He took a year off to crack GATE, spent two years pursuing an MTech at IIT Hyderabad and landed a job at Qualcomm through campus placements, and now he is laid off. A social media post has highlighted how even hard-earned engineering jobs are not immune to the latest tech industry cuts.He took a year off to crack GATE, spent two years pursuing an MTech at IIT Hyderabad and landed a job at Qualcomm through campus placements.

A one-year break to prepare for GATE, two years pursuing an MTech at IIT Hyderabad and a campus placement at Qualcomm with a Rs 26 lakh-plus annual package. For one engineering graduate, the path to a dream job took years of preparation.

But that job has now been lost to layoffs.Qualcomm has reportedly begun cutting jobs in India as part of a wider workforce reduction, with around 1,000 roles said to be at risk.Against this backdrop, a post by X user Vikas Alwys has brought attention to the human cost of Qualcomm's workforce reduction in India, particularly for young engineers who spend years building their careers before entering the technology industry.Sharing his friend's experience, Vikas wrote: “My friend got affected by Qualcomm layoffs.” FROM A NON-TECH JOB TO A DREAM COMPANYAccording to Vikas, his friend had received a non-technical job offer from Sutherland during his BTech. Instead of taking it, he decided to prepare for the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE).After taking a year off, he cleared the examination with a rank of around 1,100 and secured admission to IIT Hyderabad for an MTech in VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration).

The two-year postgraduate programme eventually helped him secure a campus placement at Qualcomm.Vikas said his friend received an offer with a base salary of Rs 18 lakh per annum and a total cost to company (CTC) of more than Rs 26 lakh.However, the achievement did not translate into long-term job security.“This guy studied really hard and got placed at Qualcomm through campus placements,” Vikas wrote, adding that his friend had now been laid off.He ended the post with a comment on the worsening technology job market: “IT is getting worse now... It looks like ‘Never Settle’.”QUALCOMM LAYOFFS REACH INDIAQualcomm begins implementing a global workforce reduction, with employees in India also reportedly affected.Around 1,000 jobs in India could be impacted, although the final number has not been confirmed.

The company employs approximately 20,000 people across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi NCR and Chennai.The cuts follow an internal communication from chief executive Cristiano Amon, who described the exercise as a “performance-focused reduction." Notifications were expected to begin in November following annual employee reviews.Qualcomm has reportedly not confirmed the number of employees affected in India and declined to comment when contacted by India Today Tech.The company is also expected to undertake another round of job cuts in January 2027, according to the report.For engineers entering the semiconductor industry, the episode is a reminder that even a coveted campus placement, a prestigious degree and a strong starting salary cannot guarantee job security in an uncertain technology market.- Ends