From ₹18,000 to ₹1.8 lakh per month in just five years—a young Indian software developer’s story of relentless grind and growth has gone viral, lighting up Reddit’s r/developersIndia and inspiring a wave of real talk on ambition, stress, and sticking it out in tech.
The anonymous poster, now earning a tenfold increase over their starting salary, shared a simple but powerful message: “It wasn’t easy—long hours, lots of learning, and plenty of mistakes along the way.”
They started their career at a small startup and now hold an offer of ₹1.8 lakh per month, backed by a tech stack of React, Node.js, Python, and AWS. “Feeling genuinely proud and grateful for the journey… every late night, every tough feedback, every bit of persistence paid off,” they wrote. “To everyone still grinding—keep at it. It really does get better.”
The post quickly struck a nerve, prompting hundreds of fellow developers to share their own hard-won journeys.
“Same here,” one user wrote. “Started at ₹13k a month. Now at ₹1.8 lakh post-tax in six years.”
Another chimed in: “I started with ₹35k and crossed ₹2 lakh in four years. Java all the way. Keep grinding.”
Others were curious to know the method behind the rise. “How did you upskill? How did you balance work and learning?” one asked.
The thread arrives at a time when Indian tech professionals face global market slowdowns, hiring freezes, and layoffs.