Thursday 26th September 2013: 5.22pm. Just got rejected by Google due to inconsistencies in my technical interviews. I'm not surprised, I don't hold a wealth of algorithmic theory on tap - rather, I sleep on a problem and "just know" the answer the next day. That sort of algorithmic knowledge will always interview badly, plus I should imagine that the lack of focus in my life history on nothing but software engineering would put many off (or as they would see it, there are "gaps" in my software engineering practice when I was off taking Economics and Management degrees etc). Ultimately, my CV closely fits a startup's needs, not a large corporation with only highly specialised roles to fill.
I think the next step is to drop a tier in pay on the basis that the next rung down will probably be less picky. Tech jobs in the UK follow these tiers: £120k (finance), £80k (top tier tech multinationals), £60k (tier two tech multinationals, or non-tech multinationals), £40k (UK national companies). As much as £40k looks much lower than £60k, if the latter is in London what you have left over after paying season train tickets is about the same as a £40k job outside of London.
Also, I'm not ruling out Continental Europe. There tech pay will top out at €40k max, but even with the much higher taxes, things like the government paying Megan to raise children can make a very big difference to disposable income.
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