A software developer took to Reddit to share how, after months of being “ghosted, rejected, or receiving no response,” he finally landed a 50 LPA job. He shared his experience on Reddit to help others struggling or losing motivation in what he called a “brutal job market”.
‘I finally cracked 50 LPA’
“My 1.3-year journey switching jobs as a dev in this brutal market (and how I finally cracked 50L),” the developer who goes by “MujeSabPataaHai” wrote in the title of the post on Reddit’s “Developers India” community.
In his post, he shared that he graduated in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) from a Tier-1 college in Delhi and received his first job offer through a PPO (Pre-Placement Offer). This means they were hired directly after their internship with the same company.
“Initially, everything seemed fine, but after a few months I realised – low pay, random tickets, no ownership, and a manager who’d just assign anything because I ‘could figure it out’,” he added.
That’s when the techie decided to switch companies, assuming that coming from a top college would make things easier. “But reality hit hard. I applied everywhere – got ghosted, rejected, or just no response.”
The developer said he tried every “resume hack” possible, from fancy one-page templates to minimal designs, but nothing worked until he began “tailoring his resume for each job posting”.
The techie shared, “I started reading each JD carefully and edited my resume to match keywords + relevant stack. 2-page resume with bigger, readable fonts and a small ‘description’ section at the end (summary of my work + skills). ChatGPT actually helped me rewrite some points better,” claiming that this was when “calls started coming in.”
For preparation, he said he wasn’t great at competitive programming but was decent at data structures and algorithms.
“I wasn’t great at CP but decent at DSA. I did Leetcode 75 + Neetcode 150, maintained notes of tricky patterns, and revised them during breaks or at the office when free. Tech-wise, I stayed open to multiple roles — frontend (React/React Native), backend (Node.js, Express), full stack, even some ML/AIML roles. This helped because in this market, narrowing down too early is risky.”
He then shared a summary of his interview rounds across various companies, including Sprinklr, Qualcomm, WinZO, Flexport, NetApp, Google, Swiggy, and MMT, detailing where he was rejected and where he received offers. He mentioned turning down two offers: one due to poor company reviews and another because of the founder’s behaviour.
After nine months of applying for jobs and not landing any, he said he felt completely drained.
“9 months gone. Completely drained. Gained weight, barely spoke to parents, felt stuck,” he admitted, before adding that this was when he decided to pause and reset.
He shared that he started going to the gym, paid off his education loan, and took his parents on a fully sponsored trip to Kerala, just before getting the biggest news of his career.
“A day before the Kerala trip, I got a call from a US-based unicorn. Two rounds before flight, one after coming back, and three days before Diwali, got the offer: 50L (35 base + 3.5 bonus + rest ESOPs).”
He concluded his post with key takeaways for fellow developers – tailor your resume instead of spamming applications, stay open to different tech stacks, focus on DSA and fundamentals, and never neglect your mental well-being.
Another important thing he shared is that one shouldn’t underestimate their mental health, and since the market is rough, consistency is important than intensity.
“Keep going, it will click eventually,” he ended his post with these motivational words.
Reddit find his journey inspiring
His post, as expected, gained over 700 upvotes and is still counting. Many even took to the comments section of the post to share their thoughts.
“Can you tell me from where you applied for these companies, especially US-based startups?” asked one Reddit user. He replied that he applied for all the jobs through LinkedIn.
Another asked him for the tech stack. “All seriously. I am currently a C++ engineer, going for web dev full stack, but I interviewed for Flutter, react native, Angular, etc, everything.”
Yet another social media user wrote, “Damn. It’s a really great journey which teaches a lot about the struggle, grind, burnout and the efforts and many…. It totally inspires young folks like us in many aspects. Congratulations brother. You deserved it.”
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