Accenture to Microsoft in 5 years | From 3.3 LPA to 55 LPA | Detailed Journey with Roadmap

0:03 When did you start coding?? I started coding in 4th year and that too from lights. You told us that you started coding in 4th year which is pretty late. If people here don't start coding in 3rd year, they get scared. Didn't they ask coding question? There wasn't any coding round. And profile was for software engineer. People have a fear that, they don't get the support project. *Yes* We should get dep project, so what was your project? Did you face any bench period? Tell us how your growth was? So, tell me how much time did it take? To do the entire work? 2 hours a day 2 hours a day !! Maximum. And rest of the day?? Rest of the time was a time-pass. Time-pass? Yes!! So, Shrikanth tell me one thing that if anyone is working in a service based company for 5 years he doesn't show much growth because of bench period or support projects and all. So, won't he have difficulty in coming out?

0:49 Since you hadn't done coding before this you didn't do properly even in college, right!!! So, didn't you face difficulties in doing BSc? Like I had 15-20 rejections. Okay!! I didn't clear anywhere and then confidence was so low that If I can't clear it here then I'm stuck here. I got from Adobe, SIP, Intuit, Microsoft. I even had for google as well. Ohh! So, I never answered them. I thought that I don't want to switch now I'm happy. Hi everyone. So, today we've Shrikanth with us. Shrikanth's story is very interesting. He's a graduate from a tier 3 college so, after college he got placement in Accenture with 3.3 LPA package. He worked there for some time. Currently, he's working at Microsoft as an SDE 2. So, he has a very interesting story. He even faced bench period during his time & worked in a support project as well.

1:37 And the nightmare of 3-month notice period, *Exactly!* He has even faced that. So, let's start Shrikanth. First of all, tell us how are you? I'm fine. How are you? I'm also fine. We want to ask you a lot of things. Yes!! Alright!! So, first of all let's start with your college. My college was J.S.S. ATE in Bangalore. Its a tier 3 college. Yes! So, I've done electronics and communication from here. Got it! And how was the placement scenario? This is very interesting. That all of the service based companies would visit like Accenture, TCS, Infosys and packages were like until 3.5 LPA. Okay! Package was around 3.5 LPA!! Didn't the product based companies like Microsoft, Google? They didn't visit. Adobe used to visit but it took only 2 people. Okay!! Yes! And that too only in computer science. But mine was electronics and communication.

2:23 Got it! When did you start coding? I started coding in 4th year and that too from lights. Like until Accenture I hadn't done hardcore coding. Got it! And did you get the offer of Accenture from campus itself? Yes, I got it from campus. Alright!! So, as you told that you started coding in 4th year which is pretty late. If people here don't start coding in 3rd year then they get scared. RIght! But now there's a little appearance as well. Exactly! Maybe it wasn't there at your time. No, it wasn't there! So, then how did you crack Accenture? So, to be frank Accenture's interview wasn't that hard. It was just quantitative problems like mathematics problems plus a cultural round. So, my mathematics was strong therefore I cleared it in 2 rounds. Got it! What all do they ask in it? They ask math problems in it like permutation & combinations

3:09 or basic math problems like APT! APT!! (Aptitude +English) Exactly! There are problems related to aptitude and some english questions. And there's a face to face round in which you generally talk that what have you done, means, in college. What were the projects! This was it! Didn't they ask you any coding question? There wasn't any coding question / round. Ohhh!! And the profile was for software engineer. Great! Alright! Then you entered in Accenture. *yes!* Location was Bangalore. Alright! So, tell us about this experience how you started? Are there any training periods? Yes!! So, there's a training period for 2 months. Yes! There's a training period of 2 months such that its's a classroom training. And after that you've 3 tries to clear an exam. And there are 2 exams. Okay! And if you didn't clear the exams in 3 rounds. Then you have to exit.

3:55 You have to leave the job! You'll be fired. Got it! And for Accenture its such that, you need to do any technology. So, be it Java, C++ or SQL you don't get the opportunity to choose. You'll be randomly put into some technology & that'll be a batch and you'll be trained on that for 2 months. And after that depending on it, you'll be allotted a project. Yes, I've heard that there are people related to resource management Yes! So, basically they decide what you future is going to be. *Yes!* This is like a random number generator. That the one with number 1 will go this way, and the ones with number 2 would go other way. So, it is random actually. You don't get to choose which technology you want to go in. Got it! So, before moving into the video, I've an information for you all from Crio.Do Crio.Do is an experience based learning platform where while working on industry level projects

4:43 you can do learning. There's a fellowship program here in which things are covered from basics from 0 level. First of all, programming language fundamentals. And after that data structures and algorithms. And that too it'll be covered in detail. Then comes the developers fundamental and then you make real-world projects. And at the end, here you've mock interviews. Resume building is there. And placements. So its a placement guarantee program where they take the guarantee for your placement & average package here is 11 LPA. And packages go upto 40 LPA. So, this is a good program for 2 type of people. Firstly, for ones who are looking for a switch or salary hike and secondly, the ones who want to come from non-IT field to IT. So, let me tell you 2-3 things. First of all, you'll get a proper doubt support here. Second, there'll be webinars through industry experts.

5:31 Third, you'll get a mentorship again through those who are working in good companies in the industry. So, its a very good program. Link for free classes is in the description below. Definitely, you can register and check it out. Alright!! Now, let's move forward in the video. Tell us the experience after that, when you were working in the project first of all, people have a fear that they don't get the support project yes! We should get dev project. So, what was your project? Did you ever face the bench period? Yes! Tell us how was your growth? Alright!! So, when I finished my 2 month training in Accenture so, I got in SQL. Okay! In Accenture, SQL has less dev projects & I was in bench for 2-2.5 months. Okay! Means after finishing the training after finishing the training I was in bench. *you were in bench!* Yes! I wasn't doing anything.

6:17 How did you feel? Go everyday, you need to lock time. Yes! Like I need to go at 8 o' clock, go out at 5 o' clock and in between, that's yours. Watch mobile on youtube or learn anything, means anything. There isn't any work. You won't even be given a workstation because you won't be allocated a project. How did you feel that time? Then, I felt that salary is coming just like this. Salary is coming in free. Then I didn't have the thinking that its a problem. Okay! At that time it was a chill for you. I was chilled. I felt that Money is coming and I'm enjoying. But then I didn't feel that, time is ticking on in career and I'm not utilising it. Time is very precious. We shouldn't waste time. If anyone is in bench, then learn anything. Learn something!

7:02 Did you learn something? I didn't do anything. Means!! I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything for 2-2.5 months. So, after that I was allocated a project which was random based on my skill - SQL. Yes! So, this was support project. Okay! I didn't have to do anything. I needed to fill excel sheet. I had to run some queries. And I had to take its results everyday. With all due respect to this, but this wasn't my type of work. Got it! So, tell us how much time did you take in doing this entire work? 2 hours a day 2 hours a day! Maximum! And rest of the time...? Rest of the time---Timepass Time-pass!? *Yes!* Alright! So, how long did you work on this support project? Almost until 6 months. So, when I was in support for these 6 months then I didn't know how IT worked

7:48 What is the value of a dev & what learning we get from it I didn't know any of it. I was just new to it & I was thinking that this is how IT works, right!!! Then you might've not thought of a switch. I didn't think for switch. I didn't knew that there's a better way. yes! That if you'll do good work now then you'll have an ease at switch you might've not thought about it. I didn't think about it. Got it! So, I didn't even thought of a switch. Until 6 months. But I was feeling that work isn't that good. There's a better work. If there's a replication then someone might've made it. I'm not making it. So, I wanted to go into dev so I asked them to give me another work. I asked the team leader. Team lead was very nice. So, they told me that I'll put you in enhancement. So, I worked for selenium, it's automated testing

8:34 means I had to write a code. I didn't have to do testing. And after that enhancements, like I worked a little in Java, SQL like development & little UI as well. You might had to learn Java for it. *Yes, I had to learn it!* Great!! *I had to now!* For how much did you work at Accenture? I worked in Accenture for exactly 2 years and 1 month. Got it! *Yeah!* Alright!! So tell us in a nutshell, how was your growth in Accenture in terms of learning? Okay! So, when I was in support project then there wasn't much growth. Because as I said I worked for 2 hours & that too for maintainence. Alright! After that, when enhancement came I felt better. But still I wasn't satisfied with it. Got it. I'm doing something better than support but not too good. Alright! And after that when I asked to go entirely into dev

9:19 then there's a strong pushback. Did you have a pushback? You cannot easily move!! Alright!! So your nutshell growth wasn't significant. It wasn't significant. Got it! *Yeah!* Alright, so we talked about growth in terms of skill now tell us about the salary, if there were any growth in it? So, my initial salary when I started with 3.5 LPA Yes! After 2 years, it was 4.2 LPA 4.2 *yeah!* And that too after one promotion. Okay! *yeah!* So, service based company has the fact that there are low promotions and its hike is low as well. Got it! Suppose you worked for 2 years and keep on working until next 5 years, how much would have been your package? Maybe around 10 lakhs. You'll have 10 lakhs. So, for a 5 year experience, I'll either be a senior software engineer or a TL. Yes!!

10:04 And in service based company, TL doesn't code much. Okay! Like TL would do a little, opinionated. But your work is to manage a team. So, your coding journey ends here. Got it! After that you entered into management. So, Srikant tell me if anyone works for 5 years in service-based company and he doesn't have much growth because of bench period then support projects and all then won't he face difficulty to come out of it. So, its my opinion strongly that if you're not learning anything for 5 years. And you're only doing support in a project then you might have to face problem in switching. It might be because the problem is if you're in a company for 5 years 5 years of experience matters & accordingly you'll get your level.

10:51 For example, if you're coming to Microsoft, they'll give you SDE 2 Correct! And they'll have SDE 2 expectations Yes! They'll have expectations. So, will you be able to meet it. Your experience takes you forward. That I've faced this scenario. I've faced such errors that I've resolved. I've faced such problems. You might've not solved that. Then if you've that experience then you can do that. But it is going to be very hard. Got it! So just in case, if you work in a service based company for a long time. Right!! So, you should try to work on good projects. Good projects! Exactly! You should try to learn things when you're on bench period. So, you should not watse time. My opinion is that if your support project is a little bit relaxed. You don't need to spend lot of time

11:37 then there's Udemy, coursera if nothing, there are lot of documentations on internet. Exactly! So, google it, watch documentations, take the courses of Udemy which is very cheap like Rs 300. So, you can take it & learn. Correct! Now, utilize your time so that if you don't get opportunities in service based then upskill yourself by your own. Great!! You told me one more thing that, when you finally planned to switch, so What was your reason for switch? Yes! So, its an interesting story here. So, after 1 and half year or 2 years, I asked to go out of this project I want to go complete into dev. Because I was into partial dev, right! I didn't like the work. So, I asked after which there was a push back that

12:24 I was upskilling myself from the past 6 months then I thought that I'll look out for it. So, I tried back-end, Java, C++ & UI as well. Got it! And I gave atleast 30 interviews. *okay!* Yeah! Like Harman, TCS I gave interviews for almost all companies. I've profiles for almost all companies. So, after that I thought of going out since I couldn't clear any interview. None of the interviews cleared. *I couldn't clear anywhere!* Like I had 15-20 rejections. Okay!! I couldn't clear anywhere. I had such low confidence that I can't clear it, so I'm stuck here. Okay! And with all due respect, In Bangalore its difficult to stay in 3-4 lakhs.

13:11 So, I didn't even used to stay like 2k a month. Okay! Everything was spent. Yes, everything was spent. And I'm from a middle class family. So, I can't settle without a job & I didn't have a good job. So, I thought if taking a huge risk. I just put papers & then i started searching for a job because I had put me under pressure. Okay!! Got it! Basically, first you gave your resignation. *yes!* That was after 15 rejections. Okay! After 15 rejections..... *I know it looks crazy* but I thought that I faced 5-6 rejections due to notice period. They told me that they can't wait 3 months. So, I thought that this might be the reason for my rejections. Okay, I understood it!

13:57 Basically, you gave interviews in lot of companies, among which you had some rejections that told that they can't wait. I faced rejections at last after them. Okay! So, maybe it might be the reason that you're already working. And you'll get a notice period. Yes! So, we can't wait so much, right!! That's why you put papers first that I should resign *yes!* then after that...... final part is that, after 2 months I didn't have any offer. You didn't have any offer! *not even one* Maybe last month had been remaining. 3rd month! Yes! And people are laughing at me that what are you doing. Right!! So, last month was remaining and I finally passed a company. That was for a UI Desginer role. So, that was in TECHCHEFS that was bought by Virtusa completely owned by Virtusa And I got a job there which wasn't of that much hike.

14:45 I got around 5.7 LPA. So its hardly a 20% hike. Yes!! Its not much of a hike. I guess around 4.4 something Yes, 4.4 LPA. Got it! Alright! So, How was your experience at Virtusa? Yes! Here, I worked in 2 companies. I was put into a startup. And after that Intuit. This is also service based company. *service based company* This isn't a pure service based. Mostly it does body shopping. Body shopping?! Yes! Means they put you as a contractor in a company they don't own any technical part of the project. Alright! They just put you on....like the company rents you! Okay! Basically, they'll pay you but you'll work for someone else. Correct! And Project is completely owned by the client. Okay! But its not the case in Accenture. There they're owning the project, you're working in their office

15:33 and they're giving their services. But its still client billing. Its not other than that. But here it wasn't the case. Here they'll completely put you there. I Understood! And they even had incubation projects as well. But I wasn't in it. I was in a company owned by that company. And here is the funny part. The startup where I went You know that that there is a huge pressure in startups they need to deliver it I couldn't deliver it. Okay! Yes! So, I had to listen a lot. There was an instance that their engineer even said that dude, why are they paying you. okay! So, why are they paying you? You aren't able to do it quickly. okay! So, my confidence was down. You might've felt very bad. I felt very bad. So , I thought that the speed of Accenture & the one you're doing

16:19 is very different. Yes!! The one that you're doing is very different. And its even faster for startups. And initially I couldn't meet it. I told that I'm nt bale to do this project. Then they put me to Intuit. Okay! Yes! Alright! Was your Intuit experience good after it? Intuit's experience was very good but they put you as a contractor or something, right!! So, there they put you in client location. *Alright!* And the project experience was amazing. Because this was the first time I was working in a product company. In the project of a product company. So, here the experience was very good. Until now I knew that it goes like this. There's JavaScript, HTML, CSS so, I know it. But in product based, how are they scaled

17:05 What is the quality? Like, what is the load time that you need to look into? How do you manage the project to be fast? Correct! I learnt all of it for the first time in Intuit. Great! So, your overall experience was good. *It was good!* Great! You were telling me the story of a manager. *Yes!* So, the thing was the manager of Intuit was a really nice guy. And the manager of Virtusa was not so great. The thing is, there was a lot of control and micro-management so, He told me today that you spent these hours on this thing. How much hours did you spend on which thing? How many hours did you spend on this dev work or something like that. Okay! Dev doesn't happen like that. If you're in a problem that make this UI it might be finished in just 2 hours, if you don't face any error. If you face any critical error then how will you finish it?

17:52 If there's a blocker then you'll need time. Exactly! Its shouldn't be under pressure. Under pressure one's efficiency falls down. So, my experience wasn't great there. Then covid started. Okay!! Nice! Then where did you shift to? So, after working in this company for 4 months, although I was getting really good experience because of the micro-management as I wasn't enjoying it. So, I switched. And I got an offer verbally in a company. ZENSAR Then corona hit the world & all the companies revoked the offer. The HR was a really nice guy, he said dude, we cannot proceed now. Okay! With you, so, I was really disappointed. There weren't any openings like it was during lockdown period. during 2020

18:37 So, in lockdown I didn't get any offer. But after 8-9 months I got into an offer in a startup. Then I took it immediately, like I could have taken any company. Yes!! Means I had to move out from here. I was feeling suffocated. Alright! So all your switches that you were doing. First you switched from Accenture, right! You're looking for another switch. So how were you doing so much preparation along? So, I was doing a little DSA and I was focusing more on UI part I had UI role. And I was doing DSA but not so much that I'm spending more time on DSA. Which were the platforms? I was looking into Leetcode & I was taking courses from Udemy. And I look things differently. Like DSA

19:23 I implement the whole data structure by myself. So that when you know the data structure in and out you can solve any problem. But that's not completely true, you have to like solve all the problems in Leetcode. Correct! That's true! Since you hadn't done coding before it Yeah! During college times, you didn't do DSA. *No I didn't* So, didn't you face difficulty in doing DSA? Now, it seems very easy but then After work, if it finishes 8 o'clock then I was spending time on DSA & learning new skills till 4 am - 5 am. Okay! Everyday! Means there was very less sleep, like 3-4 hours everyday. And this went on for a year. Okay, so are you telling about Accenture or This was in Virtusa. You're telling about Virtusa where you were a little troubled by your manager a little. *Yes!*

20:08 I was fed up of him. You were so fed up that you woke up at night to do DSA questions. I had to go out. It was suffocating! *I was feeling caged!* Okay! Got it! Okay! So, after doing all this which companies did you crack after Virtusa? After Virtusa, I cracked HCL, Infosys- I think I went until last round Danske IT, Siemens Gamesa and I even got into a couple of startups like, I think Mogo. Got it! And which among them did you choose? I chose Danske IT. Okay! So, how much time did you work here? In Danske IT, its a funny story- just 1 month. 1 month you did everything in 1 month. Yeah! So, when I was joining Danske IT, my joining date was very near. Then I got the interview of VMWare. So, I cleared the interview of VMWare & offer was once released as well.

20:56 But my offer letter was revoked. Because of their financial problems. The financial approval actually. So, my offer got revoked. Then I was in Danske IT and I wanted to go into VMWare VMWare is a nice product based company, right!! I wanted to go there but I was here. After 1 month I got the offer again. Okay! After revoking you got the offer again. *Yes I got it again.* How much hike were you getting? You told me that in Virtusa it was like Yeahh! point, sorry, 5.7 Correct! Hike! *Yes!* After that I directly switched to 13 Lakhs. In DanskeIT? *Yes!* In 13 lakhs!! *Yes!! Great! I directly switched to 13 lakhs. And then when VMWare came from there Then I thought that, I've worked only 1 month here so, there isn't anything exciting. Yes!! I won't be getting a hike, right!!!

21:42 But they gave me 26 26? By their own. By their own. Didn't they negotiate? I did negotiate. They asked me what is your expectation. So, taking all of the stocks and other things they told 26 lakhs. Nice!! Great! Its a good hike, bro! Within a month you switched.... I switched from 5.7 to 26 within a month. *to 26* Its a...how much hike is it? Its like more than 400%. 400% hike. *yeah!!* Wow! Great!! Then how much time did you spend in VMWare? I really enjoyed in VMWare. Among all the companies, until VMWare VMWare was the best company I've ever worked for. Work life balance was amazing. People are really nice. Mangers are co-operative. Managers are amazing! Their director, architect their manager, all are really nice. The team was nice. The project was completely from scratch. Okay!! Yes!!! So, I worked there for more than 1.5 years

22:30 and there the experience that I got in 1.5 years was worth, I would say. 3 years. So, now you were working in VMWare and earlier you worked in Accenture for atleast 2 years, right!!!! *Correct!* Tell me about the comparison, between their work? What was the comparison in managers? Right! So, the work quality of a product based company that is world's apart when compared to a service based company. So, in product based company owns the product so you've the freedom to suggest and you've to open up. Correct! There's an ABC product and designer gave you something and you though that its not right and can be problematic you think from the user's perspective on the time. So, you'll get the opportunity to think in the product based

23:17 but its less in service based because client gives you requirement. They have done this work. Your work is to only do what is being told. I've to only implement it. *only to implement it.* I think that you can't get critical reviews when you're in a service based company, right!! *Exactly!* Because you don't have anybody to see if quality of the code is good. If it is scalable or not, right!! *Correct!* There they'll ask reviews only from a few people that give the review if you told that this is how its done, there won't be much push back. In product based, its not like that. They own it that you'll get 50 reviews. If its a big change, then you'll get 20-30 reviews. My opinion is that after college, there are only 2 ways you can learn first, is from the code reviews.

24:02 That's how you learn from your peers. And then other is from looking into the internet. Correct! So, you need a good resume to make a switch. *Yes!* How did you make your resume? So, I'm strongly opinionated about resume. That resume should be good. So, think that these-days resume isn't like something you make in word and that filter like Microsoft for example, right, they would be getting like thousands of resumes everyday. There aren't many people that you'll look into everyone's resume manually. So, they'll have a software, I assume. So, to have the filter keywords should match. And the format should match. Yes!! It'll look at your headlines like probably like how huge is it. So, it'll filter and give you the rating.

24:48 So, for that I used - Novoresume maker. Got it! So, I made my resume on it. And since I made it in novoresume maker, I have maximum filters. I've filtered in Google, Adobe, Microsoft then I think Intuit as well. In Intuit, I applied for permanent role as well. Okay! Great! Alright!! Will you share us your resume? *sure* I will show it to my audience. So that they can get an Idea on how you can make a resume. Alright!! Now let's finally come to Microsoft. So, this is where you're working currently as you've switched 7 months prior. So, tell us about it. That how did you switch to Microsoft? How did you receive the interview call? When I had to look for Microsoft's interview, the trigger was like

25:34 VMWare was being acquired by Broadcom. So, I thought that now it can be a little risk. Got it! So, I thought as I already got a lot of messages in my Linkedln from recruiters of Microsoft. *okay!* While you were working in VMWare, you already got the messages. * yes!* When you come into VMWare, all the companies reach out to you. *okay!* I got from Adobe, SIP, Intuit, Microsoft even Google. Oooh! So, I thought that I had never answered since I didn't had to switch, I'm happy. So, when Broadcom started acquiring then I thought that its a risk now, I should switch. And recently, 15-20 days prior a Microsoft recruiter had reached out to me. Got it! So, I thought of giving him the reply. So, I replied to him.

26:20 And my resume was shortlisted and we started processing the resume. Got it! So, how many rounds did you give? I'm telling the Microsoft interview for SDE2 because I'm an SDE 2 here this is my experience. First round will be either DSA round or Debugging round. This will not be a face to face round. This is an online assessment. Okay!! Either you'll be given a file, you've to debug & push it and then give it. Either on any platform, you'll be given a problem that you've to solve it. Yeah, DSA questions. This is usually a hard problem. Got it. Then you've 4 rounds of Technical. First will be pure DSA. *okay!* Second will be DSA + system design. 3rd will be DSA+ System design. 4th will be either managerial round or if they've a doubt there's another technical round.

27:06 Okay!! Got it! So, I didn't have that. In managerial round, I expected it to be easy. But it was DS + System design again. Mangers also asked DSA+ System design. They'll ask System Design. And like they'll also ask a behavioral question for 5-10 minutes. And after that your decision will take some time. And then you'll get a offer. So, did you get the offer on the same day. No! They took 4-5 days. Got it! So, how did you feel when you got the job offer finally? It was an amazing experience that I was getting the Microsoft offer. I got a good hike. So, when I got the offer I was really happy. It was a good team, like a proper. Good product I had to do on the bing that was there. Yes! And I had to learn Scarability. It was as I imagined. So, it was a very good experience there.

27:52 Great!! First of all, who did you tell it to about it? I think I told my mom. Okay! Nice! Amazing bro. So the journey from Accenture to Microsoft was a very amazing journey. You realized that there's no growth then you tried to switch. Right! You had to face challenges after switching because you didn't do DSA in college. Yeah! Even in Accenture as well.