I like this hot take

I want to understand if you are also satisfied with your compensation?

I've been in startups for the last 8 years. From Series B/C onwards to even a unicorn, over time worked at 3. One of them was an outright scam, raised many millions of $s from top investors, and then ultimately died. Also close with CXOs at decent sized startups, and there is a pattern out there. A few thoughts: 1. Being a startup founder is tough. There's pain. Some people thrive in pain. AKA Masochists. Know how to spot a founder who works 15 hours a day because they love their vision vs. somebody who works 15 hours a day because they're masochists. These people thrive in pain, and hence love to see you miserable as you slog away the hours under their leadership. There is absolutely no vision for the future that they have. They do it for the fame, money, and cause a lot of pain in the process. Nothing good comes out of it. Investors love this breed. 2. I wish I'd done more than just leave the scammy startup. At the point, I decided against whistleblowing. Because I thought there's so many people employed here, they would all be impacted. Over time, 200-300 people more joined after I left. Once the scam was caught, all of them lost their jobs. 3. I'm not a coder. I'm a generalist. Over time, my pay grew but not in line with my peers who went into consulting/VC and then came back to big tech/startups. Over time, you disadvantage yourself if you stick around as a generalist in startups for too long. The next team pays you at some premium over the last one, there's no step jump. You need to somehow find a successful startup early, and genuinely, that is impossible to game - even VCs have to bet on 20 to get it right. These are a few disjointed thoughts. I hope they give some insight. My only takeaways: - If you work at a scammy startup, don't stand it. At least, don't stick around. - I earn lesser than my peers (tier 1 undergrad), but I regret nothing. I love my work, and I'll never get over the kick. I cannot imagine working at a larger company ever again. - Ultimately, you have to be optimistic. Believe that India will grow, good founders will come around, magic will happen ❤️

I am currently in my final year, at one of the top commerce colleges in India. Pursuing Bachelor in Commerce and will also appear for my CFAL1 exam in November. I worked really hard for placement season, a few IB firms were expected to come but it doesn't look like they'll be hiring given the economic scenario. If someone holds any position in such roles like IB, Private Equity, Equity Research etc. could they please tell what I could work on and what the industry requirements are from a fresher? Also how do I go about applying off-campus, since I don't believe I'll be getting many opportunities On-Campus?

A friend of mine is working at a leading financial services company with over 100k employees. He feels like he'd want to be part of something smaller, create more impact and help it grow rather than be just a part of the crowd. Where should he start? How can he find the suitable people and jobs?

Context: 10.5 YOE, Marketing lead. I've been looking for a switch since September last year. I'd seen signs of maybe my role or the company itself folding very early and knew 'twas time to bolt. But it's not that easy. Back then - 1 year in a startup meant hey not bad, people still spoke to you and considered your profile. These days, they treat you like Ebola if you've not had your ass stuck in the same place for 3-5 years. Anyway, so the majority of my time searching for jobs was the shitty Easy Apply or IIMJOBS premium account route. Suprise suprise. It doesn't work. But hey I was still employed and not nearly as motivated as someone who's unemployed. Cut to layoffs: Got laid off with my whole team and a huge chunk of other leaders. My first layoff, felt hilariously like the last day of school. To the org's credit they gave us 3 month severance, leave encashments and extra months for those who'd been there for 2 years+. In hindsight hearing the horror stories of 2k severance from Byju's. I'm grateful for the nice golden parachute I got. I'll be honest, it contributed heavily to my mental stability. I had time, I had leverage, I didn't have to run for the first shitty opportunity that came my way. The How I did it (why you struggled through the above stream of consciousness) - Wrote to 159 founders with one pagers to 35 of them with ideas on how i'd lead their marketing function. 5 replies. 3 interviews. 2 offers - didn't take em cuz they were super early stage or diff cities. This is immediately in month 1 so I've already started feeling icky about not getting great brands to have in my set. - Easy Applied to 768 (I ran a Gmail search, this is a real number) jobs. 99% no responses or you've been rejected. -Kept changing one letter on my Naukri.com profile, got me 6 calls, 3 interviews and 1 conversion I think theres a word limit to posts 🥲 following up as comments below.

As someone from a tier-3 college, is it possible for me to bag a good job and slowly climb the ladder and make 30L, 40L like some of you do? Is this IIT branding so needed even today to get a job at top companies? I have huge regrets for fucking up JEE mains now.

[TL;DR former National quizzing champ dropped out of B. Tech in 2020 during peak of addiction and depression . Got over it and sober in Jan'23, resumed college and completed my B. Tech in Feb'24. Picked up coding again and feel ready for a job now Should I be honest or lie about the gap? Been ghosted my few recruiters whom I was honest with.] JS developer here. I used to be a decent student, public speaker and one of the best quizzers in the college scene (former National Champ). But I never addressed some traumatic events that took place in my life before I turned 16. My depression took refuge in substance abuse and I abandoned all studies/career prospects during the pandemic. Eventually after 7 years of using, I got clean/sober in Jan'23 and resumed my studies. I earned my degree but on paper it took me 8 years to complete a 4 year B. Tech (2016-24). Reasonably I get asked about the gap in my academics by hr/recruiters whom I push my CV to. I've been dead honest to them about my struggles with mental health and addiction in the past. And I've been getting ghosted. (It could be because of skill reasons on my part but I'm not even getting a feedback). Should I not tell recruiters the truth about the gap? Should I leave the addiction bit out? How should I word it? I've never held a real coding job before but been slogging for the last 6 months to get better each day (my github and projects will reflect that). Please help me out with all your valuable suggestions. If you're a tech recruiter let me know how you would perceive my case.

I’m dumbfounded when the best piece of advice I hear is that its a numbers game and probability is supreme. There’s got to be a strategy that one applies to shortlist from the ocean of offers out there. - applying in the same domain as your current company? - platform or regions where recruiters are more active? - directly talking to freelance HMs and doing a deal? If no hack, just share what worked for you? And how are you optimising the job searching?