Rs 57 lakh remote job vs Rs 68 lakh Bengaluru offer: Techie asks if the difference is worth the travel from Madurai every week

A software engineer working remotely from Madurai has turned to Reddit for advice after receiving a Staff Software Engineer offer from a major US SaaS company that would increase his compensation but require him to work from Bengaluru twice a week. The techie currently earns Rs 57 lakh in base pay at a profitable US Series F startup and is considering whether to give up his fully remote setup, exercise his vested private options or negotiate a counter-offer to remain with his current employer.

According to techie's post, the engineer currently works as a Senior Software Engineer at a fully remote, profitable US Series F startup. His base salary is Rs 57 lakh with no bonus, while he has 9,895 vested private options that he estimates could be worth around $37 lakh net if the company goes public at its last valuation. However, he noted that the options remain highly illiquid.

The techie said his monthly take-home pay is around Rs 3.24 lakh and that he works entirely from home in Madurai, a Tier-2 city.


Also Read: Indian is 1000 times safer than London: Bengaluru-based founder Kaushik Mudda describes alleged distraction theft in London

Rs 17 lakh cost to retain vested startup options

A major factor in his decision is what happens to his existing private-company stock options if he resigns.

He said he has a 90-day window to exercise his vested options after leaving the company. Doing so would require around Rs 17 lakh in cash and taxes, according to his estimate. If he does not exercise them within that period, he would forfeit the options.

The engineer is therefore weighing the immediate financial cost of retaining his private startup equity against the more liquid compensation offered by the prospective employer.

New Bengaluru offer brings higher salary and liquid RSUs

The new position is for a Staff Software Engineer at a major publicly listed US SaaS company.

The offer includes a Rs 62 lakh base salary and a target bonus of Rs 6.2 lakh, equivalent to 10% of the base. It also includes $50,000 in RSUs, which the engineer values at around Rs 48 lakh over three years.

Unlike his current private options, the new company’s RSUs are liquid because the employer is publicly traded on Nasdaq.

The new role would increase his estimated monthly take-home pay from around Rs 3.24 lakh to Rs 3.76 lakh. However, it would require him to move from his fully remote arrangement to a hybrid schedule in Bellandur, Bengaluru, with two days of office work each week.

Techie plans weekly overnight train trips between Madurai and Bengaluru

Rather than relocating his family, the engineer said he is considering maintaining his home base in Madurai.

His proposed arrangement is to take an overnight train to Bengaluru every Monday night, work from the office on Tuesday and Wednesday, and take another overnight train back to Madurai on Wednesday night.

He estimates that, after accounting for leave, this would mean around 40 round trips a year and approximately 20 hours each week spent travelling by train.

The arrangement has led him to question whether the additional compensation and public-company equity would justify the disruption.

Could current employer offer Rs 65 lakh Staff role?

The engineer also outlined a possible counter-offer strategy.

He said his current startup’s Staff Engineer salary band begins at around Rs 65 lakh. He is therefore considering using the external offer to negotiate a Staff promotion with a base salary of Rs 65 lakh to Rs 68 lakh, along with a substantial ESOP refresher, while retaining his fully remote arrangement.

His questions to the Reddit community centred on whether a weekly dual-city commute could be sustained for one or two years, whether paying around Rs 17 lakh to retain his existing private options made financial sense, and whether the brand value and liquid RSUs of the public company would justify leaving his current remote job.

Also Read: LPU Protest Explained: What happened at Lovely Professional University? How a rape allegation led to violent student unrest

Users question the cost of giving up remote work

The post drew responses from other users, with some focusing less on the salary difference and more on family circumstances, housing costs, commuting and quality of life.

One user described having faced a similar choice between a Rs 45 lakh fully remote job and a Rs 65 lakh Hyderabad role that required 10 days of office attendance each month. The user said they chose the Rs 45 lakh remote position, with a monthly net income of around Rs 3 lakh.

The user said owning a house, having ageing parents nearby and being able to look after them were important factors. Their children attend a local international school costing around Rs 1 lakh a year, while staying in their hometown also meant avoiding higher rent, school costs, travel and construction-related pollution.

The user said the remote arrangement also saved around two hours of travel time and added that they were “very happy” with the decision. However, they qualified their experience by saying they were in the “coasting mode” of their career rather than the wealth-accumulation phase.

Another user said they had a similar requirement to travel to the office twice a week and described the arrangement as exhausting.

The user said that on one day they drove for four hours before working for nine hours, while on the following day they worked for nine hours and then drove for another four hours.

“I’d happily do this if it was an occasional requirement since full WFH could get boring at times,” the user wrote, while adding that doing it every week would feel like a chore and leave little energy or time for upskilling.

A third user was more direct about the proposed overnight train arrangement, saying it could affect the techie’s physical and mental health and that they would not recommend it.

The responses reflect individual Reddit users’ experiences and opinions rather than a definitive assessment of the financial or career value of either job.