By Admin 
IT industry: An IT professional’s post on Reddit regarding Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), one of India’s largest IT companies, is in the news these days. This user, who calls himself a Java developer, has claimed that despite working in the company for five and a half years, his monthly salary has decreased instead of increasing.
According to the post shared on r/developersIndia forum, the user had joined TCS in the year 2020. At that time his starting salary was Rs 25,000 per month. But in 2026, even after having 5.5 years of experience, his in-hand salary has reduced to Rs 22,800.
The young man said this in his post
The user told that he is a graduate from Tier 3 college. After joining TCS, instead of focusing on IT skills, he started preparing for a government job. That is why he continuously got low performance bands like C and D. In July 2025, he was put on the Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). After hard work, he got assigned to a new project, but he did not inform his manager about his PIP status. The PIP period ended without termination, but its appraisal was stopped.
In January 2026, he promoted himself as a Java backend developer. After this, when he clears the interviews for new jobs, the problem comes to the fore. The user claims that HR becomes suspicious after seeing his salary slip and stops negotiating the offer. At the end of the post, the user expressed concern about survival in the IT sector and asked for advice from the community. This post quickly went viral and many people gave strategic advice related to career.
Know who gave what advice
One user wrote, ‘Try to go to startups with small salary jumps. Early stage startups provide three years of experience in one year. Change job every one or two years. Another user suggested, ‘After 5 years of experience, the salary of Rs 22 thousand is very worrying. It will be difficult to become a technical expert so quickly. In such a situation, MBA can be a good option. This viral post is sparking a new debate regarding career growth, performance management and salary progression in the IT industry.
(Note-This entire information is based on the details shared by the user on Reddit.)