Our Story

I'm Matt, the Founder and Director of Pathler.Born in Liverpool, I studied Economics at the University of Hull with an exchange year at the HAN Business School in Arnhem — and that year changed everything. It was my first real exposure to an international community, and without it my life would have looked completely different. Over the years I've studied several languages in my free time and now speak fluent Spanish, intermediate Portuguese and HSK 3 level Chinese (Mandarin).

From there I never really stopped moving. I taught English in China after graduating, then in Spain. I worked in logistics for three and a half years in Prague. Then I quit to chase my dream of becoming a professional poker player. It was a huge step with real risks, but I was successful — and for three and a half years I made a living playing cash games full time throughout various locations, travelling the world while doing it. Despite the freedom it brought, the lifestyle took its toll and I knew I needed a change.

I went back to China to teach for six months, then returned to the UK with a clear plan: build a long-term career in cyber security. I'd done my research — everything I read pointed to a growing industry, strong job prospects, and genuine demand for new talent. I spent a full year preparing. Six months building foundational knowledge, six months of serious, focused skill development. I felt ready.

Then I came back — and the reality was nothing like what I'd been told. The jobs existed, but not at entry level. My non-traditional background didn't help either — an unconventional path that didn't fit the standard template, something I'd later realise I shared with a lot of other people in the same position. I applied to hundreds of roles with carefully tailored CVs and cover letters. Rejection after rejection, most without feedback. I tried everything. I recognised that AI was producing near-identical applications for most candidates, so I developed a personalised distinctive format that didn't follow normal conventions in an attempt to stand out. I built projects and published them to GitHub. I went through my entire professional network, searching one by one which company they worked for and if there were any potential referral opportunities. Nothing worked.

I quickly found that I wasn't alone. LinkedIn is full of qualified, motivated entry-level candidates being passed over — dealing with slow, impersonal hiring processes, applying to roles that were quietly filled weeks ago, spending hours on applications that were never going anywhere. The system wasn't broken for everyone. Just for people starting out without the right connections.

That last part hit close to home. My network is full of associates from all around the globe, spread across China, Spain, the Czech Republic and more. I have no lack of people who would vouch for me when asked. But none of them were useful to me re-entering the UK job market, where who you know locally matters enormously. And on top of that, I was disqualified from a significant number of roles due to continuous residency requirements I'd never been warned about — despite spending twelve months preparing for this industry.

I decided to build something about it. Pathler started as a project to demonstrate my skills — but as I built it, I realised it had the potential to genuinely help people. It grew into a platform to cut through the noise: honest information about career paths, real data on what entry into different industries actually looks like, and tools to help people make informed decisions before they invest months of their life heading in the wrong direction.

Along the way I also realised something else. The quality of work I was producing here was better than anything I'd have been doing in the jobs I was being rejected from. So I backed myself. I'm building Pathler as far as it can go — because the problem is real, it's widespread, and it deserves a proper solution.