I've been working at a product company as a backend engineer (Java/Spring Boot) for over 2 years. I quit without another offer because there was no salary hike. Total experience – 4 years. Any suggestions are welcome!
So the team and work‑life balance were fine, and you left just because there was no increment despite a tough market? Got it.
I resigned without an offer because the environment was toxic.
Same here – my firm gave only a 3% raise over 2 years, and even that was delayed every six months. My salary is almost what it was when I joined as a fresher 3.5 years ago. I wasn't learning anything either, so I got frustrated and quit without an offer.
Why not start your own venture!
Same here, I have 2 years of experience.
Don't worry, everything will be fine. I can share a couple of tips because I went through the same last year.
Save as much money as you can during your notice period – you never know when the next job will come.
Apply to every kind of role – contract or full‑time. In my case, contract work paid much better because I could charge a premium over my previous salary.
I was earning 15 LPA fixed. Then I took two contract gigs – one for 2 months at 17 LPA and another for 5 months at 22 LPA (annualised).
I was surprised that contract culture isn't more popular in India. My friends in Germany and France do contracts for a few months, then take a break and vacation. Sadly, that mindset hasn't caught on here.
Finally, keep learning new stuff and build projects. You never know what might open doors later.
I was a Node.js/TypeScript developer for 4 years, good at my job but felt left out and disliked the constant unfriendly behaviour from my manager. I left that company in Jan 2025, attended about 20 interviews and roughly 45‑50 interview rounds in total.
I failed a lot, so I started learning like an experienced engineer – internals of Node.js, worker threads, child processes, Kafka, etc.
I failed a system‑design interview, so I practiced for two months using Alex Xu's System Design book and YouTube channels with top‑grade questions.
I also learned Neovim, something I'd wanted to do for ages.
I quit smoking completely – I'm now 7 months clean.
I lost 20 kg, gained muscle, and enjoyed working out from 12 pm to 3 pm when the gym was empty.
Never give up, man!!
Sorry if this sounds harsh, but for anyone thinking about doing the same, it's the silliest thing if you rely on your salary. I can't see any upside at all.
I quit out of frustration without checking the job market – not sure if that was brave or foolish. Still, consider yourself lucky if you secure a job with your desired salary within six months.
Bro, why not try LinkedIn? I'm not an expert, but I think it could help.
I also quit without an offer; I was a QA manual tester and have done 4‑5 interviews so far for SDE MERN roles.