Viral Post Reveals Growing Distress Among Mid-career Tech Professionals: IITian Earning ₹70 LPA Struggles To Find Work Months After Layoff
Viral Post Reveals Growing Distress Among Mid-career Tech Professionals: IITian Earning ₹70 LPA Struggles To Find Work Months After Layoff
Reddit post reveals growing distress among mid-career tech professionals as layoffs, AI disruption and hiring freezes widen the gap between skills and opportunities.
An IIT alumnus with 18 years of experience and a former annual salary of ₹70 lakh has shared a stark account of career collapse after being laid off, highlighting the deepening crisis in India’s mid-career IT job market. Posting under the username u/pela_peli on r/IndiaCareers, the individual described how a corporate restructuring at a Nifty50 company pushed them from a high-growth trajectory to unemployment and now, near financial exhaustion.
According to the post, the engineer had spent nearly two decades working across multiple industries, leading digital transformation efforts and implementing new technologies. But seven months ago, they were suddenly laid off. “Was making around 70 LPA seven months back, now I am back to zero,” the user wrote, adding that their savings had depleted to the point where only two months of runway remain.
The timing worsened the crisis. Shortly before being laid off, they had purchased a larger home — a decision that became unmanageable without steady income. The user said they were forced to rent out their newly bought house simply to keep paying the EMIs.
Despite their IIT credentials and senior-level experience, job opportunities have been scarce. “Sadly, I am not even getting any calls. In the past 7 months, I have only got some calls from consultants and got only 2 interviews,” the post reads. The user said they had even opted for premium services on professional platforms in desperation, but without meaningful results. “I am even okay for lower pay but not even getting calls… It’s all crashing down, and I am hopeless now.”
Laid-off mid level manager, unable to get a job back
byu/pela_peli inIndiaCareers
The post quickly went viral, prompting reactions from IIT alumni and tech professionals. Ravi Handa, an IITian and founder of Handa Education Services, reposted it on X to highlight the widening gap between perception and reality. “‘IITians make much more than 80 LPA with 15–20 years work-experience.’ Nope. Most of them don’t,” he wrote, while acknowledging that those who go abroad or follow top-tier career tracks may earn at that level.
Others pointed to broader structural issues. One commenter noted that the “current IT scenario is really brutal,” predicting that hiring may not recover anytime soon. Another said this is “not an isolated case,” adding that seasoned engineers across India face similar struggles as mass layoffs by Big Tech companies — including Amazon, Google, and TCS — intersect with rapid AI-driven shifts in required skills.
With hiring freezes continuing and mid-career professionals facing unprecedented competition from younger, lower-cost talent and AI-augmented workflows, the story underscores a growing anxiety in the industry: even elite degrees and long careers now offer less protection from volatility.
