Happiest Day of my life...
Hey Blind Fam, **Long Post** Today is the most happiest day in my life.. I am 37 and stay with my wife and 2 yr old son in the midwest. QA by trade with a TC of 138K & 15 YOE. Five Yrs ago this day I boarded that flight to India with just questions....how my married life will pan out, how am I going to able to afford rent and stay happy and make my wife happy with 70K TC working for WITCH in California with no clue on how to increase my TC.... Fast forward five yrs yesterday I picked a 0.23 Carat(symbolizing our fifth anniversary) diamond ear rings for my wife.. with some wiggle room in Credit Card.... Yes I did it... never bought her anything memorable other than dresses and shoes... due to some bad financial decisions of me and my family(had to pay loans in India, still paying them)... so couldnt buy her anything memorable when we had our baby boy last yr.... June 2014 - Moved to US for 70K TC on H1-B and paid for my sisters wedding with all my savings and also paid for my wedding in 2017... 2014 - 2017 - Applied maniacically for close to 2000 Job Openings(that matched my skills) manual qa with only SQL to claim as tech knowledge(i know someone would come and comment SQL is not technical) but thats all the technical that I got to do at work... My fault dint upskill myself with any additional skills apart from the one that I got to work at my work place.. assuming my company will take care...F**K Me for that thought... Rollover 2017 - Only me left in my project all my colleagues(so called friends at work) moved to FT roles at FAANG... none to this day bother to refer...hell with them.... Was depressed and stopped going to any gatherings except for the occasional visit to a friends(someone who never worked with me happened to meet him at a mutuals birthday party and got to know him) place to play with his 6 month old daughter.. Got diagnosed with Type-2 Diabetes(medal of honor)... November 2017 - Got married to this wonderful person..fortunately understood me too much and stood by me when I went through all the struggles.. August 2018 - Random interview call for a staffing company for 85K in Ohio and finally I made the cut and got the offer... Fresh in my memory.. Received the confirmation call at 7:45 AM Pacific Time while we were out for our morning walk..first thing I did was kiss my wife in the middle of the road(first best moment in my life after marrying this wonderful person)... September 2018 - Moved to Ohio for newer beginnings, met some very good people.. whom I can definitely count for anything I need... January 2020 - Got a hike in salary 92K this time... April 2020 - Decided I want to work FT somewhere and hence started interviewing and got offered at AutoZone in August 2020. This time 105K + 10% Bonus September 2020 - Joined AutoZone.. October 2020 - Got the best news for both of us after multiple failed attempts and treatments that we were having our son and he will be delivered in 2021 June. December 2021 - Casually interviewed for a role in Chicago to practice for my upcoming Apple Onsite(my first in 120 Applications to Apple. One dream that I ll chase till my death bed... The sweetness of having the colored badge of Apple even if that meant I can work only one day(worked there as a contractor for 3 1/2 yrs)) January 2022 - Reject from Apple(nothing new tons of learning) selected for the role in Chicago. 120K Base + 15% Bonus October 2022 - Bought the diamond jewellery for my wife... Yes I happened upon Blind in 2021 while prepping for my Apple Onsite.. and for sure found some very helpful content here and learned way too many things that for sure I would never find anywhere... Travelling tonite to Dallas to surprise her.. she is currently based in Dallas as she is undergoing her trainings to work in IT so my Sister-in-law can take care of my son... We have been through many things so much struggles so much penny pinchings... all this while so we can pay off the loan... we are now down to the last 7Lacs(~8K USD)... Unknown never met Blind fam wish me luck for my next 5.. so I can make enough to get her the 1 carat diamond that I saw this time but was above my paygrade and couldn't afford... Cheers ya'll.... every dog has its day... Well this dog had its day now...finally... never in my slightest possible imagination I thought I would be here when I boarded that flight to India from San Francisco... Blind Tax - 138K #marriage #relationships #career
Don't have patience to read all that. Are you getting that salary in India or US?
That’s US… if I made that much in India I would have gotten her a 2 Carat and not 0.2 carat 😬
I went through your entire post. I'm very happy for you.. It also made me think about my own happiness - or the lack off.. (which's been fleeting, to say the least, while earning significant sums of $$, having properties from inheritance, great health but no one to share it with)... This is incredible! I wish you all the best, keep killing it!
Thanks for reading through…. And thanks a ton for your wishes….I know it was a long post… but it’s the obstacles that we went through together that made this all the more sweet for me and gave a sense accomplishment…. I agree with you on having everything in world but no one to share… well it’s the little joys that you get today is what will make ur life feel fulfilled when you turn back after you get old… I don’t have enough $$ today but am I happy yes I am…. I still have 23 yrs to retire and hoping the learning that I got this 15 yrs working will take me to a good stead and will retire with a bang if I live till 60…. Life is so unpredictable you know…
Love the attitude. Keep it up!
TLDR: You got your wife jewelry?
Yes for our fifth anniversary…
@Microsoft you got the tldr wrong!!
Congratulations OP!
Thanks!!!
Congrats OP this is just a start
Thanks!!!
Read through your entire post, so wholesome! Congratulations, OP!
Thanks mate….
Boarded that flight to India or from India?
I did board flight to india in 2017 for my marriage… and last night travelled to Dallas to surprise my wife..:
Flight from where?
I boarded the flight to India in 2017 and are back to us after my wedding…. I currently reside in US…. and last night I boarded the flight to Dallas from a Chicago
OP, your friends got into FAANG since they improved their skills while you did not. What's the point in complaining about not getting referrals when you're not good enough to be hired by any of them? Referral is not some magical process that lets in under qualified candidates but rather just gives you an opportunity. If you don't put in the effort, it's just a waste of time for everyone involved.
First up apologies for responding to this late… well here is my reply…. 1. When I saw everyone leaving and getting into big tech the first I did was ask them what and how they did it? Well all I heard was it’s easy nothing much just brush up what you know or change of topics or total avoidance for a couple of months and then after sometime they started talking to me as if nothing happened and started asking when I am going to quit my company and started giving me advice to leave the company… 2. Now I know I dint upskill then but hey I was applying for functional QA roles which I have been doing for my entire career which open up every time in Apple even to this day and none of them bothered to give in a referral for those positions… last couple of yrs a good soul has been open to referring me but nothing clicked so far at Apple… 3. Now since I left in 2018 I have certainly upskilled to a very good level to lead my own team and setup frameworks for Automation from ground up and also perform tools evaluation for my company… but even now… 4. Those initial rejections of referral now makes me averse to asking for a referral to anyone whom I don’t know… as I feel that the known ones don’t help how come some third person would help me… but thanks to blind I am slowly coming out of my nutshell and asking referrals here on blind and some unknown gentlemen offered me a referral at Crowdstrike… At my current level I know I suck at Behavioral for the top companies and so that’s what I have been upskilling so I can crush my interviews when I am ready next year… Background of me - Not playing the apathy card… First generation in tech and none of my immediate family even left the little town of ours… sadly part of family which comes with too much pride and so if someone doesn’t help at first call we don’t go back and ask instead we try to grind to figure out how things work… coming from this kind of family it’s still hard for me come out of my nutshell to ask for help… all that I expected from my colleagues was just a little direction and no one cared… and they taught me to be selfish… but hey I have made lot of strides with help from my wife and that’s what took me to where I am today and made me write this post and also post for request for referrals on blind here…
Ha ha 🤣 thanks for taking the time to comment…