I am here to seek advice, on what you do when you have significant capital and are midway in your FIRE Journey.

Let me give background on my profile and portfolio.

- Mid-career in hardware, based in India. Currently making 1+cr a yr.

- recently benefited with AI led stock boom.

- real estate assets: 2 flats ~4cr . Lands : ~2.5cr

- RSU : 5+ cr

- Other assets : NPS, PF, Gold, MF,etc: 1cr

- Debt : 50L (housing loan)

On my next phase:need to reduce my dependency on RSU.I typically take out 10% of RSU every year to invest/diversify. Due to lack of better investment options, as compared to growth potential in stock - i haven't withdrawn more.

I feel a strong need to build an asset for regular inflation adjusted income. So thinking of incrementally build commercial real estate assets for regular income.

Also , thinking of singing up with PMS.

What i need from you.

- Assuming i can withdraw 50L-1cr every year or two.. where do I invest?

- any reference for good PMS services?

- any good investment options (willing to take moderate risk)

Note: Content refined with AI.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some honest feedback/mentorship on a side-hustle idea I’m planning to scale.

The Context:

I’m a Tier-3 grad with ~15 years in Semiconductor Design. I’ve spent over a decade at a top-tier MNC and, frankly, got lucky with the recent AI-driven stock boom. I’m not at a "never work again" FIRE stage yet, but I’m comfortable enough to start planning my exit strategy for the next 10 years. I want to build something now that I can transition into full-time when I "retire" from the corporate grind.

The Idea: Semiconductor Career Mentorship (The "Tier-3 to Tier-1" Bridge)

In the last 5 years, I’ve hired 50+ candidates. For every hire, we filter 100+ resumes. My takeaway? About 50% are genuinely lost, but another 40% are actually talented—they just have zero clue how to navigate the gatekeeping.

I’ve spent the last two years informally mentoring about 10 people. 8 of them landed roles at Tier-1 product MNCs. I realized there’s a massive GTM (Go-To-Market) strategy for your career that isn't taught in colleges or coaching centers.

Why me?

The Struggle: I did the Tier-3 to Product jump myself back when it was "impossible." I built a 4k LinkedIn network before I even graduated just to get an internship.

The Network: I’m sitting on a 25k+ professional network now. I’ve realized that for many, a referral plus 2 weeks of targeted technical polishing is the difference between a rejected resume.

The View from the Inside: I’ve moved into technical leadership and hiring; I know exactly where the "Tier-2/3 disconnect" happens during the interview process.

The "Why":

The VLSI industry doesn't scale like software. We have maybe 3k entry-level roles a year, but a sea of graduates. I don’t want to compete with technical training institutes—I want to complement them by teaching the "last mile" of getting hired.

What I’m looking for:

I want to do this right, starting with acknowledgement that I don't know how to build a business. If you’re a senior professional or have built a coaching side-hustle or something similar or you like this idea: I need your feedback on:-

What am I missing? Is this a scalable "business" or just a hobby?

If you’re in Bangalore and want to grab coffee to talk shop/execution, I’d love to pick your brain for 30 mins (online is also fine).

Otherwise, tear the idea apart in the comments. I’m all ears.

Cheers!

#Note:

- Not looking for funding!

- Not looking for paid mentorship!

Note: Content refined with AI.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some honest feedback/mentorship on a side-hustle idea I’m planning to scale.

The Context:

I’m a Tier-3 grad with ~15 years in Semiconductor Design. I’ve spent over a decade at a top-tier MNC and, frankly, got lucky with the recent AI-driven stock boom. I’m not at a "never work again" FIRE stage yet, but I’m comfortable enough to start planning my exit strategy for the next 10 years. I want to build something now that I can transition into full-time when I "retire" from the corporate grind.

The Idea: Semiconductor Career Mentorship (The "Tier-3 to Tier-1" Bridge)

In the last 5 years, I’ve hired 50+ candidates. For every hire, we filter 100+ resumes. My takeaway? About 50% are genuinely lost, but another 40% are actually talented—they just have zero clue how to navigate the gatekeeping.

I’ve spent the last two years informally mentoring about 10 people. 8 of them landed roles at Tier-1 product MNCs. I realized there’s a massive GTM (Go-To-Market) strategy for your career that isn't taught in colleges or coaching centers.

Why me?

The Struggle: I did the Tier-3 to Product jump myself back when it was "impossible." I built a 4k LinkedIn network before I even graduated just to get an internship.

The Network: I’m sitting on a 25k+ professional network now. I’ve realized that for many, a referral plus 2 weeks of targeted technical polishing is the difference between a rejected resume.

The View from the Inside: I’ve moved into technical leadership and hiring; I know exactly where the "Tier-2/3 disconnect" happens during the interview process.

The "Why":

The VLSI industry doesn't scale like software. We have maybe 3k entry-level roles a year, but a sea of graduates. I don’t want to compete with technical training institutes—I want to complement them by teaching the "last mile" of getting hired.

What I’m looking for:

I want to do this right, starting with acknowledgement that I don't know how to build a business. If you’re a senior professional or have built a coaching side-hustle or something similar or you like this idea: I need your feedback on:-

What am I missing? Is this a scalable "business" or just a hobby?

If you’re in Bangalore and want to grab coffee to talk shop/execution, I’d love to pick your brain for 30 mins (online is also fine).

Otherwise, tear the idea apart in the comments. I’m all ears.

Cheers!

#Note:

- Not looking for funding!

- Not looking for paid mentorship!

So it happened thrice with me. At three occasions in last 6 months either me or my wife were travelling solo with our young child. In all occasions, during checkin i realised window and adjacent middle seats were pre-assigned to us and we didn't have to pay anything extra for preferred seats.

How did that happen? Just curious.

I have spent 15+ years in product companies and last 5 years in handling recruitments for my org. I have processed over 5k+ profiles and hired over 30 candidates (less freshers and more experienced).

Here's a post on why most of the candidates fail to get shortlisted or get rejected in interview rounds.

Warning: I am going to keep it directly, non-sugar coating.

Here's a quick summary of my assessment, hopefully it will help you.

Why high entry criteria? VLSI is a specialized field, which often requires over 1+ year of rigorous on-job training for M.Tech freshers to become productive for team and often 2-3 years for leads/manager to trust you can work independently. Your failure to deliver is a job risk for leads/manager - hence the high criteria.

Reasons for rejection:

#1 Reason: Basic Technical competency

Out of 100 cv I receive, i will typically reject over 50 profiles on the ground of gross lack of technical knowledge. These are more or less hopeless cases as no amount of training effort can ever make them ramp up to the required level. If you can't draw a basic DFF circuit, how can you handle chip level complex timing signoff?

#2 Reason: Lack of thinking ability

These are another 40 out of 100 candidates, we call them muggers. They know a lot, ut at the same time their knowledge is useless.

They lack thinking ability, you change one variable in a standard question and they fall down like a pack of cards. Why we reject them: They can execute basic stuff, may be very very hard working - but without original thinking ability - you will never be able to take good ownership of projects or become leader.

#3 Reason: Practical experience

You have theoretical knowledge, but very limited hands on practical experience. You might know tons of theory but have not run sims - there's a world of knowledge out there u get to learn by doing handson. You lack this knowledge, and if interviewer is experienced - it's easy to tell from the kind of answers u give.

#4 Reason: Not knowing what u don't know.

This is a major redflag: We ask a question, u give a wrong answer and u don't even know if it wrong, or u try to sell your knowledge on other topic , while the interviewer asked something else. This is a trait of dishonesty and we don't trust such candidates.

#5 Reason: Attitude

We want people with a positive attitude and have ability to keep on learning for years to come. You are not hired for your achievement of past, rather what you can deliver tmr.

You have secured first rank, have 10 scholarship, etc.. etc.. that merely helps to just to get your cv shortlisted, may be a bit in interview. Beyond that - your performance on the interview decides whether you will get the job or not. This is quite abstract and I have many times got it wrong, but there are tricks to hack this up to some extent in the interviewer's mind.

Hope this helps. Happy to answer any followup questions you may have.

Best of luck!!

Added later: I received way too many queries I can answer even over the weekend. I am starting a 1-month cohort starting coming June. Please refer the cohort details here:

https://topmate.io/vicky_bhaiya/new/TFF9WbUaZH

Let me set the context: I work in vlsi with over 15+ YoE. I was planning to put out a post here to help aspirants with a strategy to get into dream companies, being from a tier-3 college, I fought my way into product, but my experience is not quite practical in today's time, hence I wanted to revise and propose a strategy relevant for today.

For this research: I need one small input from you all. Can you share following info with me (it's better if detailed)

1. Which college do you belong to (if not exact college name, give me category like IITs, NITs...)

2. How many VLSI companies visit your college for placement (count of product companies, service companies, etc)

3. How many students they hire (a breakup will help: like Intel hired 20, QCOM hired 10, etc..)

4. How many are hired as intern and later converted to full time?

5. What % of batch size was placed in product vs service (if any)

If you are not comfortable sharing specific details here, but still want to help me out: you can also send me a DM.

Please note: I am only accepting DMs for this survey, not in position to help with hiring at this moment.

TIA!