topmate rant

Recently i was talking to my senior just for fun and wanted to see what exactly is this whole thing So he paid xxx Rupees to the person for a Call 1:1 and he asked if I'm having 2.5yrs exp I need to switch to faang This guy '22 Passout says I will give you a roadmap for 6 months you need to pay 23,xxx Rupees I will give you a referral in my faang (He is in one of them) I have the roadmap I will make sure you learn LLD My senior has 2.5 exp in a startup that was listening to him and eventually said I'll think about it and ended the call Someone who has just entered is giving advice like they have worked for 5-6 years I've seen students in college start topmate and they are in top1% stuff Do these things are really required And Ego of those is such high They are not realising achieving faang is part of life not the whole life

I see a lot of folks opening their calendar and offering resume review and career guidance and other things via Topmate. Some are charging like 6000 per hour. And posting that as if they are making some contribution to the community. They are keeping posts as that is their way of giving back to the community as if it's some sort of charity. How the hell is giving back to the community when you are charging 6000 per hour ?? I dont have a problem with people who keep it openly as its a way to earn some money. You are giving your time so asking money for it is not at all wrong in my book But please dont label it as charity for god sake 🙏🙏

I see so many LinkedIn Tech influencers selling mentorships on topmate. While this is certainly not wrong. But some are charging 6k for 30 min or so, which is insane. Usually people under 2 years of exp are falling for this. Funny thing is it's people under 2 years of exp, who just cracked a Faang are providing mentorships on topmate

Spoke to few people who have their Topmate link. On an average after speaking to them i found that they are in their positions just by luck. Asked for resume review, ek se ek expert 😂

I might get some flack for calling this out on this platform but I see a lot of young professionals monetizing their credentials through TopMate and other sites, for advice. This might be considered a new age thing, but it's a zero sum approach. I understand that it's an essential part of one's brand building exercise but a sign of a good brand is also being altruistic. Some people might say that you put a price to the time that you may give and also filter from the mass of requests that come through. These maybe valid points but being able to judge every request on merit and being able to provide value is where you are paying it forward. Pun intended A good advice that impacts somebody's life/career without a transactional value will probably give you far more satisfaction than some random Rs. 1500 that is credited to your account. Let the trolling begin....

I've been seeing a lot of people promoting their services on Topmate or similar platform, and charging some random amount for the same. So, I just wanted to share my small experience - nothing fancy though. Occasionally people looking for better tech jobs (early career) reach out to me, blocks my calendar and we have conversation for 30-60 minutes, absolutely at zero cost. Often times, they come back after a few months to share about their updates or to share the happy news. I'm not on Topmate, nor have I shared this publicly with anyone. People occasionally reach out, 1-2 per month (now), purely by word of mouth 💁🏻‍♂️ I haven't gyaan-ed on LinkedIn nor am I interested in the same. I don't understand why people shares a ton of posts regarding the same. I don't know whether they're doing it just for the name/fame. I often review resume of those who reach out to me, and used to review almost 20+ resumes every month. I still do it occasionally. This is again not via Topmate or any other platform, they block time on my calendar and then we do it, absolutely for free. Over call, we would be spending 60-90 minutes or more for the resume. I go through each and every word on their resume, rephrases it and improve it. I help them in presenting a compelling story about themselves. Again, this is also for free. And almost all of them has received a lot of interviews from most of the Big tech companies. (Main point is not because I helped them, they were able to showcase themselves in the best way). I don't have a lot of experience. But over the last 3 years, I've been extensively researching on these things, and has been supporting a lot of folks. It is very tiring, and sometimes I really don't want to continue doing it as well, especially since I don't charge a dime. But yes, when we help someone, happiness automatically comes to us. I just wanted to share this with you all.

What are your views in products like topmate, mentorly etc. See a number of people putting links for 1:1 consultation through topmate where mentor gets paid for thier 'knowledge'. Has anyone signed up as a mentor or taken anything through so these mentors.

So, just to be clear, I have no grudges against the people, but basically I don't like the core idea of doing a paid "guidance or mentorship" session. Examples being career guidance or famous resume reviews on Topmate See, The very basic idea of asking for guidance is that you are in a vulnerable state and someone 'helps' you out by sharing their experience & giving back to the community in that way. This entire concept is thrown away when you Charge Money for it, it's no longer a help relationship - I can understand people are busy and have less time for mentorship, but that doesn't justify charging for it There is another tangible problem in my opinion. When you Charge for a guidance session, it gives a transactional outlook for you - As in you never want to go really deep into conversations because it's a paid one time thing and as soon as your 30 minutes is gone, you have earned your prize. I know it's difficult to describe in words but when you do something for 1-time money, it's very difficult to not have a purely transactional perspective to it . This is something I have personally observed when I used to be in a competitive activity & did paid mentorship Sessions. There is also a 3rd issue of inexperienced people giving out paid gyaan on issues which they don't have an idea of (I saw someone looking for their first full time job and yet running paid "career guidance" session on Topmate) but lets keep that for another day ps : This is not against People whose job is advisory, that's a much more formal relationship by nature & there are enough checks and balances.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pavan-musthala-250a191a6_my-desparation-for-a-job-got-me-into-the-ugcPost-7170668201943482368-9Yb-?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android