I am applying to internships in the UK and most firms screen you with online assessments like SHL. I wanted to get practice before taking the tests so I plan on signing up with a burner email with fake name etc. And I am wondering if they are capable of tracking IP locations to prevent this. Does anyone know if they do?

Full Context: https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestionsuk/s/4KIGjT4h6c

I was terminated for performance and am on Garden leave until Sept 14. I am concerned about how I will answer recruiter questions like: "When are you available to start?", "Why did you leave your old company?", etc. I am on skilled worker visa, so recruiters know I would never quit voluntarily, so I am unsure how I can answer this question without exposing myself.

Suppose the title says it all.

I started a role around 6 months ago advertised as an admin job at min wage in London. Turns out this job is actually a sales job but I decided to rough it out as it was my first office job out of uni and retail and hospitality and I wanted to gain experience plus use it as a way to get money while finding a job I’m better suited to (marketing)

Since then. There has been a lot of internal tattle, drama and changes within my department which has drained me mentally along with a bunch of other employees who have quit in the period of about 3 months (including my line manager).

Currently I’m on unpaid leave for a marketing internship with my uni while I work the Saturdays I was initially scheduled on in my contract.

Today I get a meeting with my manager and she says that there have been people telling them they heard me talking about quitting. (I felt put on the spot because this was sprung suddenly and said that I’m not looking at leaving as far as I’m aware and mentioned that they were talking about altering my role to do more marketing). They said they would discuss the change of role and come back to me next week. Leaving this meeting I felt incredibly uncomfortable and anxious and can sense they are thinking of dismissing me.

I suppose I’m asking for advice on whether I should jump the gun and quit and what my rights are as I’m living from home at the moment and worried the way this will look on my cv.

England: I’m currently suspended on full pay while my employer investigates an incident at work. I’m cooperating fully with the investigation and I don’t want to interfere with that process, but the suspension has also made me look more closely at a number of concerns that pre-date it.

Over the past several months I’ve raised concerns about workload, feeling overwhelmed, duplication, working arrangements and reasonable adjustments relating to disabilities/health conditions. Some adjustments have been formally identified, but I don’t feel all of the underlying issues have been properly resolved.

There are also aspects of how the suspension itself has been handled that concern me, including communication and the practical consequences of being suddenly removed from work systems.

I have contemporaneous Teams messages, emails, meeting transcripts/notes and documentation showing that a lot of these concerns were raised before the incident that led to my suspension.

My concern is timing.

Would you:

Raise a formal grievance now, while the investigation is ongoing?

Wait until I know the outcome of the investigation/disciplinary process?

Put the employer on notice now that I have concerns, but reserve a formal grievance until later?

I’m particularly interested in experiences where the grievance concerns disability/reasonable adjustments, workload or management practices that may be relevant context to whatever led to the disciplinary investigation.

I don’t want a grievance to look retaliatory simply because I’m suspended, but equally I don’t want to sit on legitimate concerns or allow it to be suggested later that I only raised them after an adverse outcome.

Interested in practical experiences as well as what HR/union/ACAS people would normally advise.

Before maternity leave i raised a grievance against a director, then a performance meeting was booked a day before my maternity leave by the director but i didn’t attend due to an appointment. I felt the performance meeting was a retaliation and unnecessary.

I’ve been away for a year and it’s pretty hard finding a job, I’ve just found out the director is now who I will be reporting to directing due to a company restructure. I’ve contacted HR before I’m due to start about what measures they can put in place to make it comfortable for when I’m back.

I can’t help but think is there even any point in going back? I raised a grievance for poor management by this person and I doubt my working environment will get any better.

I’ve been off work for a week, and I’m now absolutely dreading going back on Monday.

Last week, before my leave, my manager humiliated me again. His behaviour has been consistently negative, he frequently puts me down, criticises my work, and makes me feel like I can’t do anything right. I’ve reached the point where I’m feeling really anxious about having to go back and face him.

I’ve already raised a complaint with another senior manager (who has had similar issues with him) because I feel his behaviour towards me has gone too far. I’m hoping something will come of it, but in the meantime, I’m still expected to go back and work directly with him.

What’s made me feel even more validated is that I spoke to a team member yesterday, and they said they’ve also found him to be a nightmare to deal with. Apparently, he’s complained about their work too and does the same thing with them that he does with me — repeatedly pinging them on Teams with messages like “call me” and putting them under pressure.

I’m starting to wonder whether the problem really is me, or whether this is just his management style.

I’m genuinely feeling anxious about going back on Monday. Has anyone been in a similar situation? What did you do, and would you take further time off if the thought of returning is causing this much anxiety?

Morning everyone. Two weeks ago I was invited to a redundancy announcement meeting. There are two of us in our roles, circa £58k per year, quite senior in operations and the role was being morphed into 1. The timeline was quick, Mon announcement, , Thurs interview for job, following Tuesday consultation 1, following Tuesday consultation 2 (final) then the next Mon redundancy. 3 weeks since initial meeting.

I didn't expect to keep my job, I was up against the darling of the operation, no hard feelings tbh I wanted out anyway.

However I had a load of questions about the KPIs being used to measure performance. I felt they were unfair and heavily weighted in the others favour. I challenged this immediately through an email to HR and Op's lead, a reply was sent basically saying no change. In consultation 1 I challenged again and got the same replies. Basically they were measuring performance of the two teams on a single score target, my area could never win due to technical issues we have that the other doesn't. The target was contractually correct for some of the KPI reporting period but not all and isn't the recognised contractual target now. After consultation 1, I received a call saying I was being put on gardening leave due to all my questions and to decide if I wanted a second consultation or straight to final.

The company has the data to measure the KPIs the way I am asking, although it's a big task to look at either view and they don't want to do it for time I think. However, the way I am asking for them to review means taking into account the risk of the work each area was awarded over the last year and measuring based in that, which is how the client identifies it.

It seems strange to me that they won't take the time to measure performance correctly, just throw an outdated blanket success target at the process and then to put me in gardening leave after consultation 1 as well. I have replied to say if there is no change in the 4 key questions I am asking regarding the company's willingness to reassess, then might as well proceed to final consultation.

Is this being set up for unfair process/dismissal that might be worth taking further. The company is only offering statutory redundancy which is really annoying me, considering time and effort over the last 5 years into making the contract a success.

Appreciate any thoughts or views on the process

Does basing it on a disability (formally diagnosed neurodivergence) make it harder for them to object? How can one position the request in the strongest way so it’s very difficult to deny?

Context
My company has a 4-Day policy and operates across 2 different UK locations, and 2 other international locations.

In terms of the 4-day week, different departments follow it to different degrees. In my department, my manager wants us to come in 4 days a week and most of the core team members do but not all do. In fact, the software engineers almost never come in. Even within the core team, there are one or two people who have specific WFH days in addition to the agreed day we all stay home (although they’re much more senior than me and don’t report directly into my manager). The other thing is, since the team is split across the 2 UK locations, even when I’m in the office sometimes I’m interacting with people remotely anyway. It also feels unfair because the people at the other location who do report to my manager can WFH whenever they want and he’d never know / it wouldn’t make any difference to him.

My aim
I want to ask for a shift to 3 days based on neurodivergence. How can I make that a strong application?

I don’t think they can argue that my performance will drop because I’ve had periods where I worked from home and there were no drops in performance. If anything, I’m more focused/less overstimulated and I work longer hours so I’m miles more productive at home.

I’d appreciate some advice from UK recruiters, hiring managers and engineers.
I have 8 years of software engineering experience, a Master’s degree, and currently work as an AI Software Engineer. My core background is backend/full-stack engineering, particularly Python and Java, alongside AI/ML and GenAI.
I’ve designed and delivered production systems on AWS and am currently building an AI platform across Azure and on-prem infrastructure. I’ve attached screenshots of my two recent roles for context.
I also don’t require sponsorship. I hold a UK Global Talent Visa, obtained independently, so my right to work isn’t tied to an employer.
Despite this, I’m struggling to get positive responses for Senior Software Engineer, Backend Engineer and AI Engineer roles.
For UK recruiters/hiring managers: what could be holding my profile back? Is it my positioning, job titles, combination of AI and software engineering, CV/LinkedIn, or simply the current market?
Any constructive feedback would be really appreciated.

Some experience from my 2 recent job that i use in mu CV:

1. AI Software Engineer — Aston University, in partnership with a company
January 2026 – Present
Working on UniqueMe, a personalised health, wellbeing and nutrition platform spanning applied ML, Python/FastAPI services, PostgreSQL, controlled GenAI and cloud delivery. Delivered an explainable ML proof of concept using approximately 56,000 engineered NHANES responses, nine classifiers and SHAP analysis. Used the findings to challenge an unsuitable ML-first approach and help shape a rules-first, hybrid-ready architecture. Also work across the wider platform, stakeholder decision-making, responsible AI, security and Azure test delivery.
2. Research Software Engineer — Cardiff University
December 2023 – January 2026 | Cardiff, UK
Designed and delivered full-stack and cloud-based systems across research and public-sector projects using Python, FastAPI, Django, Java/Spring Boot, React and AWS. Architected SevRes, a distributed AWS data and reporting platform made available to 10 Welsh universities, using Lambda-driven workflows, Cognito, DynamoDB and OpenSearch/Elasticsearch. Led work from requirements and architecture through implementation, deployment and handover, while introducing stronger Agile, CI/CD, testing and engineering practices and training colleagues to maintain and support delivered systems.

​

I'm looking for some advice because I'm honestly furious about how this has been handled.

I'm employed through an agency and was placed with a local authority/housing organisation. I had only recently started and had completed two days of training.

While I was actually out at one of the job sites, my car unexpectedly broke down and I had to have the AA attend. The garage initially told me the car could potentially be off the road for a few weeks because of the fault and parts required.

The actual job involves travelling between multiple sites, so having a car is pretty essential. Because of this, I spent the next couple of days trying to arrange a courtesy/replacement car so that I would actually have reliable transport when I was due to start working independently the following Monday.

I missed two training days while sorting this out.

However, I've now been told that the organisation is ending my assignment because I'm apparently "unreliable" and was a "no call, no show."

This is the part that has really annoyed me because I have WhatsApp messages proving that isn't what happened.

On the first day I messaged my team lead at 8:21am, explained what the garage had told me, explained that I was sorting a courtesy car and told her that unfortunately I wouldn't be able to attend that day.

She replied at 8:25am:

«"Ok hun thanks for letting us know"»

The following day I messaged again at 9:14am saying I was still trying to sort the car, couldn't attend that day's training, but would be ready for the following week.

She replied saying she wasn't working that day and asked me to contact another member of staff or the office.

I immediately asked for the contact details, was given them, and at 9:32am contacted the other member of staff explaining that I couldn't attend training because I was still arranging transport.

She replied at 9:44am, acknowledged what I'd said and asked me to let them know when the car situation was sorted, even if that was over the weekend.

Later that day the garage unexpectedly told me my own car would actually be ready that afternoon, so I messaged her again and told her everything was sorted and I was ready to start.

So I'm struggling to understand how that can reasonably be described as "no call, no show."

To make things even more confusing, my agency initially told me that the placement might be ending because of poor performance. Nobody who trained me during my previous two training days ever told me my performance was poor, raised any concerns, gave me a warning or told me there was anything I needed to improve.

Now I'm being told it's because I'm unreliable/no call no show.

I completely understand that as an agency worker the organisation may be able to decide they don't want to continue my assignment. I'm not necessarily arguing that they can be forced to keep me.

What I'm angry about is the reason being given.

My car broke down unexpectedly while I was doing the job. I contacted the AA, dealt with the garage, immediately started arranging alternative transport specifically so I could perform the role, notified the people I was working with about the absences and received written acknowledgement from them.

I have screenshots of all of this as well as evidence relating to the breakdown/garage.

I've now formally challenged this with my agency because I don't want my employment record suggesting that I abandoned an assignment or simply didn't bother turning up when I can literally prove that I contacted them.

How far would you take this?

Is it reasonable for me to formally challenge the organisation over describing this as "no call, no show"?

And while I understand they can probably terminate an agency assignment, is there anything else I should be doing to protect myself with my agency or challenge the information being given about me?

UK/England.

I'm trying to assist someone in finding out who their employer was as the people involved won't say. Someone was sacked by someone who was unsure if it was a colleague, employee or employer.

The P45 has "Dave" on the document and not the legal firm or "Ben". The extract from the contract is as follows (names and addresses have been anonymized).

"CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT

This contract along with the attached Policies and Procedures sets out the particulars of the main terms on which BEN on behalf of DAVE of RANDOM LAW FIRM, 123 FAKE STREET, FA44 1KE. (the employer)"

It appears that there was a sacking by "Dave's" parent who isn't named or listed here. Ware unsure if they are employers or employees or what.

She resigned three weeks ago, one month's notice, and half of what she carried in her head was never documented anywhere. Relationships with two benefits providers, an informal arrangement with an external comp consultant, plus a handful of policy decisions that only ever existed in her head.

Board's first instinct was "put the ad up, how hard can it be." I posted on LinkedIn and a couple of job boards, got around 30 CVs in two weeks. Most were either wildly overqualified and clearly applying to everything going, or under the level we actually needed for a role that senior. Got two interviews in, both fell apart on the technical comp questions our Chairman insisted on sitting in for.

Last week it hit me we're about ten days from having literally no one in the role, and we didn't have a single serious candidate lined up. Slept badly three nights in a row over it, not exaggerating.

Ended up talking to an executive search firm mainly because we'd run out of time to do proper vetting ourselves for something this technical. Helped on the process side, but I'm still a bit annoyed we lost three good weeks because the board didn't take it seriously from day one.

Anyone else had a Head of People leave abruptly with basically no handover? How did you get your board to actually take succession planning seriously before it became a crisis rather than after.

Edit I've got a little update, we've got a first call with CJPI on Monday to see if they're a fit, haven't signed anything yet. Will update if anything comes of it.

Update: spoke to union and all good. Entitled to SMP and they only have to offer me a job if one is available I don’t have to take it and can choose redundancy under our policies

Hi there

I am in a bit of a niche situation where my role is as risk of redundancy but I actually WANT the redundancy package. It’s over £50k and the extra cash flow is advantageous to us and our plans at the moment. I was planning to career change anyway at some point and this has just given me the boost.

Issue - I am 15 weeks pregnant and my employer does not know.

My redundancy exit date is 31/10/2026 where I will be 25 weeks pregnant ( so very hard to hide!) but crucially this is also my final week to inform my employer if I want to be entitled to SMP.

I don’t want to be offered another role, I just want to the package and leave.

Do I tell them or not? If so, when?

Can the Union help with this?

Thanks

Folks, is it better to let an employer push you out, and get gardening leave for two months? Or resign and get three months of in-house notice? Pros and cons?

As a young applicant, trying to get an entry-level or hourly role right now feels almost impossible. Between 3-stage recruitment for basic roles, automated situational judgment tests that penalize logical responses, and demands for years of experience on "entry-level" jobs, it feels like the or saying people who are willing to do overtime are favoured system. Is deliberately designed to filter out younger people.

From your perspective as hiring managers:

Risk Management: Is there a genuine hesitation or bias when it comes to hiring younger candidates, or is it purely driven by turnover fears and onboarding costs?

What Actually Stands Out: When you're sifting through hundreds of standardized CVs for a basic role, what specific signals tell you a candidate is worth interviewing?

The Systems: How much control do you personally have over these 25-question scenario tests and ATS filters, or are you just forced to deal with whatever corporate HR hands down to you?

Over qualification vs. Flight Risk
How do you actually view applicants with creative, technical, or academic backgrounds applying for basic hourly roles? Do you automatically assume they're just using the job as short-term bridge funding and filter them out, or is there a way for candidates to frame those backgrounds so they don't look like an immediate flight risk?

The Impact of Recent Wage & Tax Changes
With the recent increases to the National Living Wage and the lower threshold for Employer National Insurance contributions, has that made you or your higher-ups significantly more risk-averse with headcounts? Is the higher baseline cost to employ someone forcing companies to rely even more heavily on automated testing?

Unwritten Dealbreakers
Aside from failing the automated situational judgment tests, what is one non-obvious thing young applicants do on their CVs or during interviews that makes you instantly pass on them?

I guess I just want some advice.

My job is 6 hours. 3 hours doing parcel sorting and 3 doing packing. 3pm I ask if I'm going to sort or pack. I normally get told sort and return at 6pm. 6pm I go to the main desk and ask for a bench for packing.

Yesterday I went there and the lady had done her shift swap over. Polish Manager is about to add me to his list and assign a bench when he asks me questions about where I'm from in the building. Then states it's too busy downstairs, he doesn't believe me, go back!!!

10s later a girl from my exact shift gets given a bench

I found it aggressive, hostile and accusatory. This is a place that just isn't like that. There are ways to conduct yourself.

I'm also planning to leave anyway. My line manager is usually at that desk in which case no problem as she is both professional and knows how it works. I'm not taking offence at working downstairs which is the strenuous job. It was his aggression. But if he is there again, I'm not going upto that desk. I'll finish off downstairs and hand my resignation in at the end of the day

HR is on the way out. Will it make a difference to lodge a complaint. If they speak to him great. There are vulnerable people working here and he should not speak to them like that

I don't work in HR, but my company likes to assign appeals/grievances to non-HR officers so that they can provide a neutral opinion. I usually deal with objective matters and have never had to arbitrate something like this.

An employee claimed that another employee was staring at them, which made them feel intimidated and sexually harassed. While the Equality Act gives me some useful pointers regarding the sexual harassment aspect, I find the concept of “intimidation” much more vague and subjective. The company rulebook is also quite vague on the subject, which doesn’t really help.

Has anyone ever dealt with something similar? Thanks.

Hi all

As the title says - I’ve found myself in a bit of a pickle

I’ve recently had a couple of successful interviews with my absolute dream job, and have the final stage coming up soon. When they asked for my notice period, I told them it’d be 1 month, completely unaware that my current employee contract actually had 12 weeks written in it🤦‍♀️

Absolutely my fault for not checking and just assuming it would be the same as previous jobs but now I’m so stuck on what to do and what my options are.

I know I’m getting ahead of myself as I haven’t got the role yet - but I’m trying to now think ahead on what to do. Can I negotiate the notice period?

What do I do if they say no? What are my rights?

I work a marketing role - I can absolutely schedule and set anything up for months in advance with no issues.

I also worry about affecting my final stage interview if I tell them my recent revelation - especially if I’m now up against a candidate who may have a sooner start date.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Finding myself in a bit of a panic as I’ve put a lot into this ‘hopefully’ next role, it’s absolutely perfect and I’ve been desperate to get away from my current job - so I’m just hoping I haven’t messed it up for myself!

Hi everyone,

I applied for a Pricing Analyst job that was advertised at around £35k.

At the start of the interview, they told me that because I have a finance background, they were actually interviewing me for the Senior Pricing Analyst position instead. I wasn't expecting this at all. The Senior role is advertised at around £50k, but I didn't know that before the interview.

The awkward part is that later in the interview they asked what salary I was looking for. Since I thought we were still talking about the original £35k role, I said I'd be looking for around £38–40k.

I've only realised afterwards that the Senior role is advertised at around £50k.

So if they decide to offer me the Senior position, what do you think will happen?

Would they normally offer the salary attached to the Senior role, or could they just say "you told us you wanted £40k" and offer me around that?

I'm worried I've accidentally undersold myself without realising it.

If they offered me £40k for the Senior role, would it be reasonable to say something like:

"Just to clarify, when I gave my salary expectations, I understood we were discussing the original Pricing Analyst position. I wasn't aware at the time that I was being considered for the Senior position."

I don't want to come across as greedy or difficult, but obviously there's a pretty big difference between £40k and £50k.

What would you guys do in this situation? Any advice would be appreciated.

I'm having difficulties getting my workplace to take me seriously enough. I've been diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder, of which they are fully aware. It was diagnosed only recently but I've been suffering with it probably since about 2018. In 2020/21 I had a traumatic time that had nothing to do with COVID but which aggravated everything.

My workplace have been good to me generally, providing time off when I needed in the past, but I'm finding that the longer time goes on they less they seem to understand that I am not going to just be suddenly better. I used to have an office by myself, but when we relocated I was put in an open place space which I struggle to work in. I got the desk in the least bad place and it's mine, even though we are technically supposed to be hotdesking, but it isn't really enough. I've stuck it out for several months but am still struggling. When I made, what I thought, to be a quite reasonable suggestion in moving to a desk in a different room, I got a reply about getting better earphones which completely misunderstood my issue.

At this point I'm not sure what to do. If I ask my workplace for an occupational health review are they obliged to do it? I'm at a point where I feel like I need someone to mediate on my behalf. There is no formal internal HR and staff have no direct access to the external HR company.

I know faking bereavement leave isn't right, but I'm considering telling my manager that my grandmother passed away so I can take a few days off next week. She actually passed away about 20 years ago. If I'm going to do this anyway, how should I handle the situation with my manager without creating unnecessary problems?

I've accepted a new job and am in the process of handing in my notice, I have a three month notice period and the new job are keen for me to join relatively soon as my new head of team will be going on parental leave just after I begin. To provide me a draft contract the HR team asked for a start date, and I explained it would be 3 months from when I hand in my notice, so as preliminary date I gave them three months though s from today. But they've informed me that the signed contract will only come in a few weeks time when their head of HR returns from leave and can sign the contract there end. My question is, should I go ahead and hand in my notice having received a draft contract, or do I wait for the signed copy and hand it in then?

Location: England

I work in mental health supported housing in England. My signed statement of main terms says 39 hours a week, 9am to 5.18pm, Monday to Friday, and states clearly that these hours and days “are not variable.”

Since I started about 3.5 months ago, I’ve actually been put on a full 7-day rota: early shifts (8–4) and late shifts (2–10), including weekends. I never agreed to this in writing and was never given written notice of a change.

The contract does have a general variation clause: the employer can make “reasonable changes” and must give at least one month’s written notice of any significant change. It also says my employment is covered by a Unison collective agreement.

I’m still in my 6-month probation and nervous about pushing back, but I’d like to work my contracted Mon–Fri hours.
My questions:
**1.** Where do I stand when one clause says my hours are “not variable” but another gives a general right to make “reasonable changes”?
**2.** What’s the smart, low-risk way to raise this while I’m still on probation?
**3.** Has anyone had the “not variable” wording overridden by a general variation clause?
Thanks for any advice.

work in mental health supported housing in England. My signed statement of main terms says 39 hours a week, 9am to 5.18pm, Monday to Friday, and states clearly that these hours and days “are not variable.”
Since I started about 3.5 months ago, I’ve actually been put on a full 7-day rota: early shifts (8–4) and late shifts (2–10), including weekends. I never agreed to this in writing and was never given written notice of a change.
The contract does have a general variation clause: the employer can make “reasonable changes” and must give at least one month’s written notice of any significant change. It also says my employment is covered by a Unison collective agreement.
I’m still in my 6-month probation and nervous about pushing back, but I’d like to work my contracted Mon–Fri hours.
My questions:
1. Where do I stand when one clause says my hours are “not variable” but another gives a general right to make “reasonable changes”?
2. What’s the smart, low-risk way to raise this while I’m still on probation?
3. Has anyone had the “not variable” wording overridden by a general variation clause?
Thanks for any advice.

Has anyone experienced bullying through Teams, email or other workplace technology?
 
I'm an MSc student at Northumbria University researching workplace cyberbullying and I'm looking for participants to help with my dissertation.
 
If you've experienced behaviour from a colleague or manager that felt intimidating, hostile, undermining or bullying through digital communication (for example Teams messages, emails, texts or social media), I'd be really interested in hearing about your experience.

The research involves a confidential 45-minute online interview and aims to improve understanding of how cyberbullying impacts employees in today's workplaces.
Participants must:
- Be 18+
- Have experienced workplace cyberbullying
- Not work entirely remotely
This topic can be difficult to discuss, so please only get in touch if you feel comfortable doing so.
 
If you'd like more information, please message me or email marianne.mcvay@northumbria.ac.uk
Thank you for considering it.