Indian techie explains how he got a job with 50% hike a month after being laid off

A techie who was suddenly laid off in mid-December has shared how he upskilled rapidly, handled repeated rejections and secured a new job within a month. In his post on Reddit, he also offered a practical roadmap for others navigating layoffs in the tech sector.

“This is how I handled a sudden layoff and found a job within a month,” read the title of the detailed post on r/developersIndia.

The techie was laid off on December 15 and asked to resign within a week, a decision he said came without warning. At the time, he was working in a support-heavy role, and the sudden setback left him in a state of panic about gaps in his skills.

With around two years of experience as a data engineer, he explained that much of his earlier work had not given him exposure to commonly tested tools such as Python, SQL, PySpark, AWS services, Kafka and Airflow. As a result, many of the concepts discussed during interviews were learnt only in the one to two months following the layoff.

Describing the weeks that followed as intense, he said he treated both learning and job applications as full-time work. He completed numerous tutorials and lectures to strengthen his fundamentals while applying daily, choosing not to dwell on rejections. Regularly updating his profile on job portals helped generate interview calls, though the process involved multiple failed interviews and online assessments.

Consistency, he said, made the biggest difference. Each rejection highlighted specific weaknesses, allowing him to fix gaps before the next interview.

“I was honestly just trying to survive a crisis. But somehow, things worked out better than I expected, and I ended up with an offer that was a significant step-up (50 per cent hike) from my previous role. What felt like the worst phase of my career turned into one of the most important learning periods of my life,” he said.

In a follow-up comment, the user shared concrete steps that helped him improve from one interview to the next. One key strategy was tracking every interview in an Excel sheet, noting the company, interview round and the questions he struggled with. Before subsequent interviews, he made sure to cover not just those questions, but also related concepts and possible follow-ups.

The Reddit post drew supportive reactions from other users, with several sharing similar experiences. One of the users said a comparable preparation strategy helped them land a role with a 100 per cent hike, while others praised the focus on persistence and not overthinking rejections.