Indore Student: Infosys to Freshworks Switch

Landing your first tech job at a giant like Infosys is a dream for many Indian engineering graduates. But what happens when you realize your true calling lies elsewhere—in the fast-paced world of product-based companies? That’s the journey of an Indore-based student who made the leap from a service giant to a product innovator, Freshworks. This story isn't about luck; it's a blueprint for strategic upskilling, leveraging free resources, and navigating the Indian tech landscape.

The Infosys Foundation: A Common Starting Point

For countless B.Tech graduates, especially from tier-2 and tier-3 colleges, landing a role at TCS, Infosys, or Wipro is the primary career goal. These companies offer stability, brand value, and a crucial entry point into the corporate world. The initial training period is often extensive, covering foundational technologies, soft skills, and corporate processes.

However, many engineers soon encounter a common crossroads. The work can become repetitive, project-dependent, and sometimes removed from cutting-edge product development. The desire to build scalable products, work with modern tech stacks, and have a more direct impact on the end-user starts to grow. This was the catalyst for our Indore student. While grateful for the foundation, the aspiration to join product companies like Flipkart, Zomato, Razorpay, or Freshworks—known for their innovation and competitive packages (often ranging from ₹12-25 LPA for early-career roles)—took center stage.

Identifying the Skill Gap: From Services to Products

Making this switch requires a honest audit of your skills. Service-based roles often prioritize adherence to process, working with legacy systems, and client-specific technologies. Product companies, conversely, look for:

Deep problem-solving: Ability to architect solutions, not just implement predefined tasks.
Modern tech stack proficiency: Expertise in in-demand frameworks and languages (e.g., React, Node.js, Django, Spring Boot, cloud platforms).
Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA) mastery: The non-negotiable filter for most product company coding rounds.
System Design fundamentals: Understanding how to design scalable components, even at a junior level.

The gap can feel massive. Our student’s first step was to map their current Infosys skill set against the requirements in job postings from target companies. This created a focused, personalized curriculum.

The Free Learning Arsenal: Building Skills on a Budget

You don't need expensive bootcamps to bridge this gap. India is blessed with an ecosystem of high-quality, free educational resources. Our student strategically combined platforms:

For Core Computer Science & DSA: NPTEL and SWAYAM offer accredited courses from IITs and IISc. Channels like Gate Smashers and Jenny's Lectures are gold for understanding complex theory. For DSA, CodeWithHarry and Striver (takeUforward) provide structured, beginner-to-advanced roadmaps specifically for placements.
For Practical Development Skills: freeCodeCamp offers entire certifications in web development and Python. For structured university-level courses, Coursera and edX provide financial aid (read: free access) to learners who apply for it.
For Consistent Practice: Platforms like LeetCode and GeeksforGeeks became daily destinations. The key was consistency—solving 2-3 problems daily, focusing on patterns rather than just quantity.

A Sample Weekly Learning Plan:

Mon-Wed: DSA theory from a Striver video, followed by 3 problem solves on LeetCode (Easy/Medium).

Thu-Fri: A Coursera course module on, say, Cloud Computing or React, utilizing financial aid.

Sat: Building a small project (e.g., a clone of a Swiggy restaurant page or a portfolio site) to apply the week's learning.

Sun: Revision and system design basics from Gaurav Sen's YouTube channel.

Crafting the Product-Focused Resume & Portfolio

With a service company background, your resume must tell a new story. It’s not about the number of projects you maintained, but the impact and initiative you showed. Every line was reframed:

Before: "Worked on a banking module for Client X."
After: "Optimized a database query for the transaction history module, reducing API response time by 15%."
Before: "Part of the testing team."
After: "Automated 5 critical test scenarios using Selenium, saving 10 person-hours per deployment cycle."

The portfolio became the centerpiece. Instead of generic academic projects, they built:

A full-stack expense tracker with user authentication.
A real-time notification microservice mimicking Paytm or Zerodha alerts.
Contributions to open-source projects or even documentation.

These projects were deployed using free tiers of Vercel, Netlify, or GitHub Pages, and the code was meticulously documented on GitHub.

Navigating the Interview Gauntlet

The interview process for companies like Freshworks, Accenture (digital roles), or HCL (software division) is rigorous. Preparation was phase-based:

The Online Assessment (OA): Pure DSA and logical reasoning. Daily practice on platforms like InterviewBit was key.
Technical Rounds: Here, theoretical knowledge from NPTEL courses met practical problem-solving. Interviewers dug deep into project choices, trade-offs, and the "why" behind every technology used. Being able to explain your Infosys experience in terms of problem-solving was crucial.
The System Design Round: Even for SDE-1 roles, basic design questions ("Design a URL shortener like TinyURL") are common. Resources like the "Grokking the System Design Interview" course (often available through free trials or community-shared notes) and YouTube channels were invaluable.
The HR & Cultural Fit Round: This wasn't about downplaying Infosys, but about articulating a clear, positive narrative for the switch: seeking ownership, product impact, and a faster-paced learning environment.

The Offer and The Switch

The persistent effort culminated in multiple interview calls. The Freshworks process was particularly aligned with their preparation, focusing heavily on problem-solving, cultural add, and foundational clarity. The offer that followed represented not just a significant jump in compensation (a move from an average service company package to a product company CTC), but a validation of the self-directed learning journey.

The transition came with its own challenges—adapting to a different pace, taking ownership of features, and navigating a less hierarchical structure. But the foundational skills built through free resources and relentless practice made the adaptation possible.

Next Steps

This story proves that your starting point does not define your destination. The resources to change your trajectory are available for free; it requires only strategy and grit. Ready to start your own journey?

Browse hundreds of free courses from NPTEL, Coursera, and more to build your targeted skill set.
Need a roadmap? Explore our guide to becoming a full-stack developer for a structured learning path.
Get inspired. Read more real success stories from Indian learners who transformed their careers.