From 1,447 applications to 4 offers: Techie stuck in wrong role reveals how he found his dream job with a 150% hike. Reddit applauds

Economic Times

6 hours ago

iStock A techie stuck in a dead-end support role shared his powerful journey on Reddit—spanning 1.5 years, 1,447 job applications, and 22 interviews—to finally land four offers, including one with a 150% hike. (Representational image: iStock)
If you've ever felt trapped in a job that doesn't reflect your ambitions, this story might hit home. One Indian techie—stuck in a monotonous support role despite dreams of working in analytics—took to Reddit's r/developersIndia to bare it all. His post, titled '1.5 Years, 1447 Applications, 22 Interviews, 4 Offers,' is more than just numbers—it's a story of frustration, resilience, and hope. Coming from a core engineering background with minimal coding experience, he, like many others during the pandemic, landed in IT through sheer circumstance. A support project gave him a stable paycheck but no growth. 'No development, no learning. Just tickets and SQL queries,' he wrote. If you've felt your career stalling despite your potential, you'll understand the helplessness.
Determined to break into analytics, he began upskilling—Power BI, Excel, SQL, Python. He built projects, crafted a strong resume, and still—no calls. Why? Recruiters couldn't look past his 'support engineer' title. That's when the breakthrough came. 'I realised I had to repackage my existing experience to showcase what I was actually capable of,' he said. He rebuilt his resume with domain-relevant projects and started aligning his work to reflect transferable skills. Slowly, interview calls trickled in. But there was another beast waiting: the interviews themselves. Despite a resume that scored over 90 on ATS systems, his first few interviews were crushing. One interviewer even asked if he had actually worked on the projects he mentioned. He began to spiral, questioning everything.
But here's the part that makes this story worth telling: he didn't quit. 'I started treating every interview like a free mock,' he said. He used ChatGPT to simulate questions, asked friends who had cracked interviews, and practiced until the nerves turned into clarity. Bit by bit, the interviews stopped being terrifying. His answers became sharp. His confidence, visible. And finally, the offers started coming in—four of them. One brought a life-changing 150% salary hike. He doesn't sugarcoat the struggle. He talks openly about how networking (not job portals) brought him all his offers. That his 90-day notice period cost him real opportunities. That yes, at times, he even considered pretending to have a medical emergency just to get an early release. 'Keep that as a last option,' he adds.
He also emphasizes that practice beats perfection. Whether it was refining his story, crafting a resume that told a narrative, or simply learning how to explain his own projects, everything boiled down to showing—not just telling—what he could do.
His post didn't just get attention—it got applause. Reddit users poured in with comments like, 'Your journey is inspiring,' and 'I just switched from Instagram to Reddit and don't regret it after reading this.'
Because in a world where job anxiety, rejection fatigue, and imposter syndrome run rampant, here was someone saying: Yes, it's hard. Yes, you'll want to give up. But no, you're not alone—and it is possible. That line, towards the end of his post, sums up the spirit of this journey. Whether you're just starting out, trying to pivot into a new domain, or deep in your own cycle of applications and rejections—his story is a reminder that progress is often invisible until the very last step. So if you're reading this while dreading another day in a job that doesn't reflect who you are, remember: the resume isn't everything. The title on your current contract doesn't define your future. And sometimes, the grind pays off in the most unexpected ways.