Indian who failed to crack IIT now earns ₹1.7 crore at Meta: ‘That rejection broke something in me, but it also…'

An Indian techie’s success story is making the rounds on social media. The user, who goes by the name Amit Dutta on Instagram, exemplified how he failed to crack India’s premier institutions, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), but still managed to secure a lucrative job in London after overcoming several struggles. “In 2018, I failed to crack IIT. I watched my classmates post their IIT acceptances while I sat in a campus that most people had never heard of," he wrote in the caption.

Reflecting on that time, he added, “But I made a decision that changed everything. I stopped mourning the college I didn’t get and started becoming the engineer no college could take credit for.”

Dutta shared that he faced another major setback in 2021 when he interviewed for an internship at Microsoft.

“I prepared for weeks and gave it everything, but I was rejected. That rejection broke something in me, but it also rebuilt something,” he said, adding that he chose to try again with greater determination.

“I could have coasted, most people do, but I had a chip on my shoulder the size of that IIT rejection letter,” he wrote.

Over the next two years, he focused on improving his skills, which led to opportunities such as an international work trip to Singapore and visits to several countries.

“The kid who couldn’t crack IIT was now solving problems across continents,” he noted.

“Six rounds, the hardest interviews of my life, and I cleared all six,” Dutta shared.

He eventually moved to London with a reported salary of ₹1.7 crore, a milestone he once thought was beyond reach.

“I moved to London with a 1.7 crore salary, going from a tier-2 college nobody had heard of to a life I couldn’t have even imagined in 2018,” he wrote.

One user wrote, “This is the kind of story every student needs to hear.” Another commented, “Proof that IIT is not the only path to success.” A third added, “Your mindset matters more than your college name.”

Others shared similar views. “Rejections really do redirect you to better things,” one user said. Another wrote, “Hard work and consistency always win in the long run.” One more added, “This gave me hope after my own failures,” while another said, “Respect for not giving up despite setbacks.”

(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. Livemint has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)