Laid off with Rs 30 lakh debt, AI engineer left helpless

The job market is tough, especially in the IT sector. But AI seems to be booming. Yet, an Indian techie, working as a generative AI/machine learning engineer, was recently laid off. He says that this happened just a year after his family took a Rs 30 lakh loan.

The techie, who goes by the username South-Task-4762 wrote on the Subreddit Developersindia, “Rs 30 lakh debt and I got laid off.” He states that his family had taken a Rs 30 lakh loan for house construction. The loan, which he has been paying for the past one year, has a six-year tenure. “I have paid up to Rs 3 lakhs (so far), and I don't know how to pay the money (now),” he adds.

While he does not mention the company he worked for in the post, from his attached CV, we can see that he was working at a tech company in Bengaluru from June 2024. As per the CV, the techie’s role involved developing generative AI apps using large language models, or LLMs. At a time when AI is the hype everywhere, it may be surprising to see someone in the field of AI be laid off, but that seems to be the reality of the job market.

Techie says he is scared to tell his parents

The AI engineer adds his family situation is not the best at the moment with his mother facing severe health issues. His father, on the other hand, is in his 60s and may have to retire soon. “I feel like everything is f***ed up and I am really really scared and don't know how to convey the issue to my parents,” he wrote.

What makes matters worse is the techie is scared about the job market situation. “I don’t even have the confidence that I can get a job in this bad job market,” he added. “I am attaching my resume here. If anyone has any referrals, please help me out.”

Redditors were quick to point out that the techie should not have taken such a loan. One user wrote, “With what guarantee you people are taking a loan of 30 lakh with almost no income? You do very well know in today's age, anyone can get laid off.”

Another person also called out the same thing, but was willing to help. “You made a mistake taking that 30 lakh loan. Anyway I will forward your resume to my HR,” they commented.

One Redditor suggested that the techie could try their hand at teaching if they don’t find an AI job. “You can get a teaching job too!! You can easily make like 70 thousand to 1 lakh. You can message me if you want,’ the person said.

The tech industry has been impacted by major layoffs in the past year. Companies including Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, and Amazon have laid off thousands of workers. Even non-tech companies, such as Adidas, have made cuts in their tech teams. As per layoffs.fyi, over 1,30,000 tech employees have been laid off by roughly 311 companies this year alone.

Though, going by reports, the demand for tech jobs in India may have improved slightly in recent weeks. As per Xpheno, demand for roles in IT services rose to 57,000 in September, hitting its highest since February 2025, when it was at 80,000. The overall demand for IT jobs stood at 1,17,000 roles, close to the high of 1,19,000 recorded in March this year.