Hey everyone, just wanted to share my experience so that others can make an informed choice.

I made the mistake of joining the Mastercard Incontrol & ICCP Team, and honestly its been one of the worst decisions of my career.

• Toxic culture: The environment is extremely draining. A manager who came in from Amazon basically turned the place into a living nightmare. Instead of improving things, it became all about micro‑management, endless meetings, no breathing room, and constant pressure.
• Work hours: Be prepared for 12–15 hour days on the regular. This isn’t “crunch time” once in a while—it’s the norm. Work-life balance is non-existent, and burnout is real.
• Tech stack: The stack is old and messy. Even the simplest change takes ridiculous amounts of time because of outdated systems—imagine waiting an hour+ for just a small build. Productivity is crushed, and it feels like time is wasted on things that shouldn’t be an issue in 2025.
• Leadership: Instead of problem-solving or supporting the team, the management style is more about pressure, control, and toxicity. There’s very little actual mentorship or technical leadership—more like passing down stress for the sake of it.
• The pay is pathetic
• The directors and principal engineers are the worse ppl you can come across

If you’re considering Mastercard Incontrol & ICCP Team in Ireland, UK & USA. There are better places to work where you won’t sacrifice your personal life just to deal with broken systems and bad management.

Just wanted to put this out there so others don’t end up making the same mistake I did.

Hi folks, I hope you'll forgive a bit of a broad question / request for career advice.

I'm a veteran computer scientist and s/w engineering leader from an industry outside of the usual software jobs (think, entertainment, low level, high performance 3D graphics etc) - typically director, VP, CTO type roles, 30 years making some things you'll all probably have heard of. This will sound crazy but it has been decades since I've had to apply for a job myself (as opposed to contacts, headhunting etc) so I'm a bit rusty on how it all works.

However... I'm back in Ireland now and I'd really like to pivot back to more "serious" software development teams, working onsite with nice technical people. Just a bit burnt out on the big games, all that stuff. My techy skillset is not current in terms of web dev or any of that but I'm sure I can learn, and I do have a couple of years in AI / inference engine / LLM tech, plus lots of embedded tech etc. I'm not financially motivated.

I suppose my questions are... is such a career pivot even viable in my 50s, when I don't really have many contacts in that world? I prefer leadership but don't mind a bit of IC work, although I admit to being rusty. How should I frame my past experience, which is super impressive in graphics / vfx / gaming but maybe distracting when applying for more "normal" software teams? And where do I even look to find tech jobs nowadays, is it all LinkedIn, is it word of mouth?

Thanks for any advice!

The job market contracted IMO. Generative AI displaces jobs and people are uncertain in what way to move forward. The whole interview process is utterly broken and it's expected that one does projects or be whiteboarded. You'd think that after years in the industry, you have already been vetted by other companies, but no. If you're lucky, you'll land a job and still get six months trial period.

Nothing comes my way for months now. Should I think about career change at this point? I've been a Python/Django developer for 14 years now.

Any advice is welcome.

Hi everyone,

I need some advice. I want to sell a used laptop here in Ireland, but I’m not sure where the best place to do it is.

A bit of context: I bought a Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 2 in Portugal in January 2024. It’s barely used (mostly for browsing and YouTube) and still has 3 Years Premier Support.

Does anyone know the best platforms or places to sell laptops in Ireland? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hey lads, I'm genuinely curious how people have done this. I'm a dev with about 5 years experience. .net, node, typescript react. Have built a few projects from the ground up now. I'd love to do this more but as a contractor.

I'm curious how did you actually go about going from someone that is a normal employee to getting your first contract and getting into that side of things.

've met a few contractors over the years they all seemed to be doing it years had good reputations and contacts.

I'd be curious how someone does this without all the above was this super difficult.

Share your stories. Successes and difficulties along the road 😁

Hey folks,

I’ve been working on a little side project over the last few months: www.moxi.ie

It’s a browser-based platform for playing real-time games with friends, or bigger groups at things like weddings, birthdays etc.

Unlike similar stuff like Jackbox, it does not need a central device to run the games, it's all run through the phone. It can theoretically cater for group sizes up to 500, though this hasn't been tested in the real world yet!

If it sounds fun, feel free to give it a try! No signup, free to play. I’d love to hear any feedback (or if it crashes on you with a big group, that’s also good to know!).

Tech stack: Front end: React hosted on Netlify Backend: Node.js with socket.io hosted on Railway

Cheers!

Hi everyone,

I have an upcoming interview with Stripe and just wanted to find out from people ready working there what the current climate is for coming into the office.

Does it vary on a team/role basis ? Are exceptions/adjustments made for where you live (for context I live in Limerick)

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks 😁

Hello! Long story short, have 3 years data science experience abroad but basically just used xgboost all of the time so signed up to a part-time data science masters in Ireland starting this year to further my education. Issue is I'm struggling to get a data scientist position. I've been offered a senior data analyst role though.

Wondering what people's opinion is on doing that for the two years of my master's and then getting back into data science. Will recruiters give me the time of day once I want to get back into data science? Was thinking maybe some people might have done similar things with engineering roles in this group.

Thank you!

Hi all

Never been made redundant before but it's coming in next few weeks

I'm not in Dublin so not many roles around

Can anyone give me some guidance as to when they were out of work for a good while and got a job then and the gap wasn't seen as bad ?

Pretty anxious right now and not sleeping

I'm ok financially for around 2 years, thankfully

Hey folks,

I finished all my interview rounds with Workday about 2 weeks ago and still haven’t heard back. I even sent a follow-up email but no response yet. My application still shows as “in consideration,” but I also noticed the job posting got pulled from their site.

Is this normal for them? Has anyone gone through the process recently and can share how long it took to get an update? Starting to feel a little ghosted.

Update: HR got back with bad news, they were waiting for another candidate to accept the offer. HR read out the whole feedback and complimented my profile however, the other candidate had better competency.

Hi guys, I'm interviewing for a mid-level position in Twillio, The first round was a hackerrank round with three easy-mid difficulty LC questions, now two more rounds each lasting 1-hour coming, with one for coding and one for system design,

I'm wondering if the coding round is like LC questions again or something more like real life challenges?

I've never done a system design interview before, what will the Twillio one be like?

Thanks in advance for any insight!

So I recently completed a bachelor in business studies and am looking at graduate jobs, and it has not been easy, I see theres 100s other people, many who can be just as qualified. I suppose I just could need some advice on if theres anything I could do to set myself out from the crowd.

Sorry in advance if this is a dumb question but what are some internships that are "easy" to land as in easier to land that say an internship at a big tech company. Would civil service be one say?

Well lads,

Currently in my role for 3+ years, I have been optimising/refactoring features in the code with notable performance improvements, taking on a lot of extra work and leading a good few key features that have helped clients sign off. Currently on 51K(peanuts, I know...)

Asked manager about the path to senior and he mentioned that he'll try to look at the end of the year,

Any thoughts on how best to make it nailed on and what to ask for comp-wise?

Thanks in advance!

Does anyone working at AWS know if there's a hiring freeze in Dublin? The amazon careers page is literally empty with no Software Engineering jobs posted as opposed to a few months ago when there were hundreds of jobs posted. Surely they can't have filled in all the roles they want to hire for.

I know a layoff was announce in July but I didn't see any information about it affecting the Dublin office and AWS Networking teams.

If they do have a freeze, when is a likely time that they would start posting jobs again? Maybe Q4?

Thanks.

3 weeks ago I was working on yet another job board for Irish developers. I listened to what you actually wanted - not another job aggregator, but honest salary information.

So I pivoted completely.

The result: upfrnt.io - 188 Irish tech jobs that actually show what they pay.

All jobs include real salary information upfront.

The salary ranges:

• Frontend: €45k - $203k USD
• Backend: $52k - $260k USD for New Grad!
• Full Stack: $36k - $270k USD (widest range)
• DevOps: €72k - $250k USD
• Senior/Lead: €50k - $350k USD (Kraken Director)

(Remote roles often pay in USD)

DevOps has the highest salary floor - nothing below €72k.

Built anonymous salary contributions to keep companies accountable before and after 2026 EU legislation.

For employers: Post jobs free when you show salaries - unlimited until EU law kicks in. Non-transparent jobs: €49 each.

188 companies are doing transparency right. Why aren't the other 1000+?

Check it out: upfrnt.io

I’m currently working as a customer service agent with a product-based company here in Dublin. Alongside that, I’m doing a part-time course in product management to skill myself up.

I’d love to hear from anyone who’s made the jump from support/customer-facing roles into product management. What was your own path like? Did you go straight into an associate PM role, or did you move across internally through business analyst/product analyst type jobs first?

I enjoy being close to customers, figuring out pain points, and feeding those insights back – so product feels like the natural next step. But I’m not sure if I should: • Stick it out in customer support until I land an internal move • Apply directly for product analyst/associate PM roles elsewhere • Or focus more on building side projects and a portfolio alongside the course

Any advice, Irish or otherwise, would be really appreciated. If there are any local meetups, communities, or opportunities worth checking out, I’d be delighted to hear about them.

Cheers lads 🍀

Hey Reddit. Something has been niggling me for the past while. I'm employed for an overseas tech company in a software engineering position. Because I'm an EOR employee, I don't really get any company perks. Decent PTO, fully remote but zero pension matching, zero health insurance, zero stocks. I'm just about on six figures but they've been slow to bump up salaries in recent years, so I'm not confident of some massive raise on the horizon. For the past 2 years adjustments haven't even been in line with inflation.

I've been at the company for 5+years and have been rising the ranks but their career progression plan will see me plateau here for some years. I've stepped in to manage a team for a year when their manager upped and left and have had a high level of responsibility throughout. In general they would have a difficult time replacing me.

I'm starting to wonder if I'm being taken for a ride somewhat. Realistically, what should the expectations be for a senior position at such a company (or what would I expect if I jumped I an equivalent company with established Irish payroll)? Is it unrealistic to expect some additional perks based on the Irish market? I believe my compensation is roughly in line with other employees in the EU, adjusted for local cost of living, but they have additional perks. I'm paying into a PRSA and private health insurance and I just feel that a company that offered 10K less but matched pension and gave health insurance would have me in a better financial position.

And do you still have that job?

Multinational or smaller company?

The job hunt and interviews will be a pain. But it's mostly the probation part that worries me in the current environment. Things are changing fast. Could be homeless after my 6 months probation.

I'm working in an American multinational and I'm just waiting to be laid off. Would like to do it on my terms.

6 YOE data analyst / business intelligence etc etc

Why did that Post got Deleted ? What was the Final Answer ?

Nobody likes it, even the people creating these sites. Every single company seems to have a different website to create a ‘profile’ to apply.

Hi all,I’ve just accepted an offer for the Higher Diploma in Science in Data Analytics (Level 8) at NCI, starting this September (full-time evenings). I’m curious to hear from recent grads or current students: * What’s the workload really like while balancing evenings? * Which modules were the toughest (stats, ML, BI)? * Did you find the course helpful for getting a job, if so, what kind of roles did you land? * Any advice on what to brush up on before starting (SQL, Python, Power BI, etc.)? * Anything you wish you’d known before starting? Thanks in advance, trying to set myself up well before day one.

What's the typical time frame people expect to take to ramp up in a new role?

I spent most of my career at AWS, and ramp up times were generally quite long. You are sort of useless for up to 6 months in some cases.

I am about to move to a much smaller company (but it's still actually a large company in the grand scheme of things), but a lot of the tools for the requirements are open source sp I can get a jist of the tooling in that sense (anyone who knows AWS will know a lot of stuff is proprietary to the company so you can't "learn it in advance").

I am wondering how long it is expected to take me to be at full speed? It's a Sr. SDE position if that means anything

Hey all, at a crossroads,

Worked in RPA for 6 years, and moved around with my current firm, have been with current team for 3 years now, and stagnated. 9+ years continuous service.

Restructuring going on, bare bones team now, but not 'at risk's at least yet until our stuff is moved elsewhere. I'm not particularly great at being an RPA dev, my technical skills are limited.

Been offered role in UK for rival firm, as a lead RPA dev, they're basically starting it all now, and wary I'm at a bigger firm, so throwing money at the space, in the hope I can set up etc, when in reality I've not been properly involved in that, and wary my skills have stagnated. So a promotion essentially for me, and ~30% pay rise. I also see RPA going nowhere, of course agentic and AI transformation will keep it relevant, but I can't do any of that. Wary of no other firms in Ireland to go back to if my move doesn't work out etc.

Anyway, privileged position but exhausted at what to do. Hang on in current place for possible redundancy down the line (missing a big bag would be killer, especially if things didn't work out), or go-to the smaller firm.

Sorry, but appreciate any thoughts