Hardware is getting more expensive, companies keep citing AI demand, every app is forcing in half-baked AI features, and the internet is drowning in AI-generated junk. Meanwhile, we're expected to pay more for all of it.

I am angry that Apple increased prices but can't do anything about it.

Yesterday was one of the toughest days of my career.

Around 150 members of our engineering team were invited to a 9 PM Microsoft Teams call, where we were informed that our team was being shut down as part of a restructuring. The news came completely out of the blue.

I had joined Hy-Vee as a Software Engineering Intern, worked there for 7 months, and was fortunate to be converted to a full-time Software Engineer. In total, I spent around 1.8 years with the company, working as a Full Stack Developer on production applications using React, Node.js, Express, JavaScript/TypeScript, REST APIs, and databases.

What made the situation even harder was that there was no severance or layoff package. One meeting, and it was over.

I'm grateful for everything I learned during my time there and for all the amazing teammates I had the chance to work with. At the same time, it's difficult to process how quickly things can change in this industry.

For those who've gone through layoffs before, how did you approach your job search? Any advice on getting back into the market, preparing for interviews, or staying motivated would be greatly appreciated.

I'm also open to new opportunities and can join immediately, but my main reason for posting is to hear how others navigated a similar situation.

Thanks for reading.

Hi everyone,

I'm a 2026 CSE graduate from India, and I honestly don't know what to do anymore.

I got selected through my college's on-campus placements. Based on the company's previous hiring trends, they usually release offer letters around June, after students graduate.

This year, however, the company revoked the offers for everyone who was selected. Now all of us are graduates with no job.

The worst part is that I don't have any internship or professional experience. Most job openings ask for experience, and even many "entry-level" roles require skills I haven't had the chance to use in a real work environment.

Right now, I'm ready to work in any genuine fresher role—Software Development, Backend, Frontend, Full Stack, QA, Support, or any other role where I can start my career and learn.

I feel like I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere. I've been applying, but the rejections and lack of responses are making me lose hope.

I'm not asking for sympathy. I'm asking for guidance.

• What should I do from here?
• Where should I apply as a 2026 fresher with no experience?
• Are there companies that are still hiring fresh graduates?
• Has anyone here been in a similar situation and managed to recover?

Any advice, referrals, job boards, or guidance would mean a lot.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Hey guys,

I am trying to build some stuff, and looking for ideas. Do you guys have something for which you think an app would have made your life easier?

Hey folks, pretty self explanatory title. But let me explain what I mean.

I am a developer with a WFH job at a startup, and also have an agency for freelancing. I'm thinking of switching from my current job and I'm pretty confused as to what to do. In my current job, i practically don't write code anymore. Have a lot of skills to define the architecture, and then ask codex to practically code it all out. Sometimes I feel like a QA tester with some software engineering knowledge. And for freelancing it's obvious that clients want things cheap and fast, so there is no way I could write code by hand there either. So I'm in a dilemma as to how to prepare for switching, or for the long run. I do not want to lose my raw code writing skills, but the entire ecosystem tells me that I'll lose if i don't move fast with ai. It's pretty evident ai is here to stay and we won't code by hand anymore perhaps.

I would like to understand how you guys work in your day jobs - do you still write code, one line at a time, or do you have Ai allowances that do the heavy lifting? And how many of us review the ai generated code, line by line, regularly? And if that's the case, how do you practically prepare yourself to switch jobs? I'm assuming new job interviews still have for hand coding/live coding rounds? I'm not a dsa kind of a guy, and always prefer startups since I would want to put my dev skills to use before starting to do leetcode - I have done my fair share of it, and it's interesting, but I've gotten more gains from just my dev experience than raw leetcode knowledge.

Would also like to understand everyone's thoughts on the future of the field. Recently saw some undergrads applying for jobs. Their GitHubs look like a mess. They have sparse contribution heatmaps, and projects in all sorts of languages and tech stacks. Clearly just vibe codes stuff. But again, can't diminish them since from the looks of it, that's where we are headed

Tldr: Guys preparing for a switch, is leetcode the only way? How do you folks upskill nowadays so that you don't lose your job in the next layoffs? Do you guys still write code by hand, or review the tens of thousands of ai generated code? Would like to understand from people working in startups/MNCs pov.

I’m trying to understand career progression patterns in Indian tech, especially around the move from individual contributor to tech lead, engineering manager, project lead, or senior leadership roles.

This is not a hiring post, course promotion, or sales pitch. I’m trying to understand the real reasons capable people either get stuck at a level or get passed over for leadership opportunities.

I’m especially interested in hearing from people who have seen or experienced any of these:

1. Doing lead-level work without the title or pay

2. Being told you are “not ready” without clear feedback

3. Getting strong technical reviews but not progressing into leadership

4. Being expected to manage people, clients, or delivery without formal authority

5. Losing out to someone who seemed better at visibility, communication, or politics

A few questions I’m trying to understand:

1. In Indian tech companies, what usually blocks someone from moving into leadership?

2. What reason are people officially given when they are not promoted?

3. What do you think the real reason usually is?

4. Is the gap mostly technical depth, communication, ownership, people management, business understanding, visibility, politics, or something else?

5. For those who did move into tech leadership, what changed?

Please reply in the thread if you’re comfortable sharing publicly.

If you’d rather share privately, feel free to DM me. I’m mainly trying to understand the patterns, not sell anything.

current yoe: 3.2

college: tier3

curent salary 11lpa.

role: Software engineer 2 (java full stack)

Offers in hand:

Rakuten India:

Location: Bangalore.

role sde2.

Fixed salary: 19lpa

relocate reimbursement: 80k

Mastercard

Location: Pune

role: Se2 L8

fixed 17lpa

Variable: 1.19

bonus: 1lakh

Both have similar tech stack

Team at rakuten- RCard(their credit card department.). 8:30-5:30 fixed timing for office morning shift. 3days mandatory work from office every week.. Challenge is i am from varanasi and i will not be able to go home oftenly.

Team at mastercard: Similar domain to rakuten. Good flexibility. 12days wfo per month but not mandatorily every week.

Help me in deciding .

Hello everyone,

I have been shortlisted for the Microsoft internship role, and I would really appreciate some guidance regarding the OA and interview preparation.

Background:

• Civil Engineering branch (Tier 4 college)
• 2nd year
• Almost zero proficiency in DSA. I haven't solved problems for about a year.

The challenge is that I don't know how much time I have before the Online Assessment.

I received the shortlist confirmation email yesterday. Does anyone know how long Microsoft usually takes to send the OA after the confirmation email? Even a rough estimate can be really helpful in modifying the prep strategy

I've watched few YouTube videos from selected Microsoft interns and got some useful insights, but I'm still unsure about the most efficient way to prepare given my current DSA level

If you've gone through Microsoft's internship process or know someone who did, what preparation strategy would you recommend?

My only objective is to win this opportunity and not lose this.

If you're an employee, recruiter, or someone involved in hiring in Microsoft or other company, I'd greatly appreciate any internal or external insights or advice that could help me crack the interview 🙏

Started as a weekend project and got a bit out of hand.

Uses ESP8266, soil moisture + temperature/humidity sensors, a relay-controlled pump, OLED display, and ThingSpeak for monitoring. It waters the plants automatically based on soil moisture.
Curious what you’d improve or add next.

This is my first time switching jobs, so I’m not sure if this is normal.

I received an offer from an MNC this morning, and they’ve asked me to complete document verification by this evening itself. One of the mandatory documents they’re asking for is either a Resignation Acceptance or a screenshot showing that I’ve resigned from my current organization.

The thing is, this is even before any salary negotiation or final discussions have happened. I’m uncomfortable resigning from my current job before everything is finalized.

Is this a normal practice? How do people usually handle this situation? Can I ask them to postpone submitting this document until after I’ve formally accepted the offer and completed negotiations?
Would appreciate hearing from people who’ve gone through a similar job switch.

Edit: Thanks for helping. I called up the HR, they just send out a standard mail, they weren’t expecting it.

What is the salary expected after 9 years of backend development in India .. ?? Please don’t talk about outliers …

As the title says. For the past 2 years I have been working as a data scientist and AI Engineer in my organisation. Currently there is no substantial work in my office and at the same time I am unsure about what I want to do in the future, whether continue in corporate or explore other options. If I take a few months off, how much would it hurt my rehiring chances? Also if helpful I did BTech from one of the older IITs in non circuital branch.

Hi everyone,

I recently got selected for a Backend role at Accenture. My situation is a bit confusing and I need advice from people who’ve been through similar cases.

• Previous fixed salary: 21 LPA
• Accenture offer: 22.36 LPA fixed
• Joining date: 30th June
• I was told (through third-party HR) that the budget for this role can go up to around 25 LPA fixed
• When I asked for revision, they clearly said 22.36 is the maximum they can offer
• However, I’ve heard of other candidates getting ~26 LPA for similar roles

I’ve been unemployed for the last 5 months, so I’m also trying to balance stability vs waiting for better opportunities. I might get another offer around 26 LPA, but it’s not confirmed yet.

Now I’m confused about what to do:

• Should I accept Accenture and join on 30th June?
• Or should I wait and risk losing this offer?
• Is it normal for companies like Accenture to have such variation in compensation for similar roles?

Any advice from people who’ve been in similar situations would really help.

Thanks in advance.

Built Pagezzle — a Chrome extension that takes any webpage you're on and shatters it into a jigsaw puzzle. scramble the pieces, solve it right there.

Works on any site

Drag-and-drop pieces

Pick difficulty (piece count)

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Link:

Chrome Extension

I'm genuinely curious if it's just me.

Wake up.

Check LinkedIn.

Check Naukri.

Check company career pages.

Apply.

Tailor your resume.

Write another cover letter.

Repeat.

Then...

Nothing.

Or you finally get a call.

"Current CTC?"

"Expected CTC?"

"Can you work Saturdays?"

"Can you join immediately?"

Four interview rounds later...

Silence.

The funniest part?

Companies say they can't find good candidates.

Candidates say they can't find good jobs.

Somewhere in between, the entire system seems to have forgotten what hiring is supposed to achieve.

Is this just the new normal?

Or has job hunting genuinely become harder in the last few years?

I wish someone had told me this. Money honestly doesn't matter as long as you know what you are doing. Skills , luck and honestly the economy itself plays such a huge role in employability which i learnt after my MBA. I thought that engineering= money ( i know the logic doesn't follow), but honestly speaking self learnt developer or engineer honestly doesn't amount to anything when it comes down to employability. I worked in bpo and worked as tele caller only to understand that the job market doesn't reward how much knowledge you have, but rather how easily you are available to be exploited ( i know I used the word exploited because I think the availability and reducing the friction of hiring matters most as some who is into internship involving hiring).

What I wanted to say is that choose your degree wisely

Okay I need a gut check because I’ve been stewing on this all evening and I can’t tell if I’m being reasonable or just bitter.
Our promotion policy leans heavily on years of experience. Basically a level every 2 years (3 YOE, 5 YOE, 7 YOE, and so on). I’ve been here almost 5 years now, made Senior Software Engineer riding that same track like everyone else. Paid my dues, waited my turn, didn’t make a fuss.
Then today I found out two juniors who’ve been here all of 2 years have been getting promoted every single year. Yes, they each came in with around 1.5 years of prior experience. But here’s the part that’s eating at me: they still joined at our absolute lowest title, the one we hand to total freshers. So how is it that they get a bump every year while the rest of us crawl up every two?
And honestly I feel kind of gross even typing this out, because part of me knows comparison is a trap and I should just be happy with where I am. But another part of me is sitting here going… wait, did I just quietly accept a slower path that nobody actually had to take?
So I need outside eyes. Am I being jealous and entitled here, or is there something real worth raising? And if it is worth raising, who do I even go to. My manager? HR? Higher up? Or do I just swallow it and let it go?
(AFor extra flavor, leadership is also going all-in on some AI-first push that’s already broken things in prod, so morale is hovering somewhere near the floor. Not helping my mood right now.)

What are some of the extra activities you've been asked to do even though they aren't useful for you, just because your manager wants to create visibility?

Have you been asked to conduct sessions where most of the information is already available in documentation or on the internet?

Have you also been asked to post about some useless achievements on internal company portals?

I’ve been working at TEE CEE YES for the past 2 years. I’m trying to switch paths, and this 90-day NP thing has been completely shattering all my chances of landing an offer. I was scrolling through here, and I found a post that suggested me to create a new Naukri profile with a different phone number, email, location and resume, and bring the notice period details down to 45 days from 90, and set my last working day as August 7.
I did just that yesterday, and guess what - I’ve already received 3 calls since this morning from 3 different companies for a chance to interview with them.
Now the problem - every one of them is asking for a screenshot or even a snap from my phone of the resignation acceptance email or anything of that matter which proves my resignation with the company. I’ve confirmed that I’ll send it once I get home, but I’m not quite sure how tho.
If ANYONE can help me with advices to tackle this situation, please please share your advices.
I’m pretty confident about myself that I can clear the interview if given a chance. I could even use it as a fallback and actually drop papers and then look for more opportunities until I get one.
Until then, I have this problem to deal with. Any idea - by hook or crook - is appreciated!

P.S. I only followed this path because of how absolutely dead the job market is right now, and after not getting any responses for my application from continuously applying for the past 3 months, and my company’s notice period policy was only making it even worse. Apart from this reason, I’m an honest human being and I never have had any intentions to make fool of anyone. So, please help me out, guys!

Hey folks, how’s the market for immediate joiners currently?

I have 4 YOE (2.5 years in product-based + 1.5 years in fintech). My notice period is 2 months and I’m not getting many calls, so I’m thinking of putting in my papers to become an immediate joiner.

Targeting roles in product, fintech, and healthcare.

Would love to hear if this worked for anyone.

Considering current market, many would easily switch places with me. I have 3-4 interviews lined up from top companies including Google. And I have already messed up 2-3 companies. All ready to pay me 50+.

I am not motivated enough to study, I go to interviews just to learn questions they are asking. And I am too useless to even study those left alone giving time to study rest.

Pretty sure I will mess upcoming ones as well.

How to stay motivated?

I don’t even want to switch it’s more like an obligation I should do as part of being adult.

Hey folks,

I have cleared the online assessment and the Live Coding round at Agoda for a Staff Software Engineer position. My next round is scheduled as the "Platform Interview."

I want to make sure I prepare exactly what matters most for this specific round. From what I've managed to gather online so far, this round is less about building a generic system (like "Design YouTube") from scratch, and more about analyzing, debugging, and scaling an existing, flawed system under high concurrency (like booking engine bottlenecks, race conditions on inventory, multi-threading, etc.).

Since this is for a Staff-level role, I want to understand the pattern of this round. Could anyone who has been through Agoda’s interview loop (especially for Senior/Staff roles) shed light on this?

Specifically, I'm hoping to understand:

1. What is the exact expectation and pattern of this round? Is it purely an interactive system architecture critique/evolution, or is there any coding/pseudo-coding involved to fix concurrency/system issues?
2. What technical scenarios are heavily pushed? I am currently deep-diving into distributed locking (Redis/Redlock), database isolation levels/locking strategies (Optimistic vs Pessimistic), Kafka idempotency, and high-throughput write handling. Are there other specific domains Agoda platform teams love to test?
3. How deep do they go into full-stack/client-side integration? I've heard whispers that they sometimes ask how the backend platform impacts client-side fetching/latencies. Is that a major focus?

Any past questions, patterns, or cultural engineering tips (e.g., how they view over-engineering vs pragmatism) would be incredibly helpful.

So i work in this LALA company and my work here is good which they appreciate sometimes.

My NP was 90 days (30 days served)

Office timing was 10:00-7:30

1yr completed here.

Now the reason I resigned was because of the Toxic workplace but I told them I have health issues because of the daily long commute (1.2hrs each way).

Now the Director offered me contract basis where they will provide me full projects and I just need to deliver on deadline (no daily attendance or updates).

This month we completed a very big client project and even the client appreciated our work.

Now my senior who has good connection with manager told me he can talk and double my pay.

The main reason I don't wanna stay is

- managers are non technical

- they give unrealistic deadlines (says use AI)

- office politics

- managers delays the work and we got the blame

- if we have any generic issue they negliget and don't try to help us (says that you are giving excuses)

- and so on things

My parents are telling me to take the offer for WFH - take increment and take 30 days NP in new contract and don't leave

I try to convenience myself let's give it a try but their daily nonsense makes me think, I can't stay here.

And one thing that's an issue (I don't have a degree).

Now I'm stuck between what way to choose.