I got an offer of 30LPA to work as a Software Developer and I am not even a Computer Science grad.
First some quick background, I currently work as a Lead Engineer and my current role mainly involves working on both frontend and backend development and I also have to work on developing smart contracts. I did my undergraduate in Electronics and Telecommunications and graduated in 2018. I know bare minimum Data Structures & Algorithms. I don’t come from an IIT nor was I ever the brightest student in the class, rather was far from it. Below I am going to share the three things that I feel helped me reach where I am today.
I started my job as a Software Developer 3 years ago, in July 2018. My in-hand salary back then was around 5LPA INR, and just a couple of days ago I got an offer of 30LPA +10L INR in ESOPS. Unfortunately due to my other commitments, I was not able to take the offer, but I am grateful for it and I feel guilty to have not been able to join the company that offered me the same.
Okay, just because I got a good offer, I don’t mean to say I know everything, or you should take my advice. I just want to share my perspective about things. You can safely assume when it comes to technical skills I am as mediocre as it could get, a lot of my colleagues in my previous jobs were way better than me. Also, I am far from the most highly paid Software Developer, I have tonnes of people on my list who earn a lot more than me. I share this because I am happy with the speed at which I have grown, and feel in a time when there are so many people undercutting themselves, maybe reading this might motivate them to move and achieve what they always wished to.
Coming to the point of what I feel has been working for me —
Passion
I am extremely passionate about solving problems and learning how business works. I enjoy understanding how companies are adding value to people’s lives and why are their customers paying them the money they ask for. This has helped me be curious and look at things a lot of employees show little to no interest in. I have noticed people focus too much of their energy on pleasing their boss, or dressing well for the office and little to no energy in making sure they get good work, making sure if they are solving problems which are critical to the company, problems that will directly help the company grow their business. I have furthermore seen a lot of folks, not absolutely care, if their current job/work is aiding them to gain skills that the market needs, and in times like now, in a pandemic if the need be will they be able to switch their job.
A lot of guys might say that not everyone gets good work, for that, I have a simple answer, ask for it, and be patient, also you can’t wait infinitely for it to happen if it does not happen, change your job, go where you are given more responsibility. Another thing I’d like to add is I don’t define passion as I was meant to do this and if I did not do this I don’t know what would I have done. To be honest, I believe in exactly the opposite, I believe try to be good at whatever you are doing, have a goal to do it 10% better than the last time you did it, you’ll start enjoying the process, and once you start enjoying the process, the work will become a synonym to passion, and you will achieve dreams that you once thought are too big to even think of.
“If people aren’t laughing at your dreams, then they aren’t big enough!” ― Grayson Marshall
Drive
I am extremely driven, the hunger that I have to reach the top combined with the attitude to be ready to do whatever it takes to reach there has made a lot of difference in my life. Like, a lot of my friends would agree that I was never good with academics and always just somehow got through, they would also agree I came across a person who would do whatever it took to get more from life. In all my interviews, I make it clear that I wish to build a company, that develops products, products that make this world a better place to live in. Similarly, I also talk about how ambitious I am and what I wish for myself in the near future. This helps the interviewer understand that I am not the everyday guy who is looking for a job or someone who would settle with whatever he is given. I come across as a person who won’t mind working 12 hours a day for the next month if it would help in achieving my goals of learning and earning. This helps me win a lot of brownie points, also I make sure to highlight instances where I quickly learned new things thrown at me and adapted to whatever situations I was put into and kept delivering on tasks. The above things make sure the interviewer believes that I will be an asset to the team, and my hunger for growth would in turn benefit them and help them grow the company.
“When you’re hungry for success, don’t let anyone feed you crap about slowing down.” — Marie Forleo
Doing
I strongly and absolutely believe in the act of doing, doing more. To explain, if there are two guys, one who has read 100 books on how to start a business and the other one has not even read one book in totality but has started a small business already, with a decent turnover, 90 out of 100 times the second guy is better poised for success. I feel the same has been true for me, I am not the most well-read guy, nor are my skills unmatched or unparalleled, but I do, I do a lot, and mostly a lot more than almost everyone around me. To add, I am not emphasizing doing more of what you work on or spending more time at your job, I am suggesting spend more time building skills, pursuing hobbies, and doing things that help you rejuvenate and perform better at your job. Learn the art of making money, understand the mechanics of how the world functions, again these are complex things and there is no correct answer to it, but learn how you as an individual can add value to this world, and once you figure that out, I am confident you’d be able to achieve everything you wished for.
Last year, I was doing my full-time job, was working with an NGO to help them build a Leaderboard platform, helped three of my friends to build their websites, helped another guy build an MVP for his product, spent over 160 hours learning things which were vital to help me grow at my profession, I played over 100 hours of badminton, I went on around 7 treks, I sketched over 75 drawings, wrote a few articles, I might have put in at least 80 hours helping my mom do daily chores, and I am sure she would deny. I helped a friend to hire folks for his company, spent a lot of time socializing and hanging out with friends and family, and on and on and on. All of these things have helped me be a more complete human and lead a more fulfilling life. There is a scene I love from the Bollywood movie named “Dear Zindagi”, it talks about how you cannot burden one relationship for everything you wish to do and how it is impossible for it to be your constant source of happiness. It says even if you are in a relationship, it is important to have a coffee friend, a group with whom you always play badminton, a friend with whom you go on hikes, etc. If you are going to expect your partner to be everywhere with you or do everything you like, it is going to be taxing and would surely end up in fights and maybe even you guys breaking up. Similarly, I feel most of us make our jobs our single source of career advancement, the place which will make us filthy rich as well as help us gain all the skills we will ever need, no job can do that, you need to step out and do other things, pursue your hobbies, join a club or two to learn more from the smart people there, attend conferences, etc. This will help you in overall development. So the crux of it is to do more, and then wait for the universe to show its magic.
Don’t just dream, do ― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
To end, I would again repeat I don’t know it all, and what worked for me can absolutely not work for you. I just wanted to share my thoughts and give all of you a different perspective.
Thank you for taking the time out to read this, and if you want to ever talk about life in general, or have suggestions about my article drop a comment below. You can also reach out to me on Telegram or LinkedIn.
How I grew my salary by 6x in 3 years was originally published in Level Up Coding on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Bhavya Mehta | Sciencx (2021-07-10T22:11:47+00:00) How I grew my salary by 6x in 3 years. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2021/07/10/how-i-grew-my-salary-by-6x-in-3-years/
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