u/VegetableLive9495

I'm a 23F working as a patent professional at a law firm in India, currently earning around ₹10 LPA with 2.5 years of experience.

Lately, I've been questioning whether this is the right long-term career for me. One of my biggest concerns is the salary growth in this field in India. It seems like compensation slows down after a point, and I'm not sure if that's actually true or just my perception.

I'm currently deciding between two paths:

- Prepare for CAT examination this year and pursue an MBA.
- Prepare for the Indian Patent Agent Exam next January and then try to move into an in-house IP role.

By the time I make my next switch, I'll probably have around 3–3.5 years of experience, and hopefully the Patent Agent qualification as well.

For those already working in the industry:

⁠What salary range is realistic at that level of experience?
⁠Does clearing the Patent Agent Exam significantly improve compensation?
⁠Is it actually possible to reach ₹20–30 LPA within 3–4 years in the Indian patent/IP industry, or is that unrealistic?

4 Are there people here who are genuinely earning well in this field, especially outside of senior management or partner-level roles?

I'd really appreciate hearing from people who've been in the industry for a while and can share what career progression and compensation actually look like.

A long story, but here it goes.

My boyfriend (24M) and I (23F) have been together for a little over 14 months. He works in Mumbai, but we actually met at a gym in our hometown when he was visiting his family for a few days. He had joined the gym during his visit to stay consistent with his workouts. Our relationship started off as long distance even though we both belong to the same hometown because he had to return to Mumbai for work. During that visit we met multiple times and went on several dates before making it official because even after our first date, we both felt like we'd clicked in a way neither of us had experienced before. Very early on, we both genuinely believed we'd found "the one." Our relationship was honestly everything I could have asked for. He was the sweetest, gentlest, most caring, shy, nerdy guy I'd ever met. We were completely obsessed with each other, and cheating or betrayal was never something I ever worried about.

About six months into our relationship (around November 2025), my life completely fell apart. My mom suddenly became critically ill and, over the next few months, she was admitted to the ICU around 7–8 times, one hospitalization after another. From November 2025 to January 2026, my entire life revolved around hospitals. My parents are unfortunately not very cooperative with each other, so almost the entire responsibility of managing hospital admissions, doctors, paperwork, medicines, decisions, and emergencies fell on me.

That was the most traumatic time of my life. Running to the hospital at 1 a.m. multiple times, watching her in so much pain and helplessness, not sleeping properly for months, trying to also show up at work while constantly living in survival mode, it completely broke me. My physical and mental health deteriorated, my work started falling apart, and I was so stressed that I didn't even get my periods for almost three months. Naturally, my relationship took a backseat during that time. I wasn't choosing to neglect it; I was simply trying to keep my mother alive.

On 31st January 2026, the day my mom got discharged from one of her last hospitalizations, my boyfriend told me he wanted to talk. He said he completely understood everything I'd been going through, but admitted that this had been going on for a long time and that he had started feeling extremely lonely and emotionally distant from me. While it hurt to hear because I wasn't choosing to be in this situation and he had witnessed firsthand the worst phase of my life, I still understood where he was coming from. I told him I was still caught up in the discharge process and asked if we could talk properly the next day.

The following day (1st February 2026), we spoke again, and during that conversation he mentioned he was going to meet a female friend for dinner. I didn't think much of it. At that point my mind was so mentally exhausted that I barely had the emotional capacity to process anything outside the hospital. More importantly, I trusted him completely.

About two weeks later, he confessed everything to me.

He told me that during those three months he had been feeling incredibly lonely and emotionally isolated. To give a little background, he had moved to Mumbai about two-three years ago and had switched from a small hybrid startup to a large MNC just a month before all my mom's hospitalizations began. He absolutely loved his previous job, and almost all of his close friends were from that workplace. Around the same time, he had also shifted to a new flat where his flatmates both had girlfriends and mostly kept to themselves. Between losing his old work friends, adjusting to a completely different corporate culture that he hated, living with people who weren't really available, and me suddenly becoming emotionally unavailable because of everything happening at home, he says he felt completely alone. He said he desperately wanted someone to talk to and simply wanted to make a few friends.

He told me that because his Bumble account had already been permanently blocked due to a prank involving the app that had happened much earlier (something he had actually told me about near the beginning of our relationship, so I knew this wasn't something he had made up during the confession), he downloaded Tinder instead since it was the only dating app he had used before.

When creating his account, he says he selected both men and women because he was genuinely looking for friends. According to him, almost all the men who matched with him were seemingly gay and weren’t looking for just friends, so he got uncomfortable and eventually decided to meet a girl instead, insisting that in his mind it was only supposed to be a platonic friendship.

The girl he met that evening was someone from Tinder and not his “friend from college”. He says he told her right from the beginning that he had a girlfriend and wasn't looking for anything romantic. After dinner, they went for a walk on the beach. At one point he mentioned that long distance had been difficult lately, and the girl, who apparently described herself as being in her "bad girl era," kissed him.

He says he was shocked, immediately pulled away, ended the evening, dropped her home, and left feeling sick with guilt.

According to him, the guilt was so overwhelming that for a while he even tried to emotionally sabotage our relationship because he felt I deserved someone better. But after thinking about it, he realized he couldn't throw away the relationship he'd always wanted. So he decided to tell me everything, knowing there was a very real chance I'd leave him.

When he confessed, he never blamed me for what happened. He didn't minimize it or shift responsibility onto my situation. He repeatedly called it a mistake that happened because he wasn't thinking clearly, took full ownership of his actions, answered every question I had honestly, and said he was willing to accept whatever decision I made. He only asked for one chance if I believed he had the capacity to grow, understand boundaries better, and never repeat something like this again.

The hardest part for me was that the man I had known for all those months felt completely different from the person who made that decision that day. It was such a stark contrast that I genuinely struggled to reconcile the two versions of him. Even then, I couldn't bring myself to see him as a villain. My heart kept telling me that he was a better man than the mistake he had made.

So, despite how incredibly difficult it was, I decided to give the relationship another chance, but almost like a probationary period. We mutually agreed that rebuilding trust would take time, and if I ever had even the slightest doubt about him again, I would be completely justified in walking away, no questions asked.

It's now been almost six months since the incident. Thankfully, my mom is doing much better, my own life has stabilized, and I've even moved to a city much closer to his for work, so I can visit him almost every month now. Since then, he has consistently shown up for me, been patient and kind as he’s always been, and in every other aspect continues to be one of the best people I know.

But I also know that trust is like glass. Once it's shattered, even if it's repaired, the cracks never completely disappear.

So every now and then, I still find myself wondering whether giving us another chance because I believed in who he is was the right decision, or whether I should have been brave enough to walk away the moment it happened.
I'd genuinely love to hear opinions from people who have no emotional involvement in this situation.

Indian Patent Job Market: What salary can I expect?

Indian Patent Job Market: What salary can I expect?

My boyfriend (24M) kinda cheated on me (23F) during the worst phase of my life. What would you have done?