It took me 12 years to realise that I'll tell you in 35 minutes (as a Software Engineer)

It has been 12 years since I'm working in the tech industry. You can also call this as the software industry or the IT industry. Now, it has been a privilege for me that I have worked for very small startups also, big tech giants also, and I have built a couple of startups during my whole career journey. During all this time, I have worked as a software engineer. When I started my job, I was working I worked as a software engineer. Until today, I am working in the tech team. I'm leading the tech team and building the tech product in my own startup. During my whole career, I have switched multiple companies. I have got multiple promotions, and I have worked with so many managers across. So, you know, I have got a lot of learnings and lessons that I can share with you all. And those learnings I'm going to share in this video that I have learned from my mistakes and the things I think I have done right in my career that I have given me immense growth, right? Immense growth in terms of salary also, learnings as well. I'll share you everything uh from my own experience. First of all, let me talk

about my career journey so that you understand me better when I am going through all the lessons that I have learned. First of all, let me tell you that I my career journey started from an internship at NSDC. This was during my college. Then, I built my own startup when I was in the last year of my college. So, I was building my startup when I was in college. That startup failed actually, right? That startup actually failed. Then, I went to Bangalore. There were four people who were building a startup. I joined them. Then, we built a startup over there. That startup actually worked really well. The startup worked well, and it got acquired by a bigger company, which is known as Lendingkart. Then, I moved to Lendingkart as a software engineer. There I got There in Lendingkart, I got multiple promotions, and I went to senior engineer over there. Worked over here, I think in Lendingkart I worked for 2 to 3 years. Then I shifted and switched to a bigger company, which is Paytm. I loved the work over here at Paytm. I built a product right from scratch. It was a very small team. I have actually started writing code from the first I wrote the first line of code over here for my project. Right? Then from Paytm, I switched and went to Uber. This was a very big offer for me and it opportunity because Uber was kind of like my dream company. And let me tell you immense learning that I have had at Uber, I cannot forget it in my life. Uber is a company that I would love to work for again, right? If I ever have to uh I can go and join Uber once again. Right? So, Uber was the dream company for me. I cracked that, went to Uber, worked for around 3 years, and then during COVID I left my job and then, you know, I started building my own startup Namaste Dev, which I'm working over here right now. Right? Uh that's what I'm building right now. During this whole, you know, during this whole journey my salary has gone multiple folds, right? I can't even imagine the hikes that I have got. And if I look back, I feel, you know, uh proud of myself as well as, you know, I have taken certain decisions in my life which have been very crucial for my salary growth as well as for my personal growth as well. I'll share all of them, don't worry. But let me give you a brief idea about when I started my internship, my salary was, or you can call this a stipend, was 5K a month. Right? It was in Delhi. Then, when I got my actual first job, right? My first salary was 10K a month in Bangalore, right? That was very, very less uh as compared to other people who are getting uh you know, of my batch, they were getting package of like 8 lakhs, 12 lakhs, and all of that. But, my salary was 10k a month, right, that time when I went for my first job. But, then my salary grew a lot. Right? And if you if I have to give you some idea, rough idea, so when I left Uber, right, I had offers of 1 CR plus, multiple plus. Uh I don't want to name those companies, but you know, right, these are the fan companies. And there was the highest offer that I got was from a very well-known crypto firm, right? I don't want to name that company. Uh I have, you know, taken the name of that company in a you know, private live stream, but not over here in public on YouTube. So, I got that was the highest offer that I have got, right? And then I got offers from multiple fan companies also, because, you know, after you are in Uber, then only fan companies will be able to match your offer, because Uber pays you a lot, right? If I have to give you a rough idea, Uber was paying me more than 70 lakh. I don't even remember. So, it was, I think, uh 60 plus stocks, right, something like that, or fif- something, 56 lakh base, and there were stocks. And the stocks were, basically, you know, uh Uber was a listed company, so your stock was actual money, which was growing so much, right? So, I had a When I left Uber, so my salary was, basically, including stocks was 75 lakh plus, right, something like that, right? Uh and then I had offers of 1 CR plus. So, this was my whole journey. Why I'm talking about this? I'm not bragging anything over here, but what I'm saying is, when I started, I was at a very low pay scale, right, 5k a month. And, you know, and my college is a tier three college. I'm not from a very, you know, fancy college out there, right? I was not a very studious student. Uh not from a very high-tech school, college. Everything that I've achieved in my whole life has been because of certain decisions and life lessons that I have learned across working hard during my whole career journey. Right? Let me just take you through important lessons that I have learned during my whole journey. Uh if you have any doubts or questions about my whole journey or if you are interested to know anything more about it, I can make a separate video out of it. Uh comment down below if you want to ask anything about it. — [snorts] — Right? Let's just move ahead with the learning.

learning. The most important, you know, thing that I would attribute to is communication. You might be expecting that Akshay will tell us be good at DSA, be good at that tech, be good at this, that. No. The biggest learning I have had is if you are good at communicating, it will become your superpower. Now, this might sound strange, right? but let me tell you most of the software engineers are introvert. They don't know how to communicate. talk to people. their manager managers. They don't know how to be a good team player. Communication is very, very important. Whatever I have achieved in my life, whatever, you know, uh things I have got, the offers I have cracked, it is because of communication. Communication is the most important part of an interview. Even more than your technical skills, communication skills are I keep communi See, communication skills may be a little small portion of the whole interview, but it's the most crucial part. If you are good at technical skills, bad at communication skills, most probably you are going to fail in the interviews. I have learned this by making a mistake. I was very bad at communication. I My English speaking skills were very bad. Even today I'm not very good at speaking English, right? Uh it's not my first language. So, I'm not good at it, but now I am a little comfortable. At least I can talk in front of camera or something, right? And this is this was only possible just because I'm making a lot of YouTube videos and I'm talking to other people out there in English. That's the only way I've learned English. Not very good at English, but again, you know, communication is beyond language also. So, if you can deliver your message properly, uh that is the form of communication you should be good at it. Right? So, now communication along with confidence, this is very, very important. This will help you crack your interviews. Trust me. Less people know about it, and let me tell you all the time when I was during my initial time of my career, I used to give a lot of interviews and I used to fail all of them. Why? Because I used to get nervous. I knew the answers. I knew the problems. Uh you know, I have got problems in the interview that I have solved before, but I was not able to communicate well. I was I performed very bad at interviews and I failed. So, please focus upon your communication. That will give you an added advantage to your career. Unfair advantage, trust me. Most of the software engineers are introverts. I was also one, but communication changed my whole entire life. Even outside my job, communication has helped me a lot. Right? Along with communication, be a team player. Try to be a leader in your team, right? And take ownership of things you do. Effective communication plus the confidence that you have is a superpower, my dear friends. First biggest lesson that I've learned throughout my whole career journey is communication is your superpower. You need to be very good at speaking in front of people and communicating your thoughts out. Very important skill. This will help you crack your interviews, also.

Now, another lesson that I have learned is technology will keep changing, my dear friend. Tech will keep on changing. To give you an idea, when I was building my first startup, I built it in Ruby. When I built my second startup, I built it using, you know, Pearl when I was in college. When I went on ahead building a startup in Bangalore, I was working in Java, Spring Boot, Hibernate, JSP pages, working with, uh, you know, uh, what you call that as? I forgot. Uh, jQuery. Yes, I don't even remember the name, jQuery in front end, right? And writing HTML, CSS in between that. I've also worked for PHP, right? PHP. And earlier, you know, these were the technologies which were very famous. People were building projects in Ruby on Rails. Now, nobody talks about it. Pearl, Right? And then Java, Spring, Hibernate is also, yeah, going away, right? Java is also, uh, you know, uh, kind of fading. Not exactly, uh, fading, but yes, less startups are using it. Right? So, what I'm trying to say, and then later on, you know, things have changed drastically, right? Then I've worked for MERN stack a lot of time. MERN stack is becoming very, very popular these days. I've worked on Angular JS, then 2 in front end, then Angular 4, then React, then React JS, then, you know, newer versions of React in the front end. In the back end, I've worked for Node. js. When I was working at Uber, I used to work in Go lang, right? And multiple database. So, what I'm trying to say, technology will keep changing, my friend. It will keep changing, no matter what. Tomorrow, you know, you might have AI coming in. Tomorrow, you might have newer versions of Node or Bun or whatever, MERN stack, TEN stack, this stack, that stack. It will keep on coming and going. But, what is most important is your fundamentals, and can you adapt to it? If I restricted myself to Java, I would have never come this far. If I would have restricted myself to Ruby on Rails, I would have never come far. If I would have restricted myself to PHP, I would have never come this far. What I'm telling you, tech will keep on changing. You have to be adaptable. Right? Very, very important skill. You have to be agile. Let me tell you philosophical uh in a philosophical way. You have to be like a water, right? You pour that water into the cup, it takes the shape of the cup. If you pour that water into the, you know, um into a bottle, it will take the shape of the bottle. You have to be, you know, uh okay to switch things up. Otherwise, you will be, you know, dead in tech. Otherwise, tech is not for you. Okay? So, growth will only come if you become adaptable. I in my whole career, I was with I used to be in that mindset, give me anything. I'll just, you know, build with whatever tech stack you tell me. Go lang, I'll build it. Month stack, I'll build it. Whatever you give me, I can work with it. This is how you should be. This has helped me a lot, trust me. Always be eager to learn things and be very good at fundamentals. When I say fundamentals, fundamentals of coding does not change. Fundamentals of programming system design does not change. Fundamentals of writing good code does not change. Fundamentals of building, you know, products in a way does not change. Fundamentals always remain the same. Tech keeps on changing. Fundamentals are the same. Trust me on that. Also, if you are a techie, don't say that, you know, I don't care what the product or business is. No. You have to get involved into product and business. Try to see whatever you are building, what are you building actually? Whom are you building for? If you're building something, who will use it? And actually, how whatever you are do building over there, whatever tech you are building, how is it going to impact the business? Because after all, the most important part is business. If you're building something, then it is you know, it is helping that business. How your product is helping that business you should keep in mind. Be much more than a software engineer. Software engineer by heart, but try to be into product and business as well, right? I'm not saying become a product manager or become a business manager. No, you don't have to. But at least have an understanding of what has happening inside your product and what is happening inside business. That has helped me a lot in my career. I have a lot of friends who are product managers. Right? So, uh just because I was curious, I used to ask them questions and it has helped me a lot in my career. Trust me. Create value. Think about whatever you are building, are you creating value or not? Ask yourself the question that whatever I'm doing today, what outcome does it have? Because outcome is everything. If you can produce outcome, people don't care whether you build that product using PHP or Golang or Java, they don't care. If your product is built, it is giving the right outcome, nobody cares which language did you use, which framework database did you use, nobody cares. Trust me. Only thing is the outcome. Be focused on the outcome. Let's move

ahead. Job switching is a skill. This is a very big learning. You know, nobody is teaching you how to switch jobs. Right? Nobody teaches you. And you only learn by experience. And I have learned from my experience the mistakes that my colleagues have made, right? My friends have made in their career. I have seen some people they are just switching every 6 months. Every 6 months they are just hopping the jobs. Don't be a job hopper. You know, there's a very common term which is known as job hopper. Don't do this job hopping. Every 6 months they are switching switching. Okay, now my salary is 10 lakh per annum and I got an offer of 12, so I will move there. Then I got an offer of 16, I'll 18, I'll move there. Don't do that. Don't do that and don't be another guy who is there in the same company for like 8 to 10 years. No. If you will be in the same company for 8 to 10 years, then very high chances that your growth will not be exponential. And I'm only talking about people who want exponential growth. If you want a linear growth, do whatever you want to. Just close this video. Don't watch it. I'm just talking to people who actually want an exponential growth in their salary, in their career, in their learnings, everything. This video is for you. If you want linear growth, do whatever you want. Close this video. This is my advice is not for you. Trust me. Okay? So, job switching is a skill. Make Don't make switches randomly, right? Don't make switch after every 6 months. Be very conscious when you are going joining a company. You know, in my job, when I was switching from Lendingkart to Paytm, right? When I made the switch Paytm, I had 20 plus offers with me along with Paytm. Then I decided that I want to go to Paytm. Why? Because it had better work, better team, better salary, right? And a better brand name. Right? All of these things matter to me. Earlier people never People never used to know Lendingkart. When I used to say I work for Lendingkart, people never used to know. When I went to Paytm, everybody in India know Paytm. Right? So, if I say I worked as a software engineer in Paytm, there is a slight impact. Brand is important. I you know I you know when I had 20 plus offers and I had offers from very big tech companies also. I have you know during when I was joining Paytm, I had offers from Ola, I have offers from Medlife, I have I had offers from I think Hotstar, I had offers from There were many company. I think I had offers for Directi. No, I think Directi later on. But yes, I had offers from multiple companies that point of time. But after taking 20 plus offers, I had multiple options. Then I actually, you know, switched to Paytm. That was a very conscious well choice. Why? Good team, good project, good work, right? Good salary and a brand. All these four factors were on top. I joined Paytm. When I shifted from Paytm to Uber, again, good team, better work, better technology, big name, and it was kind of my dream company. There were so many perks and very very high salary, right? A salary that is, you know, a dream salary for many in India. Trust me. So, when you get all these things, then only I was, you know, switching my job. So, in your job switching, always remember that growth is important and direction is also important. I have seen people make a mistake, my friends make a mistake. What they do is Suppose they are in Microsoft and Microsoft is offering 20 LPA for two of them, right? What they will do? They will join a startup who is offering 30 LPA. So, I'm not saying startups are bad, but at least do some research. Don't just blindly go because somebody is paying you 30 lakhs per annum. No. If you want to actually go in that startup, work over there, you are willing to something, then only go. But my friends, they made a mistake. Why? They went there for 30 LPA just because there was a salary hike of 10 LPA. But, that startup was not that great. Right? But, see, they are doing well in career right now, but I'm just saying that mistake that switch was a mistake. Later on, that guy himself went to, you know, join Uber. Later on, he came to Uber again. But, what I'm saying is he lost like 3 years in between. He was working for that startup for 3 years, right? That was a big time. He has lost a lot of things in that 3 years. Because he was a SD2 in Microsoft, he went to SD2 at Uber now. Right? And in between, he lost 3 years. Okay? So, what I'm trying to say is uh be very conscious when you are making job switch. Try to see the pros and cons, and always take multiple offers. Never never ever just, you know, what most people do? They get one offer, they join that company. Never ever do that. You know, when you go and buy a mobile phone, you do so many research, you explore so many options. That mobile phone, that small mobile phone. Right? And when you go out to search for a new job, then you don't explore options. You get one offer, you stick with it. No, don't do that. Just like you do a lot of test drive of a lot of, you know, lot of cars before you buy a car, you do a lot of research, try to do the same for these companies also. Do a lot of research. Crack multiple offers, then join. Very good strategy. This has helped me a lot in my career. Otherwise, I would have not been at a place where I am right now.

— [gasps] — Just working hard is not enough, my friend. enough. What are software engineers? Most of the software engineers are introverts. They hardly speak. They are silent in meetings. They don't when the manager ask everything okay in one-on-one they say yes everything okay manager. No, you don't have to be like that. You know, I was also an introvert but sometimes you need to be an extrovert when it comes to your career. You know, showing your work is very important. I told you right communication and confidence are most important things. It's a part of it. Just working hard is not enough. You know, when I started my career I used to work a very hard. my ass off. Day and night I used to work and I was a very hard worker. But what I saw was there were a lot more people who used to work very less than me, who used to write lesser code ship lesser than me, but they used to get promotions. How? Because they were good at their communication skills. They used to be very good at showing off their work. Yes, show off is very important. I'm not saying just go and brag every time you go you always are bragging about yourself. You don't have to brag a lot. You don't have to over brag yourself. Right? But you have to show your work. You have to be visible, increase visibility in your team. When I say visibility earn trust. What do you mean by earn trust? If you are working hard, you are showing your work and you have visibility in your team, then people will trust you. Your manager will trust you. How you? Suppose if there is some work that has to be done. So the manager trust you that okay if I give this work to Akshay, Akshay will deliver it on time. I have manager has trust in you. And that trust can only be earned. You have to earn that trust by shipping products good and showing your work and being visible. Being available, right? This is a very important thing. And always remember that you have to under commit and over deliver. Suppose, I have seen a lot of people they make mistake when they are planning their sprint, they take a lot of task. Their whole, you know, Jira board is filled with a lot of task. And then after the end of the sprint, they most of the task are spillover. Are you like that? Comment down if you are like that. You don't have to be like that. Always be conscious about how much work you can do. Take less work. Try to take as less work as possible. Try to finish that work and once you have finished that work, try to even do one or two extra tickets. Fix extra bugs. Take out time to improve yourself, learn yourself. Take part in code reviews. There are so many things that you can do to become better. I have seen Don't overburden yourself with a lot of tickets because in the hustle of finishing a lot of tickets, you are devaluing yourself and your career because the manager will only remember, okay, Akshay has like three spillovers this time. Last time he had two spillovers. This time he has three spillovers. And then the manager will feel that, okay, this person always has spillovers. No, don't be that guy. Under commit. Don't commit much. Commit less. Deliver more. Right? This should be your strategy. Let's move ahead. First salary is not your last salary. I

told you in my career I started with 5K a month and my first actual salary was 10K a month after internship. First salary. Later on my last salary was very very, you know, huge. Very huge. It was kind of like a dream salary of anyone in India. So, what I'm saying is And I have also seen that people get demotivated when they are having college placements. Suppose if you start your career at 3 lakh per annum and your friend is at 12 lakh per annum. Right? Now, the 3 lakh guy will be very demotivated. But let me tell you the career trajectory can be exponential. Your salary is grow can grow exponential and maybe that 12 LPA one is just linear. After maybe like 5 years he is at 20 LPA and you can be at 40 LPA. This is very much possible in just 5 years. Now you must be thinking 5 years Akshay will take. Yes, 5 years a very small period of time my dear friends. Your career is like 30 to 40 years. You will be working, right? If you started working at suppose 22 or 23 or whatever and maybe suppose you know you resign or you maybe you know you retire at 60. Think about it. 30 35 years 35 to 40 years your career is. 5 years is a very small time. Give 5 years to your growth. In 5 years you can be at a very different place all together. Trust me. You just have to be trust yourself. Now, what I've also seen is some people what they do they say that I have this company is paying me less salary. So I will do less work. Don't have that you know sucker attitude. I call that as a sucker attitude. You know, you are just sucking out of the company. What you are doing? If the company is paying you less doesn't mean that you have to work less. No. That's a very wrong and bad mindset. Whom are you fooling? You are fooling yourself and your career and your growth. You have to work for what you want to be. Not what you are. Work for the future, not for the present. If you are a SD2 right now, try to be an SD2. Try to work like an SD2. Then only you will become an SD2. If you are an SD1 you do keep on doing SD1 job, then it will take years to be an SD2 for you. Okay? So, you have to work with L plus one thinking. If you are a SD1, work like an SD2. In your mind, you should already be an SD2. This is how I used to work. And this has helped me a lot. Trust me. I have been into places where my managers have told me, "Akshay, you deserve to be a senior engineer when I was an L SD2. " I have I You know, when I was an SD3, when I was a senior engineer, I used to do work of one level above me. Right? So, what I'm trying to say, always have an L plus one thinking. Don't be a loser. Don't say that I'm getting less. I'm getting paid less, so I will do less work. No. Your work should be for your future. In future, you want to be an SD2? Work like an SD2 today. Right? Then you will be. And be the best. Be best in your team. org. I don't have my awards right now, but in almost every company I've gotten an award. When I was in Lendingkart, I got the employee of the quarter award. When I was in Uber, You know, I always used to be one of the best working person in my team. Best team. I was, you know, so much uh obsessed that I used to chase the awards. I don't know how good or bad it is, but I was like that, and that has helped me a lot. I used to be very, you know, ethical when I used to work. People used to appreciate working with me. That's how you have to be. I earned the trust of my teammates as well as my manager. That has helped me a lot in my career. And I would advise you that as well. Be the best in your team. Then org org. Try to be visible across. Right? That's very, very important. Uh

Uh Consistency is greater than motivation any day. Trust me. You know, there will be days when you will not feel like working. feel like giving up. There will be days where you will feel like, "What am I doing with my life? Why I have become a software engineer or a coder? " Right? There will be days where you might have to work late at nights and work on weekends. Do it. Grind. Grind as much as possible. You know, but be consistent. Nobody will come to motivate you. Trust me. There is nothing like motivation, at least for me. I don't like motivation. Right? So, the most important thing is consistency. Be consistent. Do it like a work. Sometimes you will feel like working whole day. Sometimes you won't Just show up. Just do small step. Take tiny steps every day. Tiny steps tiny steps and you will climb the mountains. That's how your should be. You know? So, consistency is very undervalued. Just keep on working hard consistently and you will see the results happening. I think consistency plays a very important life uh role in life, not just in your career, but in life in general also, right? Trust me. Slow and steady wins the race. Be slow. Be steady. Be calm down. There will be moments when you will be at your peak of your energy. There will be moments there where you will have low energy low motivation. That's okay. Just be consistent. That will help you a lot.

Let's move ahead. Take responsibility of your career. The biggest and the most important thing. I have seen people complaining about their career. They will say they will blame things, you know? Uh I was talking to a friend. He was like he has been working in the same company for 5 years now. I hope he's not watching this video right now. So, he was saying, "Akshay, I want to switch my job. " I said, "Switch. What's there? " He's saying, "I'm trying, but you know what? Recession is here and AI and layoffs are here and this and that. " And he was just ranting that how bad his manager is, how bad his team is. He has been stuck in that company for 5 years. It's been 3 years he's trying to switch the job. This, that, all that. There is a recession. There is AI. So much negativity he has filled into himself that he can't switch. And he will not be able to switch. Trust me. Because don't You know, he's blaming others for the work he's doing. I said, "He said that my manager is putting me on PIP. " I said, "What are you doing? " Well, then he was saying that you know, "I don't like to work and I was underperforming. So, my manager put me on PIP. " So, I was saying that when you were underperforming, you are accepting that you are underperforming. You were not doing work up to the mark because you are not liking the work. Then why did you not switch? Why were you not working? " So, there are so many, you know, people give excuses to external factors and they don't accept they don't take accountability of the mistakes they do. If you switch your job, then they will blame the market. They will blame the circumstances. They won't blame themselves that, "Okay, I might have not applied enough. worked hard. " If they interview failed, they will blame the interviewer that who took the round. They will blame something else, right? They will find a reason to blame anything. This is not about career. This is in life also. If you fail at something, try to look into yourself. Did you give your best attempt? But the most of the time the answer lies within. Don't blame the external circumstances or external people out there. Right? It's easy to blame them. Don't play the blame game. Your career is your responsibility. You will have to take be accountable for what you do.

I wish you all the best in your career, but these are the important crucial life lessons that I have learned. I'm not here to tell you that okay, be very good at DSA or system design or something. That you already know, my friend. But these are the things that have actually helped me grow in my career. Trust me. Apart from tech, tech was the easiest part, trust me. Tech used to be like okay, I you have to be good at tech, right? That there's no doubt about it. But I'm still saying that there will be a lot of people who are watching who are good at tech, who work hard, who give their best, but because of all these reasons, they will not be able to move ahead in their career. Right? These are the things that nobody talks about. Each and every point that I told you are the things that people don't talk about. Nobody teaches us. I have learned all these things myself in my whole journey. And please please apply something of it. I'm not sure how helpful this was. But I just wanted to make a video and share this with you all because this has helped me a lot in my career. Okay? And uh this is it. If you want any more uh you know, videos from me or topics if you have in mind, suggestions for me, just comment down below. I will read each and every comment. I will reply to most of them if I can, right? Uh but I 100% read all the comments. I might not able to be able to reply to each one of them, but I read a lot of comments, all the comments, trust me. So, please comment down if you want more such videos or any other topics that you want me to cover. And I'll keep on coming and making videos and sharing my life learnings and experience with you all. Thank you so much for watching this video till the end. Namaste.