Did your career pan out the way you thought it would?

I remember when I started with 4 LPA in an MNC.
Hardly any engineers in the extended family other than WITCH folks.

I thought it’d take me at least 6-7 years to get to 1LPM if I’m lucky. That happened in two years.

Back then my chief architect with 25 YOE made 48 LPA. Thought I’ll never reach that number in my life. Now I make more with 6 YOE.

You never know where you’ll get. Just glad things went the way they did.

(Shameless plug I know but there’s hope folks. Don’t give up <3 )

Not a good question. The thing about life is you should always plan but very rarely should things go according to it. Because if they do, you're living someone else's. Thanks for listening to my Ted talk.

1. Decided to do B.Tech CSE at a T-2 college because at 17 you never know what your areas of interest are. Started to spend a bit of time on coding.
2. Lost my interest in coding. Never wrote a piece of code other than what was necessary to get decent grades.
3. Realised, I always performed well in aptitude tests even though I never practiced for it. Decided to attempt bank exams.
4. Got placed at a mid-level IT company with a package of 8L with a bit of luck because all they asked were aptitude questions and a bit of SQL (one of the rare tech skills I was actually good at). Gave up on bank exams at this point.
5. Decided to work for a year while preparing for CAT. Had a good WLB, so had plenty of time with me. Used to drag for 4 hours daily after dinner.
6. Joined a top B-School. This time I was clear I wanted a career in finance.
7. Learnt from my mistakes during my engg days and started to take things seriously. For first time in life, I felt I was in full control.
8. Got placed in an analytics firm with a 20+ CTC which was a bit of bad luck. Got promoted to within a year. Fought with my manager as well as the VP to give me an early release.
9. Left my job after I got a role in asset management at a mid-tier bank which was something I always wanted.

So here goes my career

1. First year of clg, started competitive programming, was among the top 20 coders in my batch, thought I would probably get 10+ CTC.

2. Later became the Highest rated coder, 6* on codechef, 1900+ on CF.

3. Got internship with 1.5L/mo stipend, but bad wlb, so quit without PPO.

4. Got an internship with 1.25L/mo stipend but here work culture was good, loved it. On conversion CTC would have been 50L+.

5. Got severe nerve pain in my legs due to backbone problem, now graduated in aug2023, sitting jobless at home as almost no one is hiring freshers for Remote.

Welcome to Life🥴

General direction, yes! Wanted to go to IIT, went to a local govt college, wanted to join a MNC, got a product based role. I like to dream big but I am also totally ok with wherever I end up after that. Like right now I dream of creating an awesome SaaS product, if it doesn't happen who cares. Its about enjoying the journey.

Earlier it was not, Now yes... Earlier used to be Mechanical Engineer and now working in the Big MNC as Designer

Thankfully no.

Ambition was to sell soaps & shampoo to the great unwashed.

Ended up coding, then selling people who code and then software. Definitely a more fulfilling deal.

Umm nope, and yes. Isn’t a positive surprise always a better thing?

Wanted to do something creative and to ensure that I solve problems. I am under confident with maths and logic. Ended in product management, hopefully will enjoy it.

Ye dukh kahe khatam nahi hota be ? 😵. Basically we are never satisfied, as we reach A, we think B will give us the real happiness and the rat race continues.