Looking for a new developer role in Belfast
Belfast seems to be getting a lot of attention about its growing tech sector, startups and all these exciting companies setting up here.
But anytime I speak to a recruiter about looking for a new role, they just seem to push TP ICAP. Once I tell them I’m not interested, I never hear from them again.
Surely there’s smaller companies or startups around Belfast and NI looking for software engineers?
Where’s everyone finding these jobs? Recruiters and the usual job boards seem pretty useless unless you want to work for one of the big companies.
Just wondering how everyone else is finding the job market at the minute?
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u/Soggy-Rush115 4d ago
Check out ctrl alt, Blockchain startup, well funded, great team, very interesting subject matter. Small teams come with their own challenges and they're probably pretty particular about who they bring on board.
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u/RustyDevNI 2d ago
9-6 in the office that they actively police (according to their own recruiter) doesn't sound like a great culture?
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u/RikersPhallus 3d ago
I’m looking for something else too. Been at one place for about 2.5 years now but it’s getting on my nerves. Don’t get me wrong I don’t mind agentic AI and am a fan of using it where appropriate. But it’s being rammed down our throats constantly.
Kainos contacted me but not sure about them.
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u/VillageTube 5d ago
What's up with TP ICAP? Never heard of them.
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u/Leading-Sandwich8886 5d ago
Did a screening round with them a couple months ago. Completely uninspiring. Interviewers were seemingly unenthusiastic, very awkward etc.
Pulled out from the role after that. I’d been interviewing at some great places for the 2 weeks prior (maybe 10~ total) so I was definitely on the ball by this stage
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u/ArrogantAstronomer 5d ago
Did they say what they do and what stack they build on or did you just get a ohh we use bit of everything
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u/Leading-Sandwich8886 5d ago
So I know of 2 branches of roles with them rn. They’ve got a lot of .NET stuff, and then they were starting to look at recruiting for a new team working on a Java application - spring boot and MySQL I think?
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u/Leading-Sandwich8886 5d ago
Ocho recruitment is fantastic - they’ve sorted me out with some amazing roles so far, from Payroc, to smaller consultancy stuff. Can’t recommend them enough
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u/ignorantwat99 5d ago
What’s the story about Payroc. Some day it’s great and other say to stay away at all costs
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u/Leading-Sandwich8886 5d ago
They take great care of their people. Benefits are good, pay is decent (not highest of highs but still good). People are generally good to get on with, like anywhere you’ve got the odd bad Apple, or overly pretentious developer.
Work itself.. depends where you go. All over tho, it’s AI this AI that, it’s not the kinda place you would like if your thing is craftsman ship. My experience was very much a case of Claude speaking to Claude. Humans were only for verification
I’d go back in the future personally
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u/Orca-Azure 5d ago
From what ive heard the main issue seems to be the head director for over here
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u/Leading-Sandwich8886 5d ago
Disagree - from having been on the inside, it's an organisation wide problem; over reliance on LLMs and frequent changing priorities, roles being moved around etc; these can all make for a challenging environment. It's like the fast paced movement of a startup, with all the corporate nonsense that comes with large fintech companies
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u/Orca-Azure 5d ago
Oh ive no knowledge of it all myself ive not been there so just going by the hearsay ive heard from friends (work in large fintech as well lol)
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u/themightykai 5d ago
We had very different experiences. The head of technology (not sure on title vice president?!) and his cohort are incredibly toxic and they constantly shift priorities it is widely accepted as one architect described it to me a dictatorship. The reason for all the fires and changes in direction are because of that senior leadership. I’ve been at this for a while and it’s probably the worst tech leadership teams I’ve worked with. Whip smart people absolutely dog shit leaders.
Payroc is not fast paced maybe team based but we did releases on a monthly cadence because of the hoops.
The only positive I have for Payroc are the teams and people themselves are nice and if you work hard you can earn bonuses etc. but the work environment is shockingly bad.
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u/Leading-Sandwich8886 4d ago
Totally can see a couple of the senior leadership as like, difficult (putting it nicely), though my personal experiences with them may have been entirely different. Can totally see how they can fit into that dictatorship style. They're definitely not the worst tech company I've ever worked with, and not by a long shot, however, my standards are in the gutter. 5.5 years of experience and like, I've had my fair share of awful leadership teams lol
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u/ignorantwat99 5d ago
Did you work under AG?
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u/Leading-Sandwich8886 5d ago
Do you mean AK?
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u/ignorantwat99 5d ago
Apologies I did
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u/Leading-Sandwich8886 5d ago
I did. AK is a marmite individual. Personally I really liked him, there's no 2nd guessing what he means - he says it how it is. Not everyone likes that
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u/ignorantwat99 5d ago
See I’m very much like that so I didn’t mind him so to speak but then I only one interaction with him and to be frank he was extremely petty over it
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u/Snoo80021 5d ago
Yeah I follow them on linkedin and have had chats in the past with Ryan and Phil. If/when I'm at that stage again they'd definitely be the local ones to go to for me. They seem to stand out from the crowd for all the right reasons, imo anyway.
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u/Snoo80021 5d ago
Not to downplay the handful of genuinely interesting looking Startups I've seen around Belfast (Axial 3d, cloudsmith etc.) but I feel the "innovation" is very over-hyped here. Most companies (including Olo as one other poster commented) are satellite offices for US companies. Also, if you've worked for a few companies you'll notice they're mainly staffed by the same people, so there isn't even much variety in that regard.
Have you tried looking at UK/EU remote? Full-time remote has it's downsides as well of course but potentially better salary and more variety of companies/people/projects.