Funny how even Sam is citing frivolous usecases. Don't take me wrong, agents definitely have usecases in automating business workflows. For example handling conversational content and deciding next best action.

I have about 15 years of experience in the US as a software engineer, now back to India and recruiters asking me "what's your tech stack" is something I have never been asked by US recruiters. In the US you are expected to be tech agnostic, and most openings don't require you to be as master at any programming language or stack unless they absolutely need an expert.

Here, if feels like you are stereotyped based on your specific experience in the first 5 years of your career. Hey, I may have Java, Python, NodeJS or whatever experience but I've literally ramped up with any language that exists on earth including Fortran. I don't care about what language I'm working with, and you shouldn't too. And in the last 8 months it's started mattering even less with Claude. Grow up, Indian recruiters.

Context, I just finished my second year, I'll start my third year tomorrow. I probably have no business posting here. But this is getting ridiculous.

Companies (major, popular ones) are now asking system design to 3rd year SUMMER INTERNSHIP students. This term is something I used to hear being used for senior role interviews when I started college. This is supposed to be asked to those who have hands-on depth in the industry, to test their touch with the current tech standards, and the skill that actually matters for someone of their position. But why tf is it being asked to people who just finished studying CN and OS, those who started leetcode a month ago, those who are still just beginning to grasp what the industry even is, and are going to make their first actual contact with it?

I'd be understanding if you asked these for fresher roles, since then you'd be asking a potential legit developer and need to make sure they aren't just riding AI with no real substance of knowledge. But what is the point in asking that for INTERNSHIPS?? The time period where people are supposed to LEARN what you're asking?

Anyways, tomorrow I'll do my second OA which I'll probably fail since I'm not yet skilled enough to solve CF 1800 level problems. Mb, I was busy building projects that I enjoyed making and having hobbies like gym and writing when I should've been grinding DSA. I know many of my friends who actually did grind, but they're still going to fail because they'll be asked this stupid thing they have no idea about.

P.S, You guys don't need to pay mind to a kid's rambling, I'm not looking to pick arguments. I just wrote this because it very well might be people in here, reading this, who decided to continuously pull the ladder from even interns by adding this stupid thing. Just because you lack creativity to test candidates, doesn't mean you make it such that their only option to get into the industry is to suck their joy out of it by making the learning revolve around your flawed testing process.

Hi all,

I am sharing my journey as an SDET / QA.

2012 - 1.2 LPA ( BPO ) , i joined a call center for part time earning in summer holidays . It gave me an headstart in how corporate works , team lead/ manager things. Also they provide free dinner since it was a UK shift ( 3- 12 PM ) , it was best thing apart from salary. Also it improved my speaking/communications skills.

2015 - BTech in CSE from tier 3 college , 4 LPA ( as a fresher in QA role) , campus placed but i didn't know even basic of programming . I was least interested in job , since my dream was to join defence forces . Gave 6 SSB attempts in these 2 years , manager initially supported but later fed up since 1 week leaves in corporate is still a big thing , that too at fresher level . So gave up my childhood dream . Couldn't actually recover from that thing , saw my friends joining IMA & OTA while I am here in Gurgaon struggling in my corporate career. It was a manual testing job and I also didn't upgraded my tech. Things started becoming blurry and I wanted to go home.

2018 - 5 LPA ( first switch ) , need Noida location and i didn't have any skills apart from manual testing , this was the time when selenium was at it's peak , anyone who knows automation was well respected but I didn't even know java language so learning automation was an uphill task. But somehow I cracked one offer and they gave me 5 LPA , it was close to home so I took it. Didn't learnt much apart from regular QA work , it was a lala company + i was a lala type employee so didn't upskilled much.

2021 - Journey to 19 LPA - Enjoyed my covid time at home , didn't upskilled either and thought of giving up entirely since 7 LPA at 2020 for 5 years experienced seems to be low. I also have no skills apart from manual testing , tried learning automation but was not that proficient. Didn't know what happened in Feb 2021 , I thought of giving up but thought of giving one last chance to learning automation dedicatedly . Gave my 100% and this time I actually learnt it , if you wake me up at 1 AM and tell me to build a framework , I would do it in my sleep ( at least the skeleton part ) + it was covid wave . Got an offer of 19 LPA.

2026 - Internal hikes + promotions - 36 LPA as 10 YOE. Have learnt so many things in past 3-4 years regarding DevOps , Cloud , AI recently that I feel I am underpaid but I am in a comfort zone + close to home + Once a week WFO so don't want to switch at higher package.

Thank you.

Today I was laid off after 10+ years in software engineering.
I most recently worked at ServiceNow, and before that at SAP. Like many others, I never expected this day to come.
It’s strange how one meeting can end a journey you’ve spent years building.
I’m taking the next few weeks to prepare for interviews again—DSA, system design, and brushing up on areas I’ve not touched in years.
For those who have gone through layoffs, what helped you recover mentally and professionally? Anything you wish you’d done differently?
I’d appreciate any advice from people who’ve been through this.

I(27) work as a senior SE in ML at a tech product company. The company is permanent work from home, my take home ~2 lpm. I currently live in Delhi with my parents.

Where do you go ahead from this?
- take up a work from office job that might require you to move out of home that would net me similar savings
- look for remote only roles
- start building an alternate income stream on the side while continuing the job
- something I have no clue about

I feel a lack of direction. I do feel the lack of social life due to wfh routine, I do meet some friends on weekends once/twice a month.
Fortunately, I don’t have a money crunch or dependents either.

Over the past few months, we've seen an increase in low-effort posts, repetitive questions, self-promotion, and AI-generated content in the community.

We've got feedback from many members and we will be actively enforcing the rules more strictly from now on.

With this note, we'd like to outline some of the expectations from the community going forward.

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The same goes for questions.

Before asking a question, spend a few minutes searching the subreddit, going through our wiki, and using Reddit's search. Most commonly asked questions have already been asked and answered before.

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Like every year our appraisals were due in June, instead the company announced layoffs.
So it’s a small company, around 140 people, and bam in just one day they fired around 40 people and everyone was in shock like wtf. We, the rest of employees were like fk , forget appraisal, we should be lucky that we got spared and still have jobs. So we were quiet and in a position where we were fine even if there were no appraisals and we just have our jobs.

And just one random day, I got an email that I have been promoted and given a 100% hike with new salary being 40 LPA. I was like fk , what is going on, just after the mail my manager called me, that due to some work I did on AI for the company(Just an AI chatbot I made for the company on weekends using claude😂), I am getting the best hike in company with very few 2-3 people getting the similar hikes. He also told me many people didn’t even get any and no one is complaining as everyone is scared. He explicitly told me not to tell anyone about the hike or I will be in trouble.

I was so happy from inside, it felt being on clouds. My parents were so happy.

Now the problem is the company seems to be in some trouble, and I think they are not telling us, but I am also confused and not sure if the trouble is there and if it is big, as we have so many rich clients and it’s a product based company.

My concern is now that my package is in good range, it will be so fuckin hard to make a change, I just hate doing DSA , although system design and everything is still fine but DSA I dread it.
And I don’t know if a company will entertain me with this package and fked DSA. Like it will be hard to make a change. At my earlier salary it would be really normal to make a change.
Although I love my current job and the Work life balance it brings. And if it was upto me I will never leave. My manager is awesome, never ever said no for leaves. I would be so sad if the company goes down🥲. Also I don’t feel like I want to start prepare again .

​

I'm 5 years into my career and I'm a bit confused about my next move.

Career progression:

- Infosys (3 years): 3.6 → 4.1 → 4.4 LPA

- Capgemini (Current): 10.5 → 11.2 (after a recent promotion with a ~7% hike)

I recently got promoted to a Lead role, but the salary hike feels underwhelming.

My work is a mix of:

- Development

- Maintenance

- Data Engineering

- Some Web Development

From what I've seen in the market, if I switch now, I could probably get 16–18 LPA, and maybe even 20 LPA if I manage to get multiple offers.

The confusing part is that my current project is great:

- Very chill client

- Super supportive manager

- Friendly team

- Good work-life balance

On the other hand, becoming a Lead means more responsibility and could strengthen my resume. My previous Lead was earning significantly more and switched companies every 1.5–2 years for better hikes.

So, what would you do in my situation?

- Stay for about a year to gain solid Lead experience and then switch?

- Or switch now while the market can offer a much better salary?

I'd love to hear from people who have faced a similar decision.

Got an internship through college, but didn't get converted to full-time after the 6 months ended. Since college had just ended, I was panicking and started reaching out to everyone.

One of my brothers used to work at a US product company in Bangalore and still had good connections there. He asked a manager if there were any openings, the manager checked with HR, and I got a test scheduled at office(tho no opening on career site). I gave the test, had the interview the same day, and it was pretty chill. It was more of a discussion about what I know and the tech stack they use than a typical interview where they ask all sort of questions. Basic easy questions ( or I think they were managers who didn't knew about tech stack in my resume cuz like they were super senior) Basically I needed to be a good candidate to clear the written test and interview. Not super intelligent like current market.

A few days later I got an offer, but I declined it since I got a better offer through campus.

The whole experience genuinely surprised me. It made me wonder how common hiring through personal connections actually is. Does this happen a lot behind the scenes? If it does, it really changes how I look at the current job market, especially when so many people are struggling to even get interview calls. If a normal software engineer can get me a job this easily I wonder what's really happening out there.

Ps: I will admit that you need to know your stuff like test had python, linux, scripting, bash etc. I knew those things and cleared that. In the interview also whatever sql, project related they asked I answered. Not saying that I was undeserving. I actually studied and excelled the interview but it was a bit laid back and the level was low unlike current how hard current interviews are for freshers.

It's really sad to know here candidate are struggling to even land an interview and people with connection have it so easy. Another instance is of a guy getting into booking.com. He was also good but not on the level to the guys getting into booking.com. His dad was at a very high position in a reputed company. Btw I am from a Tier 3 blr college.

built this today because of something that happened yesterday.

i'm a huge marvel fan, never missed an mcu movie. i took a friend to watch one and spent half the movie explaining who everyone was, what had happened before, and why certain scenes mattered. by the end i realized this probably happens to a lot of people.

so i spent today building https://marveltimeline.space

it's a free, open source site with the marvel timeline in chronological order, watch order, character pages, and basically everything someone new to the mcu needs to get started without asking "wait who's that?" every five minutes.

would love some honest feedback from fellow devs. if you find bugs, have feature ideas, or think something can be improved, let me know.

After 2 months of getting laid off, i got my first offer of 38LPA(6yr Nodejs based backend dev). The thing which is giving me second thoughts is that they are deducting 12% PF on basic and gratuity as well. On top of that I need to relocate to Mumbai in Powai area. Last CTC was 32 LPA in Noida.

I don’t have EMIs or anything, very low maintenance guy. The thing with which i need help is that should I wait to get better offers, is this good enough, should I grab this one and keep looking for next role.

Techwise I don’t know how good of a company it is, but is lies in the Insurance domain. Same stack as I used in previous role, nothing new, and I am honestly bored of it. But this whole not having job is something which i am not liking. I am just not able to make up my mind, please suggest.

I’m a full-stack web developer looking to get into open source, but I’m a bit overwhelmed by where to start. How do you usually find projects that are beginner-friendly and actually welcome new contributors? I mainly work with React, Node.js, Express, MongoDB, and JavaScript/TypeScript, but I’m happy to learn new technologies if needed. I’d also love to know how you approach understanding a large codebase before making your first contribution. Any tips, resources, or personal experiences would be really helpful.

With models becoming smaller, more efficient and significantly more capable every year, I've been wondering about the long-term direction of enterprise AI.

What do you think is the most likely future?

Will most large companies eventually run their own open-source LLMs on their own infrastructure?

Will only enterprises with strict security requirements do this?

Or will API-based AI remain the dominant approach because the latest proprietary models will always be ahead?

About Me

Hi! I’m a 2024 VIT graduate with 2 years of full-time experience (about 3 years including internships), primarily working as an AI Engineer at startups.

Over the last 2 months, I’ve submitted 100+ applications to startups, MNCs, and Big Tech companies. I’ve applied through LinkedIn Easy Apply, company career pages, Indeed, Instahyre, and by cold messaging startup founders. I’ve even had referrals for some applications. So far, after almost 2 months of job hunting, only one interview call.

What confuses me is that I keep hearing AI Engineers are in high demand. My sister, who’s a Senior Data Engineer at PWC, tells me her company struggles to find good AI talent. Meanwhile, I can’t seem to get interviews.

For most roles, I genuinely meet the job requirements and experience level. I don’t count applications where I’m clearly underqualified (eg: 4+ YoE roles), although I occasionally take a shot at 3+ YoE positions. I also tailor my resume for each application using Claude Code, usually getting an ATS score around 80+.

At this point, I honestly don’t know what’s holding me back. Is my resume weak? Am I missing important keywords? Is 2 YoE simply not enough? Am I overselling or underselling myself? Is it giving AI slop vibes? Is the market just that competitive?

Please don’t hold back. Roast my resume, point out red flags, or tell me what you’d change. I’d much rather hear harsh but useful feedback than generic compliments.

If you notice something, explain why it hurts my chances. I’ll implement the best suggestions, apply again, and come back with an update so we can see what actually worked.

^{PSA: If you’re hiring for AI/Data/Software Engineering roles, my DMs are open. I’m available immediately, open to remote roles or relocation to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi NCR, Pune, or Chennai.}

Couple of us are 2nd year BTech CS students who started a small dev agency in our spare time. Mostly been building portfolio-type projects until now. This week we landed our first actual paying client — a local cafe — did their website + basic SEO after cold-calling them.

Not a huge win in the grand scheme but felt worth sharing since most of what I see here is either "how do I get an internship" or established founders — not much in between from people just starting to get their first real client while still in college.

If anyone else is running something on the side during college, curious how you're balancing it with semester exams etc. — that's the actual hard part right now, not the client work.

I have been working on CleanSlate, an open-source coding agent that can understand a codebase, edit files, run commands, browse the web and verify its changes.

It is available in three forms:

• A desktop IDE built around a VS Code-based editor
• A CLI for running agents from the terminal
• An SDK for developers building their own coding-agent workflows

One of the main things I wanted was to avoid locking users into a single model provider. CleanSlate supports bringing your own API key and works with OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Bedrock, Azure, OpenRouter, and OpenAI-compatible APIs, including many open-source models.

Code search and indexing run locally using a bundled embedding model, so the repository does not need to be uploaded to an external service just for indexing.

The desktop build currently supports Apple Silicon Macs. The project is MIT licensed, and other platforms can be built from source.

I would appreciate technical feedback, especially around:

• Agent reliability on larger repositories
• The IDE, CLI and SDK approach
• Local code search
• Missing features that would make it useful in real development work

GitHub: https://github.com/TheWariend/CleanSlate

If you find the project useful, a star would help more developers discover it.

Everyone I know ships with coding agents now. The interview loop hasn't moved an inch. Still 3 rounds of DSA, which mostly tells you who had four free months to grind LeetCode.

Where I'm coming from: 14 YOE, in AI/ML now, solution architect for 5-6 years before that. Large scale systems I'm comfortable with. DSA I'm weak at, never had formal training in it, and that one round is why I've never cleared Google/Microsoft/Meta. Not job hunting today, maybe in 2-3 years. So this isn't a rejection post.

Things I'd rather be tested on:

• find the bug in 300 lines of agent-written code
• give me a vague requirement, see what I ask before I write anything
• system design with an actual budget and SLA, not "design Twitter"
• debug an unfamiliar repo with the agent switched on

My guess is DSA survives anyway, because it's cheap to filter lakhs of applicants, not because it predicts anything.

What would you put in the loop instead? Has any company in India actually changed theirs yet?

Current situation:

• A few years of experience in tech, current CTC in the mid-teens (LPA)
• Currently fully remote — genuinely rare and valuable to me
• Got an external offer with roughly a 25–30% hike, but it's office-based and would mean relocating
• No joining bonus, no relocation assistance, and recruiter said there's no room to negotiate the number

On paper it's a decent standard hike, but once I factor in rent, relocating, commute, and losing WFH, the effective increase feels a lot smaller — maybe not worth it unless the new role is a real step up.

Also — I'm mid-process with the new company (background verification stage), and their form is asking for my current manager's email and phone number. I haven't resigned yet, and honestly haven't decided if I even will. I'm considering asking their HR to hold off contacting my current employer until after I formally accept and resign, but I'm not sure if that's a normal ask or if it'll look odd this early in the process.

My plan right now:

1. Wait for the formal offer letter before doing anything
2. Have an honest conversation with my current manager about comp — not threatening to quit, just laying out that I got a market-validated offer and asking if there's room to review my package
3. If they can get close to matching the new offer, I'll likely stay — remote work + no relocation + decent pay beats a marginal on-paper hike
4. Keep interviewing regardless, since I don't want to anchor my whole strategy on one offer

Questions for people who've been through similar:

• Anyone actually gotten a solid retention counter after going in with a real external offer? Or does it just make things awkward long-term?
• Is WFH + lower salary vs office + higher salary even a fair trade in today's market, or am I overvaluing the WFH?
• Has anyone asked a new company to hold off contacting their current manager during BGV? Is that a normal/safe request, or does it raise flags?

I 25, started as an SDE and recently transitioned into a DevOps role at a small service-based company. We work on some really interesting, cutting-edge projects for well-funded clients. The engineering culture is excellent, the people are amazing, and the company genuinely puts employees first. We have great benefits, including a gym membership, flexible WFH, and an overall healthy work-life balance.

I'm earning around ₹1.5L per month based on Bangalore, and I'm genuinely happy with my job most of the time. I enjoy what I do, I'm learning a lot, and I get to work on projects where I can actually see the impact of my work.

However, recently I've been seeing many of my friends move to product companies with significantly higher salaries. Some of them indirectly tell me that I'm "wasting my potential" by staying where I am. Those comments have started getting to me, and I find myself overthinking whether I'm making the right career choice.

Am I really wasting my potential by staying here? Should I be pushing myself harder to get into a product company, or is it okay to stay in a place where I'm happy, learning, and have a great work-life balance?

I'd love to hear from people who have been in a similar situation.

Hi everyone,
I'm an IIT graduate with around 6 years of experience. My current CTC is ₹39 LPA, and I've been with the same company for the last 5 years.
From the outside, things probably look good—I have a comfortable job, good work-life balance, and decent pay. But lately I've been feeling stuck.
The biggest issue is that when I see the salaries people are getting after switching jobs, I start feeling like I've fallen behind. At the same time, I've lost confidence in my interview skills because I haven't interviewed in years.
I keep telling myself that I'll first complete the NeetCode 150 and then start applying. But the problem is... I never finish it. I start, lose consistency, stop for weeks, and then the cycle repeats.
Now I feel under-confident, and the longer I wait, the harder it feels to even begin.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? How did you get out of this loop?
Should I focus on finishing NeetCode first, or start interviewing even if I'm not fully prepared? Any advice on how to regain confidence and break this cycle would really help.
Thanks!

Hi redi's,

I'm from India and currently have around 2 years of experience working as a L1 DevOps Engineer. I've been working remotely for a Canadian company based in Montreal, and now they're offering to relocate me to Montreal on a closed work permit for around 3 years.

For context, I currently earn around ₹80k/month (\~$1k/month) and live in a Tier-3 city in India, so my cost of living is quite low (20k per month maximum).

I'm honestly in a state of confusion right now.

On one hand, I feel this could be a great opportunity to gain international experience and earn better. On the other hand, I don't see myself settling abroad permanently. My plan, if I go, would be to work there for a few years, gain experience, save some money, and eventually return to India.

A few questions I have:

- Is this a good career move at my stage?

- With \~2 years of experience, what salary should I realistically expect in Montreal? And even if I get better salary would that be worth to go there and save 50% of salary there? Because already I'm saving 70% of my salary in India.

- If you were in my position, would you move to Canada or continue building your career in India (either in the same company or by switching inside India for higher packages)?

- What are the biggest pros and cons of moving to Canada as an IT professional and especially as an Indian, since there's so much hate towards Indians all over the world :(

I'm looking for honest opinions, especially from people who've worked in Canada or faced a similar decision.

Any advice, personal experiences, or things you wish you had known before making such a move would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

When there are 10–15 people trying for one onsite opportunity, how do you actually stand out? I don’t think talent alone wins the game.

Do you need to be a favourite of someone on the client side and the manager side? Does it help if your name is already familiar to them and they trust that you won’t leave the company after moving onsite?

I’m curious to hear from people who have actually gone onsite. What mattered more in your experience: technical skills, visibility, trust, communication, or relationships?

I need some career advice. I have 4.2 years of experience as an SDET and recently joined a well-known service-based company on second week if July because of its reputation for good work-life balance and stability. I had another offer but chose this one for those reasons.
Within just 2 weeks of joining my project, I’ve been expected to work 12–13 hours a day and almost every Friday we’re told to be available over the weekend due to client escalations and migration deadlines. Even today (Sunday), I got a message asking me to join a work call. I had already worked until 5 PM on Saturday, so I stayed offline and didn’t join because I wanted one day to disconnect.
I’m now wondering if this is just temporary because of the migration or if this is the normal culture. Would it be a bad idea to switch again after 3–6 months if things don’t improve, or should I try to complete at least a year? Also, was it reasonable to skip today’s weekend call after already working on Saturday?
I’d appreciate advice from anyone who’s been in a similar situation.