'Should I resign from TCS?': Employee makes shocking claim after 5 years at IT giant; story goes viral

An IT professional working at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) recently made a shocking claim about his career on Reddit, sparking discussions on salaries, HR managers, and the IT industry as a whole.

The user claims that he joined the tech giant in 2020, with a starting monthly salary of Rs 25,000, but was earning only Rs 22,800 per month these days, working as a Java Developer.

He also offered some context behind his career trajectory. However, THE WEEK could not independently verify these details.

The user claimed that he joined TCS after graduating from a Tier-3 college, after which he began aiming for a government job.

"Missed by few marks and didn't do any upskilling in this IT side," he noted.

Over the years, he claimed that he kept being placed in the C and D bands at the company. A band is an internal performance rating used in IT firms.

However, the turning point came when the user claimed he was kept on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)—a programme designed for underperforming employees—in July 2025.

In response, the user claimed he "panicked and prepared heavily for few months", because of which he got selected for a project.

The user also allegedly hid his performance rating to hold onto the project, and his job.

"Even PIP dates went past I was not asked to resign," the user claimed.

However, he added that his appraisal was allegedly stopped, which pushed him to upskill a little this year in hopes of moving up again to the post of Java Backend Developer.

However, the user claimed that the problem now was his past still weighing on him—he said that despite the preparation and clearing interviews, HR allegedly raised suspicions at the dips in his salary slip, which always broke down offer discussions.

"My life is really getting disturbed because of this and I am losing hope to survive in IT," he lamented, seeking feedback from netizens in the subreddit.

"Don’t get demotivated by HR’s suspicion, they often use this as a negotiation tactic," one user pointed out in response to the post.

"Start with small gradual jumps into startups that will take you because of smaller salary asks ... Focus on early phase startups for the quick moves, jump ship every year or two, in fact don't stop interviewing even when you have the jobs because interviews keep your knowledge fresh," another user opined.

"Full time MBA right now is honestly not the right move. Your problem isn’t lack of degree or qualification, it’s that your last 5.5 years don’t show strong IT growth. An MBA won’t magically fix that, and a mid-tier MBA can actually make things worse ... Doing it now would just be an escape, not a solution. You’re not finished, you just need a reset, not a restart," a third user said, encouraging the TCS employee to turn his life around, to which he questioned if she should leave TCS altogether.