Read this first

This guide is a plan toward a Rs 1 Cr offer at an Indian product company or the India centre of a global one. It is not a promise of one; nothing in it can make an employer pay a number.

Here Rs 1 Cr means one year of pay on the offer's terms: fixed pay, plus variable pay at target, plus the stock that vests in the first twelve months at the grant price. It leaves out joining bonuses, relocation, later-year stock and the paper value of startup options. Every Rs 1 Cr figure in this guide is printed next to its cash part.

By the author's estimate (not measured), that number is paid at SDE-3 or Senior at the larger product companies and global India centres, at Staff at most others, and at no level at many employers. From a services company on 15-25 LPA it is usually two moves: first to a product company, then to Senior 12 to 24 months later.

This guide is not for you yet if you want the number in one move with under three years of experience, or cannot give it about six weeks of evenings. Lesson 1 gives you your track. Each track covers the rounds at its level and says 'not covered yet' where it is thin.

Rs 1 Cr, worked on one offer

A definition is easier to hold on to when it is applied to a page. Here is one offer's compensation annexure, the page an offer letter attaches to say what you are paid. Every line is invented, and the pay at this level is the author's estimate (not measured):

  ANNEXURE A: COMPENSATION                      (invented)
  Senior Software Engineer · India centre of a global firm
  Fixed pay, a year
    Basic                                 24,00,000
    HRA                                   12,00,000
    Special allowance                     19,96,615
    Employer PF (12% of basic)             2,88,000
    Gratuity provision                     1,15,385
    Total fixed                           60,00,000
  Variable pay, target 15% of fixed        9,00,000
  Restricted stock units: grant value at grant price
    1,24,00,000, vesting 25% a year over four years,
    first vest at 12 months                31,00,000
  Joining bonus (12-month clawback)        8,00,000
  Relocation, against bills                1,50,000

The rule behind each line, so you can apply it to any annexure:

Two offers with the same "total" can differ by a third once each is read this way. Figure 0.1 shows the same offer as one bar: what counts, and which part is cash.

Three things show up on that page. The stock is counted at the grant price, so the real value moves with the share. The fixed pay includes employer PF and the gratuity provision, which you do not receive monthly. And tax takes a third of everything above ₹50 lakh. Lesson 2 runs this offer through the payslip rules: about ₹45 lakh of cash in hand and about ₹20 lakh of shares after tax in year one.

Next stop: The usual route: two moves, 1 min

The usual route: two moves

From a services company the route is usually two moves, because each loop levels you on the evidence you bring, and product-company evidence (owning a service, carrying its on-call, writing its design) is what a Senior loop reads. Figure 0.2 draws the route; every rupee range on it is the author's estimate (not measured).

What each move needs, and where the guide covers it:

If you are already an SDE-2 at a product company, you are on move 2. If you are at Senior and aiming at Staff, lesson 12 is your round, and the money logic is the same.

Next stop: Not for you yet, 1 min

Not for you yet

The guide is honest about where it does not fit. Each line says what to do instead:

Next stop: Your track, 2 min

Your track

Find your level's column and read down it. R means read, S means skim (the lede, figures, tables and the section the strip names), and a dash means skip. Lesson 1 tells you which column is yours if you are unsure.

R* means read it if your loop has an AI round; ask the recruiter. Interns go from this lesson to lesson 14. The appendix holds the further solutions, practice banks, design cards, the prompt kit, templates, the glossary and the index; you do not need it to do the rounds at your level.

Every lesson is built the same way, so you can skim it fast. It opens with a lede that says what the round is for, then the strip above with your level's verdict. A section that only some levels need says so under its heading ("For: SDE-3, Staff."). Each round has one worked example, labelled INVENTED, with every name and number made up. Judgements are the author's and say so; pay, level-by-employer and frequency claims are labelled "author's estimate (not measured)". Every Java listing was run before printing. Where a track is thin, the lesson says "not covered yet" rather than guess.

Next stop: The decision: three numbers, in order, 3 min

The decision: three numbers, in order

Before any recruiter call, decide three numbers on paper, in this order. Each one needs the one before it.

Then write one reason that points forward ("my team is moving to maintenance, and I want to own a system that is still growing"), because the first recruiter asks for it and a counter-offer tests it later. If money is the whole reason, admit it to yourself: a counter-offer may fix it. And read your appointment letter this week; lesson 2 lists the clauses to write down. Do not resign to prepare: it gives up every dated item at once and turns each negotiation into one with a deadline and no income.

Figure 0.3 draws her five dates against the three items.

The first recruiter call tests all three numbers and the reason within twenty minutes, so each question already has its answer on your page:

Lesson 4 covers the call itself and lesson 2 the exact wordings for pay and notice.

Next stop: Tonight's task, 1 min

Tonight's task

About ninety minutes, with your papers on the desk. Write each answer on one page you will keep beside you for the whole switch.

1. Collect. Your appointment letter, the letter that set your current CTC, your last three payslips and last year's Form 16.
2. Number 1. Write your in-hand a month and the CTC lines that never arrive monthly. If the payslip and the letter disagree, the payslip is what you live on.
3. Your column. Pick your level in the track table. If two columns fit, take the higher for the loop and the lower as the neighbour; lesson 1 settles it tomorrow.
4. Number 2. Write your floor in hand and, using lesson 2's tables, the CTC that reaches it.
5. Number 3. List every dated item in the next twelve months: vest, bonus, the five-year line, the end of a clawback or bond. Add your notice to each candidate resignation date and write the earliest date you would resign.
6. Reason. One sentence that points forward.
7. Tomorrow. Read lesson 1, then lesson 5 to set the weeks.

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