AMA: Jumped from 29 LPA → 80 LPA TC after ~9 years in the industry (NIT alum). Here to help however I can.
Hey everyone - a friend is posting from my account as she genuinely wants to help but is lazy to create account and stuff.
A lot of people helped me during the prep so want to give it back . My recent experience because I know how confusing and discouraging the job market can feel at times.
I recently made a switch from a TC of 29 LPA to 80 LPA. I’m a NIT grad with close to 9 years of experience. I’m not in the “top bracket” or anything like that, but I genuinely feel blessed to have landed in a solid product company where the work and compensation both make sense for me.
My interview process had 5–6 rounds end-to-end. Along the way, I also received offers around 55 LPA and 43 LPA, so if anyone wants to understand how I approached negotiations, prep, or prioritizing companies, I’m happy to talk about it.
I’m doing this AMA because a lot of people helped me at different stages of my career, and this is my way of paying it forward. If you’re preparing, switching domains, stuck in your current role, or just need direction, feel free to ask. I’ll be as transparent as possible. Software engineer btw .
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Could you please share your preparation process and how you managed to get such offers and from which companies?
+1
So I was sort of clueless in the beginning on way to start the preparation, what I did was I applied for a series of services based companies which offer in the range of 40 LPA for a lead. I got some bit of interview confidence by talking to them and maybe I actually felt I would be around that range only that’s why I was talking to those companies, but when I was talking to them, I also applied for a bunch of start-ups and product companies as well. Fortunately, I got resume shortlist for them. One thing which I noticed was this product companies have a lot more structured set up. They mention what they ask in each interview beforehand and so I was able to prepare for those specifically. In my case I focused on easy and medium level DSA questions, and after that, I perfect at low level Design. It took me around 14 days for it. Obviously, this comes along with old baggage of prep that I did, after that, I spend some time on HLD coming to the companies there in the likes of Walmart, atlassian and others.
If you required to mention NIT after 9 years of exp. Then haven't still reached.
Yeah, still a long way to go :)
The reason I mentioned that is cos I think it played a role in my short list. I didn’t work at any big companies no fancy startups so my resume was fairly bland.
Recruiters from Product companies and startups still use these credentials as a first level shortlist, so it does matter.
Others have asked many of my questions.
The only thing I'd like to ask is - how did you get calls for these interviews?
Was it from referrals?
Or was it Naukri or Linkedin without referrals? Does that even work ?
Yeah, it was a combination of referrals and directly applying as well. But focus on companies that are setting up new offices. For example McD is coming up with a GCC in Hyderabad. Target is shifting a huge team to bangalore from outside India. A couple of other GCCs coming up in Hyderabad and bangalore. When you apply for these the short listing gets easier.
For me Naukri did work but not for product companies. Direct applying on website and referrals worked for product
Even I liked your question, everybody is talking far too ahead but that's the basic step of entering into interview rounds, which I'm kind of stuck in and cannot get into how hard I try for some or the other reason, not getting selected, even if my resume passes basic ATS requirement for the JD. God knows what's happening.
- Do you share your existing compensation ?
- How do they agree for more than 100 percent jump, most like to cap it to 40 percent
- Did you take offers from other companies and negotiate with this company
- Did you just verbally tell them you have other offers or sent screenshot
So I did share my existing compensation, but during the initial discussion, they said that it doesn’t matter based on your existing compensation. It is mostly band based for them, and if you are doing good in interviews, they were okay with keeping you in the band so where do you land in the band? Depends on your interview performance. At other companies showing an offer did work, but at the current company at which I landed offer at, I didn’t have to show any offer. I just said I am expecting slightly more and they adjusted and reverted back. Also, I was an immediate joiner so that helped a lot as well
Thank you!
How do you prepare for 5 rounds?
So DSA was common leet code prep only; spent time only on easy medium . I felt the common really cared about thought process than actual DSA. This could be cos it is at 9 yoe
On LLD - I first covered the theory in terms of concepts 5-6 key design patters solid principles, then looked at standard LLD videos. Did mocks with friends for 10 questions. Did external mock interviews via topmate with 3-4 others. Important aspect was time management
On HLD - almost similar pattern as above.
Behv- this company had almost equal focus on this. my friends were consultants and PMs so they were really good at STAR. With their help o prepared 20 STAR questions and practiced with them a lot. This part was pretty difficult
I wasn’t working so could spend 8-9 hours per day for 6 weeks
I have around 10-15 days available with me, due to shutdown n all. How should I spend time and what materials should I look into to prepare for dsa, hld, lld , so that I can start attending interviews from Jan. Im 10+ yrs experienced and in same tech stack as yours
🤔why would you go out of cisco?
Let me put together the content that I used and share. All the best for prep
I really appreciate it!! What is your tech stack?
Java back end engineer. Not from CS background sort of learnt it during jobs