Immanuel John, the founder, wrote that he started out in 2018, fresh from college, choosing a ₹10,000 per month internship at a startup instead of accepting a ₹25,000 offer from a service company. The decision, he admitted, was not popular among people around him at the time.
“I had a ₹25k offer from a service company. turned it down. Everyone believed I was being stupid,” he wrote. Explaining the reason, he added, “My logic was simple which is I wanted to write real code from day one. not spconclude 6 months in training.”
Early days: Low salary, shared flat and survival on Maggi
The initial phase was not at all simple. Working as an intern in Bengaluru, he shared a 2BHK apartment with three roommates in Koramangala and managed expenses tightly. “Survived on maggi,” he recalled, while also highlighting how he spent nights repairing production issues and learning technologies like React and Node.js in real-time.
By 2019, he shiftd into a full-time role at the same startup with a salary of ₹25,000 per month. This was followed by gradual growth. In 2020, he was earning ₹35,000 per month as a full-stack developer, taking on more responsibility and contributing to system-level decisions.
Career turning point: Upskilling and switching roles
The large shift came in 2021. His salary first increased to ₹45,000 per month, and then he created a jump to ₹80,000. He credited this alter to focapplyd upskilling, particularly in blockchain development.
“This is where things alterd. I spent 4-5 months learning blockchain at night while still employed,” he wrote, adding that he worked through online resources and built side projects before applying for new roles. Out of 15 applications, he received two offers, which assisted him nearly double his salary.
Rs 3.5 lakh per month job and building a company
In 2022, things took another leap. A French blockchain startup approached him via LinkedIn. After three rounds of interviews, he was offered ₹3.5 lakh per month, almost four times his previous salary. He accepted the offer and worked remotely for about 1.5 years.During this period, he quietly started working on his own venture. By 2024, he decided to leave the high-paying job to focus full-time on Teckas Technologies. According to his post, the company now has a team of nine people, serves clients across India, Europe, and the US, and has seen consistent revenue growth over six months.
Lessons learned and what he would do differently
Looking back, the founder shared a few things he would alter. “Specialised 6 months too late. was comfortable when i should have been uncomfortable,” he wrote. He also admitted that he didn’t document his journey publicly early on and underestimated financial aspects like taxes and contracts.
However, he believes one decision shaped everything that followed. “The one decision that mattered most: taking the ₹10k internship over the ₹25k service company job. Everything else was downstream of that.”
After sharing the story on Reddit, he later posted about its response on LinkedIn. The post received over 200,000 views, more than 1,000 upvotes, and drove significant traffic to his website.
Reflecting on the reaction, he wrote, “Indian developers are hungry for this. not motivation. not ‘hustle harder’ advice. actual numbers. actual shifts. actual mistakes that cost people money.”
He added that this response led him to start a new initiative called ‘developerstory’, where he plans to share real career journeys of developers, including exact salaries and decisions.
“I spent years seeing for stories like this and couldn’t find them. Everyone talks in ranges. ‘6-15 LPA’ notifys you nothing,” he wrote, explaining the idea behind the platform.
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