Career progression so far

[Seema]

Education qualification: 12th Commerce + 3‑year Diploma in CS (finished 2013).
YOE: 12 years
Location: Bangalore

Job 1 - Junior Web Developer (end 2013) - Salary: ₹5,000 per month (0.6 LPA).

Job 2 - Full‑stack developer (2015) - Salary: ₹15,000 per month (1.8 LPA). Last drawn ₹35,000 pm.

Job 3 - Senior Developer (2017) - Salary: ₹50,000 pm (6 LPA - no tax, all in hand).

Job 4 - Senior SE (2018) - Salary: ₹55,000 pm (7.9 LPA). Got increments; last drawn around ₹87,000 (~11 LPA).

Job 5 - Technical Lead (individual contributor) (2021) - Salary: ₹1,80,000 pm (placed at 28 LPA). After increments, last drawn 32 LPA.

April 2025 - Got laid off, received ₹11 Lakh F&F (includes 3 months notice pay and leave encashment, before tax). Decided to take a career break as I had enough savings.

Job 6 - Senior Technical Lead (client‑site IC) (Nov 2025) - Salary: ₹2,70,000 pm (45 LPA package).

I'm happy with my current pay, but I keep thinking I should have landed higher‑pay jobs earlier instead of staying with small web‑dev firms. The main blocker was not having a bachelor's degree; I thought a diploma limited me.

Until 2020‑21 I had no savings - most of my salary went on travel and other expenses. In 2021 I started learning about mutual funds and stocks and began investing aggressively. In Job 5 my PF contribution was about ₹24 k per month from both sides, which helped me build wealth.

Current net worth: ~₹70 L (MF, PF, FD, etc.).

I still regret not doing a bachelor's earlier, and only this January I enrolled in IGNOU BCA just to get a degree.

Looking back I'm proud of reaching where I am, yet I see peers earning much more for similar experience - it's human nature to compare.

[Pankaj]

I'm a UX designer with a commerce degree from a tier‑III college. I'm thinking of doing a bachelor's through the IIT‑Coursera programme. What do you suggest?

[Kalpana]

Are you currently working remotely? What type of company is it and how did you find the role?