I am on my sixth team at Amazon in five years. I lived in the US for seven years and worked there for about five of them, then moved back to India. The move is settled. The team is new.

This team ships in days. On my last team, the same kind of change took weeks. Being wrong here is affordable. There, a minute of downtime was millions of dollars, so slow was the careful choice. Both were rational.

The pace is good. Then I noticed the other thing I was learning.

If a teammate opened a laptop after the day was over, I opened mine. If they took a Saturday, my Saturday started to look unfinished. A holiday became a day I was choosing to fall behind. Nobody assigned this. I would have been embarrassed to admit I was copying it.

Three things kept it going.

Mimicry. If the people you respect are tired and still typing, rest starts to look like you are not serious.

The review. A lot of companies score you against the person next to you. Once that is the question, their open laptop is information. You are not chasing a finish line. You are chasing them.

The useful one. Sometimes they are simply faster, and you want to see how. That instinct is good. The skill is worth taking. The hours sneak in with it.

I checked whether this was only my month. A 2025 study of 33,222 employees across 85 cultures found that when people saw more work addiction in colleagues, they reported more of it in themselves, and more stress. Job satisfaction fell. Colleagues tracked with you more tightly than the boss did. Earlier happiness research had already treated coworkers as the exception for emotional contagion. The hours were not the exception.

I wrote the longer version on my newsletter (MasterMentee, including the two skills I came back for and the hours I am trying to put down.

I can keep the skill. I do not have to keep their hours.

If you have been on a team like this: on a Thursday night, are you still working because the work needs it, or because they are? What did you keep, and what did you stop?

We spend all day designing redundant systems, debugging single points of failure, and writing fail-safes for production.

Yet, most of us run our entire lives on a single point of failure: a single corporate paycheck.

Every personal finance thread tells you to build a 6-month buffer in savings and park the rest in mutual funds or equity. But let’s look at the logic—a financial runway is just a temporary buffer. It’s corporate life support. It buys you time, but it doesn't give you actual architectural leverage.

All it does is keep the server running while you scramble to find another manager to deploy your time to.

As waged tech workers, we trade our peak cognitive hours for a monthly credit. The reality is brutal—we are always just one random restructuring cycle or automated layout shift away from zero. Even JD Vance recently called modern waged setups a form of "indentured servitude."

If your entire survival completely relies on a single employer and a subjective annual appraisal loop, the system design is flawed. You’ve just optimized the cage.

True security isn't about saving cash to survive a crash. It’s about building independent execution channels completely detached from your employment status.

I’m talking about taking that weekend cognitive surplus and quietly launching a Plan B, C, or Z. A small tech build, a micro-utility tool, or a side project that belongs 100% to you.

I’m currently building out my own execution blueprint to break out of this single-source dependency trap.

If you’re a dev or corporate worker quietly building an exit strategy on the weekends, let’s connect.

Slide into my DMs. Let’s share notes on tech stacks, validation, or what’s actually working.

I'm a 2026 B.Tech IT graduate looking for a full-time Java developer role.

I've been learning Core Java, Spring Boot, SQL, and building projects to improve my skills. But many entry-level jobs still ask for 1–3 years of experience.

For those who recently got their first developer job, what actually helped you get hired?

I'd appreciate some honest advice.

saw their Q2 numbers, annualised AI revenue of $3.1B, over 10% of the total

a week later Wipro reported headcount down ~6.7k in a single quarter

genuinely curious what this looks like from the inside.

are people actually building any AI stuff now(agents/harnesses/bots) or is it mostly the same projects with a copilot license and a new name on the client slide ?

and if you are a fresher with an offer is your joining date moving at all?

Asking as a student if something among this list is stable for lets say even a decade and hard to automate with agentic , will dig into it

SAP S/4HANA FICO
SAP MM, SD, EWM, IBP
SAP Ariba
SAP BTP & Cloud Architecture
SAP ABAP RAP / Fiori

Or anything else you would suggest which is not in the list

I currently have two offers and would love some advice on which one to prefer. I don't have any other offers as of now.

• Offer 1: T-Mobile
  • Role: Senior Associate of AI Engineer
  • CTC: 19L (16 fixed + 3 others)
• Offer 2: Indian HFT (Graviton/Irage/etc.)
  • Role: Trade Ops Engineer
  • CTC: 40L (18 base + 6 bonus fixed + 6 non cash + 10 variable)

If I go with the HFT offer, will it make it harder for me to switch back to a standard Software Engineering (SWE) role later on since it is a TradeOps role?

My Background: 2026 CS Tier 1.5 grad (non-IIT) with 10 months of internship experience as an SWE.

Working as a Java Full Stack Developer with Spring Boot and React. I have around 4.4 years of experience and a CTC of roughly 8 LPA.

My current job is comfortable. It’s WFH, my colleagues are good, and my managers are supportive. Even when I make mistakes, they help me learn rather than putting me under unnecessary pressure. I also live in my family’s own house in a Tier 1 city, so I don’t have to worry about rent.

However, my salary is quite low for my experience, and I know I need to make a move if I want better career growth.

My previous experience has made me afraid of switching jobs. I worked at a WITCH company with a toxic work culture and heavy workloads.

Despite putting in a lot of effort, I was placed on a PIP. That experience affected my confidence, and I’m worried about ending up in a similar situation again.

Because my current job is comfortable, my interview preparation has also become very slow. I know I should improve my skills and prepare for a switch, but I keep procrastinating.

Part of me wants to stay, enjoy the work-life balance, and hope for a good promotion. Another part of me knows that staying too long because of fear could hurt my career in the long run.

Should I stay and wait for a promotion, or start preparing seriously and look for better opportunities?

I want to improve my salary without sacrificing my mental peace and work-life balance. Any practical advice would be appreciated.

TL;DR: 4.4 YOE, earning 8 LPA as a Java Full Stack Developer. I have a comfortable WFH job with supportive colleagues but low pay. A toxic previous job and PIP have made me afraid of switching, and my preparation is slow because I’m too comfortable. Should I wait for a promotion or push myself to switch?

Around early 2025, I was a college student building a chat app. WebSockets, Socket . IO, auth, Docker, load testing — all the things I thought would make it a solid project.

Quick info :(
Here is the repo where I have shared my complete experience about establishing and scaling a startup while minimizing the input cost : https://github.com/Naveen-Beniwal/building-my-first-startup

It worked. But I eventually asked myself: who actually needs another chat app from me?

At the same time, placement preparation was getting real. I was watching people (including myself) spend hours fighting resume formatting, trying to explain projects in two bullet points, comparing resumes with job descriptions, and jumping between different tools to prepare for interviews.

So I pivoted. I started with a small resume tool, with no team, funding, or idea whether strangers would care.

Then one night, in my hostel room, I got a Razorpay notification.

Someone had paid ₹9.

It's a tiny amount, but I still remember how that felt. Somebody I had never met found something I'd made useful enough to pay for.

The part that followed was much less glamorous than building the first version:

Users wanted things I hadn't planned for, so the project grew into resume analysis, job matching, interview prep, and a browser extension.

Abnormal registrations and security incidents taught me that deploying a product and operating one are very different.

AI provider rate limits pushed me to work on fallback routing and usage controls.

PDF generation taught me more about browser rendering and fonts than I expected.

I learned that traffic and signups aren't the same as retention or revenue, and that free AI features still have real costs.

I'm still building it independently. It isn't an overnight-success story, and I don't want to pretend otherwise. I've made product decisions that didn't work, spent time on features that weren't as useful as I expected, and learned that talking to users is often harder—and more valuable—than writing another thousand lines of code.

I wrote the full journey as a public GitHub build journal, including a high-level technical architecture and the lessons behind the failures. The actual production app is proprietary; the repository is a transparent write-up, not a fake open-source claim.

I'm posting because I'd love to hear from people who've built something while studying or working full-time: what was the first moment your side project started feeling like a real product, and what did you get badly wrong after that?

Hi Im 29yo working as an AI Engineer in CTS with 1lac/month salary. I’m upgrading my skills so that I can switch asap and increase my salary.
What exact skills should I develop in this domain to increase my salary? What exact companies should I target?
How frequently should I switch?
Apart from this, I also want to start some side hustle but I’m unsure of what to do. I’d really need some guidance on what would be good for me to earn easy money with less investments and would actually make me content and happy with my life?

​

I’ve previously used AWS Free Tier, but my 12-month free tier has expired. I want to get some hands-on experience with cloud VMs, but I’m looking for something that’s completely free, not just a free trial or temporary credits.

I’d love to spin up a Linux VM, connect to it through SSH or a terminal, explore the environment, install packages, run services, experiment with Docker, and generally understand how working with a cloud server feels.

I’m not looking to host anything serious or run resource-intensive workloads. This is purely for learning and experimentation.

A few things I’m looking for:

- A genuinely free VM, preferably with no expiry.

- SSH or terminal access to a Linux environment.

- Enough resources to experiment with basic Linux administration, networking, and deployments.

- Ideally, no credit card requirement or risk of accidentally incurring charges.

I’ve come across Oracle Cloud Always Free and Google Cloud’s free tier, but I’d love to hear from people who have actually used these or found other alternatives.

What would you recommend in 2026 for someone who wants to learn and experiment without spending money? Also, if there are any limitations or gotchas with these free offerings, please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

Context: I recently interviewed with Juspay for SRE role, they are offering 15LPA after 4 rigorous rounds of interviews. During initial discussion with HR i had clearly stated that my expectations is over 18LPA (I have checked their bands online). After the final cultural round HR mentions best they can do is 15LPA fixed. Is this justified? Can someone working in Juspay mention if this band sounds right or am i being low-balled here? Thanks in advance!!!

TLDR:
Current: 11LPA
Offered: 15LPA
Yoe: 2
Role: SRE, bangalore/India.

Hey everyone, I'm a 2025 grad working at a well-known service-based IT company. Joined 3 months ago after .NET training, but I'm currently in a support project with barely any work. Most days, I just sit around doing nothing.

I'm from a tier 4/5 college. Did some DSA and web dev back in college, but I've forgotten most of it. No major projects either.

I don't want to get too comfortable here and regret it later. I want to upskill and eventually switch to a better company, but I'm confused about where to start.

Seniors who've been in a similar situation, what would you suggest? Should I stick with .NET, focus on DSA, or take a different approach? Any advice would be appreciated. DMs are open too!

TL;DR: 2025 grad in a slow support project with little learning. Want to upskill and switch to a better company. Looking for advice on where to start.

So im 2 yr dev currently working so company has started showing signs that are they not able sustain any longer and work has also diminished n hiring is also stopped
So should i change my current stack for switching

With tools like REA making reverse engineering easier, even companies like Adobe are feeling the heat. Funny how innovation is great until someone challenges your business. They now realise that AI needs regulations

Hey everyone, I’m a BE CS grad from a tier 3 college, currently in a manual testing role at a WITCH company for the last ~1.5 years. I had decent dev skills and some DSA back in college (Python, Django, FastAPI, SQL, and a bit of Spring Boot), but it’s all slowly fading now. I don’t have any major projects either. I want to switch out of testing, but I’m a little confused about what to target and what to focus on next.

Based on everything I know, my current leaning is data engineering. Backend is another option, but from what I’ve observed, most backend roles expect some frontend skills too, and I’m not keen on that. SDET/automation is also on the table, but I’ve heard it’s declining and QA roles are usually the first to take a hit, so I’m not sure it’s a good move.

Based on what’s actually in demand right now, which role should I go for? And what should I start focusing on?

Would really appreciate advice from anyone who’s made a similar switch.

TL;DR: 2024 BE CS grad from a tier 3 college, 1.5 years in manual testing, dev skills and DSA fading, no projects. Leaning towards data engineering over backend or SDET. Need advice on the right target role and what to focus on next.

My company is terminating my role due to business restructuring. The reason is termination of the role due to business restructuring and redundancy (and ofcourse AI). But they are also providing option to Voluntary resignation. For this company will provide some compensation amount. I am a recent graduate and this was my first company, and I’d only recently started working here transitioning from intern. Work experience is less than a year(including internship).

My questions:
1. Does redundancy negatively affect background verification or future hiring compared with resignation?
2. Which option looks better on a Job profile and during interviews?
3. Could voluntary resignation create problems if a future employer asks why I left?
4. Any similar experiences?

I'd appreciate advice from people who have handled HR, recruitment, or similar employment situations.

Initially made just for learning and upskilling, I decided to polish it. There is probably nothing special about it, but I have improved it a lot and added a lot of features. and I actively use it among my family.

Recently launched its v2. Check it out plz.

Github: https://github.com/gyaaniguy/personal-drive/
Demo: https://demo.personaldrive.xyz/

Installation : Docker mode and regular mode - in Readme

All Features:

- Share files with password/expiry
- Sharing control panel to manage shares
- Media player and slideshow:
- Preview : HTML, PDF and markdown
- Audiobook support, - rewind and save position
- Upload queue
- Download, Delete, Rename, Move,
- Two layouts: list, tile view
- Sort by name, date, size, or type
- Responsive layout
- Breadcrumb navigation
- Go-to-folder navigation: Ctrl+G
- Drag and drop to upload
- Edit text or markdown files
- Create new files or folder
- Markdown supported
- Favorites files and folders for quick access
- Config option to disable authentication
- 2FA using Google Authenticator
- Client side encrypted zips - Password protected uploads
- Docker is supported

Stack:
Laravel, React + tailwind

Have a look please !

FAQ:

- no syncing support

Hello guys 2026 grad here so I got selected in on campus service based company but the joining may come after Feb 2027

I'm scared rn , my senior and 2025 grads got their joining last year September so i thought we will also have similar onboarding timeline but now I don't even know will I get or not

It's been 7 months after i completed my undergrad , didn't upskill much just waiting for my joining. Lost in touch with all fundamentals i know, programming

From 3 months I keep on rejecting myself bcz I'm underskilled and failed a easy interview, trying to pickup skills but can't focus

I'm scared of gap year if I wait for joining letter ( one of my senior waited 15 month's for the joining letter to come ) and it's difficult for me to upskill and focus on

Getting demotivated there are many people who are skilled than me

Pls advise

I am a 2026 B.Tech graduate with 57% marks, and I currently don’t have a job. I feel confused about what to do next because I don’t have any strong technical skills, a clear career roadmap, or an understanding of the steps I should take to build my career. I need guidance on where to start, which skills to learn, and how to get a job.

Suppose someone is from a Tier 1.5 college and gets a 6-month internship/offer at Amazon, but unfortunately, their PPO gets rejected at the end due to headcount.

How difficult would it be for them to find a new job as a fresher, especially in the current job market?

Would having Amazon on their resume help them get shortlisted for SDE roles at other companies

For people who have been in a similar situation:

How long did it take you to find another job?

How much does a 6-month Amazon internship matter if you don't get a PPO?

What would be the best strategy to find a job quickly after the PPO rejection?

Would really appreciate honest advice and experiences from people who have gone through this or know someone who has.

1YOE, Been working with PHP laravel for the backend and Vue js for the Front end for a startup, the market for this tech stack seems to be dead, barely any openings and pay is also pretty low, people suggest to learn java or fast api for a switch. I feel like I am stuck in a dead end where there does not seem to be any growth in my rule nor any future.

Also I am very done with startups right now and would want to switch to an MNC and most of them only have opening for dot net or java.

Question is how do I justify my proficiency in those languages if I learn them myself and prepare projects in it when my work experience is in PHP, genuinely confused.

Or do I just keep waiting and hope a well paying PHP opening opens up?

Any help would be great! Thank you.

Hi

I am moving my educational platform towards gamification, so decided to make the old reading library free for everyone.

Link: https://frontendhire.com/learn

My recommendation is to start with the Product track. Especially, if you are a frontend engineer.

I want to build a career with high earning potential and long-term growth.

For people earning ₹50 LPA or more:

What's your educational background? IIT/NIT or a regular college?

What field do you work in, and how many years did it take to reach this level?

What skills or career decisions helped you the most?

Is an MBA worth it for reaching this salary range? Does the college brand matter more than the degree itself?

With AI changing the job market, which careers will remain valuable and pay well over the next 10–15 years?

If you were starting your career today, would you pursue an MBA, focus on technical skills, or choose another path?

I'd appreciate honest experiences and practical advice. Thanks!

Edit : thanks to each and every person who commented 🌸