I’m a fresher CSE graduate currently confused between two offers:

• TCS Digital – 7 LPA
• Tarento Technologies (Bangalore) – 4.25 LPA

Tarento’s joining date is June 1 and they’ve already started the pre-boarding process.
For TCS, I’ve received the offer letter, but I haven’t received a joining date yet.

I don’t intend to stay in my first company for a very long time. My current plan is to switch to a better opportunity after 2–3 years.

Both companies are service-based, which makes the decision a bit confusing for me.
Please help me choose.

im 20F from NIT jaipur , jst ended 2nd year . Ive zero dsa skills and idts i will be able to get on campus intern this way …so i want to know how do i crack web dev or full stack interns that are remote and like even tho low stipend but can enhance my cv .ive two half baked ai api integrated projects …one is playlist recommendations like it creates playlist based on a vague prompt and other one is a chat analyzer chrome extension. Im very unsure and scared of cutrent job market. Actually i love designing like fashion designing ,graphic designing or even UI/UX designing but im EE student at a NIT where my peers are either learning IOT or DSA non of them give me joy and in this depression ive procastinated two whole years where i didnt excel any skill or built a solid foundation. My cg is 7.95 so im not even thinking of core but ig i can crack software role somehow so i do a lil dsa but idts it is enough or beneficial without a clear goal or motivation. I want experience and a sense of responsibility . PLEASEEEEE HELP ME …. I want overall advice on what to do and what to avoid. Where i should apply , what skills i should learn what domain to choos

I thought I failed my career before it even started.

2024 Computer Science Engineering graduate.
8.7 CGPA. No backlogs.

Still couldn’t get placed.

COVID destroyed our placement cycle and while everyone around me was posting “Joined XYZ Company ” on LinkedIn, I was sitting at home wondering if 4 years of engineering was useless.

Then my father’s friend gave me a chance in his manufacturing company.

Not a tech startup.
Not an IT company.
A hardcore automobile metal sheet manufacturing business.

I joined at ₹20k/month as a software developer.

At first I honestly thought:
“What software engineering am I even going to learn in a factory?”

Turns out… a lot.

The company has around 22 units and already had an internal ERP system. There are basically only 2 software developers handling everything.

Because the team is tiny, I got thrown directly into real engineering work:

• React ERP development
• SQL Server dashboards
• analytics systems
• cloud deployments
• AI workflow automation
• email automation
• approval systems
• reporting tools
• production debugging
• system design discussions

One of the craziest things I built was a cloud-based blood donation management platform for the company’s yearly donation drives across 5 locations.

It handled:

• 3000+ registrations
• analytics dashboards
• auto certificates
• approvals/rejections
• location-wise tracking
• operational monitoring

We also use tools like Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Notion AI, etc. heavily in development and automation.

And honestly?

I learned more practical engineering here than many of my friends in big service companies doing repetitive ticket work.

The company trusts me now.
Current salary is ₹20k/month and growing.

But here’s the problem:

The environment is very traditional manufacturing culture:

• strict 8:30 to 6 timing
• limited flexibility
• heavy discipline
• sometimes no proper weekends

I genuinely love building products, automation, AI systems, dashboards, and solving business problems…

…but I don’t want my entire life to become only work.

Now I feel stuck between two choices:

1. Stay because I’m getting insane real-world learning early in my career
2. Leave and move toward remote work / product companies / freelancing

Sometimes I feel insecure because I didn’t start in a famous IT company.

But sometimes I also feel like this unconventional path gave me more real ownership than a normal fresher role ever would have.

Curious what experienced developers or founders think.

Would you stay longer in this situation or move on?

Since last 2.5 yrs , when I entered into the college I was learning the popular MERN stack along with some additional things like Nextjs and Typescript.

But as the AI slop has started people are making shallow projects and pushing like crazy.

And as I got learning and coding into this I started getting more interested in project building using C and C++.

So written a raw TCP server and a single thread key value store similiar to redis with protocol parsing and AOF db.

So Iam confused about what more to build and what to learn next? And from where? Like Iam leaning towards to learn this enough to get employed in the next year as a backend/systems engineer as a fresher.

Guide pls

Hi, I am a physics undergrad student at a central university, my first year is about end 3 more to go and i am feeling strange that what would I do after 3 years. Learning python for computational physics PINN and ml jobs but not that much consistent. Time is running quite fast

Anything from you guys?

Hello Everyone,

I have 5 years of experience in Python, AI/ML, AWS, and FastAPI development. My role has involved a combination of support and development responsibilities.However, during interviews, I struggle with hands-on coding questions. While I’m comfortable explaining concepts and discussing architecture or design decisions, I find it difficult to solve practical coding problems in real time. I believe this gap has developed partly due to over-reliance on tools like ChatGPT and Claude. I understand how things work conceptually, but my implementation skills need strengthening.

With layoffs happening periodically in my company, I want to proactively prepare myself and become confident in technical interviews. I’m looking for guidance on where to start and what structured approach I should follow to improve my coding skills and interview performance.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The 7 biggest career mistakes I see engineers repeatedly make...

 In my 25+ years of journey into technology,  I have noticed the same career mistakes show up again and again for engineers — regardless of company, stack, or experience level.

Staying “just technical” for too long –

Is writing good code enough? Probably not.  The people who grew the fastest developed their skills on communication, stakeholder management , business context and understanding the larger context rather than the specific ask.

Confusing hard work with visibility

Most of the engineers quietly do superb work with the assumption that leadership will take a note of it themselves. Many times, this doesn’t happen. Its you who have to ensure to present your work at larger forums like team meetings and make yourself visible. Obviously, promotion happens for people who are visible .

Chasing every new framework/tool

Trying to pick up every new tool is the urgue we have to go away with. Instead, focus on fundamentals on system design, machine learning , modelling , architecture and problem solving

 Lack of domain knowledge

The best engineers I have worked with, were great at technology solutioning , but also had a good grasp of the domain they operated upon. Their domain skills made them valuable for everyone and their approach was understood with business leaders too.

 Looking for salary growth only

This is one the most common parameter to judge a job opportunity. Everyone tends to focus on the CTC only and ignores the learning path, career growth and futuristic roadmap . While compensation is important, all the parameters go hand in hand. Infact, for someone who is in the initial years of their career, my suggestion will be to keep the ctc element to the last. Its import

What do you think? Anything more that we can add to this list?

Heyy I am an data engineer working min 10 hrs a day I want to get placed in maang ,faang like companies what should I do from tier 2 college bsc computer science with 1YOE

I am a final semester CS student. I recently got placed on-campus in a non-tech role at a service-based company for 15 LPA.

Background

- CS degree with decent CGPA.
- Experience on a college robotics team with a few small projects.
- Planned on a Master's degree and was focused on studying and research, but other circumstances forced me to change plans and focus on immediate employment.

Because I initially planned on research, as well as owing to a long stretch of personal issues and severe mental health issues, I did not do any software job prep or explore domains like say webdev or AI/ML. I’m very lacking in terms of skills.

My current company has terrible work-life balance, and I have no time to upskill or study after work.

My Goal

I want to switch to a core CS job, specifically in robotics or low-level systems engineering. I understand I have to do 2 things:
- Have strong DSA skills
- Have quality projects

The Issue

I want to quit this company right after my internship ends and take a few months (or a full gap year) to study full-time.
Remaining at the company means the poor WLB will likely burn me out and trap me in a non-tech career path.

Is quitting for a gap year a terrible idea in the current job market? How risky is this move?

Alternatively, do I try to get a job in a WITCH company and then spend my time preparing?

One of the biggest reasons senior engineers struggle to become leaders is because they continue thinking like individual contributors.

I recently coached an engineer with almost 14 years of experience. He was super technically. The kind of person everyone depended on during critical issues .

He quickly got promoted to Engineering Manager.

But within 6 months, he was frustrated, exhausted, and doubting himself.

When we spoke, one thing became very clear:

He was still trying to be the “best engineer” in the room.

He was reviewing every piece of code.Jumping into every technical discussion.
Solving problems himself instead of letting the team figure things out.

His team slowly stopped taking ownership because they knew he would eventually step in.

And leadership started asking questions:

• Why is the team dependent on one person?
• Why are decisions getting delayed?
• Why is the manager stuck in execution all day?

That was the turning point.

I told him:

“Your job is no longer to prove you are the smartest engineer.
Your job is to build a team that performs well even when you are not in the room.”

That mindset shift changed everything.

Over the next few months, he started:

• delegating decisions
• coaching instead of fixing
• focusing more on communication
• spending time understanding business priorities
• helping team members grow

The result?

His team became more confident.
Delivery improved.
And for the first time, leadership started seeing him as someone ready for larger responsibilities.

Technical skills help you become a strong engineer.

But leadership needs a different muscle:
patience, communication, trust-building, and the ability to grow people.

That transition is where many talented engineers struggle.

Have you seen this happen in your workplace too?

 

Hey folks, need a reality check on two offers.

My Profile:

• 2.5 YOE (Python, Django, FastAPI, Agentic RAG/GenAI).
• Current CTC: 5 LPA.

Option 1: LG Soft

• CTC: 11 LPA + 1L joining bonus.
• Work: Full WFO (9-hour shift), Bangalore.
• Role: Backend Engineer.
• Pros: Direct payroll stability, brand name, full benefits.
• Cons: strict office hours

Option 2: TEKsystems (Contractor for Mercedes-Benz)

• CTC: 12 LPA (Pure Fixed).
• Work: Flexible/Hybrid at Mercedes office, Bangalore.
• Role: Python Django/FastAPI backend.
• Pros: "Mercedes" on resume.
• Cons: Third-party payroll (TEK), contract risk, no direct perks of MB

can you please share hld round questions ?
I have intevriews coming up

I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I wanted to share my interview experience with QuickReply.ai because it was genuinely a disaster, and I hope it helps others going through a similar experience.

The first round was an AI interview round,. I spent a day preparing for the AI interview round and it was basic system design concepts. After this, I got an email from the HR(alekhya) that I got shortlisted and must submit a Full stack application which involved building a research paper tracker application with DB integration, analytics, filters, charts, etc.

Before starting, I emailed the HR team with a simple clarification question regarding whether I could use Next.js backend routes/server actions instead of a separate Node/Express backend. I never received a reply to that question. Should've stopped there since a simple question like that and no reply from HR is kind of a red flag for me but I wasn't having luck with interviews and shortlists are rare to come by, I decided to proceed anyways.

Completed the assignment within the deadline, deployed the project, shared the GitHub repository, deployment link, and even added their GitHub account as a collaborator as requested.

The response I got from HR after submission : "Acknowledged."
No feedback.
No timeline.
Not even a generic “we’ll get back to you.”

After that, I followed up around 6 times over the next 3 weeks trying to check the status politely, and was completely ghosted every single time. I spent a good 10 hours on the assignment and preparing for the ai round and put a good amount of effort polishing the app, even went beyond the scope and added authentication and didn't even get a line of feedback.

It reflects extremely poor on their hiring process leaving a candidate hanging after taking the free assignment work. The conversation with HR throughout the process felt very unprofessional and doesn't have the basic courtsey to reply properly. It felt like I was chatting with a toddler with one word replies. I'm leaving this review just so you guys can avoid going through the same experience.

Hi guys, seriously, how good is it ? Worth the cost or not ?

​

I’m currently working with an early-stage startup in an unpaid role. Recently, HR and the CTO mentioned that they may convert the role into a paid position depending on my performance and long-term availability.

Today, I was asked to test their live Razorpay payment flow end-to-end using real transactions for workshop/program registrations. The amount would total around ₹3600 from my personal account, and I was told it would be reimbursed on Monday. I was also asked to keep the transaction IDs for accounting purposes.

I understand that real payment testing can sometimes be necessary in production environments, especially in startups. I mainly wanted to understand how common this is in the industry and how others would approach it.

Some questions I had:

- Is this considered normal practice in startups?

- Would you personally be comfortable doing this as an unpaid contributor/intern?

- Is this generally seen as trust/responsibility being given, or something to be cautious about?

- What precautions would you recommend before proceeding?

Looking for perspectives from people who’ve worked in startups or handled payment integrations before.

Hi Seniors,

I graduated with BTech CSE in 2025 from tier 4 college . I was shortlisted in almost 7 companies during campus placements and reached the final rounds in most of them, but didn’t get selected mainly due to diversity hiring. After that I had a 4-month gap.

Through a friend’s referral, I joined a very small startup as a Python Developer at ₹20k(in hand 17k) per month (full-time). It’s been 7 months now and I’m seriously considering quitting. Here’s my exact situation:

About the company & my role:

Stealth-mode startup with zero revenue, building a B2B health product targeted at schools.

Team size: Only 6 people — all freshers. Everyone except me joined through relatives without any interview. I am the only one who went through a proper interview process.

Hired as Python Developer but working as Full Stack (in name only). Everything is heavily AI-generated (Lovable, Windsurf, Cursor,Antigravity.).

No one in the team actually understands the logic. Everyone just gives prompts to AI, generates code, and checks if the output works. Files are 2000+ lines long with zero refactoring, optimization, or proper structure.

My biggest fear is that if they ever get clients, the whole product will crash because no one knows how anything actually works.

No proper tech stack, no planning, no meetings, no code reviews — complete chaos.

They are assigning me large end-to-end features — such as real-time messaging and communication systems with push and pull notifications — and expecting me to complete them within just 2 weeks.

Infrastructure is poor — old i3 desktops. No proper AI tool subscriptions (using temp accounts & student emails).

Office is smaller than a 2BHK flat. CEO constantly monitors everyone through cameras.

A retired accountant was hired as manager/accountant and he’s very difficult to deal with.

Working hours:

Leave home at 9:30 AM, reach the office by 10:30 AM

Work till \\\\\\\~7:30 PM, reach home around 8:30 PM

They are also asking us to come on Saturdays.

Salary is ₹20k(in hand 17k). After travel, almost nothing is left. They vaguely promised an increment “if the product succeeds” (which looks highly unlikely).

My current situation:

In these 7 months, I haven’t learned anything meaningful. My coding is completely dependent on AI prompting.

I have been trying to study after office hours for the past 6+ months, but I’m so exhausted that I’ve made zero progress.

Basic DSA and development knowledge I had earlier has faded.

Constant toxicity and small fights in the team.

No growth, no mentorship, no hope of increment.

Mentally exhausted and drained.

My questions:

Is 7 months of experience from this kind of place worth putting on my resume? Will other companies count it?

If I quit now, I’ll need 2.5–3 months of serious preparation (DSA, Full Stack projects, etc.). Will this gap look bad?

Should I quit immediately or try to stay

I don’t have any offer in hand.

Realistically, what salary and roles can I expect with 7 months exp + good personal projects?

How should I explain this short stint in interviews?

I know the fresher market is tough, but staying here is seriously damaging my career and mental health.

Any advice on preparation plan, resume points, or target companies would help a lot.

I’ve spent 25+ years across engineering leadership, product engineering, cloud, AI/ML, digital transformation, and scaling global tech teams.

Over the years, I’ve interviewed, mentored, and coached hundreds of professionals — from freshers to senior architects, managers, and directors.

Happy to answer questions around:

• Resume reviews

• Job switching strategy

• AI/GenAI impact on careers

• Leadership growth

• Salary negotiations

• Breaking into Data/AI/Cloud roles

• Interview preparation

• Mid-career transitions

Ask away — will try to give practical, industry-grounded advice.

Cheers,Vatsy

-----

In case you are looking for free evaluation and any specific questions on your profile, share me the profile on vatsycoach@gmail.com.

I also help with 1:1 paid consultations on detailed resume refinement and mock interviews for roles like Technical Program Manager, Scrum Master, Engineering Manager roles.

Hi Fellas,

I’m a career coach with 25+ years in the software industry

Over the years, I’ve mentored hundreds of professionals trying to transition into IT from completely different backgrounds — support, operations, BPO, finance, mechanical, civil, teaching, sales, healthcare, and even career breaks.

A lot of people think:

• “I’m too late for IT”
• “I don’t have a CS degree”
• “AI will replace entry-level jobs”
• “Companies only hire experienced developers”

In this AMA, feel free to ask about:

Switching from non-IT to IT

A few facts:

• You do NOT need to become an expert coder to enter IT.
• Your previous experience can actually become your advantage.
• The fastest switchers usually focus on one niche instead of trying to learn everything.
• Projects + consistency matter more than collecting 20 certifications.

If you share:

• your background,
• years of experience,
• current salary range,
• what area interests you

…I’ll try to suggest a realistic roadmap instead of generic advice.

Cheers,

Vatsy ( The Career Coach)

vatsycoach@gmail.com