AMA - Laid off, Freelanced & started full time all in 3 months

Looking forward to some nice stories from the community. Some positive, some not so positive - what made you take a pay cut?

I was laid off in February. Finally after 2.5 months of boring interviews and life, landed a job. Today was Day 1. I was outside India for a while doing crazy stuffs. I returned in June and then started applying. Here is the summary. 1. Lots of applicants in the job market. Every job would attract 1000s of applicants 2. Most jobs require high experience - 5+ 3. Applying and finding companies who are hiring is tough. 4. Emailed everyone in network, took referrals from all friends, took referrals from LinkedIn (very low response), Applied on instahyre, Wrote to startup founders, applied Wellfound, Workday(worst of all), Naukri 5. Startups are the worst - gave petty assignments and ghosted after getting solution. Had to follow up multiple times but to no avail. They ate my whole 1 month 6. Some interviews were different - in one I had to code in python very fast. That's it. Wasn't selected as I was looking up for syntax on internet. 7. Overall it was a very boring and tiring process. I somehow maintained my sanity. YoE- 2 TC- 29L ( Base +PF)

With news of layoffs coming every day since the last couple of years i was wondering if there is anyone who has been laid off multiple times in their career Share your story here if you would like to .

Can anyone suggest me what should I do to get a job after career gap?

Been over a month I have been laid off. For the first time in almost 4 years I have had no work at all for over a month. Feels a bit good, a bit relaxed from the immense work pressure and toxicity but at the same time lot of pressure with regard to finances, as and more days are passing. Have been taking time out to upskill myself, applied to over 300+ jobs maybe by now. Got call backs from 10-12, interviewed with 5. None of them turned out to be positive yet. Lot of sympathy and empathised content goes on LinkedIn but reaching out to people, 1/15 may respond, putting a status, people just write CFBR mostly (hence I totally avoided that). Any advice, tips, help would be appreciated. I’m from a non-tech background.

Been over a month I have been laid off. For the first time in almost 4 years I have had no work at all for over a month. Feels a bit good, a bit relaxed from the immense work pressure and toxicity but at the same time lot of pressure with regard to finances, as and more days are passing. Have been taking time out to upskill myself, applied to over 300+ jobs maybe by now. Got call backs from 10-12, interviewed with 5. None of them turned out to be positive yet. Lot of sympathy and empathised content goes on Linkedln but reaching out to people, 1/15 may respond, putting a status, people just write CFBR mostly (hence I totally avoided that). Any advice, tips, help would be appreciated. I have a Category Management/Growth & Marketing background.

Those who are earning more than 1 lakh per month. Share your journey how you reached there and also some tips.

Here is how my career has gone so far 2018 -> Graduated from tier 1 college. 2018 -> first job -> scale up -> 0 Esops 2019 -> switched to an early-stage startup -> worked my ass off -> Had Esops. 2021 -> Wanted to ride the high salary wave during COVID -> Joined another startup -> Had Esops 2022 -> 5 months after the previous company, got 2 offers - 1 from Germany and 1 from WFH in India -> chose the India offer because of money. Had Esops. 2023 -> got laid off. Did not buy Esops since the company is sinking. 2023 -> got into freelancing for an AI startup, working my ass off without Esops due to job fear. 2024 -> Here I am regretting my career choices The only reason I joined startups was to get rich. Meanwhile, I got amazing hikes whenever I switched companies. In the end, I am now left with nothing but a bloated salary and a bloated lifestyle that I am used to. The reason behind my rant: During this whole period, had I made efforts and joined FAANG companies, which are publicly trading, and got stocks, they would have amounted to much much higher net worth than any of the bets that I took. Do not make this mistake, folks!