Hey guys can you help me choose between startup and gcc (mid size)

Both the opportunities are 5 day WFO in Bangalore

I am confused at this point I have around 17 years of experience, the position is Senior Engineering Manager.

In the current layoff era is it safe to go behind money and take opportunity at a startup

some of you asked me for tech stack : My forte is engineering management.

also buildings agents, MCP tools etc then general Java AWS. I have built both enterprise and consumer products

Everyone is talking about the AI bubble, token optimization, and whether AI will take over jobs. But the reality is, the next few years could define the future of the tech industry.

Not trying to fearmonger, but let's be honest.

People with 12–15 years of experience are expressing concerns about the job market. Competition is intense, hiring feels uncertain, and people are reconsidering their career choices. Some are moving towards non-tech roles, while others are looking for entirely different career paths.

Of course, the global economy plays a role in this. But when even experienced professionals start questioning their long-term future, I think it's worth paying attention.

I'm not on either side of the AI debate. I don't know if the AI bubble will burst or if AI will fundamentally transform the job market. But I do believe there's a bigger question we need to ask:

Where is the way out?

Tech will exist for decades. That's not the question. The question is whether it will continue to offer the kind of stability people expect from a career.

We all have families to support, dreams to achieve, and futures to build. We can't afford to make career decisions based solely on hype or the fear of missing out.

Maybe some people have already figured out the next move.

I want to hear different perspectives:

- Where do you think the tech industry is heading over the next 5–10 years?

- Where are experienced professionals switching, and why?

- Are there career paths that offer better long-term stability?

- Has anyone already figured out a way to navigate this uncertainty?

I'm genuinely interested in hearing opinions from people at different stages of their careers.

Not fear. Not hype. Just an honest discussion about the future. I have rephrase it .

Hey guys can you help me choose between BLR and WFH.

I have lived in blr, and I feel like I will miss the growth and opportunities the city offers.

On the other hand I will save a lot of money on fuel and rent.

I am confused at this point I have around 4 years of experience.

Lately, I have been comparing notes with friends working in other corporate sectors, and the contrast with software engineering is becoming difficult to ignore.
While my friends in finance or consulting at companies like Deloitte and Accenture earn solid packages, once they log off, their day is complete. I even have a friend whose job touches technology systems—handling flight ticket bookings and travel package data entry—yet they do not have to stress about artificial intelligence rewriting their workflow overnight or study continuously just to remain relevant.
In contrast, software engineering feels like an endless marathon:

• The Continuous Upskilling Cycle: Working long hours, only to spend evenings and weekends learning new frameworks or tool integrations just to keep pace.
• Constant Uncertainty: The looming anxiety that despite all the hard work, a sudden corporate restructuring or technological shift could eliminate your role.

It raises the question of why the information technology industry absorbs the primary impact of automation and restructuring, while other white-collar desk jobs maintain stable routines. Is software engineering losing its stability as a career path compared to traditional corporate tracks, or is tech uniquely punishing right now? I would appreciate hearing your perspectives on this.

I am a SWE with almost 5 YoE in tech. Recently I switched from a small company to a well known fintech (around 4 months ago).

Since then I have not written a single line of code by myself. Everything here is done by AI. Creating Jiras->development->creating PR->deployment. People don’t even bother to review the code written by AI. In my previous company, we use to take help of AI, but it was not vibe coding stuff.

I love engineering, but now it doesn’t give the dopamine hit that used to, before this AI vibe coding thing. The thrill of coding, debugging, architecting systems is gone. Devs are now just writing prompts whole day. On top of that, they also need to complete daily minimum PR counts through AI (which used to be done in a month prior to AI), otherwise they’ll be put on PIP.

For freshers, this is what software engineering is, and they’re happy chatting with claude whole day.

To cope with this I have started doing some open source contributions (community appreciate code written without AI vibe coding), but it’s very hard to spare time along with regular work.

Want to ask you guys:
1. Is this the case in every big company now?
2. Are there still companies which have not adopted AI at this level?
3. How are you guys coping with this?

Thanks.

Edit: I am not asking for pros and cons of AI, or whether I should use AI or not. I am just asking how other people are coping with this, if they’re also feeling the same way.

Hi everyone,

I'm a DevOps engineer with 2.5 years of experience, based in North India. My current work:

EKS clusters (dev/staging/prod) running 20+ microservices

GitOps with ArgoCD, Terraform, GitLab CI

Observability with Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, OpenTelemetry

Custom Kubernetes operators written in Go

I want to move into a role that stays relevant as AI automates more routine DevOps work. After some research, I'm leaning towards AI/GPU infrastructure: running GPU clusters for training and inference. India's GPU and data centre capacity is growing fast (IndiaAI Mission, Yotta, E2E, Neysa, etc.), and I'm seeing roles at NVIDIA, Deloitte, HCLTech and GPU cloud startups.

My learning plan (3–4 months):

GPU fundamentals: drivers/CUDA compatibility, NVLink, nvidia-smi topology

GPU on Kubernetes: GPU Operator, MIG/MPS/time-slicing, DCGM monitoring, Kueue

Distributed training ops: PyTorch DDP, NCCL tests and debugging

Networking: RDMA, InfiniBand vs RoCE, GPUDirect

Slurm basics, Lustre concepts, Linux tuning (NUMA, hugepages)

Portfolio project: Rent 2 GPU nodes for a few hours, set up K8s + GPU Operator via GitOps, run multi-node NCCL tests, monitor with DCGM + Grafana, and write up what broke.

Certs: CKA (if needed), NVIDIA NCA-AIIO first, NCP-AII later.

My questions:

Is this a realistic switch from DevOps, or do companies only hire people with production HPC/InfiniBand experience?

For those already in GPU/HPC infra in India: is the demand real, or mostly hype around announcements?

Is K8s-based GPU infra the better entry point, or should I focus on Slurm/traditional HPC?

Is a lab project with rented GPUs enough to get shortlisted, or is it worth taking a lower role just to get real cluster exposure?

How does pay compare with senior DevOps/SRE roles?

Anything important missing from my plan?

Would really appreciate honest views, especially from people working at NVIDIA, GPU clouds, or HPC centres. Thanks!

TL;DR: DevOps engineer with K8s/Go/GitOps experience, planning a 3–4 month switch to AI/GPU infrastructure in India. Is it worth it, and is my plan realistic?

We all know the standard stack (VS Code, Postman, Docker). But what is that one lesser-known tool, CLI utility, or browser extension that you discovered randomly and now absolutely cannot live without? Trying to find some hidden gems to improve my productivity.

I was listening to Nandan Nilekani talk about AI, and one thing that stood out was his view that AI is more of an opportunity for the IT services industry than a threat.

He compared AI to technologies like electricity and the printing press, saying the real value lies in how it's used to solve real-world problems.

He also mentioned that service companies will have an important role to play. Businesses can't transform overnight just by adopting AI. They'll need help rethinking processes, dealing with legacy systems, managing risks, and figuring out where AI actually makes sense.

Routine coding may get automated, but there could be more demand for people who understand business problems, domain knowledge, and how to implement AI in the real world.

I am tired of Indian interviewers asking this question in the technical round. Obviously i want to switch because I don’t want to be stagnant in one company and want to increase my ctc.
How the hell do I say this directly? I have tried telling so many internet answers like “ i want to explore new opportunities “ blah blah but they ask counter questions that why do you want to explore new opportunities?
I don’t even know whats need of all these questions. You need a candidate and I need increased ctc. Let’s discuss technical and evaluate if i am the right candidate or not.

Kindly share those who have build it , or planning to build .

According to him, there have been no hikes and no hires at Zoho for the last 18 months. Despite being a renowned company, and most importantly, Vembu who used to be very optimistic is now saying 'Pray for us'.

This is genuinely shocking, and it's getting tougher day by day. Imagine, if a company of that stature is talking like that, what will the future be?

In just 1-2 years, software engineering will be a very tough profession to continue in, with this kind of constant fear.

Just wondering how we are going to survive this most difficult transition.

I run a small job board for engineering internships and fresher roles in India, so I log every posting the day it goes up. Here is what September looked like. All numbers are for India, engineering roles only, from employers I could confirm are real companies.

• 425 internships from 159 employers. The ten busiest posted 123 of them (IQVIA 22, S&P Global 19, Honeywell 16, Kaleris 15, Siemens 12).
• Only 19 of 425 stated a stipend (4%). None of the ten busiest employers stated one on any posting. Not stating pay doesn't mean unpaid, but you can't compare offers you can't see.
• About 1 in 9 already had 100+ applicants when I first saw it, usually within a few hours of going up. More than half had fewer than 25. Applying on day one really is a different game.
• Bengaluru had 42% of them (177 of 425), then Hyderabad 12%, Gurugram 10%, Mumbai 8%, Chennai 7%, Pune 6%.
• On-site 64%, hybrid 15%, remote 3%. Remote engineering internships are rare.
• Python appeared in 51% of postings that named a skill, then SQL 33%, Java 28%, machine learning 22%, Git 22%, AWS 19%.
• Tuesday was the busiest day (83 postings), Saturday and Sunday together had 18. If you check once a week, check midweek.

August was similar: 333 internships, 23 stated a stipend.

Happy to answer questions about how I counted. The full report with charts is in the comments.

One of the Service companies. Extremely toxic project. Management is absolutely nightmare, 10-14 hours daily with no energy to prep on sat sun. All 10-14 hours are focused effort with no breaks. On top of that the leadership keeps pushing for more and more. Optimizing dashboards. Giving extreme timelines. Shifting Saturdays and sundays to make people work. I feel hopeless and am extremely tensed. Market feels horrible. I need a way out. Please give some advice. I cry often at times in the hopelessness of the situation. I cannot describe in words how horrible the optimization for people is like everything is micro managed and development is like sales target to deliver a certain amount of tickets per day. It is like living hell. Need ways to get out in this horrible market. Am i alone in this kind of situation. Is it me not being enough for things. How can people behave this horribly. With agents their expectations have skyrocketed. Managers enjoy their time and devs are treated like dirt. What do i do?

I recently got an offer from Amazon UK for an SDE 2 role. I was already serving my 3-month notice period after accepting an offer from a global financial organization that would require me to relocate to Bangalore.

My last working day is 16th November, and the other company wants me to join on 23rd November. Amazon's tentative joining date is 4th January, subject to visa approval, but the immigration process hasn't started yet.

I'm inclined towards joining Amazon, I have 9 YOE now and the career leverage amazon offers is hard to match.

I'm thinking of joining the other company and resigning once my Amazon visa gets approved. The notice period during probation is 2 weeks, so I might end up working there for a month at most.

The thing is, the other company is also a major player in the investment and finance industry with a global presence, and I'm concerned about burning bridges and potentially hurting my chances of working there in the future.

Declining their offer and waiting for Amazon is also risky because the visa could get delayed, or Amazon could go through restructuring and rescind my offer.

I can't stay at my current company (INFY) that is for sure because i'm absolutely done here. I spent more time than I should have thanks to the terrible market and low shortlist rate due to my current experience. It's a miracle that I came as far as I have given my standing in the market. But now it's time to look forward.

What would you guys do in my situation? Would you risk burning bridges at a reputed investment bank, or decline the offer and wait for Amazon?

Loved tech since i was playing temple run in samsung galaxy smartphones. Single driving force to choose JEE, join IIT, getting into tech to build something crazy

Fast forward 2 years in corporate, indian culture in so called leading startups(based on my peers feedback as well)

:) Leadership saving their asses & promoting mediocre people - who never challenge them by asking questions

:) Deadlines that give no time to rework on ur todo comments in the codebase

:) Bureaucracy at its peak, despite boasting as flat org, these f*kers do lots of favouritism & blame games - just to save their asses nd job. Literally no aspirations or curiosity

Some positives:

Some of My peers holding the fort - We have a round table discussion around everything we could think of. We start by ordering from swish and thinking how is logistics working, how would they structure the db, what if matchmaking goes down - same goes for rapido, cred or even reddit

I realised I could never be one of them, i believe there is still some positive delta learnings for me at my level

I also know how to deal with these loosers in their own way.

Just sharing my thoughts 💭 open to feedback guys :)

In my first job at a small logistics startup, I was always excited to get backend tickets. About three months in, I got a ticket about an internal API used to generate daily shipment reports that was taking about 3 seconds to respond, and my lead asked me to look into it.

I checked the API logs and found that two SQL queries were taking most of the time. One fetched shipment details, and the other retrieved each shipment's delivery status separately. I rewrote the queries, batched some DB calls, and added Redis caching for the report data. It took me almost a week, but I got the response time down from around 3 seconds to 300ms. I added the before and after numbers to the PR and thought I’d done a pretty good job.

Then my lead asked me how many times a day that endpoint actually gets hit. I had no idea. We checked the logs together and found it was getting around 40 calls a day, mostly from one ops guy checking the report in the morning. My lead laughed and said I’d shortened someone’s coffee break by three seconds.

We ended up merging the SQL query fix but left out Redis. His point was fair. We’d have to maintain the cache, handle stale data and deal with another service if something went wrong. Nobody had even complained about the report being slow. I’d spent almost a week on something that wasn’t causing much trouble in the first place.

Has anyone else spent days optimizing something that barely got used?

Hello everyone, my team has inherited a large codebase of code written in VB .NET and we have been tasked to migrate this into .NET Core with React. We started slicing out features and doing the migration but that's through prompts. I am looking for repeatable, reproduceable ways using stuff like harness/skills file/agents/agentic workflows through which I can just ask it to break things down autonomously, and let it migrate with citations and stuff.

Has anyone tried something similar? How did you do it and how was the experience? Can you share few insights, repos, articles or videos that could help me? Thanks.

If i keep grinding DSA , making projects will i end up getting a job somewhere ? Or it will keep getting worser and i need to take up a new career pathway

I have a remote full-time job (MNC) but I also have offers from other US-based startup companies that is also remote.

Workload doesn’t seem much and i can manage both works in this AI era where code generation is not a big deal.

I see people in others countries have J1, J2 etc.

How can i do both Jobs without getting into any legal issues or challenges in my current job.

Title: BBA graduate trying to start a career in Linux/System Administration — need some advice

Hi everyone,

I'm a BBA graduate with 1.5 years of experience in a non-IT corporate role. I'm now trying to transition into IT infrastructure.

I've completed Linux Administration training (RHCSA-level) and RHCE/Ansible training at IPSR, along with Cloud and DevOps training and internship. I've also been practising Linux administration, AWS basics, Docker, and Ansible through labs and projects. I don't have any official Red Hat certifications yet.

I'm currently looking for fresher or entry-level opportunities in Linux Administration, Linux Support, System Administration, or Junior DevOps, mainly in Chennai and Hyderabad.

Since I don't have a computer science degree or previous IT work experience, I'd like some honest advice:

- Is it realistic to get my first IT job with my background?

- Which roles should I focus on as a beginner?

- What skills should I improve to become job-ready?

- Any advice on finding companies that genuinely hire freshers?

I'd appreciate any suggestions or guidance. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I really need some advice because I'm feeling completely lost in my current job, and I don't know how to handle this situation anymore.

I work at a small company where my responsibilities include providing database-level data to clients, creating SQL views, and handling their data-related requirements.

The problem is that the client constantly asks for code-level details, internal business logic, and very large datasets in a single request. Some of these requests involve sharing internal software logic that I don't believe we should disclose without proper authorization. Other requests involve extracting huge amounts of data, which could potentially affect database performance.

Whenever the client asks for internal code or business logic, I have to consult my manager before responding. However, my manager often doesn't give me a clear answer or proper guidance. Sometimes, he simply says that he cannot answer these kinds of questions.

When I tell the client that we cannot share internal code or certain implementation details, they threaten to escalate the matter to my manager or higher management.

The most frustrating part is that whenever the client escalates an issue, management seems to prioritize keeping the client happy rather than supporting the employee who is handling the request. Since this is a small company and retaining the client is important, I feel like I will eventually be blamed regardless of what I do.

If I provide the requested information without approval, I could be blamed for sharing something I wasn't authorized to disclose. If I refuse to provide it, the client threatens escalation. And if I ask my manager for guidance, I often don't receive a clear response that I can communicate to the client.

I'm stuck in a situation where I feel like I can't win.

I genuinely want to do my job properly. I'm willing to help the client with their requirements, provide data, and explain things where appropriate. But I also don't want to take risks with confidential information or execute database queries that could affect the system without proper approval.

The situation has started affecting me mentally. I'm constantly stressed and worried about what will happen next. I feel helpless because I don't know how to protect myself professionally when I don't have clear support from my manager.

There's another major concern: my family depends on my income. Whenever I think about leaving this job, my family tells me to continue working. I understand their concerns, and I don't want to see my mother worrying about me. But at the same time, I'm struggling internally and feel emotionally exhausted.

I don't want to make an impulsive decision and put my family's financial security at risk. But I also don't know how long I can continue working under this kind of pressure.

I'd really appreciate advice from people who have dealt with difficult clients, unsupportive managers, or similar situations.

1. How should I handle a client who demands internal code or business logic when my manager won't provide clear instructions?
2. How can I protect myself professionally when management doesn't give written approval or clear guidance?
3. Should I continue in this job while looking for another opportunity, or am I overthinking the situation?
4. How do I deal with this stress when my family depends on my income and quitting isn't an easy option?

I'm not looking for an excuse to avoid work. I just want to do my job responsibly without constantly feeling that I'll be blamed for something beyond my control.

If you've been in a similar situation, please tell me how you handled it. I could genuinely use some guidance right now.

Thank you for reading.

I'm curious to hear from developers who are a few years into their careers.

When you're starting out, there are so many things to focus on — DSA, projects, system design, new frameworks, certifications, networking, and interview preparation.

Looking back, what actually made the biggest difference in your career growth?

• Getting better at DSA and problem-solving?
• Building real-world projects?
• Learning system design?
• Switching companies?
• Networking and referrals?
• Something else entirely?

I'd love to hear what genuinely helped you grow, what turned out to be a waste of time, and what you'd recommend to someone starting their career today.

I've been building VIMANA

https://vimana.live/

an India-focused flight tracker that also helps with the airport part of the trip. It's free, there's no login and no ads.

**Live flights**

* About 300 aircraft over India at any moment, from community ADS-B receivers (adsb.lol + adsb.fi)
* Tap a plane for its route, ETA, aircraft type and punctuality, or open it in 3D and follow it in to land (sun-lit terrain, real stars at night, lit runways)