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TL;DR

I'm 23, from India, working as an Application Security Engineer. I have ~2 years of corporate experience, was intern in Deloitte later joined this company, ~3 years of startup experience, 4 years of bug bounty, and I'm a Synack Red Team member with some decent achievements.

On paper, I feel like I'm doing pretty well, decent paying job, good worklife balance, but dont know about future

But honestly, I'm scared as hell about my career and future.

I don't know what I should specialize in next, what skills are actually worth learning, or how I'm supposed to get better-paying opportunities, especially internationally.

---

Hey everyone,

I'm 23 years old and from India. I'm currently working as an Application Security Engineer at a service-based company.

I previously interned at Deloitte and have around 2 years of corporate experience and roughly 3 years of startup experience. I've also been doing bug bounty for around 4 years and I'm a member of the Synack Red Team.

Some things I've managed to achieve so far:

• Recognized on Microsoft's Most Valuable Security Researcher leaderboard
• Ranked #22 globally on Microsoft's Top Security Researchers leaderboard for Q3
• Hall of Fame at Google, Apple, Microsoft, and others
• My research has been mentioned at Black Hat USA

Certifications

• CREST Practitioner Security Analyst (CPSA)
• eJPT v2
• ICCA

Technically, I feel pretty comfortable with and i'm good with:

• Web/API pentesting
• Mobile pentesting
• Network pentesting
• Thick-client pentesting
• AD pentesting (decent, but not expert level)
• Bug bounty / vulnerability research
• Building pentesting and automation tools using Go and Shell

And this is where my problem starts.

I genuinely don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do next.
I can't shake this feeling that i will fall behind.

Every time I look at security job openings, I get even more confused.

One company wants AppSec + code review, Another wants threat modeling + secure SDLC, Another wants cloud security, Another wants threat intelligence, Another wants red teaming, Another wants exploit development, Another wants Kubernetes, AWS, DevSecOps, etc.

It feels like every job expects a completely different security engineer.

I honestly don't know anymore what i should do

The other thing that scares me is the job market.
Pentesting jobs seem limited, especially in India, and i think to get a better pay eventually i have to leave pentesting and i honestly don't know what to learn for next roles

I've tried applying to jobs outside India as well, but most of the time I don't even get a rejection — just complete silence.

I assume work authorization/visa requirements are probably one of the reasons, please share your views on this that how one can get job in US being indian.

You spend years learning, researching, finding vulnerabilities, building things, participating in bug bounty programs, getting recognized by major companies...

…and then you apply for a job and nobody even responds

>

That honestly messes with your head.

Sometimes I look at my own profile and think, "I've actually done quite a lot for my age."

And then I look at job descriptions and think, "Maybe I'm still nowhere near good enough."

That's probably the part that scares me the most.

I'm not looking for someone to spoon-feed me or tell me exactly what to learn every day.

I just want some honest perspective from people who are already working in the industry.

I'm scared that I'll spend the next 2–3 years learning random things, chasing job descriptions, and still end up in the same place.

I'm scared that offensive security isn't going to give me the career growth I'm hoping for.

I'm scared that I'll choose the wrong specialization.

And I'm scared that everyone else is moving forward while I'm stuck trying to figure out what direction to take.

So I'd genuinely appreciate some honest advice from people who are actually in the industry especially those in AppSec, Product Security, Red Teaming, Offensive Security, or Security Engineering.

Thanks for reading, it means a lot :heart:

Hey everyone,

I recently made some changes to my testing setup in Google Play Console.

Previously, I was using one tester list called "Internal Testing" for both internal and closed testing. I created a new list called "Closed Testers", added the required users to it, and removed quite a lot of users from the old "Internal Testing" list.

After making these changes, Google Play asked me to submit the changes for review through the Publishing overview.

It's been around 15 hours and the changes are still showing as "In review."

For comparison, when I initially created the tester list and submitted my first releases, the review took less than 6 hours.

For anyone who has recently gone through a similar Play Console review:

• How long did your review take?
• Did tester-list changes take longer than normal?
• Is 15+ hours normal, or should I expect it to take a couple of days?

Would appreciate hearing about your recent experiences.

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Hi everyone,

I’m planning to buy a plot of land to eventually build my own house, but honestly, I have very little knowledge about how to choose the right locality or what I should be looking for.

I’m looking for around 3,000-5,000 sq ft of land in or around the city.

My ideal location would be something like:

• Not deep into the outskirts where there’s basically nothing around.
• At the same time, I don’t want to be right on a busy city road with traffic and horns 24/7.
• A peaceful/residential area with relatively low noise.
• Good, established or developing upper-middle-class / decent residential locality.
• Schools, hospitals, supermarkets, restaurants, gyms, etc. should be reasonably reachable.
• Good roads and connectivity to the main parts of the city.
• A safe neighbourhood where there is a low risk of theft, robbery, burglary, or other safety concerns. I want to feel comfortable living there with my family without constantly worrying about crime or other scary/unpleasant things.
• Preferably a locality that is already developed or is likely to develop well in the next few years.
• I want an actual plot/land to build my own house, not an apartment/flat.

Basically, I’m looking for the sweet spot between “proper city” and “middle of nowhere outskirts.”

I’m also completely clueless about what factors I should check before buying land, things like road width, zoning, title/ownership, approvals, water, drainage, future development, flood risk, etc.

For people who live in the city or have experience buying land:

1. Which localities would you recommend for this kind of requirement?
2. Roughly how much would a ~3,000 sq ft plot cost in a good upper-middle-class locality?
3. Is it better to buy slightly outside the city now and wait for development, or pay more for an already established area?

I’m not looking for the cheapest land. I’d rather pay a fair premium for a genuinely good, safe and peaceful location than buy somewhere cheap and regret the location later.

Would really appreciate advice from people who have actually bought plots or built houses. Also, if you know specific localities that fit this description, please mention them and, if possible, give an approximate current price range.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to buy a plot of land to eventually build my own house, but honestly, I have very little knowledge about how to choose the right locality or what I should be looking for.

I’m looking for around 3,000-5,000 sq ft of land in or around the city.

My ideal location would be something like:

• Not deep into the outskirts where there’s basically nothing around.
• At the same time, I don’t want to be right on a busy city road with traffic and horns 24/7.
• A peaceful/residential area with relatively low noise.
• Good, established or developing upper-middle-class / decent residential locality.
• Schools, hospitals, supermarkets, restaurants, gyms, etc. should be reasonably reachable.
• Good roads and connectivity to the main parts of the city.
• A safe neighbourhood where there is a low risk of theft, robbery, burglary, or other safety concerns. I want to feel comfortable living there with my family without constantly worrying about crime or other scary/unpleasant things.
• Preferably a locality that is already developed or is likely to develop well in the next few years.
• I want an actual plot/land to build my own house, not an apartment/flat.

Basically, I’m looking for the sweet spot between “proper city” and “middle of nowhere outskirts.”

I’m also completely clueless about what factors I should check before buying land, things like road width, zoning, title/ownership, approvals, water, drainage, future development, flood risk, etc.

For people who live in the city or have experience buying land:

1. Which localities would you recommend for this kind of requirement?
2. Roughly how much would a ~3,000 sq ft plot cost in a good upper-middle-class locality?
3. Is it better to buy slightly outside the city now and wait for development, or pay more for an already established area?

I’m not looking for the cheapest land. I’d rather pay a fair premium for a genuinely good, safe and peaceful location than buy somewhere cheap and regret the location later.

Would really appreciate advice from people who have actually bought plots or built houses. Also, if you know specific localities that fit this description, please mention them and, if possible, give an approximate current price range.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to buy a plot of land to eventually build my own house, but honestly, I have very little knowledge about how to choose the right locality or what I should be looking for.

I’m looking for around 3,000-5,000 sq ft of land in or around the city.

My ideal location would be something like:

• Not deep into the outskirts where there’s basically nothing around.
• At the same time, I don’t want to be right on a busy city road with traffic and horns 24/7.
• A peaceful/residential area with relatively low noise.
• Good, established or developing upper-middle-class / decent residential locality.
• Schools, hospitals, supermarkets, restaurants, gyms, etc. should be reasonably reachable.
• Good roads and connectivity to the main parts of the city.
• A safe neighbourhood where there is a low risk of theft, robbery, burglary, or other safety concerns. I want to feel comfortable living there with my family without constantly worrying about crime or other scary/unpleasant things.
• Preferably a locality that is already developed or is likely to develop well in the next few years.
• I want an actual plot/land to build my own house, not an apartment/flat.

Basically, I’m looking for the sweet spot between “proper city” and “middle of nowhere outskirts.”

I’m also completely clueless about what factors I should check before buying land, things like road width, zoning, title/ownership, approvals, water, drainage, future development, flood risk, etc.

For people who live in the city or have experience buying land:

1. Which localities would you recommend for this kind of requirement?
2. Roughly how much would a ~3,000 sq ft plot cost in a good upper-middle-class locality?
3. Is it better to buy slightly outside the city now and wait for development, or pay more for an already established area?

I’m not looking for the cheapest land. I’d rather pay a fair premium for a genuinely good, safe and peaceful location than buy somewhere cheap and regret the location later.

Would really appreciate advice from people who have actually bought plots or built houses. Also, if you know specific localities that fit this description, please mention them and, if possible, give an approximate current price range.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to buy a plot of land to eventually build my own house, but honestly, I have very little knowledge about how to choose the right locality or what I should be looking for.

I’m looking for around 3,000-5,000 sq ft of land in or around the city.

My ideal location would be something like:

• Not deep into the outskirts where there’s basically nothing around.
• At the same time, I don’t want to be right on a busy city road with traffic and horns 24/7.
• A peaceful/residential area with relatively low noise.
• Good, established or developing upper-middle-class / decent residential locality.
• Schools, hospitals, supermarkets, restaurants, gyms, etc. should be reasonably reachable.
• Good roads and connectivity to the main parts of the city.
• A safe neighbourhood where there is a low risk of theft, robbery, burglary, or other safety concerns. I want to feel comfortable living there with my family without constantly worrying about crime or other scary/unpleasant things.
• Preferably a locality that is already developed or is likely to develop well in the next few years.
• I want an actual plot/land to build my own house, not an apartment/flat.

Basically, I’m looking for the sweet spot between “proper city” and “middle of nowhere outskirts.”

I’m also completely clueless about what factors I should check before buying land, things like road width, zoning, title/ownership, approvals, water, drainage, future development, flood risk, etc.

For people who live in the city or have experience buying land:

1. Which localities would you recommend for this kind of requirement?
2. Roughly how much would a ~3,000 sq ft plot cost in a good upper-middle-class locality?
3. Is it better to buy slightly outside the city now and wait for development, or pay more for an already established area?

I’m not looking for the cheapest land. I’d rather pay a fair premium for a genuinely good, safe and peaceful location than buy somewhere cheap and regret the location later.

Would really appreciate advice from people who have actually bought plots or built houses. Also, if you know specific localities that fit this description, please mention them and, if possible, give an approximate current price range.

Thanks!

Just curious what everyone’s up to this weekend 👀

Just curious what everyone’s up to this weekend 👀

Just curious what everyone’s up to this weekend 👀

Hey everyone! I’m looking for a good place to buy Ghevar in the city, preferably somewhere that has fresh, authentic, and tasty Ghevar.

Any recommendations for a shop or sweet place that you’ve personally tried? Bonus points if they have different varieties or good quality

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone! I’m looking for a good place to buy Ghevar in the city, preferably somewhere that has fresh, authentic, and tasty Ghevar.

Any recommendations for a shop or sweet place that you’ve personally tried? Bonus points if they have different varieties or good quality

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone! I’m pretty new to the IEM/DAC world and would appreciate some advice.

My setup:

• 📱 Phone: iPhone 15 (regular model, not Pro/Plus/Pro Max)
• 💻 Laptop: My laptop has a 3.5mm headphone jack
• 🎧 IEM: Headphone Zone × TANGZU Wan’er S.G. — original/SG 1, blue, 3.5mm
• 🎵 Music: Bollywood, Kun Faya Kun, Bairan etc, not a bass person i just want to hear music in it's orignal form, clear music
• ~90% of my IEM usage is on my laptop.
• I’m currently plugging the Wan’er directly into my laptop's 3.5mm jack.
• I specifically want a DAC for my iPhone 15, since it doesn't have a 3.5mm port.

My main questions

1. What USB-C DAC/dongle would you recommend for an iPhone 15 + original Wan’er S.G.?
2. Would something simple like the Apple USB-C to 3.5mm adapter already be more than good enough?
3. Would something like the JCally - JM12 actually make a noticeable difference with the Wan’er, or would that be overkill?
4. How big of a role does the DAC actually play in sound quality? Does spending more on a DAC genuinely make a significant audible difference, or does a decent DAC already do the job for most people?

Side question about my laptop

This isn't the main reason I'm looking for a DAC — I need one primarily for my iPhone 15.

But I keep hearing that laptop/PC built-in DACs are bad and that you should always use an external DAC with IEMs.

Is that actually true, or is it exaggerated?

Since I use my Wan'er directly from my laptop's 3.5mm jack for ~90% of my listening, I'm wondering whether getting an external DAC for the laptop would produce a clearly audible improvement, or whether a modern laptop's built-in audio is already perfectly fine if I'm not experiencing any problems.

Basically, I'm trying to understand whether:

Laptop 3.5mm → Wan’er

is already good enough, or if:

Laptop → external DAC → Wan’er

would make a meaningful difference.

Again, the DAC I'm actually planning to buy is for my iPhone 15. The laptop question is just a side question because I keep hearing conflicting opinions about built-in laptop DACs.

Thanks!

Hey everyone! I’m new to Minecraft and I haven’t bought the game yet, so I’m currently playing through SKLauncher.

I’m looking for a friendly survival server that allows players using SKLauncher/non-premium accounts.

If you know of any good servers like this, please let me know! Thanks!

Anyone up for Spider-Man: BND tonight? 🕷️🎬

I'm watching Spider-Man: BND today at Rajhans Cinema, Valsad.

Showtime: 10:30 PM
Monday, 3 Aug
Hindi | 3D

If you're planning to catch the same show, feel free to drop me a message. It'd be fun to meet fellow Spider-Man fans before or after the movie! 🍿

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Hey everyone!

A big thank you to everyone who replied to my previous post. I really appreciate the warm welcome and all the recommendations.

I'm resharing this for anyone who might have missed it.

I'm 23, working in tech, and currently WFH. I'm still pretty new to South Gujarat and would love to connect with more people from around the region.

I also realized I forgot to mention what I'm actually into.I enjoy exploring historical places, especially lesser-known ones, and spending time in nature. This weekend I'm planning to visit a few Parsi heritage/historical places around the area, and I'm always looking for more recommendations like that. I also enjoy scenic drives, viewpoints, forests, beaches, and other peaceful spots.

Of course, I'm always open to suggestions for good food, cafés, and interesting weekend trips too.

If you're from Valsad/Vapi/Daman or nearby, feel free to say hi! Happy to exchange recommendations or just chat about the area.

Looking forward to getting to know more of the South Guj community. Thanks again, everyone! 🙌

Hey everyone!

A big thank you to everyone who replied to my previous post. I really appreciate the warm welcome and all the recommendations.

I'm resharing this for anyone who might have missed it.

I'm 23, working in tech, and currently WFH. I'm still pretty new to South Gujarat and would love to connect with more people from around the region.

I also realized I forgot to mention what I'm actually into.I enjoy exploring historical places, especially lesser-known ones, and spending time in nature. This weekend I'm planning to visit a few Parsi heritage/historical places around the area, and I'm always looking for more recommendations like that. I also enjoy scenic drives, viewpoints, forests, beaches, and other peaceful spots.

Of course, I'm always open to suggestions for good food, cafés, and interesting weekend trips too.

If you're from Valsad/Vapi or nearby, feel free to say hi! Happy to exchange recommendations or just chat about the area.

Looking forward to getting to know more of the South Guj community. Thanks again, everyone! 🙌

Hey everyone

A big thank you to everyone who replied to my previous post. I really appreciate the warm welcome and all the recommendations.

I'm resharing this for anyone who might have missed it.

I'm 23, working in tech, and currently WFH. I'm still pretty new to South Gujarat and would love to connect with more people from around the region.

I also realized I forgot to mention what I'm actually into. I enjoy exploring historical places, especially lesser-known ones, and spending time in nature. This weekend I'm planning to visit a few Parsi heritage/historical places around the area, and I'm always looking for more recommendations like that. I also enjoy scenic drives, viewpoints, forests, beaches, and other peaceful spots.

Of course, I'm always open to suggestions for good food, cafés, and interesting weekend trips too.

If you're from Valsad or nearby, feel free to say hi! Happy to exchange recommendations or just chat about the area.

Looking forward to getting to know more of the South Guj community. Thanks again, everyone! 🙌