Anchal Sharma

CTC vs. Take-Home Salary: The Reality Check! 🚨

A high CTC doesn’t always mean a fat paycheck. Many professionals assume:
💰 10 LPA = ₹83,333/month, but in reality, it’s closer to ₹70,500
💰 50 LPA ≠ 5x your take-home, it’s around ₹2,80,917 (only ~4x!)

As your salary grows, so do the deductions:
🔹 Taxes (5-20%)
🔹 Benefits & deductions (PF, insurance, ESOPs, etc.)
🔹 Variable pay (which isn’t always guaranteed)

The harsh truth? You often take home just 50-60% of your CTC—and the higher your salary, the bigger this gap gets!

So, what’s the solution?
A salary alone won’t lead to financial freedom. You need to:
✅ Build passive income – Invest in stocks, real estate, or side businesses.
✅ Develop high-value skills – Look for skills that don’t trade time for money (e.g., consulting, automation, trading).
✅ Monetize your expertise – Many top professionals transition into consulting or entrepreneurship.
✅ Be financially smart – Plan, invest, and budget wisely to grow your wealth beyond a paycheck.

💡 Bottom line: A job is just the beginning. True financial independence comes from multiple income streams and making money work for you.

Have you explored income sources beyond your salary? Let’s discuss! ⬇️

𝐌𝐲 𝐣𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲... ❤

Hello Everyone,
First of all, a very happy new year to all of you! ❤

My first post of 2023 and that too, my own journey from a non-techie to Software Engineer!

There are a lot of things I've to share with audience(especially people who are afraid to make the career transition, working in service based companies or struggling with coding) like importance of peer coding, a great mentor and LinkedIn profile etc.

But today, I am just sharing the glimpses of my own journey.

➡ I'm Anchal Sharma working as a Software Engineer at PayPal. I'm a 2019 batch pass out from a Tier3 college.

➡ Last year same day, I was earning 10 times lesser than today. I've never imagined something like this 2 years back.

➡ In past two years, my only aim was to get into a decent company. And that too, I had to prepare along with my job. Another challenge!

➡ I used to wake up 5 a.m. in the morning and coded for around 5 hours/day. It continued for around 400+ days. Hectic days but yeah, I tried my best to be consistent.

➡ I created a peer coding group for myself. Connected with juniors and started coding with them.

➡ Faced infinite numbers of rejections. Will definitely discuss it in near future for sure. (Reasons: Tier-3 college + service based company, no relevant experience in development etc etc.)

➡ For continuous 5-6 months my resume didn't even get shortlisted anywhere.

➡ When it started getting shortlisted then also, I used to get wrong interviews.

➡ Depression and only depression. Job hunting became a nightmare!

➡ My experience was incrementing and career transition process was becoming tougher day by day.

➡ But, I decided not to give up. I made projects by myself. Made my LinkedIn profile worth sharing with recruiters, started teaching DSA to my juniors alongside. Gratitude, LinkedIn family started growing and today it's around 28.5k.

➡ Finally, after so much patience and being consistent for months. My resume started getting shortlisted and I started getting a few valid interviews.

And then, after so many rejections!

➡ Life took a different turn. Good days were coming. I guess!
It started with when I got an interview opportunity at Google via LinkedIn. I practiced even more, like a lot more.
Though, I got rejected there. But as they say, “Rejection is a redirection”.

➡ Since then, I started applying rigorously and gave interviews in so many organisations(middle to top tier).

And finally, I'm here at PayPal today. Gratitude! ❤

Also, I'm very thankful to the almighty and my parents who worked very harder for these days. Now, they are just happy all the time. Feels like they’ve got selected instead of me. ❤
If I start writing about this part(my family), literally people will get emotional and start crying. 

So, I would like to pen down by saying that Dreams do come true if we work harder for them and I'm glad that I am sharing it here with you all. :)

#gratitude #myjourney #paypal #softwareengineer

I also Cracked Amazon when I Cracked Myntra …

Here’s my detailed Interview Experience along with the Questions Asked. ✅

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 1: 𝐇𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭

Had coding challenges, scenario-based technical questions, and behavioral questions.
Solved both coding problems (2 test cases failed in the second).

Cleared the test and got a call from HR within 1–2 days to schedule interviews.

[ 𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐘 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐌𝐄 𝐈𝐍 3
𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐇𝐒.

LINK- https://lnkd.in/gQG-7jaG

Guys, I run a 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐆𝐔𝐈𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐌 where Me and Ikshit .. mentor very limited students/batch to crack the SDE Interviews. We will guide you from the very scratch: learning programming language, DSA, Computer Concepts, LLD + HLD, Resume Review, Projects Creation & at the end Job Hunting Templates & Tricks!!!

New batch is coming up next Month. ]

𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 1: 𝐃𝐒𝐀 + 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬

This round tested coding skills and had two questions from leadership principles like Ownership and Think Big.

DSA Questions:

-> Structurally Unique BSTs (https://lnkd.in/g4DuHZv7)

-> Open the Lock ( https://lnkd.in/gwxmHtKQ )

Both questions were solved successfully.
Next round happened the same day.

𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 2: 𝐋𝐨𝐰-𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 + 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬

-> Design Problem: LRU Cache.
-> Clarified requirements (O(1) operations, capacity limit) and implemented using HashMap + Doubly Linked List.

Also discussed examples demonstrating positive work culture and solving complex problems.

𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 3: 𝐃𝐒𝐀 + 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬

Problems:
-> Course Schedule 2 (Topological Sort)
->Rotate Matrix (brute force to optimised: transpose + reverse rows)

This round was smooth with a focus on optimizations and clear thinking.

𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 4: 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡-𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 + 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬

Design Problem: Build a Faster App Store.
Covered scalability (1M+ apps), low latency search/downloads, real-time top charts, decomposition, loose coupling, and API design.

This was the most challenging round due to my nervousness and the neutral tone of the interviewer.

𝐇𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝

Mostly conversational — discussed past experience, career goals, reasons for switching, and a few leadership principle-driven scenarios.

Since it was an SDE-2 Role, both LLD and HLD were heavily emphasized.

𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐓𝐢𝐩𝐬:

-> Leadership Principles are very important.
-> Practice Amazon’s latest 6-month questions.
-> Know your resume projects inside out — they do ask deep follow-ups.

Hope it helps!