u/Significant_Dot5737

Posting on behalf of a friend.

Her profile:

• General category female

• 10th: 95%

• 12th: 66%

• Took 2 gap years after 12th before starting college

• Planning to pursue a non-technical degree

She’s worried about whether her profile is already too weak for CAT and top MBA colleges.

Main concerns:

• Low 12th marks

• Two-year gap before college

Some questions:

• Can she still realistically target top IIMs if she scores very high in CAT?

• How much do the gap years affect shortlisting and interviews?

• Does being a female non-engineer significantly help offset these?

• How important will her graduation CGPA be from here onward?

• What percentile should she target to stay in contention for top colleges?

Would appreciate honest advice, especially from people with similar profiles or those who’ve seen such cases convert.

Is it just me or does anyone else do DSA like this?

I don’t memorize patterns. No sliding window, two pointers, DP, none of that. I just look at the problem and try to solve it with logic. Most of the time in my head, without using pen and paper and thought that was normal.

One day my friend asked me if I knew a pattern for a question. I said no, never heard of it.

He showed me the question and said this pattern works here.

I solved it anyway without knowing the pattern, just by thinking it through.

He looked at me and asked, “Who taught you that?”

Made me think... do some people just figure out patterns on their own instead of memorizing them?

Something I’ve noticed as I’ve grown older is that the more I understand, the harder it becomes to sit through weak reasoning.

Not because I expect everyone to know the same things, but because I notice how often confidence replaces thought. People defend ideas they haven’t examined, repeat beliefs they haven’t questioned, and avoid complexity because certainty feels easier.

I’ve seen this a lot in technical spaces, but honestly it feels broader than that.

At times, pattern recognition feels like an advantage. You can see inconsistencies, predict outcomes, and connect things faster.

But it can also feel isolating. Not because others “don’t get it,” but because once you notice certain patterns, it becomes hard to unsee them.

I’m curious if this is common here.

Does higher intelligence increase frustration with shallow thinking, or is that more about temperament than intelligence itself?

The more I learn, the more I notice how often people mistake confidence for understanding.

I don’t mean not knowing something. That’s normal. I mean weak reasoning presented with certainty.

In tech, I see it a lot. People defend tools without understanding tradeoffs. They copy systems without understanding why they exist. They optimize what’s visible instead of what matters.

It made me think about something broader.

Does intelligence change your relationship with the world by making patterns easier to see, or does it just make flaws harder to ignore?

At what point does awareness stop feeling useful and start becoming exhausting?

Went to a hackathon with a friend and we met a guy from BlackRock.

The moment my friend found out where he worked, he started treating him like some final boss of tech. Started asking for everything, LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub, resume, how many LeetCode problems he’d solved, Codeforces rating, what stack he uses, all of it.

The BlackRock guy answered everything calmly and then left.

As soon as he walked away, I said, “Doesn’t BlackRock pay kinda low though?”

My friend looked at me like I had just destroyed his whole career plan.

Never seen someone switch from worship mode to existential crisis that fast.

Went to a hackathon with a friend and we met a guy from BlackRock.

The moment my friend found out where he worked, he started treating him like some final boss of tech. Started asking for everything, LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub, resume, how many LeetCode problems he’d solved, Codeforces rating, what stack he uses, all of it.

The BlackRock guy answered everything calmly and then left.

As soon as he walked away, I said, “Doesn’t BlackRock pay kinda low though?”

My friend looked at me like I had just destroyed his whole career plan.

Never seen someone switch from worship mode to existential crisis that fast.

Went to a hackathon with a friend and we met a guy from BlackRock.

The moment my friend found out where he worked, he started treating him like some final boss of tech. Started asking for everything, LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub, resume, how many LeetCode problems he’d solved, Codeforces rating, what stack he uses, all of it.

The BlackRock guy answered everything calmly and then left.

As soon as he walked away, I said, “Doesn’t BlackRock pay kinda low though?”

My friend looked at me like I had just destroyed his whole career plan.

Never seen someone switch from worship mode to existential crisis that fast.

A year ago I was learning how APIs worked.

Since then I’ve kept building and picking things up as needed.

Started with frontend.

Then picked up backend for auth, file uploads, real-time features, caching, and database design.

Then deployment. Docker, CI/CD, Cloud Run, SSL, DNS, env configs, fixing production issues.

Picked up RAG, vector search, and tool calling. Had to learn OAuth, RBAC, rate limits, input validation, and secret handling too.

Most of it wasn’t planned. One thing needed another, and the scope kept growing.

I’m 21 now and the work looks different from when I started.

Did it go like this for you too?

A year ago I was learning how APIs worked.

Since then I’ve kept building and picking things up as needed.

Started with frontend.

Then picked up backend for auth, file uploads, real-time features, caching, and database design.

Then deployment. Docker, CI/CD, Cloud Run, SSL, DNS, env configs, fixing production issues.

Picked up RAG, vector search, and tool calling. Had to learn OAuth, RBAC, rate limits, input validation, and secret handling too.

Most of it wasn’t planned. One thing needed another, and the scope kept growing.

I’m 21 now and the work looks different from when I started.

Did it go like this for you too?

Around a year ago I was just trying to understand how APIs worked.

Since then I’ve spent most of my time building and figuring things out as I go.

Picked up WebSockets, queues, caching, database design, Docker, CI/CD, Cloud Run, SSL, DNS, and spent too much time fixing deployments.

Got into AI too. Mostly RAG, vector search, tool calling, and automations.

Had to learn security basics while building. OAuth, RBAC, rate limiting, secret handling, input validation.

Most of it wasn’t planned. One thing led to another and I kept learning whatever was needed.

Curious how it was for others. What changed the most for you in your first year?

I’ll go first.

We have a few Revops tools that all technically have reports, dashboards, exports, and integrations.

And yet every Monday, someone still manually copies numbers into a Google Sheet because that’s the version leadership actually reads.

It was supposed to be temporary.

We’ve tried to automate it more than once. Someone gets assigned. A script appears. An integration gets half-built. Then one field changes, an export breaks, the owner moves teams, and somehow the Sheet survives.

At this point it has outlived multiple people who confidently said, “I will fix this properly.”

The funny part is, everyone knows it’s fragile. Nobody really likes it. But the business depends on it now, so it keeps getting patched instead of replaced.

I’m curious how other RevOps/admin teams handle this kind of thing.

Where do you draw the line between:

• “This needs to be fixed properly”
• “This ugly thing is now production, so we should document it, assign an owner, and treat it that way”

Also, what usually causes these workflows to survive in your company?

For us it seems to be a mix of leadership trust, edge cases, field changes, and nobody wanting to break the one report people actually look at.

How do you handle these without letting the whole ops stack slowly turn into spreadsheet archaeology?

We have a few ops/admin tools that all technically have reports, dashboards, exports, and integrations.

And yet on mondays, someone manually copies numbers into a google sheet because that’s the version leadership actually reads.

It was supposed to be temporary.

We’ve tried to automate it more than once. Someone gets assigned. A script appears. An integration gets half-built. Then one field changes, an export breaks, the owner moves teams, and somehow the sheet survives.

atp it has outlived multiple people who confidently said, “I’ll fix this properly.”

Everyone knows it’s fragile. Nobody likes it. the business depends on it now, so it keeps getting patched instead of replaced.

I’m wondering where the line is between:

- “This needs to be fixed properly”

- “This ugly thing is now production, so we should document it, monitor it, and assign an owner”

$1,400. 34 days overdue. Invoice opened 6 times (I can see it). Zero replies.

This person was on Slack in minutes during the project. Loved every deliverable.

Said "let's definitely work together again." Then I sent the final files and they went into witness protection.

I just spent 45 minutes writing email #4. "Hi Don, just wanted to follow up one more time!" Calm. Professional. Completely losing it on the inside.

The work took 3 weeks. Chasing the payment has taken longer.

What kills me is I saw it coming. Once I delivered, response times went from minutes to days.

"Let's hop on a call" turned to "I'll circle back."

Circle back means: I have your files. I don't have your money. 🥲

I do good work. I deliver early. I communicate. None of it matters once they have what they need.

nobody tells you freelancing means chasing money you already earned.

has anyone actually gotten paid after a client ghosts? what worked if anything?

I’m a freelancer.

Sometimes it feels like the actual work is the easiest part.

It’s everything around it.

Clients disappearing after delivery.
Payments getting delayed.
Scope changing halfway through.
Random urgent deadlines.
Endless revisions.

Feels like everyone has at least a story.

What’s been the most frustrating thing you’ve dealt with?

I’m a freelancer.

Sometimes it feels like the actual work is the easiest part.

It’s everything around it.

Clients disappearing after delivery.
Payments getting delayed.
Scope changing halfway through.
Random urgent deadlines.
Endless revisions.

Feels like everyone has at least a story.

What’s been the most frustrating thing you’ve dealt with?

I’m a freelancer, and honestly...

sometimes it feels like the actual work is the easiest part.

It’s everything around it.

Clients disappearing after delivery.
Payments getting delayed.
Scope changing halfway through.
Random urgent deadlines.
Endless revisions.

Feels like everyone has a story.

What’s been the most frustrating thing you’ve dealt with?

I’m a freelancer, and honestly...

sometimes it feels like the actual work is the easiest part.

It’s everything around it.

Clients disappearing after delivery.
Payments getting delayed.
Scope changing halfway through.
Random urgent deadlines.
Endless revisions.

Feels like everyone has a story.

What’s been the most frustrating thing you’ve dealt with?

With all layoffs happening everywhere, I took a crazy decision

I left one of my jobs, I was earning a great salary, working fully remote, and had my manager who literally told me he'd increase my pay as much as needed to keep me. On paper, it was the kind of job people are desperately trying to hold onto right now.

But I still walked away to build my startup.

A lot of people think AI is changing everything and making skills less important.

My experience has been the opposite.

The only reason I was able to take that risk was because I had confidence in my skills. Jobs come and go, companies hire and lay off, technologies evolve, but your ability to create value remains.

In an era of AI, layoffs, and uncertainty, the thing that matters most is still the same: skills.

Not your title.

Not your company.

Not even your current salary.

Your skills are the one asset that moves with you wherever you go.

Anyone else here left a comfortable job to bet on themselves?

With all layoffs happening everywhere, I took a crazy decision

I left one of my jobs, I was earning a great salary, working fully remote, and had my manager who literally told me he'd increase my pay as much as needed to keep me. On paper, it was the kind of job people are desperately trying to hold onto right now.

But I still walked away to build my startup.

A lot of people think AI is changing everything and making skills less important.

My experience has been the opposite.

The only reason I was able to take that risk was because I had confidence in my skills. Jobs come and go, companies hire and lay off, technologies evolve, but your ability to create value remains.

In an era of AI, layoffs, and uncertainty, the thing that matters most is still the same: skills.

Not your title.

Not your company.

Not even your current salary.

Your skills are the one asset that moves with you wherever you go.

Anyone else here left a comfortable job to bet on themselves?