The Career FOMO Spiral

I don't understand why this happens the one who joined recently don't have any experience who is junir associate who gets paid more and more and when the senior asks for an hike which is always being judged by the managers who never wanna give hike and show partiality and gender bias and politics like same caste people will be getting hike. when the person who supposed to give hike is never responding to you giving you filthy reason forr a decent hike. What's the point of working there?? * * * * Do anyone relate to this situation?

Background: Tier 1 college, Branch - Civil, 2018 passout, Presently working at a state govt PSU with around 11.5 LPA CTC (salary part only, excluding medical facility which is decent) Things I like at the present job: 1. Home state posting all throughout the career 2. Easy to take leaves and can mostly go home on weekends 3. Good work life balance. Things I don't like: 1. Rural posting (as of now, will change in future) 2. Repetitive kind of work - not challenging enough and hence limited growth (I guess this is true for most PSU jobs) Why thinking of the switch? 1. Civil was never really my passion - just what I got. 2. Taking the job was mostly due to family pressure of doing govt job. 3. Liked programming during school days, did web dev work in college fests. 4. I do like the process of building something up and also learning new things, and am hence beginning to feel tech is something that would suit me. 5. Salary and fomo factors are there but not significant enough. I feel I have not been taking enough risks and hence am not being rewarded enough. I want the thrill of grinding and progressing in life. What's stopping me then? 1. Obviously, the safety and protection of a secured job is difficult to overcome. 2. Family wants me to settle now, but I don't. 3. Recessions like this where layoffs take place even for skilled people due to factors not in one's control. 4. The fact that I might have to take a paycut, to begin in this career. So what should be the path to take? 1. Learn DSA, make projects and apply. Could use my network (although very very few of my batch are in tech, most are in analytics, finance, core sector) to begin somewhere and switch 2. Go for M.Tech in tier 1, and hence aim for product based companies. I am more inclined towards option 2, as the tech job market being what it is now. I am ready to slog for 2 -3 years (mtech preparation, mtech and then placement) Please help me out with your views and suggestion.

I think about seriously quitting my job atleast once every few months but I've stuck it out here for almost 3 years now. I don't know if it's just me but the idea of putting myself out there and starting afresh at a new company is just terrifying - the struggle to find something exciting but stable, being evaluated at interviews all over again, the uncertainty of fitting into a new team and having to prove myself all over again at a new work place - all of this just puts me off from taking any real action I see everyone around me talking about career growth and taking up new opportunities. And rationally, I get it. I get that there are tons of benefits to changing jobs - better salary, escaping a toxic workplace, etc. etc. I truly admire people who make these frequent shifts - seriously, how do people navigate this?

When I joined my current organisation (4 years back) I held most of the responsibilities, had dependencies, was assigned a lot of strategic and interesting tasks, and very minimal operational tasks. As the team started growing, after around 2 years, the dependencies started distributing. At some point of time certain top strategic projects were taken out of my bucket because i was operationally involved. Soon it became a trend, now i am at a stage where visiblity in front of the leaders is almost nothing. Most of interesting projects are assigned to other teammates. When communicated with my manager and head of department, they just asked me to do any project i like while keeping me neck high in operational tasks. I am taking too much pressure for this because I know i can do more and have very less growth opportunities like this. Really not sure whether i shall blame myself or someone else for this for this. My friends generally suggest me that switch would be the right solution for this situation . If any one of you has been through this, were you change your trajectory back or switched to another organisation?

I have too many interests and can't commit to one path. How do you choose when you want to do everything? I'm equally passionate about coding, writing, and underwater basket weaving. The fear of choosing wrong is keeping me from choosing at all.

I work at a startup and have been here for more than 7 years. I joined right after graduating from a tier 1 engineering college (one of the old IITs). I was the first team member after the founders and now hold the position of non tech CXO in the company. The startup has grown significantly, not in traditional funding terms but in actual business. I have dedicated countless days and nights to growing this company, hardly taking a single day off in the initial 4 years, and often working more than 10 hours daily. My salary has increased proportionately to what I should be paid (>65 LPA), and I also have decent ESOPs in the company, which could be worth anywhere between 2 to 4 crores depending on the valuation at which we raise funds. However, I don’t count ESOPs as real money. In the next 10 years, it's going to be a very big thing, and I am glad to be part of it. Many of my friends, who have done MBA from IIMs and worked at BCG or Bain, are craving for the position I am in. But I feel FOMO about not trying anything else in life. It's like achieving decent success on the first try. I use the word "decent" and not "crazy" because it's not crazy success. What do I want ideally? I'd like to take a 6-month break and then figure out my next steps. Maybe start something new or join another company at a leadership level. But I am too afraid of not getting the same opportunities and ending up struggling. Thus the question: Is there any agency that works specifically to help you get a job at a CXO position? How does it work? Can a non-MBA with 8 years of work experience get a CXO position at a decently big company (>300-500 crores in revenue)?

The rise of social media has made it easier than ever to compare ourselves to others. I'll admit, I've fallen into the trap of scrolling through LinkedIn and feeling like I'm not achieving enough. How do you all navigate the pressure to constantly hustle and showcase your successes? Have you found ways to unplug and focus on your own path without getting caught up in the comparison game?

I took the best offer I could get in the job market 3 months ago when things were gloomy.. I'm arguably getting paid close to market salary. But I see way better opportunities opening up recently and I badly want to apply. I'm afraid having such a short tenure in a company will not look good on my resume. Am I over thinking?

Everyone is jumping for higher salary because they're supposed to - as potentially expenses increases over time over an individual's life cycle. I was new to my role , had some experience already, and now 2.5 years later I'm an expert in this role ...and I'm feeling the pressure of "switching" for better pay and learning and growth because otherwise I'm stagnated in this role in this company. My CTC right now was once upon a time my aspiration but now it's on the lower average side for my years of experience. But wasn't the point of work to find a place where you can work for a long long time and make decent money - I like the role , the bosses , the flexibility etc. But the organization size is small and there genuinely isn't much steep growth path ahead. I am ambitious and I would like a bigger role in a different company at some point of time in my life but right now everything is settled here and is fine...except the learning / growth/ salary is now stagnated for the next ~12 months or so. I'm confused about staying or switching.

Hi Grapeviners, **Question for those at higher level (SM+)** How do you perceive your job? Isn't that too demanding, boring and depressing (corporate politics) at the same time considering you're stuck doing it for years/decades on end(that too will intensify more you climb up)? Essentially, I want to know what motivates you apart from you big checks? Is it about the power that you enjoy over people? (i mean, does it really make you feel powerful?) Or is it you can't go reverse because of the status and other factors that are attached with you? Cuz my underlying assumption is that if you're doing a job and earning quite well then it's unlikely that you would get significant time to enjoy that money with your family/ friends or even alone. (pls correct me if I am wrong) Like yesterday I was talking to a client AVP who's been toiling day n night over the weekends from last 2 month just like an unpaid intern. If that's the path to carrer growth, then man, I am already done!😂 -------- Your answers/ perspective would help me understand the point of chasing carrer growth from your lens and decide for myself!! Thanks 🙏