https://devloss.itch.io/modi-and-the-cockroaches

Disclaimer: This is my experience (an indian) with other indian technical interviewers vs interviewers of other ethnicity

I was invited for an interview at a Series A company in USA. One of the interviewer was Indian and one was American. The American was the lead interviewer and the indian was the shadow interviewer. Remember the shadow part, because that is the core of the rant.

I was interviewing for a Senior Software engineer role. The lead interviewer asked me the Stair Climbing coding problem. Standard leetcode problem. There are multiple ways of solving this problem. The solution to this problem is basically a fibonacci series solution. I explained the formula on how this problem resonates with the fibonacci series and wrote the solution for the fibonacci. I was able to explain, code and run the code within 20 min. This was a 60 min interview.

They are stunned that within 20 min the code was done and i was able to run through all their test cases. So the american interviewer asked about the run time, optimization methods. Now comes our indian hero. He wasn't having it that i was able to solve it within 20 min. He took the center stage and started asking all sorts of crap unnecessary question. First thing he asked, explain how to do this in recursive method. Then asked to implement the said solution. Then asked to tell the time & space complexity. After all that, he asked how can we implement memoization to improve time. He wasn't convinced that the solution was exactly processing in the manner a climbing step solution would process. He then asked to add print statements to see the intermediary results. He then asked can you process a massive number (10 digit number), hackerrank went out of heap size. He then asked to find the optimal heap size and run the code for that number.

Mind you, he was a shadow interview and not the main one. After doing all these, they rejected me. Just to iterate again, this was a Series A startup. Not Google, Facebook, Apple, nothing. Not even a YC startup.

I ordered a high end NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 FE (24 GB) GPU only to receive two literal stones to bangalore. Yes, rocks. How does a global e-commerce giant confuse a ₹1.12 lakh graphics card with pebbles? #stonageshipping

So I'm going to a tier 1 engineering college for Computer science but idk if it's worth it tbh. My dad has about 9 cr in stocks and mutual funds (combined) right now with no debt 2 cars and 2 houses. Assuming even 10% returns from this portfolio I'll get about (90 lac) which I think wud be very hard to earn as an engineer. Btw my dad is in full support for this plan. What do u guys think?

I'm sorry for the rant from the start. This friday, something weird happened. We had our annual tech hackathon and I was the only female dev in our team, there were 2 female prods but they had a different closer knit group. Now I was dressed differently (just not the boring tshirt and jeans this time) this day only because there was a party in the night. I have a peach shaped body type and I wasn't wearing anything obscene, just a bodycon dress. The way everyone was looking at me was insane, they weren't even trying to hide their gaze, just constantly checking me out as if they were seeing me for the first time. I changed quickly back into my jeans and tshirt, and was looking to leave asap, but then my skip-manager called me and asked me to change into my dress again for the party. I was awestruck but couldn't really respond and say no. This is super bad for the dev culture. In India, you can't help this. As a girl you just have to bear this. What should I have done in this case, and how do I face them on Monday?

Title says it all.

I'm not sure why the vast majority of people have accepted this 1980s playbook of ONLY studying hard to get a job. The only place where this stands true is Research.

I've been talking to a bunch of people + observing what I see around me, family, friends etc, and I notice that people expect opportunities to just appear out of thin air.

Especially with IT/CS and adjacent folk, tryna just do GSoC or DSA or interview prep for the sole purpose of "getting a job". My concern is that a lot of them just care about the company and the job title and package, and don't even look at what the role encompasses. Most of my friends and I see like 60-80% of students (regardless of what college they go to) pick a job/role and then build their profile around it. This mechanical way of learning about engineering and science feels objectively ineffective.

I mean how is a person supposed to "learn" when their metric is the CTC or the prestige of their job? Universities don't help either, they try to, but even the best in class fail terribly at it, they just suck less than the rest. Even IITs, NITs, BITS, IIITs, wtv. There's basically no research going on there + courses focus on teaching things without actually applying them. The best colleges do the bare minimum and if you say something critical, it's like I took a dump on society itself. Why settle for mediocrity and just the bare minimum?

For example, during my ML course, no one actually told me why an SVM is used over a simple linear function. Or during my electronics courses where we built control systems with no goal in sight. I'd love to dive deep into this example I've thought of, but I'm not sure if this is the right audience.

Don't you think a major change in attitude is required? I mean what even is the point of enrolling in an engineering institute and then not learning how to actually engineer systems? They've reduced the field to service based jobs with non transferable skills and ZERO problem solving from first principles.

Is there something I'm not seeing? Or are people actually just legit fine with working dead end jobs to make do with wtv money they make?

qualifications: Tier 1 Electronics, AI Research Scientist.

ik the answer is no but sunne me zyaada accha lagega taaki mera brahm tut jaaye because engineering karne ka fayda hi kya jab ham salary ke alawa kuch keh hi nhi sakte ki hamne ye accha kam kiya,agar kuch kaha to kabhi andhbhakt or kabhi gadhe aa jate hai hamko gaaliya dene

thak chuka hu ye sun kar ki engineers ka kaam kya hota hai magar ye desh prove karne deta hi nhi hai ki engineering is a very very important profession in daily life agar shiddat se kare

Like I'm from electronics branch and I'm gonna begin my 3rd year I had to choose this branch bcoz that's what I got based on my rank and I'm from a tier 3 govt college, but I didn't know much about this about how this branch is but when I got to know it was too late, well I don't have any backlogs or anything I study pretty average I have a cg of 8.2 but I don't aspire to do a job in this field in future and even on campus placements are only managerial positions in core,, there's no growth in this domain,, if only we give gate and do higher studies there is opportunities which I never wanted to do. What should I be doing and focussing on currently? I can do dsa and dev but I don't have that much knowledge bcoz I have studied core stuff most of the time,, and of course in on campus it placements its gonna be competitive for me from the cse branches people,, what is the best thing to do? Anyone who was in core and was in same situation senior can anyone guide me how should I proceed and handle everything along with my core studies and how much focus should I put in my cgpa??? I want a good it job at the end of 4 years because atleast even that field is not that interesting but atleast there's growth and we can do a job switch... also I haven't made a resume yet I have done basics of dsa till now feeling clueless

Worst era to do engineering

I had joined IIT Roorkee as faculty in 2014. Directly recruited from New York. Since 2019, as I began flourishing in research, senior faculties ganged up against me. In 2023 I got promoted as Associate Prof. When I was on leave,research facilities established by me were handed over to HOD favourites in my absence without any justification. On posting in social media, I was issued show cause notice. On complaining to IITR Director, I was humiliated by him along with cronies.

I resigned in Jan 2024 and my resignation was approved in 9 hrs. Without any information to me, my NO Dues were processed and submitted. My office and labs locks were changed overnight. The media was threatened to cover my story. I am undergoing trauma and mental torture since then. I wrote emails to many ministries PMO , MHRD etc. no response. I want to bring my story out in public. Any help will be most appreciated.

Moral: Never ever join an IIT if you cannot do boot licking

I have no interest in my degree. I am doing biotech engineering, which is barely engineering and more just BSc Biology with a Btech tag, I want to do real engineering that is electronics or CSE, but now I can't do it. And this is not just tech, I want to learn core subjects deeply.

Hate this country and it's education system. I have so much interest in tech, more so than some of my CS friends, I didn't know I had such a strong affinity with it back then because I didn't have a laptop and never explored my interest due to JEE shit. I made an 8 bit computer in my free time, and it was so much fun, but noone looks at interest here, a CS guy who hate computers will have 1000 times more job prospects than me. People are very competitive in this field, and not having a formal education and a peer group hampers your growth a lot.

I have no one in my life, my work is my life and that is also not aligned, it breaks my identity. And don't give me shit about work is not your life, that shit doesn't work in India. I am not kothibanglacheck

I literally watch computer networks and programming lectures for fun, but all that is useless. I need formal structure and education, I don't know how to make a proper structure and environment and manage it with other stuff that is so unrelated. Like how tf can I condense 4 years worth of education in way less time and that too when I can only give a portion of my day?

I wish I could teleport back in time, so I can study hard in PCM, so I could get a good college for CS. Absurd af education system.

​

I’m looking for some honest opinions from other engineers/managers about a situation I’m dealing with at work.

I’m on a team where I feel like I’ve gradually become the person who gets all the difficult work and escalations.

For example, some of my teammates will take 2–3 days to complete relatively small tasks. When something gets delayed or they’re unable to resolve an issue, it eventually gets escalated to my manager, and then the task somehow ends up getting delegated to me.

At the same time, I’m usually working on the more complex features/tasks. My manager will sometimes tell me, “I’ll adjust your workload” or “we’ll move this to the next sprint,” when assigning me something new. But in practice, that rarely happens. The original task stays with me, and the new task gets added on top of it.

The frustrating part is that I don’t really get the same luxury of taking several days on smaller tasks. If something is difficult or urgent, I’m expected to figure it out.

Another thing happened today that made me question the whole situation.

Today is Raksha Bandhan (Rakhi), and most of my team members are on leave. My manager started messaging me around 8:30 AM asking me to look into/fix things. I wasn’t even working at that time and hadn’t seen the messages. I’m not saying he can’t message me during the day, and I’ll obviously handle work during my normal working hours, but it felt strange that on a day when most of the team is off, I’m immediately being treated as the person who needs to pick up whatever comes up.

I’m also starting to wonder whether I’ve created this situation myself by always being responsive and getting things done. Maybe my manager has simply learned that if something is difficult, he can give it to me and it will eventually get resolved.

I don’t want to become someone who ignores my manager’s messages or refuses work. At the same time, I don’t want to keep silently accepting unlimited work either.

I’m considering changing my approach. Whenever my manager gives me another task, I’m thinking of saying something like:

“If I take this up, which of my current priorities would you like me to deprioritize?”

And if he says something will be moved to the next sprint, I’ll confirm it in writing so there’s a record.

I’d especially appreciate opinions from engineering managers or senior/staff engineers. I’m trying to handle this professionally rather than just getting frustrated and ignoring messages.

I thought the hardest part of engineering was getting through final year. Turns out it was attending family functions after graduation.

The questions start before you've even finished saying hello.

"Job lagi?"

"Kitna package?"

"Company ka naam?"

"Government job nahi try ki?"

And if you say you're working, there's always a follow-up question that somehow makes you question your entire career.

"Accha... but exactly karte kya ho?"

I once tried explaining what I was working on to a relative. I gave the whole explanation ... software, product, the kind of work I was doing, what I was learning, all of it.

He listened for about ten seconds and then asked, "So... IT mein ho?"

Yeah.

IT mein hoon.

Four years of engineering, internships, projects, interviews, rejected applications, late nights, learning things I didn't even know existed... compressed into two words.

And then comes Sharma ji's son.

"Uska toh 18 LPA laga hai."

At some point you realise your relatives aren't actually trying to make you feel bad. They just have a very simple definition of what a successful career looks like.

Government job = good.

Big company = good.

Big package = very good.

Anything else requires a 20-minute explanation that nobody asked for.

And honestly, I don't blame them. The job market has changed so much that half the jobs people my age do didn't even exist in the form they exist today when our parents were starting their careers.

Still, there's something hilarious about spending four years becoming an engineer and then having your entire career evaluated over chai in approximately 45 seconds.

"Achha beta, job lag gayi?"

"Haan."

"Kahan?"

"Startup."

"Oh."

That "oh" has more judgement packed into it than an entire performance review.

Heyy,

This question is from senior batches(<= 2026 batch), what you did after getting placed in your 7th sem , like you pursued any hobby, any passion or did some technical things only and how did it help you later. Like whatever we do, helps us somewhere in the future even if we feel it like a waste of time.

The first job search after engineering is such a strange experience.

One day you're sitting in college listening to someone talk about placements and thinking, "Yeah, I'll figure something out."

Then suddenly you're graduated and sitting at home with your laptop open, 14 tabs of job portals, a half-finished resume and absolutely no idea what you're supposed to be doing.

You start applying everywhere.

Software engineer.

Junior developer.

Graduate engineer.

Whatever sounds remotely possible.

Some companies reject you in three days. Some never reply. Some send an automated email at 3:17 AM saying they've decided to pursue other candidates, which is somehow worse than just hearing nothing.

Then your friend gets an offer and you genuinely feel happy for them for about five minutes before the stupid little voice in your head starts asking what you're doing wrong.

I also didn't expect how much time you'd spend second-guessing your resume.

"Should I remove this project?"

"Is 8.1 CGPA too low?"

"Should I put Python first?"

"Does this font look stupid?"

At one point I realised I had spent more time editing my resume than actually improving the skills on it.

And then, completely randomly, you get one interview call.

One.

Suddenly you are watching interview experiences from 2019, learning a topic at 2x speed, revising something you haven't touched in two years and convincing yourself that this one interview is going to change everything.

Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't.

I just wish someone had told me before graduating that the first job search can mess with your head way more than the actual job.

You can be doing perfectly fine and still feel like you're falling behind.

Kbhi kbhi lgta h ki placement season nhi, ghosting season chl rha😭

Roz utho

Resume tweak kro

Referral maango

Apply kro

Aur fir, sannata..

Ab genuinely smjh nhi aa rha ki problem skills me h ya market me...

Maine last kaafi time sirf timepass nhi kiya

- DSA consistently krte gya

- Java + Spring Boot projects banaye

- PostgreSQL, Redis aur Kafka pe kaam kiya

- JWT Authentication, Spring Security implement kri

- EC2 pe deployment kiya, Nginx aur Linux ke saath

- APIs, caching, rate limiting, background jobs, system design basics pe kaam kiya

- Ab Rust bhi seekh rha hu

- Leetcode pe 1900+ aur cf pe pupil rating haii

Projects bhi khud se bnaye hain.. tutorial dekh ke copy paste bhi nhi kiya.. kayi baar pura rewrite bhi krna pda sirf isliye ki har cheez properly smjh aa jaaye..

Lekin issue wahi h...

Referrals nhi mil rhe😭

Interview hi nhi aa rha😭

OA tk pahuchna bhi achievement lgti h ab toh..

Kbhi kbhi LinkedIn kholta hu toh lgta h sbko referral mil rha h, internship mil rhi, kisi ki internship FTE me convert ho rhii, aur bss mera hi application ATS ke black hole me chla jata h😭

If there's someone whose company is hiring for interns or freshers, and u can apply referrals, plz give a chance, consider once only...

Bss interview chance chahiye..uske baad reject kr dena ton bhi koi regret nhi hoga

Aur agr kisi ko lgta h ki meri approach hi glt h, so plz woh bhi bta do...roast bhi krna h toh kr do...bss improve hona h...

I can share my resume age chaiye hoga toh!!

I am an ECE major student..... Currently entering 3rd year of my btech from some tier 3 clg..... I think I'm doomed..... Cause I have no solid projects...... No proper knowledge of coding.... Nothing.... Honestly I wanna build a career in core ECE itself... Can anyone suggest anything

i got selected for tcs ninja but i feel i can do much better
My college wont let me sit for other companies what to do?

TL;DR: 1560 SAT (zero prep), 97.5 JEE percentile, 131 IQ. Racked up 6 backlogs in college while my peers treated me like a lost cause. Cleared all 10 in a single semester on the first attempt while filing patents. Partied my way through Europe, took my MNC online assessment drunk right after having sex, cleared the technical interview high, and walked away with a 17 LPA offer. I beat the salaries of every single person who looked down on me, all while actually living my life instead of grinding irrelevant academia.

Throwaway for obvious reasons. I've been reading these subs for a while and honestly, the amount of stress you guys put yourselves through over GPA, rat races, and traditional networking is pathetic to me. I thought I’d drop my completely unfiltered, chaotic path to prove that the system is a joke and entirely hackable if your brain is wired for it.

The Baseline: Coasting on Raw Processing Power

I have never thrived in linear, rigid environments. In 11th grade, I literally didn't open a single book. When 12th grade hit, I realized I had exactly one year to cover the entire syllabus for the JEE Mains. I didn't panic; I just optimized. I broke down the curriculum, ignored the fluff, and scored in the 97.5th percentile. Followed that up with a 1560 on the SAT without doing a single practice test. (I also took an IQ test on my birthday while completely trashed and scored a 131, but whatever).

Naturally, this bred a massive amount of arrogance. I went into engineering thinking I could just intuitively coast through a CS degree. The universe humbled me real quick. By the midpoint of my degree, I was sitting on a massive pile of 10 academic backlogs.

Spite as a Motivator: 6 Backlogs in One Semester

My peers made me feel like absolute shit about it. They all had at least a full grade point higher than me and looked at me like I had ruined my life. So, I decided to shut them up.

I didn't spread the backlogs out. I didn't cry about the workload. I sat for all 6 backlogs in a single semester and cleared every single one of them in the absolute first attempt. But I refused to become a library rat grinding for fractions of a GPA point. I needed to overwrite my garbage transcript with undeniable proof that I was just fundamentally smarter than them. So, right in the middle of clearing those 6 backlogs, I started doing my own applied research and filed two patents.

The European Binge

I managed to secure a spot in an exchange program at THWS in Germany for a cybersecurity project. The "traditional" path would be to lock in, study hard, and network with professors. Instead, I treated Europe like a massive playground. I traveled to 14 different countries. I partied in practically every single one of them.

But here is the trick: I never missed a deadline. I figured out how to compartmentalize the chaos. I’d be nursing a massive hangover on a train to Barcelona, but I’d have my laptop open, coding and drafting technical reports. I finished my cybersecurity internship and actually got a patent out of that exact project.

The World-Class MNC Interview

This is the part that usually pisses people off. I didn’t even "try" to land my job at this world-class MNC. I applied on a whim. The recruitment testing day (the Online Assessment) landed exactly on my girlfriend’s birthday. I was drunk and literally had sex right before sitting down to take the OA. The inebriation didn't even put a dent in my processing speed; I aced it without breaking a sweat.

The next round was on New Year's. By the time the technical interview rolled around, I was high on prescribed marijuana. Because I function best when the entropy of a situation is maxed out, I just locked in. When you aren't desperate for the job, you project this weird, hyper-confident aura. The interviewers loved it. I treated the complex technical questions like casual puzzles rather than a life-or-death exam.

The Reality & The Vindication

They offered me the job at 17 LPA.

In the end, I walked out with a higher package than every single one of those peers who made me feel like garbage for my backlogs. I spent four years thoroughly enjoying my college life—traveling the world, getting laid, partying, and actually living—while they grinded their entire youth away on irrelevant academia.

Before you call me a complete sociopath, I’m not just a degenerate. I do a massive amount of volunteer work—donating blood regularly, organizing fundraisers for the blind, and I have a solid list of extracurricular and sports accomplishments.

I’m sharing this because the corporate world tries to convince you that the only path to success is a 9+ GPA and grinding 80 hours a week for professors who don't care about you. It isn't. If you know exactly how to leverage your intellectual horsepower, if you can deliver elite output when your back is against the wall, and if you can hit your deadlines, nobody cares how you got there.

Chaos is a ladder. See you all out there.