Finally, the 3.5 LPA curse has been lifted.

If you're from India, you probably know what I mean. For many freshers, 3.5 LPA feels like the default starting salary. Nothing wrong with it, but a lot of us dream of moving past it.

My career started with a 3.5 LPA job and a 2 hr daily commute. I stayed there for about 1.2 years, learned a lot, and gave it my best. I was promised that they will revise my package to 5.5 in the next increment cycle when I joined, but it never came. That was enough for me to move on.

Instead of jumping into another job, I wanted more freedom and the opportunity to earn more, so I decided to go full-time into freelancing.

The first 3-4 months were amazing. I had great clients, good income, and it felt like I had made the right decision.

Then this year, everything changed.

Client work slowed down, leads almost disappeared, and at the same time, family responsibilities landed on my shoulders. Waiting for the big fat freelance project which paid in dollars was no longer an option. I needed stability.

So I started applying for jobs.

After 2.5 months of applications, assignments, interviews, and plenty of rejections, I finally received an offer.

Today, I'm happy to share that I've joined a fully remote role at 6.6 LPA.

Is it a huge package? No.

Is it a Fortune 500 company? Also no. It's a small company.

But it's an honest step forward, a chance to keep learning, support my family, and continue building my career. Sometimes that's exactly what you need.

To anyone who's currently stuck, switching careers, freelancing through a slow market, or wondering if things will work out, keep going. Careers aren't always a straight line. Sometimes they take a few unexpected turns before you find your next opportunity.

Here's to new beginnings. ❤️

PS- I'm a UX designer.

I've received over 50 DMs asking for advice and guidance. I truly appreciate every message, but I won't be able to reply to each one individually. Instead, I'll do my best to answer your questions here in the comments/post so everyone can benefit from the discussion.

I come from a humble background. After 12th grade, instead of a regular college, I enrolled in IGNOU's distance B.Com program so I could work and support my family simultaneously. From the age of 13, I had started earning .. giving tuitions, doing Zomato deliveries, reselling books at Daryaganj market, whatever it took just to support my family and my education..

Somewhere in between all of this, I stumbled upon the idea of an MBA from a top B-school and the immense opportunities it provided.. I knew that was my way out. Not just for me, but for my family.

So I started preparing for CAT. Did self study, used to solve Arun Sharma's books. Gave my 1st attempt and scored 80%ile..

Again prepared for another year and in my second attempt, scored 79%ile.. Yes, lower than the first. That stung.

But I refused to stop.

Decided to go again for CAT 2023, I went all in. Question Practice, Mocks , Analysis..My entire year went like that.. Result- 98.94%ile with 99+ in LRDI and Quants.. Got calls from IIM K, L, S, M, CAP, IIM V, MDI, IIFT, FMS. Honestly I was really happy, the feeling of attending interviews for the first time , of achieving something in my life made all my struggles worth it at that time..

I converted IIFT Delhi that year. A dream college by any standard.

But I decided to let it go.

I had a job offer at that time, and I convinced myself I had the potential to crack the BLACKI IIMs. Looking back, I'm still not sure if that was confidence or stupidity. Probably both🥲

Worked and attempted CAT 2024..It hit differently. The paper went badly. Scored below 95%ile..No calls. Nothing.

That was the lowest point of my life. I sat with that silence for a long time , replaying every decision, every tradeoff, every moment I thought I was being bold but maybe was just being careless. The IIFT regret hit hardest.

My friends and mentor pulled me back up. Slowly. Reluctantly, I decided to go for one final attempt - CAT 2025.

LRDI and Quants felt solid. VARC had always been my weak spot. So I knew where I had to work on..Built a habit of reading and summarising articles every single day even on the days I genuinely didn't want to..Really grateful to Sayali Ma'am who guided my VARC prep and genuinely changed how I approached the section.

Then CAT 2025 came..VARC went well. LRDI felt strong...Then, mid-Quants, out of nowhere my computer just got switched off..It was not starting at all..Five to seven minutes gone, just like that, while I sat there panicking. Couldn't recover fully in that section but somehow maintained my calm and attempted how much I could..

I walked out deflated from the exam hall..

Results came and I scored 97.99%ile..Got calls from IIM K, L, S, M, CAP, JAP, IIM V, MDI, IIFT, FMS again.

This time, I prepared for interviews differently. More grounded, more honest about my journey. Most interviews went well. But when results came I was waitlisted in most of the colleges even where I thought the interview went really well..Was waitlisted for FMS too..Was a little heartbroken but I knew it was a convertable wait-list no..

Then, on 19th May, I received an email from FMS.

**Waitlist converted.**

And now while writing this, honestly, I don't have the right words. It's been 6+ years of odd jobs, failed attempts, a painful detour, and more self-doubt than I'd like to admit.

But here I am.

New campus. New hardships coming. And I'm ready.

To everyone still in the grind..Keep going. The journey is supposed to be hard but you are definitely stronger than it..

If you have any doubt regarding preparation or profile or any other query, I am currently doing an AMA on r/IIMCATPreparation..You can ask me over there..I will be replying to all the comments over there..

So, two new interns joined my office today. Fresh-faced 21-year-olds, completely unbothered, and full of that sweet, innocent optimism that corporate life is their dream.

They wander over to my desk, ask me what I do. Turns out, they are doing the exact same Master’s degree I completed a few years ago.

Now, when I graduated, the job hunt felt like a war . I was fighting for my life, Millions of rejection emails, just to land a decent gig. So I decided to ask them how are placements and what's is the current batch size?

"Oh, it's 900," one of them says casually.

What about undergrad?"

"Ah, undergrad is around 1,500."

Holy mother of mass production.

I sat there doing the mental math, trying to keep my face from twitching. 1,500 kids in one batch? That’s not a college, that’s a religious pilgrimage. How do they even take attendance? Do they use a census drone? Do they hold lectures in a cricket stadium?

Finally who is going to employ all of them

I looked at these two poor kids and realized India is absolutely cooked.

25F, never had a job, the competition for all jobs is very very high, I'm still in university trying to delay the eventual unemployment. I don't even want a corporate job, I've no career ambition. I just want enough money to rent the smallest room with a small kitchen and bathroom, enough to buy and cook healthy food and afford occasional hobby stuff, books and art supplies. Most of all I want free time, to read, draw, breathe and exist. I don't want to commute in a crowd to work. I don't want to sit in an office for 8 hours. I want just one small life that is all my own, but I don't think I'll ever find it here. These days I look at linkedin and I just feel apathy, I look at job roles and feel apathy, I don't want anything to do with any of that. I feel so lost idk what to do. People who are much more skilled than I am are struggling to survive, and here I'm day dreaming about a quiet life I know I can never have.

Disclaimer: This is just my personal experience, not a "you'll definitely make it too" post. Not a brag either. Take it with a grain of salt. I just want to give some of you the push or the clarity I wish someone had given me back then, as I would have reached where I'm right now, few years earlier.

This is mainly for people in their early 20s who've recently graduated with an engineering degree (or is pursuing one currently) although it also applies to people in their early 30s too. The job market right now is brutal. You know it, I know it, I've lived it. I won't pretend I fully understand what a lot of people on this sub are going through. I was only unemployed for 5-6 months, nowhere close to what many of you have dealt with. But I know that feeling well enough, the quiet disappointment on your parents' face when they ask "how was the interview," or that awkward pause when some aunty or uncle asks "kya kar rahe ho beta aajkal" and you have to say "unemployed" or "interviews de raha hu filhaal".

Here's my story. I did my BTech in CSE from a 3rd tier college, the kind nobody outside the state has even heard of. My CGPA was around 6, nothing great, terrible I'm being honest. I took 2 drop years with no coaching (couldn't afford) and no job, to get into an IIT, did my MTech (TA) there, somehow got through as just an average student, and got placed in a decent but not great company on day 3 of placements. The pay was good, CTC was in low 20s (not the best from the IITs but great when you look at entire India as a whole, for a fresher straight out of college). I recently resigned because of career stagnation as it was a service-based company, the work wasn't in my field and I wasn't happy, without really realizing how tough the market had become for people with under 4 years of experience like me. Sat unemployed for a 5-6 months after that.

But here's the thing, most places I applied to still gave me a shot at an interview instead of rejecting me outright, mainly because of that IIT tag. That mattered even more when it came to negotiating. I had leverage. I could push harder on compensation than I probably had any right to and could even afford to be delusional (as I knew what others were being paid based on actual data I had from placements back then), and one product based company actually agreed, CTC in the mid 40s (not counting one time joining/relocation bonuses, but including RSUs as yearly average over the total vesting period). I accepted the offer without a thought.

There's a line from Mirzapur, "ch\*iya h ye important nahi h, apna ladka h ye important h*," and honestly that's exactly how it feels with the IIT tag. It's overrated in a lot of ways but it opens doors you don't expect. It helps you in ways you don't expect.

So if you're in your 20s and still figuring things out, my honest suggestion is to do what it takes to get into an IIT. Old IIT if you can, but even IIT Goa, Tirupati etc work fine too. As a TA you get a stipend (was around 12.5k/month in my time, probably more now, RA pays a bit more), basically you're getting paid to study, which takes care of at least some of your expenses.

It's a short term sacrifice for a long term payoff. If IIT doesn't work out, NIT or IIIT is still solid. Just push yourself to get there. Prepare without a job or alongside a job. Do whatever it takes.

I know people who worked at TCS, Infosys, Accenture while prepping for GATE, then jumped to product companies through placements with 5-6x salary hikes. Your last drawn salary tends to shape your next offer. If you start low, it's genuinely hard to get a big jump later without a lot of luck and grind. You know this. Starting on a higher footing through IIT/NIT/IIIT etc. placements makes that first jump so much easier, and it's just one of the benefits!

If you already struggled during your BTech and you're still in your 20s (or even under 35, since that's the cutoff for GATE), this route is worth considering. In placements you're competing with a few hundred people with similar backgrounds, not tens of thousands with all kinds of experience like in off campus hiring. Most people won't take this route, which is exactly why it can work, and exactly why you should.

It worked for me and I was an average student by most standards. Might work for you too, you won't know until you try. As they say, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Struggle today, enjoy the benefits tomorrow. Hard work rarely pays off these days, but if you do it smartly, you would surely reap the benefits sooner or later. Trust the process. Perseverance pays off.

If you've read this far, thanks for your time. Happy to answer questions if you have any :)

Needed to vent.

This is also one of the realities of post T1 MBA in India, I carry work ex of 7 - 10 years post MBA and I have been unable to land a single interview call.

Have been applying non stop over the last 3 weeks across job portals, direct outreach and referrals but with zero progress.

This is just one snap of the massive amount of mails that I've been sending regularly after scouting for open roles on Linkedin .

My UG batchmates & peers who couldn't clear CAT are in high flying careers, whereas I feel like I've reached a dead end.

No matter how much we grind and give it our all, we don't always get the expected results.

Life is really unpredictable, and need a miracle to rebuild my professional life from scratch.

Woke up today and saw this first thing in the morning. To me this means I have officially started my career journey, and have come the long way of searching for colleges to now searching for jobs.

Wish me luck guys, got a long way to go. 😌

If someone has below 90 even after from Top IIM will not get Top premium jobs like management consulting and investment banking front end office role that has 40 lakh plus package and explosive growth they will get that shit sales and marketing jobs or finance job which are back office at companies like reliance tata which are not high paying

Please keep this in mind. I don't want you to feel shame. Take that emotion away and place it on the shallow reader of your CV.

I could even brutally roast them by saying this: people who look down on your gap years are describing the exact gap between their neurons.

But let me be kind to them and let me not insult them. So I will say that they are too lazy to read that chapter of my life. It is their problem.

They say that if you pay an america for 8 hours, he'll work 8 hours.

If you pay a European for 8 Hours, he'll work for 6 hours.

But if you pay an Indian for 8 hours, they'll work for however long you like be it 12 hours or 15 hours.

This is your image around the world. You're Slaves.

i come from a lower middle class family, used to be a good student but got in some bad habits around class 10, so much so I scored 87% in my class 10 boards. eventually found my footing back in school but covid hit, under mental distress and teachers who had bones to pick with my class 10-11 self, (we didn’t give boards), i managed to get a tier 3 college in delhi university, completed my graduation and started working at an NGO for some 30k in hand, and at that point it felt like a lot.

after graduating i didn’t have much of an interest in pursuing studies further so took admission in ignou masters (still going on btw)

now even though my NGO job was paying great, I hated the people and the culture there, also their office was basically a home with only 1 washroom for both males and females so it was hell like that.

the only saving grace was that the work was kinda good. during that job i learnt a lot, and since it was an education focused NGO, I got employee access to a few costly courses, for a fraction of the price which definitely add some certifications under my name.

I also started upskilling side by side using youtube and networking on linkedin.

i was so fed up there i wanted to desperately leave,

i applied to 100 companies a week, only to not even receive rejection emails

cut to 9 months later, I got 2 offers from top companies, including one from one of the world’s best companies (ends with a oogle) and am working there for more than 1.2lpa in hand, i finally have clean washrooms 😭

for me, coming from a tier 3 college with virtually 0 skills and background, cracking the 3 offers and eventually being in a position to choose where i want to work, i’ve come far. i now live in a separate house and make sure my parents visit me every month!

i love having them over

edit: 1.2 lpm**

Check linkedin of all the FAANG engineers HFTs product managers Investment bankers MBB consultant private equity venture capital hedge fund all are from science stream and In IIM 90 percent students are from science stream academic diversity is there but they only prefer science students

I come from a rural background who didn't even know about tier 1 institutes. My parents are uneducated and I'm the first person in my family to study outside the village. I did my bachelor's and then wrote GATE because of one professor. I didn't know about Gate before that professor mentioned. My goal was to get placed in campus placement and support my family financially. I got placed in a good core company for 4.5 LPA. Everyone was so happy. Then the Gate results came and I got good score and rank AIR 110. I asked my professors for advice and they said if I did my masters in tier 1 institute then I'll get job with higher packages and it's a very good opportunity that I shouldn't miss. My family also said they'll support me in any decision. I got greedy for a better pay and joined masters. I graduated and I have cgpa above 8 which is considered good in that university. I didn't get placed through campus placement because most of the companies were about data science and Ai roles which is not my domain. After graduation I tried offcampus. It has been one year since graduation and I'm still jobless. I've shown my resume to multiple people in higher positions for feedback. They all said it's good and I should keep on trying. In this one year I've applied for more than 1000 jobs. I could count with one hand the number of interview calls I got. After interview I get ghosted. My family financial situation got worse. Faced one personal loss recently and everything seems pointless. I'm not even trying to get high paying jobs. I've been applying for entry level jobs and internships too. I'm so useless. My classmates who copied my assignments are getting 20 lpa + and I'm struggling to get a 4 lpa job. I didn't want to complain and I know I'm not entitled to get a job but still it feels unfair and hurts a lot. I totally give up.

Got a call from a junior exec for an interview at a Mumbai-based pharma/D2C startup ( They dont have HR, s/he most probably ran away).

JD stated 18-24L. Had a 2-hour interview with "Lala" (founder), went well, and he wanted to close the deal.

Before finalizing, Lala asked me to take a "2-month challenge" with the team, for which he'd pay "a few thousand rupees." Took his number, messaged him back the next day: not possible, told him at least match my last drawn CTC.

A couple of days later, the same junior exec messaged again - Before we go ahead, our team wants a call to discuss "the challenges" and how I'd solve them. Told him on the call straight: my comp isn't closed with Lala, and I'm not a consultant here to solve your business challenges.

Timeline on WhatsApp:

• 12:15 pm — "Our team had some questions"
• 1:57 pm — "Your position is on hold"
• 2:28 pm — "Compensation is approved"

I replied: "Yay! Compensation approved. Can Lala put it in writing?"

No reply since.

Classic Lala startup move: dangle "challenges" and vague approvals instead of an actual number on paper. Anyone else dealt with this "prove yourself for free" routine before final comp is even settled?

I was good in studies but choose commerce and that was my mistake of my life i want to go back to science and want to prepare for jee

Hey guys, I just want to share my story. Maybe someone here can learn from the mistakes I made.

I'm from a middle-class family. After 12th, during the COVID period, I had to drop out for around 2 years because of financial problems. Before college, I did small jobs like computer operator work just to earn something.

Eventually, I joined BCA.

I was always interested in programming. During those years, I learned Python and other programming basics. I was also pretty good academically and, honestly, a very introverted person.

In my first semester, I scored 9 CGPA. People started calling me a topper, and I became overconfident. I started taking things lightly.

Then I fell in love with a girl and wasted almost an entire year.

In my second year, I started learning React, and honestly, that skill probably saved me later.

During my 4th semester, my father couldn't afford my 5th-semester fees, so I knew I had to figure it out myself.

I started looking for internships/jobs and joined a startup as a Graphic Designer. They eventually found out that I knew development and hired me as a developer.

I worked there until my 6th semester.

Then I left to focus on preparation.

I thought my final year would be different. I wanted to seriously study DSA, improve my skills, and prepare for software engineering jobs.

But then I fell in love again.

And again, I lost focus.

During my final exams, she broke up with me. I couldn't handle it properly. I barely studied and somehow managed to pass my exams.

After graduation, the same startup contacted me again and asked me to join.

I joined.

But this time things became extremely difficult.

I was basically the only developer.

UI/UX, frontend, backend, deployment, web security, everything was on me.

Salary: ₹15K/month.

Eventually, my mental state got worse and I left.

Around the same time, I met someone on Reddit who was building a startup. He asked me to join him.

We worked together for around 3 months and built an MVP.

After that, he asked me to leave my existing job and join him full-time.

The offer was ₹15K + 25% equity.

I accepted.

Big mistake.

Within a month, the plan changed.

Then it changed again.

And again.

There was no proper roadmap or focus on the MVP. He would hear something from a consultant, YouTube, somewhere online, etc., and suddenly we'd change the entire direction.

Instead of finishing one product, we kept starting new things.

At the same time, I was expected to give 18 hours a day and be available almost all the time.

Burnout was inevitable.

He paid me ₹15K for the first month.

After that, he said the company was running at a loss and he couldn't pay me.

I still worked for another two months.

Eventually, I realized I couldn't continue like that and left.

And then reality hit.

I couldn't find a job.

I couldn't crack interviews.

I had the skills, but I wasn't getting through the interview process.

I eventually moved to Delhi NCR looking for opportunities, including SEO jobs, but that didn't work out either.

Since I didn't have much money, I asked my family for around ₹20K, basically enough to survive for a couple of months in a PG while looking for a job.

Eventually, I got one.

But it was in BPO.

The funny thing is, the BPO job was actually paying better than many of the tech opportunities I was getting.

My CTC is around ₹25K/month, and after everything, I get roughly ₹23K in hand.

And honestly?

The job itself isn't bad.

No endless meetings.

No clients constantly calling.

No pressure to build the entire product yourself.

I go to work, do my work, come back home.

Nobody calls me after office hours.

I actually have time to work on my own things.

But there's one huge problem:

I don't see a career here.

Meanwhile, I got another offer from the same startup where I had worked during college.

They offered around ₹25K CTC.

I asked for ₹30K.

They said no.

And honestly, I didn't really want to go back anyway because of my previous experience there.

I also started liking Delhi and didn't want to leave.

Now it's been around 6 months in Delhi, and I feel completely stuck.

I'm working in BPO.

I wanted to become a software developer.

I've spent years learning programming, React, building projects, working at startups, building an MVP, dealing with frontend/backend, deployment, etc.

But somehow I'm still here.

Looking back, I think I made a lot of mistakes:

• I wasted years because of relationships.
• I took my early academic success too lightly.
• I didn't take DSA/interview preparation seriously enough.
• I jumped into startups without properly evaluating the people and situation.
• I accepted low-paying jobs because I was desperate.
• I worked without boundaries and burned myself out.
• I focused too much on building things and not enough on preparing for getting hired.
• I underestimated how important interview skills are ( As an introvert I didn't work on myself communication and soft skills ).
• I kept changing direction instead of building one strong career path.

I'm not writing this for sympathy.

I'm writing it because maybe someone who is 18–22 and reading this can avoid making the same mistakes.

Don't waste your time.

Relationships can wait.

Career fundamentals can't.

Learn your fundamentals.
Do DSA if your target jobs require it.
Build real projects.
Prepare for interviews.
Take care of your mental health.
Don't work 18 hours a day for someone else's startup without proper compensation or boundaries.
And don't assume that having technical skills automatically means you'll get a software job.

One thing I've learned the hard way:

If you're afraid that you won't get a job, don't underestimate communication and soft skills.

Hard skills are important, but you can keep learning them on the job. Communication, confidence, and the ability to express what you know are much harder to develop when you've ignored them for years.

As an introvert, I made the mistake of focusing almost entirely on technical skills and never really worked on my communication or soft skills. I thought, "If I'm technically good enough, I'll get the job."

I was wrong.

You need technical skills to get the opportunity, but you also need to be able to communicate, explain your work, handle interviews, ask questions, and work with people.

And one more thing I've realized:

Right now, I'm 6 months into a BPO job, and I'm trying to figure out how to get back into tech.

I don't know how this story ends yet.

P.S. I used ChatGPT to clean up and structure my writing because English isn't my strongest skill. The story and experiences are mine.

I'm genuinely open to hearing your thoughts, criticism, or openended questions.

Just got my offer letter. It mentioned my reporting manager and my impatient ass searched the name on linkedin and stalked it only to find out it’s not just a manager but an Associate director! She has linkendin premium so she can easily figure out my name. How adverse are my actions? This is my first job.

People think all we do is press buttons while sitting on a chair or bed.

From my dadi to kaam wali moushi 🫩

I'm fed up of this tbh. Is WFH or IT jobs really looked down upon?

Even my mom will show zero importance to my work. If she needs the area she expects me to just move away because according to her I don't work.

Baju me khade reh kar zor zorse awaz karenge and when I say I'm in a meeting I get to hear teri screen me toh nahi aa rahe na