I’m going to share a number that should make you uncomfortable: the average gap between what an Indian engineer thinks they’re worth and what the market would actually pay them is ₹8 - 15L.
Not ₹8 -15L too high. Too low.
Every week, I talk to engineers who are systematically undervaluing themselves. Not because they’re bad at what they do but usually the opposite. The better you are at your job, the more likely you are to underestimate your market value. Because you’re comparing yourself to people around you, not to the market.
Here’s how the gap forms. You join a company at ₹12L. You get 8-10% raises every year for four years. You’re now at roughly ₹17L, feeling pretty good about it. Meanwhile, the market has moved. Someone with your exact same profile & same years, same tech stack, same city is getting hired at ₹24-28L at a GCC. Not because they’re better than you. Because they interviewed and you didn’t.
Your company doesn’t tell you this. They can’t afford to. Your manager doesn’t tell you this because they don’t know, and even if they did, telling you would mean losing you. Your friends don’t tell you because salary is taboo. And Glassdoor and LinkedIn salary estimates are so broad they’re useless. I searched and found “₹12-40L for software engineer in Bangalore”. This tells you or me nothing.
So you guess. And your guess is anchored to your current salary, which is anchored to your starting salary, which was set when you had zero leverage and zero information. You’re making ₹50L+ decisions based on a number that was essentially random.
I’ve tracked salary data across hundreds of conversations. I know what Java engineers with 6 YoE are getting at GCCs in Bangalore (₹22-26L fixed, up 12% from two quarters ago). I know that platform engineers in Pune with Kubernetes experience are in a supply crunch. I know which companies are paying above market because they’re scaling a new team, and which are lowballing because they know most candidates don’t negotiate.
This isn’t insider information. It’s pattern recognition across a volume of conversations that no individual can have.
Here’s what I believe: knowing your market value shouldn’t be a gut feeling. It should be a number: specific, current & backed by data. Not “₹15-40L” but “₹24-28L for your exact profile, in your city, this quarter.” Because the difference between a gut feeling and a data point is ₹8-15L per year. Compounded over a career, that’s the difference between financial comfort and financial freedom.
The first step isn’t updating your resume. It’s knowing your number.