I made 72 LPA as a Designer in Bangalore (Full Story)

Summary

In this insightful video, Shreya, a product designer with 3 years of experience, shares her journey navigating the complexities of career growth, offers, and stock options in the startup world. She discusses key lessons on negotiating salaries, understanding equity, and managing the pressure of high expectations. Shreya opens up about her career evolution, including navigating the challenges of working in small and large teams, burnout, and the importance of work-life balance. Her story offers valuable advice on growth, decision-making, and maintaining mental health while pursuing a successful career in design.

Takeaways

• 💰 Talking about money may feel uncomfortable, but avoiding it often leads designers to be underpaid and unaware of how to negotiate better compensation.
• 📊 A high salary offer (72 LPA) can look attractive, but compensation structures like ESOPs may have hidden costs such as purchase requirements and tax implications.
• 📉 ESOPs are not free money; employees may need to buy the shares and pay taxes on their appreciated value, which can significantly reduce the actual benefit.
• 📝 Always clarify ESOP details before accepting an offer, including exercise price, taxes, vesting schedule, buyback policies, and exercise periods.
• 🤝 Contract work can be a powerful path to full-time opportunities because it builds trust, reduces hiring risk for companies, and can lead to better offers later.
• 🧠 High-value designers are paid for their ability to understand complex systems and convert complicated processes into intuitive user flows.
• ⚡ Reliability and accountability—delivering work on time and communicating early if delays happen—are simple but highly valued professional traits.
• 💬 Soft skills like communication, collaboration, accepting feedback, and handling ambiguity are just as important as technical design skills.
• 🚀 Working in small startup teams can accelerate learning and responsibility, while larger teams may sometimes involve more bureaucracy, meetings, and slower progress.
• ⏱ Startup roles often involve intense schedules, context switching, and long hours, especially when collaborating across time zones.
• 🔥 Sustained high-pressure work can lead to burnout, stress, health issues, and declining productivity, making it important to recognize limits.
• 📚 Early career growth often comes from tackling difficult problems and developing strong problem-solving skills rather than trying to master every niche design skill.
• 🧩 Building reusable systems and frameworks can make designers more efficient instead of starting from scratch on every project.
• ⚖️ Work–life balance depends on personal priorities; sometimes people optimize for learning and income, while at other times they optimize for creativity and sustainability.
• 🎯 It’s important to ask for more—whether salary or opportunities—because the worst response is usually just a 'no'.

Q & A

What was the main reason the speaker was able to land their job with a 72 LPA offer?

The speaker landed the 72 LPA offer due to a combination of factors, including their 3 years of experience in product design and previous freelance work, which helped them build trust with the company. Additionally, their work on fintech and dashboard designs was highly relevant to the role at the US-based startup.

What are stock options, and how did the speaker misunderstand them?

Stock options are a form of employee compensation where employees are given the right to buy shares of the company at a set price. The speaker misunderstood the stock options as being free money, not realizing they would have to buy the shares eventually, and that taxes would apply when they exercised the options.

What is the importance of negotiating the 'exercise period' for stock options?

Negotiating the 'exercise period' is crucial because it determines the window during which employees can buy their stock options. Without this negotiation, employees might face limited timeframes, leading to challenges, especially when the stock's value has increased. It’s also important to clarify if the company will buy back the shares or if the employee will have to wait for an IPO.

What was the speaker’s experience with freelancing and contracting, and how did it contribute to their career?

The speaker had a positive experience with freelancing and contracting, as it allowed them to build trust with multiple companies, improve their skills, and receive higher pay. Freelancing helped them understand their worth, build relationships, and land better opportunities, particularly because it gave them more control over their work schedule and income.

How did the speaker deal with the mental and physical toll of working in a startup environment?

The speaker experienced burnout after long hours of complex work, and they recognized the importance of taking breaks and setting boundaries. After several bouts of stress and physical illness, they shifted their working structure to reduce hours and avoid overexertion, ultimately prioritizing a better work-life balance.

What role did the speaker’s soft skills play in their career success?

Soft skills, such as communication, accountability, and the ability to handle ambiguity, played a significant role in the speaker’s success. The speaker emphasized the importance of being able to clearly explain design decisions, push back against bad ideas without being aggressive, and collaborate effectively with engineering and product teams.

What advice did the speaker offer to others about managing stock options and negotiating compensation?

The speaker advised others to carefully consider stock options and ensure they understand the tax implications, exercise periods, and the possibility of having to buy shares. It’s important to negotiate the terms upfront, including whether the company will buy back shares or whether an IPO will be required.

How did the speaker prioritize their goals, and how did this affect their career decisions?

The speaker prioritized personal goals, such as creativity, travel, and balance over money. They aimed to optimize for a healthy work-life balance, focusing more on personal fulfillment than high-paying jobs. They decided to reduce their workload to avoid burnout and to create YouTube videos, furthering their passion for design and creativity.

What were some of the challenges the speaker faced working in large teams versus smaller teams?

The speaker found that working in large teams often involved bureaucracy, office politics, and distractions, which impacted productivity. In contrast, working in smaller teams allowed for more focused work and collaboration with highly skilled individuals. They appreciated the high quality of work in smaller teams and felt that larger teams lacked the same level of accountability and drive.

What did the speaker learn from their experience in balancing contract work for multiple companies?

The speaker learned that managing contract work for multiple companies was initially rewarding, but the constant context-switching between projects became overwhelming. They eventually moved to a more structured 2.5-day work schedule per company to maintain focus and prevent burnout from switching between different work contexts too frequently.