Need career advise to join work after a break

[stit]

I am relatively new to UK and prior moving to UK had 13 years of software development experience as a senior developer. I was experienced in Java, JEE, JavaScript based enterprise technologies.

I started my career as a senior developer in UK with one of the big MNC consultancy companies but struggled to sustain due to the challenges of getting up to speed on newer and functional programming technologies like Scala, Play etc. Also, the expectation from the senior developer were much higher compared to my previous roles. My employment was terminated at the end of the probation period.

I then moved onto another central London based small consulting company as a senior developer. Again, I was finding it difficult and took demotion from senior developer to developer. I still faced similar challenges to ramp up on technologies like NodeJS, React JS and other related tools.

Meanwhile, I had a baby with many health issues and uncertainties and had sleepless nights all through since then. My company was very understanding of my situation and was very considerate. But, my project got over and they were not finding new projects and also I was not in a situation to travel outside London. So, I was offered a package to end the employment again which I accepted as I was also in a difficult situation to continue working.

It has been three years since I am off job market and could not really manage to find time to keep my skills upgraded. I was also told by one of my seniors at work that I could be dyslexic (forgetfulness, slow reading, can not multi-task, Auditory Processing Disorder) which I also feel true.
I have not consulted any specialist to confirm if this is true yet. But, these issues were affecting my performance at work.

Now, fortunately situation of my kid has improved a lot and I plan to join work back.

Please the experts on this forum could advise me how do I go approach my job hunt, technology selection (JavaScript, NodeJS), employment/contracting etc.? I will be very grateful for your advises.

Many thanks,
Stit

[northernladuk]

Surely the first step is to see a specialist to see if you do have dyslexia or something else. Until you do this whatever you do to get in job is going to end the same way.

[thelastrosbif]

Did you suddenly become dyslexic on moving to the UK? Unlikely. If you managed to get a senior job in your country of origin, you can surely achieve at least something regular here - could be the language/cultural shift has an impact also ? - in any case you could surely get a more junior role in the meantime (better than nothing) to build up longer term experience and work on those missing skills. Not all companies need the "latest and greatest" so maybe search more for your specific niche? Or maybe set aside some time to specifically upskill now - invest in yourself - 3 to 6 months and you could be back on top form ready to rumble

[stit]

Surely the first step is to see a specialist to see if you do have dyslexia or something else. Until you do this whatever you do to get in job is going to end the same way.

Thank you for your answer. Yes, I have been thinking and will get it done.

[stit]

Thank you for your response.

Did you suddenly become dyslexic on moving to the UK? Unlikely. If you managed to get a senior job in your country of origin, you can surely achieve at least something regular here - could be the language/cultural shift has an impact also ?

Now looking back, it does seem I always had symptoms of dyslexia. But, I was not aware so was very hard working. Academically and professionally, the results were not proportionate but I always managed to do reasonably well. But, that level of hard work and extra time is neither sustainable nor feasible after starting family life.

could be the language/cultural shift has an impact also ?

Yes and no. I picked up English during my engineering as I was studying in a non-English medium till then.
I manage to communicate, get my view point across, make a conversation with anyone on most of the topics. But, where I struggle is listening due to possible Auditory Processing Disorder.I Can not register, memorise or take notes during technical or business requirement discussions. I had tough time with accents of Newcastle and Northern Ireland.

Not all companies need the "latest and greatest" so maybe search more for your specific niche? Or maybe set aside some time to specifically upskill now - invest in yourself - 3 to 6 months and you could be back on top form ready to rumble

This is what my heart and mind says. I do have keen interest in learning new things and I have the ability to put enormous amount of effort but the time constraints make exploring new things not feasible. I had done few online training on NodeJS, React, Scala and in a better shape and feel I can resume and revise them.

I am an active stock market investor and have been trying day trading to see if I can take that as a career change but not yet confident. Day trading was easy to do because I get only pockets of 5 to 10 minutes but that's risky as day trading requires close monitoring of trade positions. I have also tried out affiliate marketing, Youtube videos, small niche websites but due to lack of time could not do justice to them so far . I felt in these areas my possible dyslexia would not impact much. But, now I feel I should give one final try at the full time employment in IT consultancy and I can get back to other interests and options if things work out well again.

Really thankful for the suggestions and help here. May be there are others in my boat and they will also benefit from these discussions.

[stit]

Came across this test and I am scoring near the higher end of 'Score 45 to 60 - showing signs consistent with mild dyslexia'.

https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/commo...-Checklist.pdf