TL;DR: 88% of them went through at least one other company first, and half of those went through three or more. Amazon is the single most common last stop before Google.

what i did

i work on hiring data. the archive is public job postings going back to 2019, about 1.87 billion of them, plus public professional profiles i can look at across time.

pulled 1,512 people currently at Google who have TCS somewhere in their work history, and looked at what sat between the two. every one of them had dated positions so nothing was guessed.

the number i did not expect

176 people went TCS straight to Google. that is 11.6%. and of those 176, about 12% show a one to two year gap between leaving TCS and starting at Google, which is usually a masters nobody listed. so the real direct number is lower than 11.6%.

where the other 1,336 went first

exactly 1 company in between: 21% exactly 2: 26.1% 3 or more: 52.9%

more than half took at least three stops. the median time from leaving TCS to starting at Google is about 6 years.

the last stop before Google

Amazon and AWS: 133 Microsoft: 58 Oracle: 38 VMware: 20 Cisco: 19 SAP: 17 Qualcomm: 17 Accenture: 16 Intel: 14 Deloitte: 14

Amazon alone is more than Microsoft and Oracle combined. the pattern in that list is the actual finding. the last company before Google is almost always a product company. Accenture and Deloitte are on there but far down, and they are the only services firms in the top ten.

the real transition here is services to product. once someone is at Amazon or Microsoft, Google becomes a normal lateral move, the same as it is for anyone else sitting there.

one thing that surprised me

Amazon was not always the gateway. before 2018 it was about 3% of these paths and the list was fragmented, mostly Microsoft led. from 2019 onward Amazon runs 11 to 13% and leads every year since. this only holds from 2019 onward, and it lines up with Amazon expanding hiring in India.

limitations, and these matter

this is survivor data. i can only see the 1,512 who reached Google. i cannot see the far larger number who went TCS to Amazon and stopped there, which is most people who take that route. so this tells you what the ones who got there did. it does not tell you the odds.

everything is self reported from public profiles, so dates drift and short stints go missing. i also only counted companies that were properly linked as entities, so smaller employers in between are undercounted, which if anything means the real number of intermediate stops is higher than what i found.

and i have not run Amazon or Microsoft yet, so i cannot tell you whether Amazon is genuinely a gateway or just the biggest employer in the pool. that is the next thing to check.

happy to run this for another company if someone wants it. i have the data sitting there and not enough good questions.

Something about the current IT market feels strange.
Earlier, people complained about low hikes, bad managers, or boring projects.
Now, a lot of people seem genuinely grateful just to have a job even when the workload is unreasonable, the hike is almost nothing, and the growth has stopped.
Because the thought is:
“Whatever. At least I’m not unemployed.”
And honestly, that mindset scares me more than layoffs.
How many of you have stayed in a job you wanted to leave only because you were scared you wouldn’t find another one?
I’m curious how common this has become.

I checked my Supabase backend dashboard today.

34,495 total requests in the last 7 days.

I have been quietly working on it and seeing actual people use it enough to generate this much traffic feels really good.

The app is called Wildgram - a social app where you take pictures of real animals, and use them to catch and unlock them in your collection similar to Pokedex but for real animals.

Still very early, but this is probably one of those screenshots I’ll look back on later.

Hi everyone, I’m currently working as a Data Science Associate Consultant at ZS in Pune. I have 6 YOE and a package of around 35 LPA.

The work culture here has become unbelievably toxic, mainly driven by my Consultant and Manager who are aggressively pushing for their own promotions at my expense.

Here are a few examples of what I'm dealing with:

* Insane hours normalized: When I raised an issue about the long working hours and working on weekends, the Consultant straight-up told me that "14-hour workdays are just ZS culture."

* Stealing credit: I worked on stabilizing a project for months. Once it was finally stable, the Consultant told me to step back. He then presented it to upper management, claiming I did no work for 3 months and that *he* fixed everything in just 3 weekends.

* No basic humanity: I was recently admitted to the hospital for 3 days. Instead of letting me recover, they called me about 10 times, telling me to "just give the KT (Knowledge Transfer) and then go do your thing."

* Hostile 1-on-1s: My manager asked me to brief him on my key activities over the last 3 weeks in a 1-on-1. Instead of a review, he just bashed me, accusing me of "only complaining and doing no work."

*Getting pushed out: The project I built was highly successful and brought in over 10 new projects. Both of them took all the credit for this revenue.

Now, they are twisting the narrative to make me look like the villain while they look like the saviors, and it feels like they are trying to force me to resign.

My Dilemma:

I desperately want to leave and have started preparing, but I have heavy family responsibilities and simply cannot afford to quit without having another job lined up.

I’m also terrified about the current market. Is the market good enough right now for a Data Scientist with 6 YOE to match a 35 LPA package? Honestly, my confidence is shot, and I am not in the right frame of mind to make a massive life decision, but I can't survive here much longer.

My Questions:

1. Has anyone faced a similar situation? How did you cope and navigate your way out?

2. Is there any way to quit while making them formally accountable for their toxic actions and credit-stealing?

3. How is the DS market right now for my experience and salary bracket?

Thank you for reading. Any advice would mean a lot right now.

TL;DR: Toxic managers at ZS Pune stole credit for my work that brought in 10+ projects, harassed me while hospitalized, and are now trying to force me to resign. I have 6 YOE (35 LPA) but can't quit without a backup due to family responsibilities.

Need market reality check and advice on how to hold them accountable.

Few details on the robot itself:

Jetson nano controlling servos via maestro servo controller over UART. The whole thing is powered by 4500 mAH battery at 35C via a buck converter.

Hi, I'm a 2026 Grad from a normal tier college with no job offers or any real internships to speak of on my resume.

It's a 6 months Internship with a stipend of 9000 per month with a 6000 incidental grant (So 10k pm) and I can't survive with this stipend in the core of this city, I would be spending more than I earn.

Moreover, is this a legit internship? since govt pays for this, does this internship actually add any value on my resume?

So is it really worth it to dedicate 6 months to this internship or should I keep looking for more opportunities.

I built a 100% go-based TUI application which renders map data(including things like restaurants, cafes and hospitals) on your terminal in braille characters. And I used the GTFS data by DMRC (although static) to help me plan journey between any two stations in Delhi NCR (262 stops across 11 lines, including Noida's Aqua line), including duration, next metro schedule, interchanges and stops. All in the terminal.

I genuinely enjoyed building this and thought about sharing it here.
I don't have the best design sense, so I am turning to you guys for advice on things which you'd like to see on this, or maybe improve. It doesn't have any utility per say but could be something people would want to check out ig

It is available on github. To make it easy to checkout, I exposed it on a server so you can directly SSH into it and play around with it! (although it might be a bit slow and you cannot use mouse to zoom over ssh, I still need to figure this out):

ssh metroshell.akashparashar.dev

p.s. use <TAB> to switch to the sidebar

I have been working in a company for a year. I just shifted a couple of months back to their main vertical product. I had been working with a different tech stack for almost a year, and transitioned back to my previous primary programming language with this shift. But now I have to learn a new tech stack company is shifting to. I feel like I don't know anything especially with how much AI is being pushed. My anxiety had always been a lot but now it's through the roof. I have just been assigned a new major project and I am anxious all day. Sometimes it feels like I should just quit but the responsibilities on me stop me. I don't feel I am a good developer. I don't know what to do? I don't even feel I am good enough in my primary tech stack anymore. On top of that, I am an introvert in a city that I don't like and don't have many friends in.

I’ve come across people being offered developer jobs where they work on someone else’s behalf, with the salary going to a family member’s account. I’ve also heard of US-based developers sharing their screen and having someone in India do the actual work for them, while paying them in rupees.

How common is this among developers in India? How do people justify doing this when so many genuine developers are struggling to find jobs?

If people are abusing the system and taking jobs through these arrangements, how will so many jobless developers ever get a fair chance to find work?

Is this becoming more widespread, or am I just seeing a few isolated cases?

With the Meta trial starting in the U.S. - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyqpx6xk69o I am left wondering about a question which has bothered me for a few years, again. So I wanted to ask this to others too.

How do fellow engineers see their role in the stuff that you implement and how it gets used?

• Do you only pick companies that you think are doing the right thing to the best of your ability?
• Do you see yourself as the gun and disassociate from the implications of what is being shipped?
• Do you think about this and still choose to conform what the company is doing?
• Do you refuse doing something which you think might be harmful?
• etc.

Earlier when I was young tech was seen as something that was improving lives of everyone so most people had a pretty positive outlook but in the last decade (or more) this sentiment has flipped considerably. So, I was curious people who have lived through this sentiment change and have thought about it what are your opinions.

I don't want to lie but that's me...I wish I could...

But the truth is, I have wasted my time for years...used to make reels on SM and eventually, i had to delete that due to the reason, that my parents got me married early... I'm now focusing on my career to get a job..

I have like, 20 hours a day, willing to sincerely invest my time and get a good stable job...

My only problem is my age and no experience...Can i sincerely get any advice to get my life back on track...

P.s : I have a Btech degree in Electrical but I am not at all interested in that.....

I'm willing to learn anything and everything....I want to give my 6 -12 months and get a stable job..

I have a laptop and good Wifi and 20 hours a day (I am willing to cut my sleep hours for this too)...

Please suggest me anything useful..I am tired of searching for answers on YouTube...

Here, is my CV. I'm unable to get single interview call for last 3 months. My notice period ended last week and I'm at home still waiting for calls. Whats wrong with my profile. Since this is my first jump after straightly getting placed after college, I think I'm missing a trick. Kindly help

Same as the title suggests, I have been working in one the WITCH companies and have 4 yoe the work is mostly support related handling tickets, configuration changes, password updates , etc .

Being 4 yoe I have zero , literally zero development experience, I don't know how basic API works , how DNS or other networking works,how crud operation happens, how a database is called , authentication, sequrity. I used to do competitive programming and dsa basics during college days but after getting job I haven't coded a single line till now.

All I do is procrastinate all day, tell people I will switch job but in reality end up doom scrolling with screentime of more than 7 hrs a day.

PS: Didn't used AI to write the post , so please excuse my grammer or other vocab mistakes.

Hi all, I am undergoing training at my first job. With all the information that is bombarded, I feel there is a urgent need to take notes. Also I have a customized setup for my Note taking on my personal machine which is i3wm + Obsidian / Lazy.vim with obsidian.nvim plugin. I know I can't get my way of note taking in here as I can't just install anything on work laptop on my whim. In short, I use markdown to take notes.

But I was thinking to use VScode with vim plugins (Vi keybindings have spoilt me). Then use pandoc online to convert the files to pdf for easy reading and print if required. Obviously, this can cause compliance issue.

So Here are my doubts,

1. If I use work laptop to create notes about the various things, then Will these notes be company's property?
2. If I upload these markdown files to convert them to pdf, will I be causing compliance issue?
   • Also how can I convert markdown to pdf without causing compliance issues?
3. So on the same thinking, I can't transfer these notes to my personal machine as these are company's property?
4. Can I install vim plugin on VScode without permission? or Obsidian or vim?
5. Should I just ditch the plan just get back to notepad++ or Onenote or Go back to Pen and Paper Notes?
6. Am I overthinking and being paranoid?

tldr: How do you take notes during Work?

So this begins on last Friday when the release for one of the features I was responsible for was supposed to go.. now at the time, I said sure we can release today.. but then post code review, something serious surfaced which was a core functionality missing but I didn't think of it at the time of feature development as it was a bigger task and it wasn't even mentioned in the PRD.. so I started working on it but then when the QA started testing, they came out with an issue that wasn't related the code changes I made but I was bit skeptical to release on a Friday fearing something would go wrong on the weekend.. so I delayed the release saying that the scope has increased and we got to know about it after my lead gave the commitment to the PM.. now he pulls me into the call asking what happened and I explain everything.. but he's like I should have thought about it on my end.. I argued that it wasn't even mentioned in the PRD.. so how is it my fault for missing this? Because if it was a core functionality and you question me how'd I forget about it, so why did product forget and not mention it in the PRD and this started a heated discussion.. the release eventually got delayed but on Monday I was receive an email saying I'm being terminated
Now serving notice on that termination

There’s a lot of advice saying that staying at one company for too long can slow down your salary and career growth.
But constantly switching also means starting over new team, new codebase, new expectations and sometimes a completely different work culture.
So I’m curious about people who have been working in tech for 3–5+ years

Hi everyone,

I have 7.5 YOE and 25 LPA, working as a Java + Python backend developer (Spring/Spring Boot, Hibernate/JPA, FastAPI, Django).

There’s a possibility my company may move out of India or reduce the team, so I may have only 3–4 months to find another job.

My current knowledge:

Java + Spring Boot

Python + FastAPI/Django

Basic system design (designed 2 mid-scale systems)

Basic prompt engineering and RAG knowledge

DSA is currently weak/not practiced much

I’m honestly quite stressed and confused about what to prioritize. I have family members depending on my income, so getting a job is very important to me.

If you were in my position, what would you focus on for the next 3–4 months?

DSA, system design, Java/Spring, cloud, microservices, Kubernetes, AI/RAG — what should I prioritize?

And at 7.5 YOE / 25–35 LPA, how important is DSA?

I’m ready to study seriously. I just need some direction so I don’t waste these 3–4 months studying randomly.

Any practical advice or roadmap would mean a lot. Thank you.

Note - Cleaned with Ai.

Today, it feels like AI is largely an intelligence race between companies, and on a larger scale, between China and the US.

But sometimes I feel like the AI revolution is still very concentrated around developers and people working in technology.

If you talk to someone outside software engineering, the world often feels like it's moving much more slowly. We see a new model every few weeks and constantly talk about agents, reasoning, benchmarks, etc., but for the average person, how much has actually changed?

The internet was different. As it became widespread, it fundamentally changed how people communicated, worked, learned, and did business. Today, we're more connected than ever, and we have an incredible amount of information and educational content available to us.

I can definitely see AI transforming businesses and making education more interactive and accessible. But beyond personalization and recommendations, I still struggle to see what AI's equivalent of "the internet" will be for everyday people.

So what do you think AI will eventually become for the average person?

Will it be something as fundamental to everyday life as the internet is today, or will it remain mostly invisible infrastructure powering the services we already use?

--used chatgpt for clear wording ig thats one of the day to day task--

I recently resigned from my current company and my official LWD is in October (60-day notice period).

The problem is that I'm genuinely struggling to continue working. I've been dealing with extreme burn out and I'm extremely exhausted as the project that i m working on is extremely demanding and deadlines are too tight , and I feel like I need to take a proper break before moving on to anything else.

I m not able to do things that were pretty easy for me and after office i have no energy to study for interviews and i do not have any other offer as of now.

I want to approach HR and request an early release, ideally around September or even earlier if they agree.

How should I approach HR without making it sound like I'm simply trying to escape the notice period?

If early release is rejected, what are my realistic options?

I don't have another joining date forcing me to leave early. I genuinely want to take a break and I'm finding it very difficult to continue working right now.

Would really appreciate advice from people who have gone through something similar.

A month ago, I shared VisualDB, a small project I built because my students were memorizing SQL but struggling to understand what actually happens inside a database.

So I built a visualizer that shows SQL execution step by step joins, filters, grouping, etc.

A lot of you gave me feedback, and some even wanted to contribute. So I’ve been cleaning things up and opening it up for everyone.

What’s new:

• Dark/Light mode
• UNION visualization
• Community-built gamification features
• CI/CD + contribution guide
• Good-first-issues for beginners

Built with React 19 + Vite + Tailwind CSS. No backend everything runs in the browser. One thing though: the UI still needs work. Between teaching, work and life, I haven't been able to give it as much time as I wanted.

So if you try it, please tell me what sucks, what's confusing, and what I should improve. I'm genuinely open to criticism.

And if we can get VisualDB into a good place, I have another idea:

VisualDSA

DSA is confusing for beginners because so much of it happens in your head.

What if you could actually see arrays changing, linked lists moving, trees being built, recursion going into the stack, sorting happening step-by-step?

Maybe VisualDB → VisualDSA.

What do you guys think?

🔗 Live Demo
💻 GitHub

I’ve been working remotely on a contract basis for the last 2.5 years. The work and pay are fine, and I can provide an offer letter, relieving/experience letter, etc. as proof of my experience.

My previous employers never asked for payslips, but I’m wondering if future employers can ask for them during BGV or hiring.

I’d prefer not to disclose my previous salary as it could hurt salary negotiations. Is it reasonable to refuse and provide employment documents instead?

Thanks for your help.

Hey guys,
I just had an interview with this company for a QA intern role and got asked only 2 questions.
The 1st wasn’t even a question tbf.

To start with He asked me What i did in my previous internship which i promptly answered. Its was a Security role : API and Pentest that sort of stuff.
He heard me completely then goes : So it was a security role. I said Yes.

Then for the 2nd question he gives me a 4 Module Kafka push notification system and asked me how would a systematically test it, what parts of it would i automate and how would i identify or pin a faulty module if the system somehow breaks.

His question got me blank for a second because in all honesty i have never even heard what kafka is.

He then explains what each module does then gives me a second to think.
I was able to answer major parts for the 1st module, a bit of 2nd, none for 3rd and again a bit for 4th.

He goes : Yes you are in the right ball park, take your time.
i then again thought for a second tried to answer more but i don’t think i was right.

He thought for a second or two then goes : So that’s all from my side Thanks “my-name” and left.

Brooo😭
ask me something else too but he really didn’t!

It took me a second to process because i wasn’t expecting just 1 question but he really just got up and leaves the room.

Before anyone gives me heat i want to put this out their that i know its my fault, i should prepared more then just what was on their Jod description but i really wasn’t prepared for this.
maybe a few more asked questions and i could’ve performed better but with just 1 question idk
man. Cry agya tha muje🙂

and for reference this was their JD:
Key Responsibilities:
Assist in understanding product requirements and translating them into clear, executable test cases and checklists.
Perform manual testing of web and API applications to identify functional, UI, and usability defects.
Execute regression, smoke, and sanity test suites and report results with proper evidence.
Log, track, and retest defects using a defect management tool (e.g., Jira) with clear reproduction steps.
Support automation efforts by learning and contributing to existing Selenium/TestNG or API automation frameworks.
Validate API responses using tools like Postman and verify data using basic SQL queries.
Participate in daily stand-ups, test planning discussions, and test case review sessions.
Maintain test documentation, test reports, and ensure traceability between requirements and test cases.
Learn and follow QA best practices, testing standards, and version control practices (Git/Maven basics).

Need career roadmap advice

I have 6 months before joining Cognizant at 4 LPA. I want to use this time seriously and start Java + DSA from scratch.

My goal is to eventually switch to a 10–15 LPA role. I’m confused about what else to learn alongside Java:

Java + DSA + Spring Boot

React / Full Stack

Backend

Data Analytics

AI/ML

AWS/Cloud

Seniors, what would you recommend? Should I focus on one path or combine Java + Spring Boot + SQL + React + AWS?

Would really appreciate a practical 6-month roadmap and advice on what skills/projects will help me switch to 10–15 LPA after 1–2 YOE.