How can I get an overseas job as a civil engineer?

How can I get a job as a Backend Software Engineer at a great startup / company?

• I am currently working as an Embedded Software Engineer, coding in C, but the projects just don't seem interesting any more. Now, I am getting really excited about higher-level programming. I have been practicing my OOP and Java skills, and I built a web-app with Ruby on Rails in my spare time. I know JavaScript as well, but I am not an expert at it, and I don't want to do Front-End Engineering. It seems really boring to me. I enjoy building robust systems, and I think backend engineering would give me that. How can I learn the right skills and prove my skills? What does it take to get Backend/Scaling or a Core/Platform SE position?

• Answer:

  If you aim to startups better forget about Java and start learning PHP [1] or Ruby on Rails [2]. Java isn't as popular as it often comes with higher overhead and costs. Of course it's also used by many [3] but most cases in some more advanced concepts. Nowadays php is still used by the most of startups as it's... cheap (mainly by lower costs of developers) :-) Remember that, especially in startups, costs of employees are crucial so it's likely you should be one-man-army - don't say that you don't want to do frontend - it's hard to stick only at the backend side. [4] "Engineers. Hire smart, fast, flexible engineers who are willing to do any type of work, and are excited to learn new technologies. We do not have "architects" - at TripAdvisor, if you design something, your code it, and if you code it you test it. Engineers who do not like to go outside their comfort zone, or who feel certain work is "beneath" them will simply get in the way." You likely won't be responsible at the beginnings in the things related to scaling/architecture. At first you'll have to show that you're a good developer with great ideas about going further with startup infrastructure. You'll have to show that you aren't only the pure-programmer but you have nice overview on every aspect of the project (not only your backend/frontend etc.) Btw. don't even try to go to some sort of big corporation - it'll likely block you for new "cool" technologies, you won't see elasticsearch in any ;-) [1] http://whoisusing.it/php [2] http://whoisusing.it/ror [3] http://whoisusing.it/java [4] http://whoisusing.it/s/69