From Manual Tester to Lead: My Rollercoaster Journey in Tech Startups - Unveiling the Upskilling Hustle, Burnout, and a 3.5 Million USD Pre-Seed Triumph!

During my B.Tech, I balanced my studies with active participation in clubs and committees, and also engaged in sports and exploration. Aspiring for a non-core placement, I didn't participate in hackathons or apply for internships. After graduation, I pursued various paths, including preparing for the CAT exam with only three months of preparation time, but I didn't succeed. I then applied to several companies for data analytics roles but kept making new mistakes in each attempt. In one instance, I was rejected for oversharing my passion for data science in a final interview. To improve my chances, I optimized my resume and completed significant projects, but these efforts haven't yet yielded the desired results. Realizing the challenges of relying on a single target, I also started preparing for the GATE exam. Reflecting on my journey, I recognize that I should have applied for on-campus opportunities, as off-campus job hunting is challenging and unpredictable, regardless of one's preparation. Tell me your story? In order to get some hope that we can make it and it's never too late

So, i'm on the job hunt again & i spend a good chunk of my day thinking about the decisions i have made. 1. Quit my first job at Digit insurance because the work was super monotonous. Wanted to try something different. 2. Discovered product management, started doing cases, eventually got an internship- Gap of 6 months 3. Did internships at a solar company & Shiprocket, then got a full time APM job at a logistics firm- salary bump of 4X 4. Learned that my mother had complications on her knee surgery, got severely sick & would require constant care. Quit my job to take care of her for 6 months. 5. Explored an idea of mentorship platform, validated with 100+ people but couldn't start due to feasibility problems. Got an offer from Cashkaro next as APM- Gap of 6 months Total gap so far- 18 months 6. Quit cashkaro on may due to very disrespectful culture(created specifically by founders), authority over influence, severe communication gap between tech & product(no standups, no meetings, no updates) 7. Looking for opportunities again- current gap of 3 months already What are your views on this? Anything i could've done better? I'm asking because no matter how hard I try to explain the gaps, the eyebrows are always raised. Getting rejected left & right, 70% of the jobs are secured for tier-1 folks & for the rest, it feels like you have to Ranbir Kapoor in Animal with Arjan vaily playing in the background(just slaughter everyone to go through) Would appreciate your views

Hey All I graduated in 2021 out of DU and parallely converted my internship with a preseries A fintech startup for a full-time role, pay was less that what I would've got in campus placements, but I prioritised steep learning curve or a 15k per month salary difference. After spending 15 months reporting directly to the ceo in a 150 member team, I resigned. Initially the pace was enjoyable, later on it became toxic. Moved to Bangalore and joined another start-up, didn't take a huge hike since I just wanted to start somewhere. After working here for 7 months, now I have much for focussed idea on what my strengths are and I'm working with experienced folks (avg 8+ years). I'm a 22 year old working in the founding team of pretty good product startup (funded by Kunal and bunch of other angels). Currently I'm at 6LPA, and would reach a 12LPA in thr next 3-4 months subject to fundraise, what I would like an opinion on is if after completing an year and we don't raise a round, do I stay? Or do I go back home and prepare for Gmat or CAT, then do aan expensive MBA by taking a loan? Or do I find another startup asking for a 12LPA? or do I try for a established company role in program management or partnerships or something? I don't have any family money or business to fall back on, but fortunately I didn't take a loan for my education yet, and my parents would be okay to give me another 2 more years to figure things out. Would appreciate help from anyone who've been in a similar journey or just any piece of advice. Thanks!

Life is hard, and plans don't always turn out the way they should. But when we look back over our lives, we realize that some decisions really changed the course of our lives for the better.

Posted in r/developers

It's gonna be long thread. I have been working as lead engineer in a early stage startup since last one year. Founder (20 years exp in Product Management) raised some money from friends & family to start it and but company was running negative from February and he put his money to pay employees salary for March & April and We were hoping for some investment in April but that didn't happen. During May & June, he was looking for funding more aggressively and even after having a good background in academics & top tech work experience in product management, no investor got convinced to invest in it. Our salary for March & April was delayed from actual payroll date by 7 days and 21 days respectively and We were expecting our May salary to be delayed by same period and our company was about to complete one year in first week of July so we had some one year benefits associated as well. But Boom, he invited everyone on call and tells that company will shutting it's operation from next day itself. And he will help us find our new jobs and he doesn't any clarity on pending salary. Although we knew, our company is not in good shape so salary cut or something might be happening soon but didn't expect this. Now, we have to find other jobs and also be unemployed while searching for job and also get exploited by other companies because we will be desperate to find jobs to pay our bills. I think, he did this just before 5-6 days of our one year anniversary just because he doesn't get legally bound to pay our one year benefits. I for sure, not gonna join any early stage in future who doesn't have enough funding. Just wanted to put this story out of my mind. Open for any suggestions you have for me Thank you

I'll start 3.2L > 6.5L > 10L > 15L 5YOE

I am a software engineer with 3 years of experience .For the first two initial years I was working as a QA in one of the good product companies with a very sorted work life balance . I had recently switched to a BE role in a startup I am very much lagging behind here because of my QA background ,the people here are very much talented and are great problem solvers .How do I reach that level ? I have been struggling to keep up with the pace here and finding it difficult to approach the tasks,even though i have been giving so much of time to work . And the TL in my team have a certain amount of expectations and hence they don't help according to that .(which i feel is fair) How should I approach this and level up here Anyone with a similar background and story please share your experience :) Any advice would really help

I'm a Senior QA Engineer with 7.5 yoe in gaming, e-commerce domain. I've been severely burnt out due to covid, repetitive work in QA and nothing new or building. I've been exploring and interested in building products, startups, marketing, design, product roles. I'm in a crossroad to choose the next role I can focus on. What would you do if you were in my place? I'm also thinking to take IELTS and apply for MBA or some masters in Europe. How well would that workout?

My previous company shut down a couple of months ago. Interviewed a bunch leading up to it and landed an offer 20% below my previous comp. The offer felt exploitative and I even posted about it on Grapevine. A lot of folks told me my salary was being corrected and I was overpaid in my previous role. But what felt wrong felt wrong. Ended up letting that offer go -- had decent runway, and hence, was able to do so. Interviewed with 6 more companies, Faced a bunch of last minute rejections as well. But finally landed better offers with teams I'm way more excited to work with. Key takeaways: 1. Gut > Market Data > Subjective Opinions when it comes to assessing offers 2. Runway = resilience, save up for rainy days -- going to take this way more seriously moving forward