Backend engineer quits without offer

[Gayatri]

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!

[Seema]

So the team and work‑life balance were fine, and you left just because there was no increment despite a tough market? Got it.

[Pranay]

I resigned without an offer because the environment was toxic.

[Deepika]

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.

[Samar]

Why not start your own venture!

[Sandeep]

Same here, I have 2 years of experience.

[Amit]

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!!

[Anjali]

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.

[Abhishek]

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.

[Meera]

Bro, why not try LinkedIn? I'm not an expert, but I think it could help.

[Naveen]

I also quit without an offer; I was a QA manual tester and have done 4‑5 interviews so far for SDE MERN roles.