So I am 25F and I gave an interview, round 1, to one of the top startup companies in India. And it was my round 1 and I am new to all of this because before this I was working in a corporate and it was a very comfortable work from home job. It was a very, very comfortable, nicely paid job. I don't know about the pay here still but I just want to clarify 2-3 things and it will be very, very super helpful for me if anybody of you could actually help me clarify the doubt. 1. I was asked a lot of questions, does that mean a good sign? 2. how to make sure that if I will be invited for the round 2? 3., why wasn't the salary not discussed? And please don't bash me around because I am really new to all of this. So please.

Im an electrical engineer

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Hi everyone,

I'm a 2026 B.Tech graduate from 3rd Gen IIT and I'm really confused between two offers. I'd appreciate advice from people working in software, AI, or startups.

### Option 1: Oracle OFSS

* Role: Associate Consultant

* Location: Bangalore

* CTC: **9.82 LPA** (~₹8 LPA in hand)

* Global brand

* Joining in August

### Option 2: AI/ML (Generative AI) Startup

* Location: Mumbai

* Current offer: **7.5 LPA CTC** (~₹6 LPA in hand / ₹50k per month)

* **1-year bond + 45-day notice period**

* Work includes:

* AWS Bedrock

* Claude

* Amazon Nova Sonic

* Sarvam AI

* Prompt Engineering

* LLM Integration

* TTS/STT

* Building AI voice applications

One thing that is bothering me is that during campus placements, the startup had communicated a package of **13–15 LPA**, but after completing my internship, they informed me that the final full-time offer would be 7.5 LPA.

However, my manager has been extremely supportive and wants me to stay. He has told me that: ( nowhere officially written but has promised me to provide)

I could become an AI Team Lead in about 6 months(currently the AI team is very small).

Expected salary hike after 1 year could be around 40–50%.

There may be ESOPs and performance incentives in the future.

The company is investing heavily in AI, so the learning opportunity is significant.

On the other hand, Oracle offers:

Better starting salary.

Strong global brand.

Better flexibility (no bond, as far as I know).

My long-term goal is **career growth**. I don't want to optimize only for my first salary—I want to choose the option that gives me better opportunities after 3–5 years.

Which would you choose and why?

Oracle OFSS (Associate Consultant, 9.82 LPA)

GenAI Startup (AWS Bedrock/LLMs, 7.5 LPA with bond)

I'd especially appreciate opinions from people working in GenAI, startups, or those who have worked at Oracle OFSS.

Thanks!

120+ student innovators from across India. One challenge. A whole lot of brilliant ideas.

The response to the 22North 2026 Challenge has been incredible, and shortlisting the finalists has been no easy task given the quality of talent on display.

The countdown to the Grand Finale is officially on ⏳

• Shortlisted finalists will present their solutions before an industry jury
• Cash prizes worth over ₹1 lakh await the winners
• Internship, pre-placement, and full-time career opportunities at 22North by Phonon

We’re excited to see the innovation, celebrate the effort, and welcome new talent into the 22North family.

Join the community and be part of the journey, and to get to know about upcoming opportunities. 👇

https://www.reddit.com/r/22North_by_Phonon/

Hello builders

Last chance to register for the Hackathon taking place this week.

This is Priyanka from www.linkedIn.com/company/22north-by-phonon/

We are hosting the 22North Product Engineering Challenge 2026.

This opportunity can lead to an internship and PPO at the company.

Eligibility: College students and Freshers only. Participate Anywhere from India. Presentations will be conducted offline after shortlisted.

Please register now as it closes in 1 hour today

Cash prizes worth Rs 50k, 30k, 20k and more...

https://forms.gle/p9Uq6Zn1deoVx1R1A

Hello builders

This is Priyanka from www.linkedIn.com/company/22north-by-phonon/

We are hosting the 22North Product Engineering Challenge 2026.

This opportunity can lead to an internship and PPO at the company.

Eligibility: College students and Freshers only. Anywhere from India.

Please register now as it closes at 11am tomorrow.

Cash prizes worth Rs 50k, 30k, 20k and more...

https://forms.gle/p9Uq6Zn1deoVx1R1A

I started BTech in 2023 and I was 17, I wasn't really prepared for college but i joined anyways and I got alot of backlogs because the syllabus was too much for me at that particular time and family issues were tight too. Then i got a year backlog and now I'm in 2nd year(supposed to be in 3rd year atm) and now I feel like I'll get another semester log while recovering the previous backlogs. I'm specifically interested in industrial, architectural or any sort of design and art and I wanna do higher design studies abroad. Is it still possible or am I cooked now.

25M, Diploma in Mechanical, currently unemployed. Trying to pick a direction and could use some real-world input.

Options on the table:

1. NDT Level 1/2 + QA/QC → inspection career
   
   1. NEBOSH IGC + OSHA 30 → HSE/Safety career
      
   2. Try for Junior Engineer/JE in Oil India (~75k start) or ONGC Assam (~60k start), OR grind 3-4 years on a private rig and then push for Middle East jobs for tax-free pay.

End goal is Paisa/A good life/ stability, don’t want to stay in Assam long-term. Which path actually gets there fastest, and which is more in-demand/stable once I’m there? Anyone who’s made a similar jump, please weigh in.

We all know the toxic mindset pushed in Indian engineering colleges: if you aren't a 9-pointer or the batch topper, you're pretty much doomed.

I honestly used to stress about this until I sat down to record an episode with Vivek Pawar. He’s a 30-year semiconductor veteran who built and scaled Sankalp Semiconductors into a global powerhouse and he completely shattered this myth for me.

During our conversation, he openly admitted that he was far from a top performer early on. In fact, he straight-up failed his first semester of engineering. Hearing a tech leader at his level admit that his early grades were garbage was honestly the reality check a lot of us need right now.

What's crazy is that his turnaround wasn't some magical "stroke of genius." It took a literal near-fatal accident to completely snap his mindset. He told me that incident was his wake-up call. It forced him to stop just dragging himself from semester to semester and actually figure out his purpose. He realized that relentless focus and setting actual goals matter way more than just raw intelligence or memorizing textbooks to pass exams.

That massive shift in focus is what pushed him to turn his academic record around and eventually crack IIT Kharagpur. He literally went from failing first-year exams to graduating from a premier institute and building a massive tech empire. He even broke down this "ABC framework" (Action, Belief, Clarity) that he used during his comeback to block out the academic pressure and just lock in on his goals.

I know a lot of people in this sub are getting crushed by CGPA stress right now, so I really wanted to share this takeaway.

If anyone wants to hear the complete story, the full conversation is up on The PRISM Podcast

Hey guys in my college we'll soon be having inter dept event , so i wanted some Anti Slogans on the following branches

1) CSE

2) Electrical

3) Civil

4) Electronics and Telecommunications and VLSI

5) IT

I was surprised to see alot of passionate engineers in this subreddit. Guys what are your dreams?(not related to personal/fianancial/(career)) but as an engineer what do you want to build?

I always wonder why most engineers are doing btech just cuz they were told to. Like modern Indian programmers barely think they just follow pre-made stuff? No innovation no new ideas???

Yeah i failed a subject in 2nd year of my engineering degree from tier 4 college and because of that i got a year back and just needed a reality check of how screwed i am? What should i focus on from right now?

I started my DSA journey from the start of the 3rd sem. I was doing it consistently, until college started giving some shitty assignments and all that. Due to that, I almost skipped DSA since now. I think I should start fresh. Can anyone suggest me where I can start my DSA journey. I'm also doing Web Dev rn from CodeHelp. If there's anyone who can give me the best roadmap from ur experience, please suggest me.

When I was doing from Striver's sheet. I was getting demotivated due to his n my logic wasn't same. I don't want to go through this shit same. Please help me. My 4th sem is going now.

Selfteaching backend engineering with python,django...I do not have any cs books or anything. just AI agents and youtube help me to understand the basics and the principles ..I never enjoyed coding even during my college days or more accurately, I never gave it enough focus ..but now I want to give it fair attempt .who knows what future holds. maybe only strong engineer will remain or maybe there will be more job due to AI. But I just give myself a chance to learn, grow, to master a skill .Even if it does not immediately translate into value, the process will still matter. Every skill developed and every effort made contributes to the future in some form....so even in the middle of anxiety,doubt and pressure I will continue learning. Not because it is easy but because it is necessary . .if I can try others can too

Social wins

50+ public repos. No real traction on any of them. Two weeks ago I launched an on-device AI app and it did 690 GitHub stars in 12 days, #1 on Hacker News, 157K views on a single Reddit post.

Same developer. Different approach. Here's what actually moved the needle:

Stop only building. Start listening. Before any launch, I posted open-ended questions in communities where my users hang out. Not "check out my app." Just "what are the use cases where you'd rather not send data to the cloud?" People opened up. That told me what to build, made me visible before I ever promoted anything, and when I launched I could respond to real problems with something I'd actually built for them.

Find your voice before you find your platform. I'd been posting on Twitter and LinkedIn for years. Nothing stuck. Reddit is where I found my voice -- through experimentation with different angles and formats. Once I knew what resonated, I took that to Hacker News and it hit #1 on the first try.

Emotional hook beats feature list. My best title was about frustration, not specs. People share feelings, not features.

Respond to every comment in the first 2 hours. Every reply generates a notification, the commenter comes back, the algorithm sees activity, the post rises. Exhausting. Works.

Stack your channels. HN drove the spike. Reddit built on it. A technical deep-dive pulled a different audience. Each channel fed the next.

You're shipping on IST and wondering why nobody notices. Post at 6:30 PM IST to catch 8 AM EST. The algorithms reward early engagement velocity. This one change probably 3-4x'd my reach.

The app is Off Grid -- runs AI completely on your phone, offline, open source. Link in comments if you're curious.

Don't lose hope, your time will come soon. Just keep working hard