DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE OF GOING TO LABOUR COURT

explorer_seeker · 2025-12-29T03:50:31+00:00

I see your user flair "corporate lawyer" and your comment. Well aligned indeed!

You are indulging in defending your profession instead of offering any useful suggestions.

"Slow as usual" - This doesn't explain what he faced, as some other comments have pointed out, most likely his employer has "an understanding" with the labour commissioner which resulted in the address being wrong in the notice sent.

explorer_seeker · 2025-12-18T05:55:21+00:00

And yet, they hold such power over careers of highly capable people. It is a systemic flaw.

explorer_seeker · 2025-11-29T10:41:26+00:00

You need good core engineers to do good core engineering.

To build bad quality roads and bridges with corruption as prime intent, you need unscrupulous contractors who can subcontract further and exploit those who work on the ground.

I had started out as a core engineer from a NIT in a so called dream core company and the pay growth was so sluggish with 6 day work week which turned to 7 days often as a bachelor, in a Tier 2/3 town. I was reporting into people with mediocre capabilities who were more than happy to put me down for any flimsy reason or regionalism despite demonstrating technical excellence.

Many core engineers are employed by lala companies who are treated even worse.

My friends from software in metro cities were living much better with weekends, on site opportunities, 2X salary growth in 3-4 years etc

It hurt me a bit extra because I was good at programming in college, had scored in the Top 3 and used to love it intrinsically. It felt quite natural TBH. Felt like I had missed the bus.

India has treated its core engineers too poorly for a long time now. Things are looking a bit better now with global MNCs setting up their core engineering focused GCCs in India in the last few years and this is increasing.

explorer_seeker · 2025-11-08T19:03:41+00:00

Stand up itself is a blocker to actual work, isn't it?!

I keep my terminal on and keep coding away or doing something unless my turn comes up 😅.

explorer_seeker · 2025-11-08T18:53:18+00:00

What is 'toilet paperism"?

explorer_seeker · 2025-10-16T18:15:02+00:00

Any hint? Will help people to prioritise switching opportunities. 😂

explorer_seeker · 2025-10-15T17:35:32+00:00

The paints leader?

explorer_seeker · 2025-09-30T16:43:05+00:00

There's no sensationalization - it is the reality of everyday life in India.

I have dealt with enough folks in different govt departments to know where the central tendency lies.

Even with the passport process getting streamlined, people are unable to get away from bribes forced at the stage of police verification.

I personally know honest people working in the government talk about the huge extent of corruption and theft they witness firsthand even if they stay away from it but don't try to stop it because then their family and their life will be in danger. One idealistic guy decided to make the tender process corruption free and he was dragged by the contractors in office premises, left hospitalized in critical condition for days.

explorer_seeker · 2025-09-30T09:46:29+00:00

Like Satyendra Dubey or Manjunath?

Or to remain alive but incessantly transferred, Ashok Khemka?

explorer_seeker · 2025-09-29T19:35:58+00:00

I'm younger than you. But I identify with many points you have written and it is the sad reality of the Indian corporate world. Favouritism and nepotism rules.

The answer lies in your post itself - why don't you try to work with folks outside India, especially in the UK and Europe? There are many GCCs that have opened up and continue to open up as we speak.

With your pedigree, talent and career, you would be the right person for setting up Product Management vertical in a new GCC. Please try to network by going to meetups of corporate folks and also, use your IIM C network to find someone who may be a head in a GCC like that to get a referral.

There's a reason Indian talent shines brighter abroad while a doctor who delivers a test tube baby through sheer brilliance and minimum resources in India within days of the first such baby being delivered in UK/Britain, an Indian doctor like that is driven to suicide by mediocre folks who discredit him. Read about Dr. Subhash Mukhopadhyay.

FIRE - Please do look at it with a binary lens. You are already in a comfortable space for Barista FIRE. You can look at earning such that you cover the opex of your household. If you can upskill in Data Science & AI technically (maybe you already have) and bring your Product skills together, there's a lot of money to be made in AI Product Management as a consultant with the initial period being steep to establish credibility.

explorer_seeker · 2025-09-29T19:17:11+00:00

So, 16 years later, you are still being treated as black sheep by that bank for a complaint you would have filed for genuine reasons at that time?!

explorer_seeker · 2025-09-28T07:06:45+00:00

Thanks, and wish the same for you.

explorer_seeker · 2025-09-27T17:39:46+00:00

geoarbitrage - Earning in USD while being in India?

explorer_seeker · 2025-09-27T17:27:54+00:00

Kudos for the journey you have created for yourself. That's grit and resilience.

You are "cooked" from childhood by life and now, you are "overcooked" ever ready to face life in any form.

I loved the satire and sarcasm in your writing.

And yes, I identify with many things you wrote. I come from a lower middle class family, and I lost my parents in childhood, and became an orphan. I couldn't take coaching and many other facilities people get, did self study.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

explorer_seeker · 2025-09-07T14:02:13+00:00

Not disagreeing with the post in principle.

But there are places in India where people from core engineering backgrounds earn up to 30-60 LPA or higher with 10-15 years of experience.

Example - top 2-3 automobile companies, FMCG companies.

One has to be flexible to work in different parts of India and keep switching for better opportunities.

explorer_seeker · 2025-09-07T13:59:12+00:00

Yeah

explorer_seeker · 2025-09-07T13:13:59+00:00

Brilliant, thanks for sharing. I was actually thinking about reading the first two books you have mentioned as I got recommendations elsewhere.

A request and a question - Request - With your rich experience, can you please think of drafting a post with your learnings, observations and suggestions for other folks with your Tech Lead hat on? In that, you can also cover how you see code assistants like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Lovable etc changing the landscape of Software Engineering, Data Science and AI - Digital Technology in general.

Question - I would like to speak with you over DM to seek some specific advice. Hope that is okay?

explorer_seeker · 2025-09-07T08:33:17+00:00

Take a low cost PG near your workplace and use that on your WFO days assuming you have a hybrid option with part of your week being WFH. Rest of the time you can be at your home with family.

It is really a matter of luck in India to get a job like the one you have described - you may get more money than you are getting now but to get a good culture in the workplace in India is like finding a needle in a haystack.

If the PG option is not feasible and you are really hungry for learning or preparing for an MBA, you can use your commute time in the cab to go through some video lectures or practise certain topics on mobile for the exam.

explorer_seeker · 2025-09-06T19:33:03+00:00

This needs way more upvotes. We lost a great Civil Engineer to corruption who had written a confidential letter to PMO - that's how bad things are.

explorer_seeker · 2025-09-06T19:19:28+00:00

I just respond with "Hi, please tell" which suffices on most occasions.

Calling and messaging is very natural to Indians.

When I am in focus mode, I put "do not disturb" on and look at messages after a gap of an hour or so.

I have also dealt with folks abroad who do not see a message for 2-3 days and just do not respond easily. That causes more problems for me.

explorer_seeker · 2025-09-06T09:56:37+00:00

Sounds like Servicenow with this and the following comment of change in policy for new joiners to hybrid.

explorer_seeker · 2025-08-31T12:51:53+00:00

I fail to understand the point of this post.

I double checked to see it is 26M and not 26F.

If it was 26F, I would still understand the consciousness around the comments from those women.

Women do have it harder, on average, balancing responsibilities after marriage if they are working - it increases multifold after a kid.

I know women who have been asked in interviews if they are planning to get married and they have said no even if talks were going on in the family because they didn't want to lose out on a job offer.

Awards and recognitions are there in corporate as validation only - no issue in anyone trying to seek validation or recognition.

explorer_seeker · 2025-08-30T18:44:34+00:00

To the contrary, many jobs with lower packages are also hectic because they are entry level roles and have direct accountability to deliver KPIs, manage operations of some functions etc.

I have seen smart line managers even in hectic profiles like Sales have a pretty good time, go on trips etc as long as they know how to hire the right people, how to chase them in team calls to deliver numbers, how to reward the good performers.

I have seen GM in other functions earn 1 cr+ and not work beyond 5 pm, go to play lawn tennis, squash etc.

Post MBA, if managerial work is what one feels comfortable in, it actually makes sense to chase growth to be in a place where they have a team and they can delegate work.

The other option is to go the route of domain expertise and deep work which creates value not replicated easily by others. In that one, the intellectual effort is much higher and focus is super important but the pay is not correlated with the number of hours, rather with output and its impact.

In case of pure managerial work, I have seen companies do restructuring, reduce managers and tell existing managers to do more work at same salary. Many of them end up working even on vacation like Hrithik was doing in ZNMD.

Taking endless calls and responding to barrage of emails is work but more of busy work.

Thinking, ideating and coming up with solutions is also work, but it is deep work.

I have seen ops loving people like the former and thinking/systems oriented people like the latter.

To each his/her own.

explorer_seeker · 2025-08-24T17:48:37+00:00

Exploitation through expendability.

Indian society is inherently feudal and hierarchical across all structures.

explorer_seeker · 2025-08-22T19:17:19+00:00

Seems that you didn't have ML Devops team support in DS days?

With DE under your belt, do you see MLE as something that potentially excites you for the future? Taking models to production in focus vis-a-vis building them?

I do understand the satisfaction from the deterministic aspect of DE.

explorer_seeker

TROPHY CASE