From a Tier-3 College to a 10x Salary Jump (₹3 LPA → ₹30 LPA) | Senior Software Engineer | Mentoring future tech leaders. I'm Atul Patel, a Senior Software Engineer at Nielsen and a 2020 graduate from a tier-3 college (JEC). My story isn't one of overnight success. It's a story of resilience, strategy, and overcoming rejection. My career started at Wipro, but my goal was always to break into top-tier product companies. The path was brutal. In college, I was rejected by TCS, Infosys, Zenser, and Globallogic. While switching jobs, I faced another 5-8 rejections. The hurdles were always the same: Getting my resume shortlisted. Clearing tough DSA & technical rounds. Negotiating a salary that reflected my true worth. Instead of giving up, I turned every rejection into a lesson. I decoded the patterns, mastered the skills, and built a repeatable system that works. This system helped me crack over 10 companies, including Oracle, Verizon, Techmojo, and BNP Paribas, and transition from a service-based role to product-led companies like Naukri.com (Infoedge) and now Nielsen. Why am I sharing this? Because I've been in your shoes. I know the frustration of being overlooked because of your college tier and the challenge of navigating the switch to a product-based role. I figured out the exact steps to not just get the interview, but to ace it and command the salary you deserve. If you're an engineer struggling to make that leap, don't know where to start, or feel stuck in your current role, let's talk. I can guide you through the process I perfected.