Career coaching · London

.NET & Backend Developer in the UK — How to Get an Offer

Strong stack, but no replies to your applications? Here is why — and how to fix it.

Common problems

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A two-column CV fails ATS screening — the recruiter never even sees it

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An "Objective" instead of a Professional Summary is an instant minus for UK recruiters

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Outdated tools (SVN, FogBugz, CoffeeScript) in the skills section dilute a modern stack

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Unexplained gaps in the timeline raise questions

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Short roles with no context (contract? project?) look like a red flag

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Not knowing where to look, or which UK employers sponsor the Skilled Worker Visa

What recruiters check

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C# / .NET Core, ASP.NET Web API, Entity Framework

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Azure (App Service, Functions, Cosmos DB) — increasingly a requirement

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Architecture patterns: SOLID, CQRS, Repository, Dependency Injection

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Testing: xUnit, integration tests, mocking

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Live coding and system design in interviews

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Communication in English — especially important at B2 level

How AI is changing .NET & backend hiring

Backend teams increasingly build AI features into their products — and expect engineers to work with AI tools every day. What strengthens a .NET profile now:

→Integrating LLM APIs into .NET services: Azure OpenAI, Semantic Kernel, structured outputs
→Building RAG features on company data — embeddings, vector search, Azure AI Search
→Using AI coding assistants productively — and reviewing their code critically
→Testing and monitoring AI features in production, not just shipping them

Career coaching for AI careers →