IIT tag became a burden: Graduate recalls painful job interview after UPSC attempt

“Arre, you are from IIT and still here?”

This is what an interviewer told an IIT graduate during a 2019 interview for an entry-level data analyst role that paid 40,000 per month. The remark hit him hard. “I felt like a loser. My confidence was shattered,” he recalled in a LinkedIn post.

The incident took place three years after he graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi, in 2016.

In 2019, he had just quit UPSC preparation and was looking to return to the industry after a long gap. The experience made him reflect on the IIT tag and the expectations that come with it.

“It opens a lot of doors, yes. But it quietly shuts one door – the right to fail without being judged or insulted,” he wrote.

He said he internalised that pressure. For months, he measured himself against the top 1% of his batch and felt lost every day.

THE MEDIA ONLY HYPES UP THE TOP 1%

The graduate wrote that there are about 300,000 living IITians over the last 60 years. According to him, the overwhelming majority build above-average, well-paid and fulfilling careers, even if those careers may not be glamorous.

“The media only hypes up the top 1%,” he wrote.

He said he took the “long road back”, taking one “unglamorous role” at a time.

Today, he writes software at a company in New York City. He said his gross pay puts him “well enough into the top 2%” of US income.

JEE WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE A LIFE SENTENCE

Reflecting on his experience, the graduate said watching an IITian stumble can become “spectator sport” for some people. He said that, for such people, seeing an IITian struggle can feel like an old score being settled over an exam they did not crack.

But he said there is a larger truth: “JEE exam was never meant to be a life sentence or a lifetime pass.” According to him, both the IITian carrying the burden of “failed potential” and the person without the IIT tag who feels lesser can be bound by the same illusion — that an entrance test taken at 18 can determine their lifelong limits.

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