Career Planning

Career Strategy

3 Essential Tips for Early Career Software Engineers in Europe

Career strategy for junior developers: why perfect jobs don't exist, how to build your career roadmap, and why mentorship accelerates your path to €100k+ roles. Practical advice for CS students and early-career engineers.

The European Engineer

December 6, 2023

20 min read

Since going public with this newsletter and sharing it on LinkedIn, I've welcomed a surge of new subscribers and connection requests, notably from STEM university students and early career tech professionals.

First off, a warm welcome to you all! I'm eager to share insights that hopefully resonate with your aspirations and queries.

The influx of messages asking for career advice prompted me to dedicate this article to common concerns, touching on points that even seasoned professionals might find valuable.

The Recurring Question

"Should I accept an offer for a job that doesn't align with my career goals and aspirations?"

A typical example:

"Hi! As a Computer Science student in Germany, passionate about crypto and having recently completed a project in this domain, my aim was to join Kraken. Unfortunately, their open positions don't match my profile, and my application was rejected. Concurrently, I received an offer for a software consulting role in Belgium, which seems unrelated to crypto and offers modest compensation. Should I accept this offer or hold out for a better fit?"

This scenario doesn't have a straightforward answer, but I can offer considerations that might guide your decision-making process and broader career strategy.

Explore entry-level tech opportunities across Europe →

Tip 1: The Perfect Job Doesn't Exist

1.1 A Common Mistake

This is a mistake I also made when I was younger: I would always create in my head the idea of that perfect job that I wanted, that perfectly aligned with my goals, and then be unhappy about other job offers I would get that weren't as aligned.

I think that's somewhat normal and not a terrible symptom (it means you at least have an idea about where you'd like your career to go—more on this later), but let me share some lessons I've learned about this over time.

The perfect job you have pictured in your head is not actually perfect.

1.2 The "Kraken Dream Job" Example

Let's take the above example about the new grad hooked on crypto who wants to work at Kraken.

It's great that this person has a passion, some skills, and ideas about where to go with their career! But, they don't even really know what this ideal job at Kraken is like.

Maybe they are passionate about writing algorithms for distributed transactions, but then the job ends up being about:

Writing Python scripts all day to speed up deployment of new patches
Refactoring integration tests to improve security
Creating a UI to visualize metrics related to the platforms

Maybe they'll get hired in a team lacking direction on the product side, spending most of their time talking to business colleagues trying to scope requirements and build a roadmap for the product, writing very little code.

Maybe, while they thought that remote work was much better for them than in-office work, they start to realize that they find it hard to focus while being on their own or that they lack social connections on a day-to-day basis. This last aspect could even make them re-think all their career plans since most crypto companies are remote-first, and given the realization that remote is not a fit for them, maybe they should change fields altogether?

1.3 The Value of Flexibility

You get the idea—there could be so many details that could turn a dream job into something you're not really happy about. Maybe this is related to:

The technical work you do there
How much you're learning
Operational aspects like remote/office setup
Colleagues you don't like
Company culture
Relationship with your manager
Work-life balance
Reward systems and promotions
Compensation

So, while it's of key importance to have a strategy and a direction, it's also valuable to be flexible with regards to the actual opportunities that are presented to you, and to be able to:

Make smart decisions about which opportunities to accept
Enjoy and make the most of them after having started
Best leverage any job for your career growth and life satisfaction

This is true in most careers, by the way, not just in tech.

1.4 What Skills Are Required Across the Board in Software Engineering?

There are aspects of the job that are shared across most positions in the industry:

Using Git effectively
Building and testing large projects without getting stuck
Making good estimates regarding tasks you're assigning yourself
Working well in a team
Striking a balance between being productive and learning from senior folks
Not taking too much time from senior engineers to assist you
Working with large non-academic codebases
Working optimally with your manager to make them happy and grow your career

These foundational skills transfer everywhere.

1.5 How to Approach "Sub-Optimal" Job Offers

Maybe a job that doesn't strictly align with your professional aspirations will help you:

Relocate to a new country and make you more comfortable living and working in English or learning a new language
Experience life abroad so you can see if it's for you or not
Move to a country you really like, even if the job isn't optimal
Build foundational skills that transfer to better opportunities

All these "imperfect" opportunities have tons of upside and are worth exploring.

You'll always have time to adjust your trajectory and plan your next move.

Also take into account that being a "job hopper" and staying less than 2 years at one company is not really looked down on anymore, especially by top companies.

Browse opportunities to start your career →

Tip 2: Always Have a Strategy

It's important to have a vision and a direction for your career.

2.1 The "A-Student" Strategy

School does a very poor job at fostering this, since it's built in a way that makes the student a very passive learner, who waits for assignments and tasks to come to them, only reactively acting on this input and delivering something to the teacher.

This is really terrible, and if you maintain this mindset throughout your career you are quite likely to achieve unsatisfactory results unless you get lucky.

Before I dive deeper, I'll bring up the classic case that can be considered a bit of an exception: the case of the disciplined A-Student with a good relationship with the teachers.

This is the student who:

Always studies very hard
Gets the best grades
Is praised by teachers and professors
Has work opportunities "fall" to them through professors
Ends up with a good job
Performs well there too
Has good progression

The above case highlights a strategy (note: it's still a strategy) that is:

Very lightweight regarding planning and "active" strategizing
Very heavyweight with regards to task-work

I don't think it's a bad strategy overall, and for some people who find strategizing annoying or boring, and working heads-down on something that catches their attention fun, it could be a good strategy.

The problem is that in my opinion it's not optimal with regards to risks.

2.2 Limits of the "A-Student" Strategy

If you care about goals and results, then you might want to have a high probability of hitting your goals.

If you care about having a career that feels successful to you, you probably don't want to rely on your professor or manager to give that to you if you show them that you're smart and hard-working. It could be that your professors or managers don't deliver, and then you've "failed".

Moreover—although this might be very much related to your personality—I think if you spend time planning your own career, you'll be more satisfied because your path will feel more "yours".

2.3 Strategy for People Who Take Ownership of Their Career

If you're still in school, I recommend that you start getting an idea of what waits for you afterwards. This could be through:

Internships at target companies
Talking with professionals in your desired field
Checking career pages of companies you know
Using your university's careers office/website
Signing up and using LinkedIn actively
Consuming career content on blogs and social media

This way you could start formulating ideas and hypotheses about what seems like an attractive path to you, then dive deeper into these paths checking the details related to them.

Career Research Checklist for Students

Activity	Purpose	Frequency
Check job postings	Understand requirements and skills	Weekly
LinkedIn research	See career paths of people in target roles	Weekly
Reach out for coffee chats	Get insider perspectives	2-3 per month
Apply for internships	Gain real experience	Every cycle
Attend tech meetups	Build network and learn	Monthly
Work on side projects	Build skills and portfolio	Ongoing

If we're talking about technical careers in software, you could:

Check out job requirements for jobs that seem cool to you
See which skills you're missing
Note them down
Try to acquire them in your free time, studies, internship, and full-time job opportunities

Try to find people on LinkedIn who've walked that path and see how they got there. I strongly encourage you to seek mentorship and message as many people as possible who have the jobs you want and seek advice from them.

This is important but also not necessarily very easy. More on this later.

2.4 Location Matters (Especially in Europe)

Especially if you're based in Europe, you should start getting an idea about where you want to work and live. Location is going to influence your life and career A LOT.

Strategies:

Take advantage of exchange opportunities while you're in school
Try to work abroad for internships and full-time jobs
Network with internationals as much as you can so you'll have an easy way to learn about many countries without having to live in all of them

Of course, if you don't like traveling or relocating and want to stay in your home town or country, absolutely nothing wrong with that. But then leverage this piece of information trying to find out what careers are available in that area and seek local mentors.

For location research, check out:

2.5 Combining Strategy with Flexibility

It could seem like this advice of having a strategy contradicts the first tip about being flexible, but actually that's not the case.

In fact, having a strategy allows you to be aware of what skills are important for you to know and look for them in work opportunities. This allows you to be more flexible, because there'll be many jobs where you could find aspects and learning opportunities that align with your high-level strategy—even if these jobs are not your "dream jobs".

Real-World Examples

Example 1: Switzerland Target

Let's say you found out that you want to move to Switzerland and have a software engineering career there, then some company offers you a job as a business analyst in Zurich.

You could think: "This is terrible, it has nothing to do with my career goals."

But actually, since you did your research and realized that even as a developer you need skills regarding working in a corporate environment, you might think:

"I could take this job, check my box about moving to Switzerland, learn what I can while I work this job without overworking for it, and in the meantime keep my coding skills sharp and apply to coding jobs in the same location."

This could be a smart strategic decision.

Example 2: Big Tech Dream

Let's say you bought into the idea that working for big tech is the best thing ever, and that is your dream now. Then Microsoft offers you a position in Tallinn, Estonia, and you don't want to move/live there.

You could take this offer, enter big tech, and after less than one year you could easily change location either within Microsoft or with another company.

In that year you'd have made real progress in your big tech software engineering journey, and if you had the right mindset, you probably would also have enjoyed that year in Estonia.

Explore big tech opportunities across Europe →

Tip 3: Seek Mentorship

Last advice on this list, potentially even the most important.

Tech folks usually tend to be introverted and not like outreaches and messaging strangers asking for help.

3.1 Why Mentorship Matters

This is quite harmful. The value you can get from someone who's several steps ahead in their journey with regards to you is invaluable.

Something that could take you years to figure out, could be told to you by them in 2 minutes.

I think everyone should be as proactive as possible when it comes to this. The internet is a great tool and LinkedIn in particular is an amazing platform for this:

You can make very detailed searches filtering for:

Location
Job title
Company

Find all kinds of people that have your dream job and try to connect to as many of them as possible and ask for their advice. Maybe someone will make you a referral in the future or give you some key insights.

3.2 Getting (Good) Mentors Is Hard

You also need to be quite robust to rejections because most of these people will ignore you :)

They have better things to do and probably have nothing to gain from interacting with someone that's very early in their career and very little to show for.

But a lot of people like to share their experiences, and if you try hard enough you'll get something out of it!

Outreach Strategy

Approach	Success Rate	Best For
Cold LinkedIn messages	5-10% response	Casting wide net
Alumni connections	30-40% response	Same university background
2nd-degree connections	20-30% response	Warm introductions
Twitter/X engagement	15-25% response	Public tech personalities
Tech meetups	40-60% response	In-person rapport

3.3 It Can Be a Worthwhile Investment

Also consider paid mentorship opportunities. Depending on your budget, this could be a wise investment.

I believe that oftentimes one year with a mentor could cost you much less than a master's degree and yet provide you with more value.

I think a good platform for this is mentorcruise.com, where you can find mentors that fit your specific case.

3.4 Networking

Similar to mentorship is networking, which is basically any kind of relationship that could have some positive impact on your career or life in general.

This can be among peers too—people you meet during your studies, experiences abroad, interviews, etc.

Always make sure you:

Connect with people you encounter in your journey
Share your contact details and/or LinkedIn/Instagram/Telegram profile
Be ready to help when someone needs a favor or asks you something

The networking compound effect: Today's classmate could be tomorrow's referral to Google. That intern you helped could become a hiring manager in 5 years.

3.5 Online Presence and Personal Brand

Having a presence online can be useful too, although it can end up taking quite a bit of time.

To be honest, I wouldn't stress too much about this if you're very early in your career as there are probably higher leverage things you could be doing with your time. But if you like it and have time/energy for it, why not.

Usually a LinkedIn profile kept in decent shape could be enough at the beginning, while later on (depending also on your personality and passions) having a blog or a YouTube channel could have its advantages, as well as:

Taking part in some open-source projects
Publishing apps and websites
Writing technical blog posts
Contributing to developer communities

Putting It All Together: Your Action Plan

Immediate Actions (This Month)

Accept that perfect jobs don't exist - evaluate offers on transferable skills, not just "dream company" status
Draft your 3-year career vision - where do you want to be? What skills? What location?
Identify 10 people to reach out to - find engineers 2-5 years ahead of you on LinkedIn
Send 5 connection requests with personalized notes - be specific about what you admire and what you'd like to learn

Short-term (3-6 Months)

Complete 2-3 informational interviews with professionals in target roles
Update your LinkedIn with projects, skills, clear headline
Apply to internships/entry-level roles at 10-20 companies (don't wait for "perfect fit")
Build one substantial project that demonstrates skills needed for target role
Attend 2-3 tech meetups or join online communities

Medium-term (6-12 Months)

Land your first role (even if imperfect) and learn voraciously
Continue networking - aim for 1-2 coffee chats per month
Assess your strategy - is it working? What needs adjustment?
Build expertise in 1-2 specific areas that align with your goals
Start planning your next move - internal promotion or external switch?

Summary: The Three Pillars

Pillar	Key Insight	Action
1. Flexibility	Perfect jobs don't exist; focus on transferable skills and strategic stepping stones	Evaluate offers on learning potential, not just alignment with "dream"
2. Strategy	Passive career management leads to mediocre results; be proactive and plan	Create 3-year vision, research paths, acquire skills methodically
3. Mentorship	Leverage others' experience to compress your timeline by years	Message 20+ people on LinkedIn, attend meetups, consider paid mentorship

Related Resources

For more strategic career guidance:

Start your career search →

Conclusion

To summarize:

Have a strategy - know where you're going
Be flexible - know how to leverage opportunities
Seek mentorship - learn from those ahead of you

Most importantly, enjoy the ride! :)

Your early career is a time for exploration, learning, and rapid skill development. Not every job needs to be perfect—it just needs to move you forward.

The engineers earning €150k-€250k at big tech companies today didn't start with perfect jobs. They started with imperfect opportunities that they leveraged strategically to build the skills, network, and experience needed for their dream roles.

Your path will be unique to you. Use these three tips as a framework, but adapt them to your personality, goals, and circumstances.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I accept a job offer that's not in my ideal field?

Yes, if it develops transferable skills and moves you closer to your goals. For example, a consulting role might not be your dream, but it could teach you client communication, project management, and expose you to multiple industries—all valuable for future roles. Stay 1-2 years, learn everything you can, then pivot. Most successful careers aren't linear.

How do I know if I have a good career strategy?

A good strategy includes:

Clear 3-5 year vision (role, location, compensation range)
Specific skills to develop based on job requirements research
Action items (apply to X companies, learn Y technology, network with Z people)
Flexibility to adapt when opportunities arise

Bad strategy: "I want to work at Google someday" with no steps identified. Good strategy: "I want to work in distributed systems at big tech in Zurich. I'll spend 6 months learning Go and system design, apply to 20 companies, and take any big tech offer as a stepping stone."

How do I reach out to people on LinkedIn for mentorship?

Bad message: "Hi, can you help me get a job?"

Good message:

"Hi [Name], I saw you work as a [role] at [company] in [city]. I'm a CS student passionate about [area] and hoping to break into [field]. I noticed you made a similar transition from [their previous role]. Would you be open to a 15-minute call to share your experience? I'm specifically curious about [specific question]. No worries if you're too busy—I appreciate your time either way!"

Key elements: Specific, respectful of their time, shows you researched them, asks focused questions.

Is it worth doing a master's degree for better career opportunities?

Do a master's if:

You want to move to a new country (student visa is easiest path)
You're targeting research-oriented roles (AI/ML, systems)
You lack CS fundamentals and learn better in structured environments
You want to recruit for big tech internships (easier than full-time hiring)

Skip the master's if:

You already have 2+ years of work experience
You're comfortable with self-learning (online courses, books)
You have financial constraints
You can land good jobs with your bachelor's

Reality: A well-executed internship strategy can achieve better outcomes than a master's in less time and cost. See our €100k career guide.

How long should I stay in my first job if it's not ideal?

Minimum: 12 months (shows you can commit and deliver) Optimal: 18-24 months (enough time to take ownership of projects, show impact) Maximum: 36 months (diminishing returns if no growth/learning)

Exception: Leave sooner if:

Toxic environment affecting mental health
Company is clearly failing/laying off
You have a significantly better offer (30%+ salary jump, much better company)

Use your first job to build foundational skills, collect strong references, and network internally for your next move.

What if I'm too introverted to network effectively?

Networking doesn't require being extroverted. Introverts often excel at:

One-on-one conversations (coffee chats, video calls)
Written communication (thoughtful LinkedIn messages, emails)
Online communities (Reddit, Discord, Slack groups) where you can contribute without real-time pressure
Technical contributions (open source, blog posts) that attract opportunities organically

Start small: Message 2-3 people per month. Attend 1 small meetup (10-20 people). Comment thoughtfully on posts. Build gradually—you don't need to be a networking superstar, just consistent.

Should I focus on learning the latest technologies or fundamentals?

Fundamentals win long-term. Technologies change every 5 years, but fundamentals last your entire career:

Learn these first (timeless):

Data structures & algorithms
System design basics
How the internet works (HTTP, DNS, etc.)
Databases (SQL, transactions, indexing)
Version control (Git)
Testing and debugging

Learn these second (tactical):

Currently popular frameworks (React, Node.js, etc.)
Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
DevOps tools (Docker, Kubernetes)

Reality: Companies hire for fundamentals, teach you their specific tech stack. Strong fundamentals let you switch stacks easily. Someone with deep CS knowledge can learn React in 2 months; someone who only knows React will struggle with system design interviews.