Modest dream, early setbacksGrowing up as an “above-average student” who eventually completed a BCA and MCA from a Tier-3 college, the techie admitted that programming never came naturally to him. “My biggest dream was to earn ₹30,000 per month,” he wrote. “I used to think, ‘That’s ₹1,000 a day. ’ That was my definition of success. I never imagined earning ₹1 lakh a month. ”But his corporate entry was turbulent. Out of a team of nine freshers, he was one of three let go. 5 years at a smaller company, the techie shared that he capitalised on the pandemic-era tech hiring boom. However, the transition was far from smooth. “I struggled badly. I lacked exposure, my confidence dropped, and I was even placed on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP),” he recalled. ”After spending nearly four years at Capgemini, battling stagnant wages, the techie shared he eventually left the company, earning just ₹10 LPA—a mere ₹50,000 increment over four years. The turning point came during his negotiations with HCL. “When you don’t have many options, you often have to accept things you normally wouldn’t,” he explained. ”He did exactly that, eventually securing a competing offer for ₹20 LPA. When he informed HCL, they initially capped their counter at ₹17 LPA. Forced to compete, HCL eventually matched the ₹20 LPA offer. Leaving a final piece of advice for other struggling IT professionals, he said: “You don’t have to be the smartest coder in the room. You don’t need perfect communication skills from day one. You might get rejected, laid off, put on a PIP, or made to feel like you’re not good enough.
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