overpaid for others, just the start for me

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

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!

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

Hi! I just finished my second year at a tier-1 college. I’ve been looking for internships to do this summer, and a startup offered me a backend role of 10k pm stipend that required 8 hours a day commitment. I’d have to travel to their 2-3 times a week to their office that’s 7-8 kms away. I know a decent amount of web dev, have built a MERN clone of Reddit, and I’m pretty good at algorithms. Upon asking one of my mentors about this, he that the guy who’s offering me this role is simply ripping me off. I just wanted a second opinion on this. Am I being underpaid?

Alright folks, time for some real talk. I fucked up. Big time. And I'm here to share my story so you don't make the same mistakes I did. Back in 2021, I co-founded a web3 startup. Yeah, you know where this is going. I was caught up in the hype, the FOMO, the promise of changing the world through DAOs. Spoiler alert: We raised more than $5M in seed funding, burned through half of it, never hit product-market fit, and ended up shutting down and returning the remaining capital to our investors. Here's how it went down: It all started when I fell down the web3 rabbit hole. I read a few whitepapers, watched some YouTube videos, and suddenly thought I was the next Vitalik Buterin. I had this "revolutionary" idea for a DAO that would democratize venture capital. Sounds cool, right? I thought so too. Now, here's the thing - I'm a great pitcher. Give me a deck and 30 minutes, and I can make almost anything sound like the next unicorn. So, armed with buzzwords and a slick presentation, I hit the VC circuit. And holy shit, did it work. We were a great team, stellar credentials so were able to close the fundraise pretty quick. I still remember the day we closed the round. Popping champagne, dreaming of TechCrunch headlines once we did our Series A, all the jazz. But here's what I didn't realize at the time: I had zero conviction in what we were building. I was so caught up in the excitement of raising money and being part of the "next big thing" that I never stopped to ask myself if I truly believed in what we were doing. Reality hit hard and fast. As we started building, I realized I didn't really understand the problem we were solving. Our target users weren't as excited about the product as we were. We pivoted, then pivoted again. But nothing stuck. Eighteen months in, we had burned through $3M, had no clear path to revenue, and my co-founder and I were at each other's throats. That's when it hit me - we needed to shut this down before we wasted any more of our investors' money. Making that call was the hardest thing I've ever done. Telling our team, our investors, our families - it sucked. But it was the right thing to do. Here's what I learned from this expensive and humbling experience: 1.⁠ ⁠Hype is not a business model: Just because something is trending doesn't mean it's a good business opportunity. Do your own research, understand the market deeply. 2.⁠ ⁠Raising money ≠ Success: It's easy to get caught up in the vanity of a big round. But money just buys you runway, not success. 3.⁠ ⁠If you can't explain it to your grandma, you don't understand it well enough: I couldn't clearly explain our value proposition without resorting to buzzwords. Red flag. 4.⁠ ⁠Team alignment is everything: Make sure you and your co-founders are on the same page about the vision, not just the potential payout. 5.⁠ ⁠Listen to the market, not your ego: We ignored early signs that users weren't as excited about our product as we were. But the biggest lesson? You need 100% conviction to run a startup. Not 90%, not 99%. 100%. Building a company is hard. Really fucking hard. There will be days when everything seems to be falling apart. If you don't have absolute conviction in what you're building, you won't have the resilience to push through those times. Looking back, I realize I was more in love with the idea of being a founder than with the problem we were solving. I was chasing clout, not impact. To anyone out there thinking of starting a company: Please, please, please make sure you have unwavering conviction in your idea. Make sure you're solving a real problem that you deeply understand and care about. Don't do it for the hype, the money, or the status. Do it because you can't imagine doing anything else. As for me? I'm taking some time off to reflect. Next time (if there is a next time), I'll make damn sure I believe in what I'm building with every fiber of my being. I sort of see this happening now with AI, please take a pause. Let's learn from each other. Because trust me, learning this lesson the hard way? It ain't fun. Keep building!

Here are my rules: 1. Forget about starting a startup. It’s overrated and a waste of time. 2. Focus only on the popular tech skills that every company wants today. Avoid niche tech— stick to AWS, JS, Python, and React. You will thank me for this. Go and Rust might be the future but you will have time to pick that up later. 3. Accept a full-time remote job, even if it pays lesser than your in office job. You'll save money, and it’ll be worth it. 4. Ditch the big cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi. Move to a smaller town nearby; it's smarter and cheaper. You can still network yet save money. 5. Leave any job that requires too much work or too many meetings. Meetings are the mind-killer. You’ll quickly find another job because you specialized. 6. Take two-month vacations between jobs or contracts. You deserve it. It will help you decide what you want to do next in life. 7. Do this for 7 years while investing most of your salary in a diversified portfolio. Don’t go too crazy with degen gambling/ fantasy apps/ futures and options/ trading etc. Congratulations. You’re now rich like any other senior programmer that invested, but you’ve worked less, and for fewer years.

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 have seen a lot of questions here about how to become rich or successful. I initially thought I could make a course and shill it on LinkedIn, but then I decided against it. Context is: I work in a field where most around me are making a lot of money, and typically everyone's a crorepati by 26/27. That's what I have seen. Their secrets: 1. They work 12+ hours a day consistently for 5 days a week, and then some more on Saturday (sometimes Sunday). Even at the peak of covid, when everybody was scared and would avoid working, these fuckers would. 2. They are ultra competitive. They will compete on anything, not just work. They are addicted to poker. They will debate anything during lunch time, no matter how frivolous it is. Pure TYPE A folks. 3. They never complain about working hard. It's just second nature for them. Stems from IIT/IIM days, but continues. They don't question it. (I do, because I am not them) 4. They obsess over money. They constantly try to figure out where they can make more money. All invest actively. 5. They are incredibly well read. Can speak at length on any topic. They truly love going deep into a topic and coming out with the crux of it (or so they may think). Now I know one thing. These are very obvious things. Everybody knows if you do this, you probably would become successful. But my takeaway is to do it. It's super difficult. But at my age, I have no option but to not try, now that I have seen how its done.