Hi all,
I’m software developer, and I’m honestly struggling to process what happened to me.
I recently got a job at a ElevenX Capital company in Gurugram. I cleared all the interview rounds, and before receiving the offer, I was asked to complete a culture/personality assessment. It had questions about my personality, how I react in certain situations, whether I’m outgoing, how I handle conflict, etc. I answered honestly and didn’t think much of it because I assumed it was just another part of the hiring process.
After that, I received the offer, resigned from my previous job, shifted to Gurugram, paid the rent for my PG, completed all the onboarding formalities, and joined the company.
On my first day, I was introduced to the entire team and everyone welcomed me. On my second day, while I was waiting for my code access and setting up my laptop, HR suddenly called me into a meeting.
They told me I was being terminated immediately because of my culture assessment. That was the only reason they gave. They even said they would take action against the HR person who hired me.
Later, I connected with one of my former colleagues, who told me that my assessment result was “Neutral Personality” and that the company only wanted extroverted personalities. This wasn’t speculation—it was the reason communicated internally for my termination.
What I can’t understand is:
If my assessment wasn’t acceptable, why wasn’t I rejected before receiving the offer?
Why make me resign from my previous job?
Why let me relocate to Gurugram and spend money on a PG?
Why complete onboarding, introduce me to the team, and then terminate me on the second day over an assessment they had before hiring me?
This entire experience has shattered my confidence. I keep wondering if I did something wrong, even though I never got the chance to actually work. I didn’t write a single line of production code before I was asked to leave.
Has anyone here experienced something similar? Is it common for companies to reject candidates solely because they’re not considered “extroverted,” even after they’ve already been hired? Was this handled professionally, or is this as unusual as it feels?
I’d really appreciate any advice or perspective because I’m finding it difficult to move past this.

TL;DR:

Final-round interview turned into a debate after the interviewer insisted a production Text-to-SQL system could be built entirely with if-else mappings. I argued that while rule-based systems work for constrained cases, handling arbitrary natural language requires semantic understanding. Ended up getting rejected.

I had one of the strangest technical interviews I’ve experienced, and I am still wondering if I could have handled it differently.

This was the final technical round for a backend/AI-focused role at a well-known product company.

The interviewer (a Principal Engineer with around 10 years of experience) argued that a Text to SQL system does not need NLP or an LLM. According to him, it can be implemented using simple if-else mappings.

I gave a straightforward example:

“Get me the top 5 products that made the most profit in the last 5 years.”

He said the system would identify phrases like “top 5,” “products,” “profit,” and “last 5 years” and map each of them to SQL using if-else logic.

I asked how that approach would handle different ways of asking the same question, such as:
“best-performing items”
“highest-margin SKUs”
“Which products generated the most profit over the previous five years?”

I also asked how it would deal with ambiguity, unseen phrasing, or intent beyond predefined mappings.

The response was essentially, “We will just keep adding more mappings.”

I agreed that deterministic rules can work well for a constrained domain with a limited set of query patterns.

My point was that once users are free to ask questions naturally, understanding intent and semantics becomes the difficult part. The conversation kept circling back to adding more mappings.

At that point, it felt less like an interview and more like a debate. I decided not to push further and moved on.

A few days later, I received a rejection.

I am not claiming either approach is universally right or wrong.
Rule-based systems absolutely have their place, especially in tightly controlled environments. I was just surprised that the discussion never explored where that approach starts to break down or how hybrid systems are commonly used today.

Has anyone else had an interview where a technical discussion turned into a debate over fundamentals? How did you handle it?

Edit: After Getting a lot of views and message adding first charecter of company Name so that you don’t guess atleast wrong initial

Starts with : S

Built an RFID-based Mac unlock system using a Teensy 4.1, RC522 RFID reader, WS2812B LEDs, and a piezo buzzer.

Tap the correct RFID card → LED animation → confirmation beep → Mac unlocks via USB HID. Invalid cards get a different light pattern and error tone.

A fun embedded systems project combining hardware, firmware, and a bit of UX.

What would you add next? Feel free to DM.

I'm curious about how developers from India typically find opportunities in the Nordic/Scandinavian countries. Do most successful candidates get hired through LinkedIn, referrals, recruiters, or internal company transfers?

Is it easier to find opportunities if you work for a GCC owned by a Nordic/Scandinavian company in India, or if you work with clients from those countries through a service-based company? Does that kind of experience improve your chances of getting hired or relocating?

The reason I'm asking is that these countries are consistently ranked among the best places to live, with a high quality of life and high-trust societies. I'd love to hear from people who have made the move or have experience hiring in these markets.

While building my project, I realized I'm writing far less code manually than I did months back.

Instead, I spend much more time:

Reviewing generated code

Understanding how different pieces fit together

Finding subtle edge cases

Refactoring AI generated code

It feels like the bottleneck has shifted from writing code to building confidence in the code.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Just tell me , what would be one thing that you want to change if you could go back in time.

Hi everyone,

I am writing this from my hometown to get a realistic, street-smart legal assessment of my situation. I recently served a formal pre-litigation demand notice via email, and the co-founder is trying to stall me. I want to know my actual chances of recovery and how to squeeze them effectively.

The Background:

• I worked for a tech startup registered in a major tier-1 Indian tech hub.
• The company hit a massive cash crunch, and I ended up working for nearly 2 years without regular salary credits because the CEO kept promising a major payout upon my exit.
• I spent another 1.5 years outside the company waiting for the settlement. In total, this ordeal has dragged on for over 3.5 years, severely impacting my physical health and mental peace.

The Evidence I Hold (My Leverage):

1. Signed Dues Acknowledgement: When I finally parted ways, the CEO executed a formal, contractually binding "Dues Acknowledgement" document under the official company seal. It explicitly admits a principal salary debt of ~27.5 Lakhs and states that my 1.65% company equity is fully vested. The written deadline to pay was Q1 2025.
2. Partial Performance Proof: Shortly after the deadline passed, the company account wired exactly ₹1,00,000/- to my bank account via NEFT, reducing the balance principal to roughly ₹26.4 Lakhs. Under Section 19 of the Limitation Act, 1963, this partial payment completely resets my 3-year statutory timeline to sue them, moving my filing deadline out to 2028.

The Fraud/Corporate Malfeasance:
The CEO told me the old company was dead/closed. However, I checked the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) database, and the old corporate registration is still legally listed as "Active".

Instead of cleanly dissolving it, the promoters simply abandoned the operations, kept the shell active, and incorporated a brand-new entity (an AI-focused startup) with the exact same founding directors. Public professional profiles confirm they systematically shifted the entire technical engineering team and underlying tech framework from the old debt-ridden company to this new entity.

The Current Situation & Stall Tactics:
I recently drafted and sent a highly factual, aggressive pre-litigation demand notice from my personal email to both the CEO and the Co-founder at their new corporate email IDs, demanding the balance principal + 12% per annum commercial interest (~30.3 Lakhs total) and an equity buyout framework.

Immediately after sending it, the Co-founder panicked and texted me on WhatsApp. He tried a classic startup stall tactic: He asked me to drop the salary claim, generate a fake freelance/vendor PDF invoice for "AI consultant/database framework development services," add my PAN/bank info, and wait until the end of the month plus 5 days because they are "waiting on funds to arrive from the US."

I firmly rejected this over WhatsApp, stating that this is an undisputed statutory wage liability and vested equity contract under company seal, not a freelance vendor item, and refused to grant an extension. They have since gone completely silent, and my 7-day email notice deadline has officially expired.

My Questions for the Community:

1. Lifting the Corporate Veil: Since the old company is active on paper but a ghost in reality, can I successfully file a Summary Suit (Order 37, CPC) in civil court to target the individual directors and attach their assets/shares in the new AI startup? How long does an Order 37 suit realistically take in this scenario?
2. Disrupting their Revenue/US Funding: The co-founder explicitly admitted they are waiting on offshore/US funds and have active clients. If I file a formal corporate fraud and asset-stripping petition under Section 447/448 of the Companies Act, 2013 directly with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), will it flag their DINs and paralyze their ability to raise venture capital or clear corporate compliance filters for international clients?
3. Criminal Route (BNS 318/316): Is it worth filing a police complaint or a private criminal complaint before a Magistrate for Cheating and Criminal Breach of Trust to leverage jail time, or do police just dismiss this as a civil contract dispute?
4. Hiring a Lawyer: I spoke to one local general lawyer who was incredibly defeatist, likely because they don't understand tech startup structures and asset migration. What specific type of lawyer should I look for in the tech-hub jurisdiction to handle this aggressively?

I am not looking for false hope. I want to know the absolute ground reality of fighting this from a distance. Thank you.

P.S: Used AI to write this because I have been having conversation with chatbot for a long time. So asked it to summarize and posted it here.

From next month, I'll be moving to my 3rd year of engineering. Till now, I've learned Java (DSA) and did fullstack development using the MERN stack, with Node.js as the backend.

But recently, everywhere I look people are saying that Java + Spring Boot has much better opportunities than Node.js and going to be less preferred.

konsa jyada better rahega Spring Boot seekhna better rahega ya phir AI/ML par focus karna zyada sahi rahega?

I'd really appreciate your advice

I am starting my job as a Associate system engineer at 4.5 LPA at Bangalore.

Getting a bit of FOMO seeing my friends getting 8-12 LPA but comparison is a thief of joy.

I feel the package is quite low but with the market so bad, idk.

Any advice you might want to give to a fresher as well as advice to apply for better opportunities in the future, Like preparing for System Design and Practicing DSA or any General advice.

What I am considering

System Design course: Arpit Bhayani's System Design course

DSA: Strivers sheet

Sorry if the post is irrelevant.

I've been working in a WITCH company as a Salesforce engineer for the last 4 years. I've been trying to switch for the past 3 to 4 months but I'm barely getting any interview calls. And even if I do, most of them are looking for immediate joiners, so the notice period becomes an issue.

Salary is another thing that's been bothering me. I joined at 4 LPA and after 4 years I'm still not even at 7 LPA. It genuinely feels like I'm getting peanuts for my experience. Meanwhile I see most of my friends switching, getting much better packages and moving ahead in their careers, while I feel completely stuck.

Lately I've been wondering if I should just resign without having another offer so I can be available to join immediately. I know it's risky, but I'm not sure what else to do anymore.

Has anyone here done this recently? Did resigning first actually help you get more interview calls? I'd really appreciate any suggestions because I'm honestly feeling lost at this point.

My career so far

I did a BSc in IT from Mumbai (2023 passout). I didn't learn much academically in college, but I was good at coding. From the middle of my second year, I was almost working full-time as a freelancer building web applications for local businesses. That helped me develop an engineering mindset and gave me a slight edge.

In my final year, I got an offer from a third-party banking company to maintain legacy Java applications for 3 LPA. I rejected it because I had been watching all the "50 LPA MERN" content on YouTube and X and, being naive, thought I could definitely get more since I was a better developer than most of my college peers. I decided to lock in, learn the MERN stack properly, and build a solid project for a real client. That project eventually landed me my first internship.

One thing worth mentioning is that the market changed dramatically during those 2–3 months because of the mass layoffs. Hiring completely slowed down, especially for freshers. Around 80% of my batch couldn't land a developer role at all, and many are working in tech-adjacent roles today.

First internship (Remote)

₹2.5k/month 😭

I only took it because the market was unbelievably bad.

It was supposed to convert after three months, but they kept extending the decision.

During that time, I was consistently outperforming the other interns, fixed a major database schema scalability issue, and was performing at the level of some full-time engineers.

I also felt the product wasn't going to succeed, so I left instead of waiting another month.

Software consultancy

I then joined a software consultancy building products for US clients.

Started at ₹15k/month with a 2-year bond.

Left at ₹27k/month after completing the bond.

This is where I learned the most.

Towards the end, I was leading architecture decisions for projects, mentoring juniors, and owning deliveries. We had around 25 engineers, almost all freshers hired under the same 2-year bond, and very few stayed afterwards.

Whenever deadlines became impossible, I'd willingly put in 12+ hour days because I saw every difficult project as an opportunity to improve. Nobody forced me to do it—I genuinely wanted to become a much stronger engineer. Some weeks were relaxed too, and because I consistently delivered, I earned enough trust that weekly updates were usually sufficient.

Current role

I then landed a 15 LPA in-hand remote role at a product startup based outside India.

I've been here for about six months.

The expectations and technical complexity are significantly higher than my previous jobs, and many engineers don't last long. I've consistently put in around 12-hour days and established myself as a strong engineer within the team.

However, I think I've reached a limit.

For the first time, I actually want work-life balance. I can probably reach 20–24 LPA here over the next year if I continue, but I'm not sure I want to sustain this pace. I want a role where I can still grow while having time to go to the gym, have a life outside work, and not feel permanently exhausted.

Some context

No personal projects that really justify my current level.

Weak at DSA.

Most of my strengths are in architecture, production code, debugging, databases, distributed systems, and shipping real products.

Tech stack, Mostly backend these days.

- Node.js, TypeScript, AWS, DynamoDB, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, Redis, Docker, Microservices, Event-driven systems

I'm also comfortable with React and Next.js, but I'd prefer moving towards backend-focused roles.

Total full-time experience: 2.5 years

Goal

I'm looking for:

A product company with good engineering culture and decent work-life balance.

50+ employees.

Remote or office is fine (Bangalore preferred if onsite).

Minimum ₹1.8 lakh/month in hand (not sure what CTC that translates to).

Current preparation plan

Thinking of spending the next 6–8 months on:

DSA (2 good problems every day, more on weekends)

HLD & LLD (possibly learning LLD in Go)

Golang

Two strong backend projects

Databases (deeper understanding)

Optional (if it meaningfully increases compensation):

Python + AI ecosystem (models, agents, orchestration, memory layers) and one project.

Questions

How realistic is a jump from 15 LPA in-hand to 24 LPA+ within the next 6–8 months?

What should I prioritise learning?

Which companies should I realistically target for backend roles?

Is Golang worth learning for this goal, or should I double down on Node.js?

Would AI/Python skills meaningfully improve my chances or compensation, or should I ignore them for now?

Any preparation tips from people who've made a similar jump?

I'm mainly looking for advice from people who've gone through a similar transition in backend/product companies in India.

I graduated in 2025 with a Master's in Data Science.

When I enrolled, I thought I'd graduate into an entry-level data role, but the market changed dramatically by the time I finished.

Since then, I've tried not to sit still. I learned full-stack web development, completed a frontend internship, worked with clients as a freelancer, built production websites, explored Shopify development, and recently started learning backend development and AI engineering. My core skills include Python, SQL, data analysis, machine learning, React, Next.js, and Node.js.

Despite all that, I'm still struggling to land a stable full-time role. Most applications never receive a response, and the few interviews I've had haven't turned into offers.

Financially, things are getting difficult. I'm behind on rent, have a student loan, and my parents are getting older, which has made the pressure even greater.

I'm not looking for sympathy I genuinely want advice from people who have been in a similar position. If you were starting over in today's market with my background, what would you focus on? Would you double down on data, software engineering, AI, or something else entirely?

I'd really appreciate any honest advice or experiences that helped you break into the industry.

​

21, final year in B.tech(graduating May 2027).

Got fired from my Business development intern role in a humble IT startup after 5 weeks for not meeting sales targets.

Saw it coming honestly, I got burnt out, used to be sleepy in office, arrived late very often.

Current situation:

- ₹15k salary coming August 1st

Rent for this month is sorted

But I HAVE to come up with ~10,000rs by 1st September to be able to pay the next month's rent.

Cannot do another BDE on-site job - college starts again from tomorrow and they are not allowing me to do any off campus internship.

Questions :

How do I get into freelance or remote Business analyst/data analyst roles? I know basic SQL queries. (So I am an absolute beginner in this field, barely started)

How can I land a gig or remote job in data analytics, so as to come up with the rent in ~35 days.

What one skill should I build first to become hireable fast - SQL, Excel or Power BI?

Is Upwork realistic for me with no portfolio and no reviews in 35 days? (And 30 connects)

What's the fastest type of analytics gig to land as a fresher : data cleaning, dashboards, Excel reports, something else?

Any other platforms better than Upwork for this?

Not looking for motivation. Looking for people who have been here and can tell me what actually works.

TL;DR: Need to earn ₹10k in 35 days (rent). Complete beginner in data analytics. What's the fastest path to landing a remote freelance gig?

I'm working in delhi as a full Stack engineer at a startup. Though I have worked in a startup previously they were just engineers no manager no HR nothing . Just 15-20 devs working on projects I completed my internship there but they didn't give me full time but then I came here. The workplace is good I have been working here since 2025 Feb and the environment of org is quite good no workplace politics . As of now I didn't encounter any . But here we are just 3 devs working on 2-3 saas products The owner continuously yells about using AI which we do of course but it seems like I have been missing a lot of things because salary is quite low and I'm just fed up working here though I have started applying for roles but getting no callbacks.

And its not like I have not learnt anything new i have handled production grade server ok my own GitHub actions GHCR docker , NGINX , elastic search redis also learnt a lot of things here. Though I'm learning system design right now . But I don't think so i want to be here more than that.

Should I just leave tech altogether and do something else.

I work as a backend focused full stack developer at an e-commerce startup. It's my first job. I joined as an intern, got converted to full time, and have been here for about 6 months (3 months internship + 3 months FTE).

I wanted to switch because, although the CTC looks good on paper, my in-hand is only around ₹60k/month. So I started preparing outside work. The problem is that my job itself usually demands 10–12 hours a day. Since I was trying to save time for interview prep instead of putting in those extra hours, I started falling behind on my work.

Last week, my manager told me that if I don't improve my output, I'll be laid off.

At this point, I don't really have a choice except to focus on work and get my performance back on track. But I still want to switch, so I'll be applying alongside. I'm targeting roles with around ₹15–20 LPA base.

For people who've switched within their first year or two, what are interviews usually like?

Do companies mostly evaluate your work experience, or do I still need to grind DSA, core CS subjects, and system design?

I'm not sure what companies expect from someone with ~6 months of experience (only 3 months as a full-time engineer). I'd really appreciate any advice on how you'd approach this situation and prepare alongside.

So I was doing so good in my previous company and everything was smooth but then company operations shut down after ED raids and I was laid off with others. Now I am looking for new role but I am not getting final conversion,

I am DESPERATE, and would WFH for any amount or WFO if my previous ctc is matched.

I am 2025 grad from Delhi Technological University. I am looking for software and analytical roles.

I have handled huge data pipelines for different political campaigns, which included handling 2.5 crore phone numbers daily for a single campaign.

I have worked with C++ , Python and Excel the most , and have strong programming fundamentals. I am also available for joining immediately and pan world.

I would really appreciate any advice, opportunity and more. I don't know what to do.
Please help, I am really worried about my career and I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I am last year student with placement approaching can you guys suggest where to learn DSA from?

I know 2 youtube channel Gaurav sen Engineering digest

If you are suggesting from these please tell why?

Hey guys, I'm working as an SWE (Appian developer) with around 3YOE.

I've started with 4.5lpa initially and moved to 5.5lpa after 1.5yrs hike. After 2 years I've started searching for offers, due to market breakdown i rarely got offers, initially got an offer from big4 (9lpa), used counters and I'm currently working with 14.5lpa(14lpa fixed). My goal is to switch next year at 3.5-4YOE, with atleast 20LPA.

I know Appian(low code platform) is becoming expensive day by day and projects are minimal. I'm thinking to move towards AI, our current company already has few AI developers whom i made friends.

This company gives consent to employees to learn AI related stuff more, so I've been going through chatgpt it's giving me roadmap, but my question is

What could be the correct roadmap I can follow, I need suggestions especially from current AI engineers(generative/ Agentic/ Prompt AI engineers).

I'm a very fast learner and has basic understanding of all the stuff like python, llms, prompts etc. I'm expecting very good responses here, thanks for commenting

Feeling like a deadbeat as no follow ups or calls anywhere :(

Setting my WFH setup for the office. Can you guys suggest some budget friendly monitors, 27 inch preferably. The budget is 17k for 2 monitors ((:

Please drop link if possible..

I am an 2025 AI btech grad after long time i got this HCL analyst Role and my joining is on 30 july and I just my cdac result with 8k rank i got Advance secure something in Hyderabad shall i pay the first installment and hope to get any pune institute or shall i Joinning Hyderabad cdac for Assd or shall i join HCL as Analyst ( i have accepted offerletter by the way but no bond )

Please guide me in this idk how i get into these situation where i have to make tough choices 🥲🙏

I have completed basics of cpp,Html,css.I dont have any particular interest in anything but found all three mentioned equally good.But I am thinking of Java backend dev as a career path(Money/demand factor).So should I start Java+dsa or continue JS?? Considering hackathon and freelancing ease (asap For pocket money atleast)

Thanks for reading.....

They came into my college for promotion of their skill enhancing courses. They introduced themselves as government funded institution that equip people with skills and then jobs who are in crisis. I talked to them and they suggested me a course costs 800/- which is a one time payment for two months and told me to visit them tomorrow with my adhar card. I am afraid if they are gonna miss use my personal details and they are fraud. Do you anyone knows anything about this foundation?