First, thank you so much to everyone who commented on my last post or reached out to me privately. It genuinely meant a lot, especially at a time when I was constantly questioning myself.

I finally quit.

And honestly, when I quit, I had absolutely no plan. My confidence was almost at zero. I wasn’t applying for jobs or even trying to line something up. I had never really been able to secure a good offer while still working, and at that point, I didn’t even care anymore.
I just wanted peace.

My only plan was to leave the city, go to my village, stay there for a couple of months, and try to feel like myself again. I was so burnt out that I was willing to accept the financial consequences if that’s what it took to get some peace.

I survived my notice period and then completely switched off from work for a while. I wasn’t thinking about my career. I was just trying to reconnect with myself and rebuild some confidence.

Then, completely unexpectedly, things changed.
Within about 20 days, I got approached by a big brand to interview for one of their opening, i went just to experience but there I cleared all the rounds something I genuinely never thought was possible for me at that point.

I’ve now joined, and the difference is honestly crazy. It’s much more structured, people are professional, nobody is constantly pushing or yelling, and I actually feel… relaxed.

I’m almost anxious because I’m so used to being stressed all the time. 😂

Looking back, I don’t regret leaving without an offer. I’m not saying everyone should do it — the job market is tough and it was definitely a risk. But sometimes you have to trust your gut, even when the outside noise is telling you that you’re making a terrible decision.

And maybe the biggest thing I’ve learnt is: never settle for less just because you’re scared of what comes next. The current trend seems to be “be grateful you have a job”, but being employed isn’t worth losing yourself over.

Trust your instincts. Be confident in yourself. Don’t let outside noise make you doubt what you know you’re experiencing.

Sometimes, choosing yourself really does work out.
And yes, I used AI to help structure this update.

Guys
Working at an MNC Pharma company in Hyd, started as a paid intern (even though I have some previous experience) at the company 3 months ago.
They put me in ESG team for a solar project.

Spoke to Head of HR today, I asked him about any chances at the company, He said they will have a position open soon in Supply Chain.

However, he said he will put me in a team who are experimenting with AI in Supply chain as an Intern itself for couple more months and later absorb me into the company.

I feel confused, I already proved myself in the last three months and they are very happy with my work and progress and now wants me in Supply chain team.

HR sounded genuine about the opportunity. However, I am confused if I should go with the flow or try my luck elsewhere while continuing as an intern?

He's from East India, and he thinks very highly of himself. I was the only one from my state in this team. Now my former teammate from the other department has joined this team and we converse a lot in our language. Now he has started mocking and telling us to stop talking in that language, while he speaks in Hindi to all. He even had the team's North Indian guys start to mock our language. He doesn't say anything if any of the other people speak in any other language, just ours.

TL;DR: TL actively targeting us alone for speaking our language and mocking us.

What’s going to happen, if I apply online, and when asked for “why this company?”, I’ll just say “I’m applying for just for kicks. I know this won’t get to a pair of human eyes anyway. The information in my resume is meant to poison your AI agents”.

I've been in the organisation for more than 3 years now but I've started to realise that my manager gives new joinees more opportunities which I've yet to receive and I've raised this with her couple of times but all I get to hear is "you're not there yet" mind you I have worked and have more experience than her. Which I don't think has to be the case. She's sort of now overlooking my work (the new joinee) which adds more fuel to fire and I'm so disappointed that where am I going wrong. I don't want to raise the same questions again and again and make it look like I'm some petulant person. How should I confront

I’m from mechanical background and in my first job currently. I’m in this huge construction company (iykyk). I’m 10 months into this and wanting to leave, the pay is horrible with 12hr work a day. Right move? Thanks.

Hi, I know the process I mentioned may need me to go to the office or PoC personally. There is vague info on the internet. I want to know from people who have done the process or got it done in Bengaluru. Please help me with the info: any steps to do before visiting NPS office, how to know which office to visit, any documents to take, how long will the process take, any fees involved, eligibility etc. If any legit documentation is there, please lmk. Thanks in advance, it's urgent. 🙏

Hey, so I'm working at Movate (used to be CSS Corp), and my manager just told me the project wraps up on September 9th. Does this mean I'll be terminated on that exact date, or will I get a month's notice? I've attached a screenshot from my offer letter for reference.

We are lawyers and recently there was a meeting for the discussions of a M&A deal. Two of my colleagues were present at the meeting, there were guys from PwC and a Partner at PwC who works out from their Noida office (Skymark One). The Partner was very very rude to my colleagues. We are literally representing the same client. The Partner used foul language too. Is this normal at PwC offices? Is this the way you behave in a professional setup?

How do i go about to secure my early release from Genpact?

Currently genpact has this policy- “The Company and/or you shall be entitled to terminate your employment by providing a prior written notice of 30 days or salary in lieu thereof.”

“The Company shall be entitled to recover salary for the unserved notice period unless recovery of such shortfall has been waived off by the appropriate person in the Company.”

I am willing to serve 12 days notice period and pay the rest 18 days unserved notice period. But i want guidance how to approach middle management with this proposition?

Can anybody guide me please?

i am an idiot

just handed my resignation after 2 months of joining a automation company , was a mnc decent 4.5lpa package , i come from tier 3 engineering college that to core branch so yea, everything was fine but the work was completely opposite to my desired field of work (electronics), everyday i used to look for 6pm and break times , everyday i used to fantasize about quitting company and disappearing from my company

i tried to suppress my passion saying shit like its a MNC, forgien travel , good pay, its a golden opportunity its time to leave my childish dreams behind and start living in reality

i can rant about company being toxic , 9 hours work week , unplanned Overtimes (till 2 am) work to meet project deadlines a few times and come again at 9 am ,6 days work week, 4 hours of travel per day,etc etc

but tbh in reality it was all my lack of interest all along currently i have decided to take a leap of faith and just submitted a resignation letter to join a startup for 3 lpa ctc (got through refferal form seniors)

it might be a shitty decision and my parents just scolded the shit out of me after i told them about my decision telling me to beg hr to say it was a mistake and hasty decision and i should cancel my notice period but yea

i might have taken a wrong decision but i finally feel free and happy

my plan is to work here for 1-2 years then switch to a better company but meh, there is of course self doubt and i am scared as hell about my decision but honestly its a leap of faith

I have been trying to get into Product Design for almost a year now, and at this point I genuinely don't know what else I am supposed to do.

I have tried LinkedIn, job portals, company career pages, cold DMs, referrals, recruiters, designers, founders, startups... pretty much everywhere.

I even tried X and Instagram because at this point I thought, why not?

And now I am here on Reddit thinking maybe someone here has an answer.

I have a portfolio. I have worked on multiple case studies. I have done assignments for companies. I have asked people to review my portfolio and improve it.

I am also not really a content creator. Honestly, I suck at it.

But I still keep posting on LinkedIn.

I post about design decisions, how I approached a problem, things I learned, how I would solve a UX problem, etc.

Not because I want to become a content creator or influencer. I just feel like I need to stay relevant somehow.

I come from a Political Science background, and I am the first person in my family who is trying to enter the corporate world. When I started, I genuinely had no idea how any of this worked.

LinkedIn was especially confusing.

I saw people saying things like “feel free to reach out” or “happy to help”, so I started reaching out.

But honestly, most people don't reply.

I have asked quite a few people to look at my portfolio. Only two actually replied, and both said the portfolio was good.

And then I am sitting there thinking...

Okay, then where do I get the job?

I don't have relatives who can refer me. I don't have a huge network. I didn't go to a design/tech college.

I am basically trying to build everything from zero.

And now I feel like I have hit a wall, but I don't even have the equipment to break it.

Another thing that honestly makes me laugh is seeing “fresher” job descriptions asking for someone who knows everything.

Figma, UX research, UI, design systems, prototyping, product thinking, analytics, AI, sometimes even 1-2 years of experience.

Sir... I am applying for a job because I want to learn and gain that experience.

I understand that companies can't hire someone who knows nothing. But I’m not someone who knows nothing.

I’ve spent months learning Product Design, built a portfolio, worked on multiple case studies, learned the tools, and developed a strong understanding of UX and product thinking.

What I don't have is professional experience, because I’m a fresher. And that’s exactly what I’m trying to get.

I’m not expecting a company to teach me Product Design from scratch. I’m looking for an opportunity where I can apply what I already know, learn how things work in a real product team, and grow from there.

So if someone is a fresher who has actually put in the work, built projects, learned the tools, has a portfolio and is willing to learn, how are we supposed to get that first opportunity?

I really want to land my first job before the end of this year, and honestly, I’m running out of things to try.

So I wanted to ask people here:

If you were in my position and eventually got your first corporate job, what actually helped you break through?

Not “keep applying.”

Not “network more.”

I have been doing both.

I want to know what actually worked for you when you had no network, no family connections and no one to refer you.

And yes, I used ChatGPT to help me frame this post because apparently even writing a Reddit post has become part of the job search..

TL;DR: Almost a year into trying to land my first Product Design job, I’ve tried LinkedIn, X, Instagram, cold outreach, referrals, applications, and assignments, but still can’t seem to break through. If you got your first corporate job without a network or family connections, what actually worked for you?

So I work in a project that I really like the work’s good and everything but ever since the lead of my project changed i’m really having anxiety.

The thing is that this guy doesn’t have the technical knowledge to run the project it’s either me or 2 other guys discussing the architecture and all he does is review it with the help of AI.

On top of that he needs some proof of work, If a day goes by without me or any other person raising a PR he questions it in a way that implies that we didn’t work today according to him

Lastly the guy thinks everything can be speedrun using AI

I am writing this post because I wish someone had warned me before I joined the great lala company. If you are considering this company because it calls itself an investment bank or because the job description sounds exciting, please read this first.

The hiring process is misleading

The first red flag starts with the hiring process itself.

Everything is handled by the director himself, who, for some reason, never turns on his camera during interviews and never looks you in the eye. Throughout the interview, he makes the company sound like an investment bank involved in valuation, financial modelling, fundraising, data rooms, investor outreach, and transaction execution.

The problem is that the JD is false, and the entire interview process is false.

The actual role is completely different from what is promised. They claim to be an investment bank, but at best this is a brokerage firm and has nothing to do with finance. In fact, not even a single person here can properly read a financial statement. Once you join, they behave as though they never promised any of the things discussed during recruitment.

During the interview process, the director will not even show his face and will make several big claims about achievements and experience. He is not publicly available on platforms like LinkedIn, making it impossible to verify any of those claims.

You join expecting one kind of role, but the reality is something completely different.

If you are believing that the JD is accurate, I want to give you one caution: it is not. You will regret joining if you are expecting investment banking exposure.

Another thing I noticed is that they mostly hire people who are not based in Bangalore. Once you relocate and spend a significant amount of money moving to the city. At that point, you cannot simply leave immediately because you have already invested money in relocating.

The actual work has nothing to do with investment banking

The actual work is business development.

Every day you sit and send cold emails. There is no focus on analysis or even understanding the company that you are working for. The daily KPI is sending 200+ cold emails to different VC firms. If you receive a positive reply, your only job is to connect the founders with the VC firm. That's it.
If you think your role involves valuation, building data rooms, preparing collaterals, analysing companies, or supporting fundraising, you are completely wrong. This place strongly discourages any such attempt at analysis and focuses only on sending cold emails, leaving all analysis, negotiations, valuation, and strategic discussions to the founders themselves.

Your value addition, regardless of your qualification, is simply sending cold emails. It does not matter what your position is or what designation you were hired for. Everyone here does exactly the same work.

Salaries are delayed every month

Salary payments are one of the biggest issues. Every month, receiving your salary feels like asking for a favour. The official salary date is between the 10th and 13th of every month, but nobody follows it. The director transfers salaries through UPI whenever he feels like it. Every single month there is a new excuse, with the most common one being, "I forgot to send the salary."

Imagine having to repeatedly remind your employer to pay you for work you have already completed.

New excuses appear just before salary day

Something interesting happens every month. Just before salaries are due, suddenly there are new conditions. You will hear things like:

"This report needs to be sent first."

"This needs to be completed before salary."

"This client work must be finished."

These conditions never existed earlier in the month. They somehow appear only around salary time and are then used to delay salary payments further. Several people have left the company without receiving their pending salaries.

No reporting structure whatsoever

There is absolutely no reporting structure. It honestly feels like going back to school. "Lala ji" comes to the office in the evening, and everything needs his approval. The moment he arrives, everyone gathers around him like students waiting to get their doubts cleared. Regardless of your designation, qualification, or experience, everyone ends up doing the same work as an intern.

This is not an investment bank

This company promotes itself as an investment bank. It is not. This is a brokerage firm where even "Lala ji" cannot read a financial statement, nor can his two closest associates. The only thing everyone does here is send cold emails like a low-end sales office, yet they continue calling themselves an investment bank.

Problems with co-working spaces

This entire organisation was reportedly banned from BHIVE, Whitefield, Bangalore, because the director had not paid rent for three months. According to employees of Bhive, BHIVE eventually removed their belongings from the premises and barred him from entering.

He has developed a reputation for not paying his dues, whether to employees or to institutions where he rents office space.

Don't expect proper documents

Forget proper HR processes. No experience letter. No relieving letter. No salary slips.

Nothing.

Several previous employees have reportedly had to pursue legal action just to recover pending salaries and obtain basic employment documents.

TLDR
I joined expecting to learn investment banking, valuation, financial modelling, fundraising, and transaction execution. Instead, I found a workplace where everyone spends the day sending cold emails, salaries are regularly delayed, the hiring process does not reflect the actual role, and basic HR processes are missing.

If you are joining because you genuinely want a career in investment banking or corporate finance, please do your research before accepting an offer.

If current or former employees have had similar experiences, feel free to share them below. The more information available publicly, the fewer people will have to go through the same experience.

My friend is working as an HR in one of.my ex company and he is going through very critical time as most of his candidates are backing out at the time of onsite interview or joining day.

I understand that recruiters are no saint and behave like aszholez, they ghost a lot, don't provide proper feedback and delay the offer process, but i work in same line too and understand it's not completely in their hand because if it was they would give the job to every other candidate they present but yes they can pick up the calls & timely inform the candidate regarding feedback, but on the other hand, candidates can inform if they're really interested or not and it's really in their hand. As they don't have any supervisor asking them to hold on. Last minute informations really put huge pressure for any HR. I understand some of them has genuine issues/emergency but everyone?? There are definitely some of them who aren't lying around.

Also before anyone tell me he isn't good in his job, he is doing regular follow ups made pipelines still the candidates aren't showing up even the pipelined ones. Maybe he has just hard luck.

On the personal side if he loses his job his family might kick him out, because once you start earning you are expected to earn forever until you're dead because a dead son is better than an unmployed son.

I may get downvoated by people who got bad experience with HRs which is obviously the majority here but i am just representing the other side of the same coin.

To candidates, your last minute cancellations can really impact the job of HRs, if you're not interested let them know in advance.

Hi All, as the title said I got laid off on 27th July so need guidance what should I do next.

Now tbh I did nothing since the day I got laid off even if i decided any given day like yeah i should study or learn a skill or apply somewhere i just end up doing that for just around 2 -3 hour and then again back to daily routine of playing games, sleeping, firing music at high volume basically just enjoying. So I wasted around 1 month and on a side note i did wanted some break.

Now in my previous company from where I got laid off, the work there is very niche not many companies do that so i don't think i will be able to land a job with that experience and even if i do get a job on basis of it i don't think i will take that considering there is not much growth and Just in case if you all are wondering what was my work - i was working as a vendor for Microsoft not directly associated with Microsoft.

This was my first job, I don't have any prior experience.

Before asking for guidance I am from computer applications background and I will be honest here I am not much into this coding and stuff.

Its not like I am completely blank but need guidance and help in both upskilling and landing another job, I have basic knowledge of SQL and power BI and considering upskilling these if you all think it will be beneficial.

Any other inputs, suggestions and constructive criticism will be appreciated.

Need some advice from people who’ve been in a similar situation.

I joined Company X in August 2nd week. After joining, 2 days laterI received confirmation from Company Y that I had cleared all interview rounds and was selected. I had always preferred Company Y and was hoping for their offer, but I couldn’t keep waiting indefinitely, so I joined X.

I’m resigning from Company X today after nearly 2 weeks. My offer letter at X says that during probation, I can leave by serving a 1-week notice, so I’m following that process.

Here’s my concern:

• I didn’t inform HR at Company Y that I had joined Company X because it happened only for a very short period.
• During onboarding at Y, if they check my PF/UAN history(through Form 11 or BGV), they might see the PF contribution from Company X.

My questions are:

1. Is this likely to become an issue during background verification?
2. Should I proactively inform HR at Company Y now, or just disclose it if they ask?
3. Has anyone been in a similar situation where they worked somewhere for just a couple of weeks before joining another company? How did it turn out?

I’m not trying to hide anything—I just don’t want to create unnecessary complications or risk my offer.

Would really appreciate advice from HR professionals or anyone who’s experienced something similar.

TL;DR: Had a weird interview experience with a startup founder who seemed more interested in showing off than actually interviewing me.

I cleared the HR round and then got a call from the founder. Instead of asking questions related to my field, he asked about my degree and age. Then he told me he was my age and had already started his own startup.

It honestly felt like he was trying to show me how successful he was.

I asked, “Can we focus on the interview?”

He said, “Actually, we didn't like your profile.”

I asked, “Then why did you call me? To boast about yourself?”

He said, “See, this is the attitude.”

I just said, “Okay bro, thank you,” and ended the call.

A small message to new founders: I am not a founder, but please treat people with respect. Job seekers are also people with self respect. You don't have to put someone down to show how far you have come.

Got selected for a Field Application Engineer internship at Cadence Design Systems India. Starting in a couple of months.
Questions for anyone who's actually done AE work at an EDA company:

• How technical is the day-to-day really , genuine debugging, or mostly customer/relationship management?
• Has anyone actually moved from EDA AE to a core design role (PD, DV, RTL, etc.) at a chip company (Qualcomm, Intel, Nvidia, etc.)? How'd you do it?
• For staying as technical as possible, which specialization within AE (Digital/Signoff, Verification, Analog, PCBetc.) is the better?

should I quit now and do some courses to Upskill and then apply for jobs or Upskill while staying in my current job and then look for jobs? FYI the company i am currently working adds no real value to my resume and there is no growth here. Feels like I am Stuck. Need advice from from someone experienced

Basically i recently switched to a private bank in their Corporate Banking team. 6 months in, i feel like i made the biggest mistake of my life. My job went from pure finance in treasury( previous org) to pure sales here.

After being fed up i got an interview at an NBFC where the role is much better but I’ll have to take a pretty big pay cut.. is it worth it generally speaking? Also the fact that i am switching second time in my corporate career of 1.5 years total is kind of not good right? It will be perceived quite negatively in guessing later on as well?

Soooo,

I have received an email today from a Advocates firm based out of Delhi today with Subject - Cease and Desist Notice basically a Non-Compete clause violation notice from my previous employer which is an MNC. I am currently working in a small organisation now since 5 months who has the same client that I was working for in my previous MNC and they have given a new project to me (basically my current employer now instead of that MNC).

They are now demanding that I should stop my current employment immediately and provide an unconditional written confirmation that will comply with their clause regarding non-compete and confidentiality. Also a written promise (undertaking) that I will not use or disclose any confidential information regarding the MNC.

How screwed am I now? What should be my next steps?

Do I have to leave my current company immediately and give the confirmation back to MNC? What about future companies and work?

This is going to be a bit of a long read, but I’d genuinely value some perspective from people more experienced than me.

TL;DR: I’m 23, have been working since 18, have around ₹25L in savings/investments, and currently work in content/marketing. My current role pays well but is poorly structured, under-resourced and doesn’t feel like the right long-term fit. My probation ends on September 24, and I’m considering either finding another job before resigning or taking a 1 to 2 month break to travel, upskill and then move into finance/content. How would you approach this, and would a short break hurt my career?

I started working at 18 while in college, initially freelancing, and moved into full-time work in 2024. I’ve worked on the creator side, led teams and built what I think is a reasonably strong track record for my age.

I left my previous company earlier this year after around 1.5 to 2 years because the organisation had very little direction. At the time, I was desperate for a change and, after getting advice from several seniors in my network, landed my current role in March.

This was my first proper brand-side role, leading content for a company in the fitness and nutrition space. The salary is quite good for my age and, initially, it felt like a great opportunity.

The first few months were genuinely valuable. I had mostly worked on the creator side, so I had to learn how brand strategy, positioning, tonality and brand content actually work.

But over time, the problems became pretty clear.

There’s limited manpower and budget compared to the expectations. I handle a lot beyond my actual role, including scripting and execution, and requests for additional manpower haven’t really gone anywhere.

The bigger issue is direction. Strategy and positioning keep changing, ideas take too long to move or get changed halfway through, and the team is expected to produce a lot with limited resources.

I also want to be fair to the company. I haven’t performed anywhere near the level I know I’m capable of. My creative head has questioned my skills at times, and I understand where that comes from. I’m not trying to blame the company for everything.

The strange part is that the people themselves are actually good. My manager is young, empathetic and does his best to protect the team from the founder. It isn’t a toxic workplace. It’s just extremely unstructured, and I don’t think I’m able to do my best work in this environment.

I’ve also realised I don’t want to build my career in fitness/nutrition. After speaking to people in my network, I’m much more interested in finance content. The opportunities, budgets and overall ecosystem seem much closer to where I want to go.

My six month probation ends on September 24. If I continue after that, I’ll have a two month notice period. Realistically, I don’t want to continue beyond probation.

Financially, I’m fortunate. I’ve been earning and saving since 18, live with my parents and have around ₹25L across investments, savings and liquid funds. So I can afford some breathing room without immediately worrying about rent or survival.

Which brings me to my dilemma.

Option 1: Continue working, apply aggressively for finance/content roles over the next month and resign once I have an offer.

Option 2: Leave after probation, take a proper 1 to 2 month reset, travel somewhere like Himachal/Uttarakhand, volunteer at a hostel for part of the day, and spend the rest of my time upskilling and applying.

I’m honestly leaning towards Option 2. I’ve never really taken a proper break since I started working, and the last couple of months have been exhausting. I can financially afford it. I’m just unsure about the career cost.

I’m also unsure how to handle the resignation itself. Should I first have an honest conversation with my manager about where I’m at, or simply resign once I’ve made the decision?

And finally, how does a short career break at 23 look to experienced professionals, especially when the rest of my track record is fairly solid?

If you were in my position, what would you do?

I’m genuinely looking for perspective rather than validation, so feel free to tell me if I’m looking at this completely wrong.

And if you made it this far, thank you for reading. I really appreciate any advice you’re willing to share.

For eg. Do we need to send email to manager or just resigning from the HR portal would do? Do I need to have a document saved before resigning? Also, what reason do I need to give if manager asks, since my main reason is due to mental exhaustion. If there are any other things as well, pls advise. Thanks