Professional journey milestones - 5 years
This month marks 5 years of my professional journey.
Sometimes I sit and think how desperately I wanted a job back then. Literally anything. I just wanted to start working and support my family somehow.
Back then, my family was under more than 15L debt. Some loans were from banks, some from relatives, and some from those instant loan apps that used to charge insane interest rates.
My Journey:
I had graduated in BSc Physics and honestly had started losing hope after hundreds of rejections. I even got scammed while job hunting. And then suddenly one day (on my grandfather's death anniversary), I got multiple offers on the same day.
In June 2021, I joined a service-based company in Gurugram as a Data Analyst Intern at 2.4 LPA. The work mostly involved repetitive operational tasks. I kept trying to automate things and continuously asked seniors to involve me in more technical work because I always felt underutilized. In Dec 2021, I got converted to full-time at 4.2 LPA plus small monthly incentives.
I started looking outside and eventually moved to Bangalore in March 2022 to join a startup at around 6 LPA. Bangalore expenses were much higher than I expected and despite switching companies, I still wasn’t able to contribute enough financially at home. So after office hours, I started taking online Data Science tuition classes to earn extra income.
After around a year, I got increment to around 7 LPA. During that time, I was already working very closely with the Data Engineering team and handling many similar responsibilities. So when the company started hiring for Data Engineering roles, I asked to transition officially. They said “You don’t have a tech degree, we can't move you to the Engineering team.”
One of the seniors later suggested I join the some online program from IITM to compensate for the absence of a formal tech degree. I enrolled.
At the same time, many Data Engineers left within a short span. Work pressure increased continuously, startup environments demanded learning new things quickly and putting extra hours. So eventually I had to stop taking tuition classes.
In Sep 2023, the company finally moved me into the engineering side as an Associate Software Engineer (with no compensation change). That year, I received: 3 Performance of the Month awards, 1 Quarterly Performer award
In Jan 2024, I got promoted to Software Engineer at 10 LPA. But the workload also exploded. When I initially joined the engineering side, there were around 6 Data Engineers in the team. By Jan 2024, only 2 were left. By March 2024, I was the only Data Engineer in the team. There were days where work stretched to 12-13 hours continuously. I again received Performance of the Month in April 2024.
Then in June 2024, my Engineering Manager resigned. That period became extremely difficult because suddenly I was attending more meetings, managing more responsibilities, while simultaneously preparing for IITM exams on weekends. Eventually in Sep 2024, I resigned because burnout had reached its limit.
After that, I joined a comparatively stable company at 17 LPA as a founding Data Engineer. Initially, the workload felt manageable for the first few months. But gradually responsibilities increased there too. At one point, I was taking around 28 interviews in a month while handling engineering tasks.
I slowly realized I was again moving more towards coordination and mentorship responsibilities instead of deep engineering work that I actually enjoyed. I had spoken to the Director who originally hired me got to know he decided to leave and start building his own company. I also decided to move on.
This time for a remote role at 35 LPA. I decided to take the leap.
And now, in May 2026, another major milestone happened. My family became debt-free. Not because of me alone. Because my father, my brother, and especially my mother continuously stood together through every difficult phase and contributed however they could.