Thank you. Over 20 people jumped into Monty, the AI Python Coach, during the 48-hour mock-interview window. The feedback was blunt and insanely helpful, which is exactly what I wanted. Monty goes live again on Friday so you can practice across the weekend. I’ll keep iterating the voice agent and scoring so it feels like a real screen, just without the awkward small talk. Built with ElevenLabs + OpenAI under the hood.
Listen to the latest edition at https://snakesignals.com/podcast/
The market, in plain English
Yes, headlines moan about layoffs. But in the parts of tech that matter to you, the money and headcount are flowing toward AI-heavy teams and product engineering. Global AI funding nearly doubled in 2025 to about $225.8B, with mega-rounds pulling a lot of the capital. That shift is carrying into 2026 hiring plans.
Zooming into the UK, overall vacancies dipped late 2025, but capital for high-growth startups rose: UK startups raised $23.6B in 2025, the first up year in four, with the UK still Europe’s strongest AI hub. Translation: fewer generic roles, more concentrated demand for top-tier builders.
What hiring managers are asking for looks like this: strong Python fundamentals plus one differentiator. That “something else” is usually AI agent experience, production-grade comms skills, or platform instincts. Employers worldwide say they’re cutting back on roles that are easily automated while expanding hiring for AI-related skills. LinkedIn’s data shows job posts listing AI literacy increased more than 6x in a year.
Soft skills aren’t fluff. Large studies continue to find structured interviews and work-sample tests are the most predictive, and research keeps showing communication and collaboration correlate with better outcomes and higher wages over time. If you can explain decisions crisply and handle stakeholder pushback, you clear bars others don’t.
How to stand out in February
1) Show AI fluency the right way.
Don’t just write “LLMs.” Prove it with one tiny shipped thing: an agent that triages tickets, a data-extraction tool with evals, or a voice workflow demo. Tools usage is mainstream now: 84% of developers use or plan to use AI tools; leadership reports real productivity lifts in enterprise settings. Hiring managers want proof you can harness it without breaking prod.
2) Speak clearly under time pressure.
Mock interviews work because retrieval practice beats rereading. Candidates who do around five mocks are roughly 2x more likely to pass live technical rounds. Practice out loud. Log your misses. Fix them. Repeat.
3) Tighten the top third of your CV.
Role, stack, impact, scale. Two proof links. Then a one-line result for each project. This isn’t vibes; structured signals plus work samples are consistently more predictive than unstructured chats.
4) Prepare for “hybrid” expectations.
Teams are blending software excellence with product and comms. Global analysis shows AI will reshape a big slice of jobs, but wage gains accrue to people who adapt and upskill into the new mix. Show you can.
Small but useful Python updates
Only flagging what can affect your day today.
pip 26.0 released at month-end. If your CI pins pip, plan a bump and watch for new-version prompts.
NumPy 2.4.2 dropped this weekend. Safe patch for teams already on 2.4.x.
Coming soon: LinkedIn analyzer
I’m shipping a lightweight analyzer that rates the top third of your profile for role fit, signal, and clarity, then tells you exactly what to fix. It will land on Snake Signals this week. Keep an eye on the site.
Jobs
Job of the week — Founding Engineers, voice agents
A London startup building autonomous AI voice agents for skilled trades: answer calls, book jobs, and push updates to trade CRMs end to end. Fresh Series A with YC roots, hiring 5 engineers by end of March. Looking for hardcore builders with Python or TypeScript, event-driven systems, real-time voice, and integrations. Onsite 5 days near London. £150k to £300k base plus equity. Visa sponsorship and global relocation available.
Also hiring — Senior Backend Engineer, agent stack
Another AI-agent team in Fitzrovia. 2–3 days in office. £100k to £130k base plus equity (up to 0.5%). About $2.5m ARR. Python-first backend, strong product ownership, tidy APIs and infra, shipping weekly.
If either sounds like you, reply with your CV or ping me on LinkedIn.
Monty returns Friday. Use the voice mocks, send feedback, and I’ll keep sharpening the experience.
If this helped, share it with someone who builds or hires in Python. New readers can join at snakesignals.com.
Hiring? Contact
Josh Smith
LinkedIn: Josh Smith — https://www.linkedin.com/in/python-recruitment/
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 01727 225 552