length? I am worried because I don't want the 2 page resume to be the reason why I am not getting interviews.

I have an offer from Accenture and another is from Devon Software (which is Great than accenture's offer) which one should I join??