Huge career gamble paid off

This is a personal win post. I'm a '23 grad from top IIT but from non circuital branch. I did my summer internship in a payments MNC as a Quality Engineer and received PPO, but I rejected it since I didn't want to continue in testing. This was when recession was just starting. The money was decent in PPO, but I felt I could get more in a dev role in placements. When placements came, I interviewed with few big companies, but unfortunately got rejected at some stage. Finally I got placed at Cogoport (yes that same cursed company), with a higher CTC but same base. I was initially happy with it, but as I talked with seniors I came to know about the horrors there, and a month before my joining I decided to take the jump and didn't join. My parents weren't supportive of the decision and I had to fight with them. I was trying offcampus for a couple of months with a very specific strategy, I got good response but none of them converted to an offer. I finally joined a seed stage startup through my friend as an intern for 3 months. I struggled a lot initially but eventually put in the efforts and learnt and contributed well. The work, culture and people are great here. Two months after I joined the startup, I got to know that almost half of the new joiners were laid off from Cogoport. And today is my first official day as a full time employee at the same startup I joined as an intern. The base is also the same as the other 2 offers, although CTC decreased but I have immense learning and responsibilities here and I'm sure I'll grow faster than my counterparts in big companies. Thanks for hearing me out. Have a great end to the year folks