Can I still get into tech being from a Tier 2 college?

I am from a tier 3 college, going to graduate in 2024. With all these layoffs, recession scene going on I am completely stressed out. My college started pretty late, I am in third year within just 1 year of offline college and 1 year of online. Didn't really get time to learn and explore initially, I haven't done much development neither LeetCode, I feel like I am effed now. What and how should I start getting a grip on things? I have done basic HTML, CSS, know python and basics of JS plus Java, C and C++. I really want some guidance on how to proceed ahead with learning development, I really want a job and get out of my toxic household.

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.

Just curious, does college tier affect the pay you get for the same role (say SDE1) in big tech like Amazon, Microsoft, etc. ?

Without giving out too much info, I'm a tier 3 student but I'm in a program funded by one of the MAANGs in which there are other sophomores from tier-1 colleges. Keeping various bonus and side effects of such a competition aside, I really wanted to have a career in cybersecurity...but, seems like I am not made for it(tried for 1.5 years :/) I am starting out in cloud now, I'm working towards my first AWS certification. Question: Somehow I still feel not guided enough, my peers from that program get many on-campus opportunity, while i just get a referral to one of the MAANGs that fund it. I feel like i should really first focus on my DSA more than even cloud. What should I spend my second year on, DSA - to get internship, or cloud/open source?

My background : Work ------ 2.6 years of Work experience as Software Engineer in WITCH Company handling the middleware and some devops operations in my project. Education ----------- B.tech in CSE from a Tier 2 college I started my career a bit late compared to my peers because of some bad decisions in past but I was able to get back on track and gain industry experience . Since past year I realized I haven't grown much career wise . I had plans to pursue Masters earlier but postponed it because of COVID and I realised it's better to gain some experience before going abroad. I didn't want to pursue a traditional CS Masters degree since I wanted to explore and learn something new . That's when I came across HCI and over the months my interest in it has deepened . I did take some courses related to HCI and UX to get better understanding. Skills ------ I have fairly decent front end skillset with good basics in HTML, CSS , JavaScript and ReactJS . Started learning Figma recently I want to land jobs as UX Engineer where I do a bit of design and coding . I have got admits from good universities which have specialization in HCI . I wanted to know if it's a good decision to go for masters now and pursue this field .

How much do you guys generally pay in taxes with an income between 50-100 LPA in India? What are the options to save tax apart from the normal 80C, 80D, insurance, donations etc.?

Just want to know career prospects and how it helped in long term from career perspective.

I met one of my college friends yesterday at a bar. She got married last year and was laying down the struggle of finding a new job. Now, apparently in many interviews when she reached the final few rounds, the HR or the Hiring Manager enquires about marital status and whether she has any children. When she mentions that she recently got married and that she does not have any kids, the company stops responding to her. She elaborated that although they might have found another fit for the role but she is a T-1 grad who did her Masters from an Ivy League college and has worked for 4-5 years in both NA+EMEA and India. It is becoming more apparent to her that, HRs and Hiring Managers have a strong bias because they are definitely presuming that since she recently got married and will likely have a child soon, that she will use up her maternity privileges leading to significant productivity drop. Meaning, that the company will likely have to hire someone else to make up for productivity loss. She does not plan to have kids for another 3-4 years but getting married is proving really hard for her. Especially in the Series B+ startups that she is applying to.

I am a 2023 grad. I joined a startup but it is asking me to look for new opportunities. I interview at Zeta and recieved an offer. I also have an offer from Service Now. Current compensation: 21 TC (16 base) Zeta : 17 TC(16 base) not ready to increase even after counter offer Service Now: 23 TC(15 base) Hear lot of bad things about zeta like silent layoffs, 0% hike this year and we need to go to office 5 days a week where as it is hybrid at service now. Zeta has better learning and that is the only upside of it. Would love to hear some feedback.