Came across news that Innodata has reportedly laid off nearly 550 employees in India, with further cuts in the Philippines. Employees apparently lost access to their systems before receiving termination emails.

Does anyone know what actually happened? Was this due to a major client reducing its project, AI automation, or something else?

I'm a hobbyist-turned-dev and I've been surviving on freelance gigs for about 6 years now.

A couple of months ago I hit rock bottom. Work dried up completely and I had no savings. EMIs were piling up and had no assets or support systems to fall back on. I had pets depending on me and I didn't have any money for essentials. Out of desperation, I tried applying for traditional full-time roles for the first time in my life. I built a resume and started grinding on job portals like Wellfound/Naukri but the whole process was so soul-crushing and dead silent that I genuinely felt I'd rather stay broke than deal with the crappy hiring system.

I had no realistic option left so I swallowed my pride and anxiously emailed one of my oldest clients and was just honest about my situation. He replied saying he'd be honored to help. He wired me an advance that same day and handed me a new project. I'm almost certain he invented that project just so he could pay me without making it feel like charity.

And just like that, I have 6 months of runway and breathing room. It might not sound like a lot but it kinda saved my life. Never underestimate the value of goodwill and maintaining good relationships with the people you build for.

After every other post, all I’m reading about is layoffs Honestly fear mongering isn’t even the topic anymore. You can all see what’s happening and where the market is heading.

I just wanna see how people are still gonna say the bubble is gonna burst.

I’m not a microsoft employee, but i’m a Software Engineer with 9 YOE.

Yesterday’s voluntary exit option announcement by microsoft has made me restless.

What the fruck are we heading towards man ?

Layoffs have been going on since 2022 now, infinite money is being dumped into AI which hasn’t proved to be profitable yet and still everyone is trying to achieve non existent AI efficiency.

I really could not sleep last night.
I kept thinking about what would I do if my company announces something like this or if i’m just simply laid off. I have no answer to be honest because I do not know anything else except software engineering.

Everyone keeps talking about upskilling but the job market itself is terrible.

Background

- Graduated from a tier-1 engineering college (among the top 3 NITs) in 2025

- Worked ~2.5 years at an early-stage startup during college (4-member team, remote, unpaid, but basically full-time hours) across product, building, and distribution

- Skipped campus placements because I was set on product roles

What happened at my current company

- Joined a famous mid-size company in Hyderabad in late 2025 as a 6-month intern (25k stipend), with a verbal promise of 6–8 LPA on conversion and a product role. Nothing in writing (my mistake)

- Got a marketing ops designation on joining; was told "ignore it, focus on the full-time role"

- Took ~17 days (Not a continuous one) of leave + remote work for my sibling's wedding. The internship was then extended by 2 months "to cover the leave", even though I kept working remotely during that time

- The senior manager who made the promise left, and now denies it

- At conversion time, they offered 4 LPA. I said I'd leave. They converted me to full-time anyway, without my consent, ~9 months after joining

- After more back-and-forth: 5 LPA, arrears "pending founder approval", designation Junior Product Associate

- When I asked to at least drop the "Junior", I was told that title sits in a higher salary band

What I've worked on in ~10 months

- an AI doubt-solving app for Class 11–12 students. Photo of a problem in, step-by-step video explanation out, in regional languages, with voice. I own it end-to-end: PRD, roadmap, key product decisions, development, distribution planning

- Owned a RAG chatbot end-to-end: payment and CRM integrations, reduced token consumption, chunking and fine-tuning improvements

- Built a second RAG bot, revamped a lead-prediction tool's logic, and led a chatbot-to-website transition (planning, development, marketing dashboard)

- Multi-channel campaigns (SMS, WhatsApp, email)

All this on a 6-day week, often working late.

Job search so far (APM / product roles)

- Some say I'm "overqualified" because their role is mostly coordination

- Some ask if I'd rather apply as a developer

- Recent ones say my ask for Market band (12–14 LPA) is too high and offer ~30% over current CTC

- Cleared some rounds, failed some

Seniors and Peers say do not leave the current role without an Offer in Hand.

Constraints

- Need to stay in Hyderabad for family health reasons. Open to remote

- Current pay doesn't cover my living expenses

What I'd love advice on

- Is 12–14 LPA unrealistic for my profile, or am I just being anchored to my current CTC?

- How do I handle the "current CTC" question without badmouthing my company?

- Which roles or companies value a "builder + PM" profile? AI PM, product analyst, founder's office, GCCs, something else?

- Should I take a ~7–8 LPA offer with a proper PM title just to reset my base, or hold out?

- Has anyone been in a similar spot? How did you get out?

Honest feedback welcome, including if I'm overestimating myself.

A recruiter reached out for a Staff Engineer role at Google. They wanted to have System Design and Googlyness virtual rounds first and said they would be elimination rounds; once I clear them, I will need to fly to in-office interviews. I wanted 4 weeks of prep time, I interviewer negotiated hard to only allow me 2 week. Just a few days before the System design interviews, I realised I am not ready and will bomb the interview. I politely requested 2 more weeks of time, and after that I was ghosted. Did not receive any reply over email; I have tried reaching out multiple times over email and phone, with no replies. I am shocked by how times have changed. There was a time when Google recruiters were open enough to support candidates if they needed more time, but now they just want to close the position ASAP.

The job market is brutal, with so many laid-off candidates trying to find jobs and companies reducing the no. of job openings now that AI is able to do so much.

I have an VEO buyout offer of 22 lakh. I have about 8.5 years experience and 4.5 at MSFT. Should I go for it?
Since it is 4.5 years I wont get gratuity. Is it better to stay for another 6 months and even if laid off, get severence and gratuity ? What would you do in my situation?

My financial condition
1) no loan
2) have own house of parents
3) no kids but planning
4) not happy with job
5) 40-50% skilled enough to land another job soon

Hearing a lot of news about how AI is nuking this field and people are getting laid off and hiring freezes. Is it still worth it getting into IT right now or should i just start preparing for government job and switch fields or something?

I was going for Software Development

Recently attended a technical interview and got stuck on some pretty basic coding questions. Not because I didn't understand what was being asked, but because I couldn't recall the exact syntax.

The interviewer wasn't impressed and gave me a lecture about how important it is to keep your coding skills sharp.

Fair enough. But here's what I've been thinking about ever since.

I barely write code manually anymore. At work, AI agents handle almost everything. Writing code, debugging, testing, code reviews, you name it. Most of our time goes into designing systems, deciding approaches, discussing trade-offs, and making sure things actually work.

And the funny part? I'm probably more productive now than I've ever been.

But put me in front of a blank editor without AI or documentation, and suddenly I look like someone who doesn't know the basics.

I haven't forgotten what these concepts mean. Show me the code and I can immediately recognize it, explain what it does, and understand the approach. But ask me to recall some library syntax I haven't typed in ages, and I might struggle.

Does that make me a worse engineer?

I genuinely don't know anymore.

What bothers me even more is how this has affected my motivation to prepare for interviews.

Every time I open LeetCode or sit down to revise something, I keep thinking, why am I doing this?

I could spend weeks getting comfortable writing code from scratch again, but the moment I go back to work, I'll be using AI agents to do most of it anyway. And after another year of not using that muscle, I'll probably forget the syntax again.

It feels like I'm training for a skill that my actual job no longer requires me to exercise.

And this is happening now. Not in some hypothetical future where AI takes over programming.

Look at how much coding agents have improved in the last year alone. Even if you disagree with how much they can do today, it's hard to ignore where things are heading. What happens after another six months? Another year?

That's where my motivation really takes a hit.

Why spend months mastering the syntax of another framework when AI can already navigate its documentation, write the implementation, run tests, and fix errors? And when it eventually becomes even better at architecture, debugging, and technical decisions, what exactly should we be learning?

I'm not saying fundamentals don't matter. Obviously, you need to understand what you're building, why certain decisions are made, and whether the output is actually correct.

But there's a difference between understanding engineering and being able to reproduce code from memory under interview pressure.

At the same time, I can't blame interviewers entirely. They need some way to assess candidates, and being able to code independently is still a reasonable expectation for many roles.

So I'm stuck in this weird situation where I know I need to prepare to switch jobs, but I genuinely struggle to find a reason to put in the effort.

I'm even starting to question whether staying in hands-on engineering makes sense long term, or whether moving towards architecture, product, or business-facing roles would be a better bet.

But who's to say AI won't change those roles just as drastically?

Anyone else going through something similar?

Especially curious about people who use coding agents extensively at work but are interviewing right now.

Have your coding skills become rusty? Are you still motivated to grind DSA and revise frameworks? Or have you changed the way you prepare entirely?

Would love to hear different opinions, including from people who think this mindset is completely wrong.

We get it you made and an app and are excited showcase it and about it, but please post the existing apps shortcomings that led to the creation of your app. The process you went through to design the app or fix the issues form those apps.

As much as we want to see new app being made we also want to see why and how it was made. What tech stack was used. What pros it has over existing alternatives not just the 1 flagship product in that niche.

We know everyone uses AI, what we want to know is how you used AI, what models/harness, what help you took from AI, did you draft plan from AI, did AI take the decisions, did AI review the code. Was human in the loop. We want to know these kind of stuff too.

Thank you for reading the post. It was not written or enhanced by AI.

AI made us worst in interviews because in technical interviews they say don't use chatgpt only use google and you have to build what they gave you without AI and give you 4 hours but the assignment they give always takes more than 4 hours if you write all the code by yourself. We got productive and able to deliver complex requirements in less time but interviewers don't give a damn literally. I am missing the time without AI, we used to R&D on a lot of websites and also used to watch youtube videos for help, implementation, understanding of anything. Stackoverflow was very popular but today nobody opens it. Developers gets paid high salary and had a great respect if you say that this will take time companies used to believe it and when you deliver something complex you used to get fulfilment and gets appreciated as well. If AI had not come we were better and refined developers and do we really need it a lot of great products made without AI before. We lost the satisfaction and fulfilment we used to get before on building or fixing something. We rarely write code these days the logic and problem solving and fundamentals also affected as companies want everything quickly and we are using AI for it. Interviews got tougher and expectations of companies increased, salaries decreased, less hiring, more firing. I wish something happens AI bubble burst people stop using it.

I have a Mobile app that is used as an extension for our internal app, now Earlier we had a developer he has a mac and he could build the app and update the version for Android and iOS.

After his passing and we are not planning to get a mac anytime soon how can we do the same?

Hey everyone,

I attended a walk-in interview for a Senior Java Developer role at BNP Paribas (Chennai location) this past Saturday, October 24th.

I cleared both technical rounds and had a brief HR discussion regarding my location preferences, notice period, and CTC expectation.

Here is my current profile and compensation background:

• Total Experience: 6 Years (Java / Spring Boot Microservices Backend)
• Current CTC Breakdown:
  • Fixed: ₹17.5 LPA
  • Performance Variable: ₹1.3 LPA
  • RSUs / ESOPs: ₹7 LPA per Year
• Location: Chennai

For folks working at BNP Paribas (ISPL/CIB) or similar banking/MNC captives in Chennai:

1. Expected Salary Range: Considering my current fixed is ₹17.5L (and overall CTC with RSUs is ~₹25.8L), what fixed CTC range or hike percentages are standard for Senior Java Developers with 6 YOE at BNP Paribas?
2. Timeline: How long does HR usually take after walk-in drives to come back with the official offer discussion and draft release?
3. Interview: Will I have one more techincal round of Interview?

Would appreciate any insights or suggestions on negotiating the offer when HR calls back!

Thanks in advance!

Hello people of r/developersIndia, some of you might remember XenevaOS. It runs our very own custom hybrid kernel written from scratch. After a long stretch of work, it now has a full 3D environment.

What you're seeing in the video:

- Regular app windows (a spreadsheet, the NetSurf browser, the Xeneva Terminal) rendered as surfaces in 3D space

- The terminal running a set of kernel stress tests (bad pointers, unmapped addresses, zero-length writes from userspace) while the 3D compositor keeps running, because we wanted to show it doesn't fall over

- Everything is native to our kernel. No Linux underneath, no Android, no game engine

How it works:

Running in QEMU in this video. However, XenevaOS does have bare-metal / real hardware support on specific ARM chips, such as those by NXP Semiconductors & Raspberry Pi.

UI/Userspace work is still primitive and the project as a whole is still early and rough in places. That is what we're gonna work on next.

GitHub and website in the comments!

*Video has been slightly sped up for better viewing experience.

a couple of weeks back i posted Overlap here, my world clock app for friends across timezones. didn’t expect that many comments, thank you all. i read every single one.

as a designer, my job usually ends at the figma file and handoff. this time there was no handoff. i was the one reading crash reports, fixing them, writing release notes and waiting on store reviews. shipping an update turned out to be a whole different thing from shipping v1, and honestly i learnt more from the updates than from the launch.

here’s what changed because of you guys :

- ios is here, so many of you asked for it

- pick friends from your contacts, timezone and photo filled in automatically

- best times now suggest one hour calls and say who it’s early or late for

- bigger, clearer friend photos on the home screen widget

I understand publishing app is a pain in ios, and ti takes a lot of time to get reviewed. but i do have a testflight link for you all to test it.

android : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beingbriston.overlap

ios : https://testflight.apple.com/join/1mvp74tx

still a designer learning to be a dev, so keep the feedback coming :)

a name that sounds modern, is easy to pronounce, easy to remember and feels natural to Indian users.

What names would you suggest? Drop your ideas in the comments. Let's see if we can find a name that really sticks.

Okay, updating the post. Names from any language are welcome, including English. Let's see what we come up with.

Update : one name i liked till 29 comments vartalap, hike is all time fevt but its taken you can suggest English too or a mix of eng + indian languages

Update 2: You can now suggest names in any language, even Dothraki. and why does Indian Chatpata have -4 upvotes?

Update 3: wow 140 comments and i am searching for domains like hell and none of them available not even simple names or if any the cost is in crores

MS just announced 60,000 buyouts which is 1/4th of its total workforce and it mainly affected people below L70.

How will it affect the people who will be doing an internship (2M) in MS in 2027(About ppo, about the team you would join)

I believe this is high time to grab as much money as you can vai switch and find a way to get secondary income.

I am underpaid for my yoe and I believe there is a chance for risk takers since everyone wants immediate joiner but they all have 3 months notice.

Just want to get a average package and try to invest side by side to get a secondary income source.

This is a race now I am a backend developer but if you are fullstack you will have 2x opportunities cuz u just need to understand flow now in eyes of companies.

What do you guys think?

I got an internship + PPO opportunity at a Fortune 500 product-based MNC in Hyderabad as a Software Developer, with a stipend of ₹25k/month during the 6-month internship starting January 2027 and a PPO of 7 LPA. The catch is that I'll be working with Perl, which isn't exactly the tech stack I envisioned building my career around. I'm about to enter my 4-2 semester, and honestly, I feel like my skills deserve better opportunities, but campus placements have dried up, and off-campus applications have been brutal since I'm barely getting shortlisted for OAs. I'm confused about whether I should accept this opportunity and focus on building my career from here or keep trying for startups and service-based companies that might offer better packages and more relevant tech stacks. How much will starting at this company with a 7 LPA PPO and working on Perl affect my long-term career growth, future switches, and opportunities in product-based companies? Would you take this offer in my situation, or would you keep grinding for something better? Looking for honest advice, especially from people who've been in a similar situation.

Hi everyone,
I joined the corporate workforce last year and currently have around 1.1 years of experience. I've been considering resigning for a while because of the toxic work culture in my current project, which has taken a significant toll on my mental health. I also want to pursue higher studies.
Today, my uncle, who was like a father figure to me, passed away. I informed my manager that I needed leave, and his response was that this was the last time he would allow it and that if this continued, we would have to think of a way out.
I'm already dealing with the emotional distress of losing someone so close to me, and this interaction made things worse. I've been under tremendous mental strain, and today's incident feels like the breaking point. I've decided that I want to resign and move on.
Since this is my first corporate job, I'd appreciate advice on a few things:
Reason for resignation: Should I mention the toxic work environment or simply state that I want to pursue higher studies?
Resignation process: What should I check regarding my notice period, early release, and employment policies before resigning?
Documents: What documents should I collect before leaving, and which ones should I obtain after my last working day? (Experience letter, relieving letter, payslips, full and final settlement, etc.)
Future prospects: Will resigning after 1.1 years negatively affect my career or future higher studies?
Other precautions: Is there anything else I should do to ensure a smooth exit and avoid complications later?
I'd especially appreciate advice from people in India who have resigned from their first corporate job or dealt with a similar work environment.
Thank you!

TL;DR: I have 1.1 years of corporate experience and have been considering resigning due to a toxic work environment. Today, my uncle, who was like a father to me, passed away. When I informed my manager that I needed leave, he said this was the last time he would allow it and that we would have to think of a way out if this continued. This was the breaking point for me. I want to resign and pursue higher studies. Looking for advice on the resignation process, necessary documents, and potential impact on my career.

Reasons for this:

1. Microsoft is planning to lay off folks.
2. Anthropic and OpenAI IPOs (high chance of a burst).
3. Other big tech companies are firing left, right and centre.

I think the most affected people are these, in order of decreased impact:

1. No-name service companies
2. No-name startups
3. WITCH, Accenture, Capgemini and other big service-based companies (EY, Deloitte)
4. Mid-scale service companies like Wissen, Persistent Systems, Coforge, etc.
5. Product-based startups, small to medium
6. Product-based companies, medium to large
7. Big tech folks

Big tech folks have at least good names on their resumes, compared to everyone else on this list, so they'll land on their feet first.

The ones who'll struggle most are the folks from no-name service companies, no brand on the resume, no specialised skills, and the most exposed to AI-driven automation of routine dev/QA/support work.

Everyone is in applying for the same role. Amazon employee and WITCH employee and Amazon guy will be first one to grab a job.

Indeed these are scary times, this is just my pov, it maybe wrong

Hello guys..

Location Bangalore is a necessity. Being available to meet.

Team of 2 here with absolutely no technical background trying to build a bootstrapped platform.
I have built 50-60% of the app using Claude but getting complicated and I don’t want app to break in the initial stages.

The idea is validated by the market already and we are trying to build a platform. (Think Airbnb Uber and UrbanClap).

We are searching for a Technical Cofounder (WILL BE GIVEN EQUITY as well) to help us build the MVP and launch the app and I can pay a nominal amount for the MVP App but the builder has to come on board as a CTO to help navigate a few months of technical issues while I do the field work to onboard customers through direct approach.

The Platform if accepted has a potential of scaling to multiple Metro Cities and will become a Recurring Revenue business.

Note: Please be kind. Everything is informal here. I have not sat with Peter Thiel to get the business etiquettes or a formal pitch format and I don’t like that either. So.! Those who have no intention of discussing, stay away from the comments section entirely. Have some impulse control.

Hey everyone,

I'm posting this because I'm honestly feeling lost right now and would really appreciate some genuine advice.

During my third year of college, I landed an internship on July 2025 at a well-known company. In December 2025, I received my PPO, and I thought I had my full-time job sorted out before graduation. My joining was scheduled for July 2026, but just before that, the company revoked my offer, saying they wanted to invest more in AI. Almost every intern in my batch was either let go or had their PPO revoked.

They did allow me to continue working as an intern, so I stayed for another three months. However, I was doing pretty much the same work as before, and the company had already made it clear that I wouldn't be converted to a full-time employee. Managing office work while trying to prepare for interviews became extremely difficult, and the entire situation took a serious toll on my mental health. Eventually, I decided to resign and focus on finding a full-time role and preparing for interviews.

Since then, I've tried everything I can think of, with referrals and without referrals. I've applied to more than 500 positions, but I've received almost no responses. I managed to get an interview at just one company, Amazon, and went through all four rounds. I genuinely felt that the interviews went well, but it's been almost 20 days since my last round, and I haven't received any update from them either.

At this point, I'm struggling to understand what I should do next. I left the internship to give myself time to prepare and find a job, but the lack of opportunities has been really discouraging. I know the market is difficult right now, but after putting in so much effort and getting almost nowhere, I'm starting to question my approach.

I'm not looking for sympathy. I genuinely want to understand where I might be going wrong and what I can do to improve my chances.

Any advice, personal experiences, or even a reality check would be really helpful. Thank you for reading.