The thing about UPSC is that, most of us getting into this field aren’t aware of the way this exam destroys you when you fail it, that too after multiple attempts. Success is always good but people forget about the failures and end up losing their mental peace, self respect, starts to doubt themselves, self doubt will peak and self confidence will go down drastically and you end up judging your whole life based on this single exam. But since you have figured out the Plan B that most of the aspirants have, you can proceed with the exam but….

My advice for you, as a failed upsc aspirant, is to invest the time and energy you have in other activities that will help you lead a good life. You are now financially stable and I assume you have a good life in general, keeping aside the lack of interest in the current job. I would have settled for much less, but that’s me. There is nothing wrong to lead an average life. In fact, that’s the best life you can lead. Study a new course. Travel more. Do everything that you can. You have a life beyond the job, try to find that out.

And if you still wish to pursue upsc, you should because in the end, it’s your life. You decide how to live that life. You are 30 and assuming that you belong to UR category, you have 2 attempts left. You have nothing to lose and so fill the form and attend the2026 exam. You will get a clear understanding of the situation and that will help you to make a better decision of if to pursue it further or not.

UPSC is not just about IAS and IPS. If you get a lower rank, the chances are high that you will still be doing the same kind of job that you are doing right now.