Tech Nerd, Had So many dreams, Got some other offer, Disappointed

I’m from a tier 2 city and studied at a tier 3 college(MCA) . I’m not trying to show off, but I genuinely believe I have strong potential in software development and machine learning. Even though I wasn’t a top academic performer in my batch, many of my friends and lecturers recognized my technical curiosity and ability. While most of my classmates were just discovering GitHub, I was already exploring Hugging Face, GitHub projects, AI tools, and newer technologies on my own.

Before college ended, (1month back) , I kept trying hard to get internships and software,related jobs. I attended around 5–7 interviews. In many of them, I felt I performed quite well probably around 80–90% overall. But despite doing reasonably well, I still couldn’t secure an offer because the current job market is extremely competitive.

Recently, through a relative of my friend, I received an offer for a NOC job with a salary of ₹20,000/month in a metro city.

Honestly, I’m not feeling great about it.

I understand that networking has stability and can eventually lead toward cloud engineering or cybersecurity, which are both good career paths. But emotionally, it feels like all the years I spent learning software development, Python, ML, GitHub, and newer technologies might go to waste.

At the same time, I’m also realistic. I know the market is brutal right now even many 2024 engineering graduates are still unemployed. So I’m genuinely confused about what the right decision is and what I should do next.