A software development engineer who previously worked at IT giant IBM claims that it is possible to achieve a 700% salary hike while switching jobs. This, as expected, has sparked a heated debate online, with many wondering how it is possible.
Devesh Kumar was roped in by IBM as an Associate System Engineer last year. “I started my full-time career last year at IBM with just a CTC of 5.5 LPA,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Kumar went on to say that achieving such a salary in under a year still feels surreal. “I have an offer of over 45 LPA CTC in hand within a year, for a middle-class guy like me, it’s still a dream,” he expressed.
The Internet, however, found itself divided over this. While a section was impressed with him over the massive hike in salary, others were sceptical, wondering whether such a jump is realistically possible in just a year.
“45 lpa offer within a year? That’s incredible,” said one X user before asking to “share some tips”. Another said that Kumar “will go even further”.
Some even asked him about how he “negotiates” with the recruiters: “Any recruiter looking at your current 5.5 LPA would say, ‘We can give you an increment of 25% max.’ What’s your path to take such massive jumps, and how do you convince the other person?”
One social media user expressed, “This is not normal. Whatever is not normal is not impossible. But it will require more info to confirm if this is true. Since it is more normal to say anything on SM.”
“Next year his CTC will be 47 Crore Per annum,” said another with a dash of sarcasm. A third chimed in: “Early success is a scam – that’s what people told me.”
Kumar then shared a follow-up post where he shared that some companies have fixed salary brackets for fixed roles and don’t look at your previous pay slips while hiring you. “MAANG or FAANG (whatever) companies have their base pay and CTC preset, so it’s similar for everyone; they won’t judge you on your previous pay.”