Thanks guys!
Fortunately I have a bit of work & life experience under my belt; I am now in my mid-30s and most of my career has been in management (IT Sales / Customer Success) roles. Networking and discreetly setting boundaries etc. is almost second nature at this point. I have plenty of examples at hand for use in interviews so I was confident that compared to younger grads I had an edge. Interestingly a lot of people on my MSc are older than me.
I took your advice on board and did my research (Glassdoor reviews, asking people who worked at the companies, etc) before applying for jobs- especially as relates to overtime expectations. In fact I only applied to a handful of places; where I live is a bit of a tech hub so that's been an advantage in a number of ways.
The roles themselves have Hybrid working models, 2 or 3 days a week in the office at most. Suits me perfectly and I don't have a long commute anyway. Best of both worlds but yeah I am especially aware of the importance of face time given this is a new career.
Funny you say about speaking up Druff (great point): this has always been one of my strong suits. In one of my interviews we had a group task under supervision and I found myself having to indirectly /respectfully disagree with a team member and softly find a way to move the team in the direction I thought was best. I knew that was make or break for me as far as being passed on to the next stage. The guy wanted to start down a path of designing more web pages when we had about 5 minutes before having to deliver a presentation, which we hadn't yet organised ourselves for- lol. The funny thing was everyone else in the team seemed like they were ready to sheepishly go along with him!
San, I have no tattoos, piercings or dreadlocks. Just a raging hard-on for Jannick Sinner