Job switches are often seen as one of the best ways to get a salary hike, but for one software engineer, early career moves raised doubts about choices.
According to a Reddit post, the techie graduated in 2023 and started a career with a campus placement offering 14 LPA, of which 12 LPA was fixed.
After 10 months, the salary increased to 14.4 LPA. While it looked good on paper, the job itself was unstructured.
“All freshers, no seniors, some random internal project where everyone just did whatever. I wasn’t learning anything and felt stuck, so I quit without another offer,” the post adds.
Employee struggles after job switches:
The employee spent several months interviewing for new roles, but suitable opportunities were hard to find.
Eventually, the employee accepted a remote position at 12 LPA. “Turned out to be another mistake. Micromanagement, hour tracking, a toxic CTO who treated people like school kids,” the employee adds.
After seven months, the employee left again without securing another offer.
After four interviews in two months, the employee received a 16 LPA package, with 13 LPA fixed, and accepted it for the company’s culture.
“13 LPA is base (lesser than what I was earning at my first company)and the rest is variable paid after a year,” the post adds.
The employee got a setback when he learnt that a former colleague, who had been laid off and unemployed for three months, secured a 20 LPA base salary.
“I feel like I’m way behind everyone… I have messed up my career with the early switches,” the post adds.
Here’s how people reacted to the post:
The Reddit post drew a strong response with many sharing similar experiences of early career confusion and toxic workplaces.
One of the users commented, “Trust me, culture and WLB are much more valuable than a few more lakhs. And don’t take this lightly.”
A second user commented, “If you don’t make mistakes early on, when else will you get to make them? You think you could leave a job without an offer when you have 10 YoE and responsibilities?”
A third user commented, “Either you get good WLB or good pay, but rarest to find both; you’ve got to make a trade-off.”
“Unless you’re very rich and can afford it, never leave a job without another solid offer,” another user commented.
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)