For many young professionals, landing a job with a ₹25 lakh annual package feels like a major life milestone. It is the kind of number that looks impressive on LinkedIn, makes relatives happy, and convinces you that you have finally "made it."
But one IIT graduate recently reminded the internet that the number written on an offer letter and the money that actually lands in your bank account can be two very different things.
Siddharth Maheshwari, an IIT Roorkee alumnus and ISB graduate, shared a candid post on Instagram about the moment he received his first salary after joining a startup in Gurugram. His package was ₹25 lakh per annum, and naturally, he expected a hefty salary credit.
What arrived in his account left him confused. According to Maheshwari, the first salary credit showed just around ₹1.45 lakh. His first reaction? Surely there had been a mistake.
He joked that he checked his account balance multiple times because the amount looked far lower than what he had imagined while reading the offer letter. But the problem was not with the bank. It was with his understanding of how CTC actually works. And honestly, it is a mistake many fresh graduates make.
Understanding the CTC Reality
The headline package of ₹25 lakh sounds enormous when you first hear it. But once that figure gets divided into various salary components, taxes, provident fund contributions, insurance costs, and other deductions, the amount that reaches your account starts looking very different.
Maheshwari broke down his salary structure to explain exactly where the money was going. His monthly compensation included the usual components such as basic pay, house rent allowance, and special allowances. On paper, the monthly earnings looked healthy. But then came the deductions.
Provident fund contributions were deducted. Professional tax was deducted. Income tax took away another sizeable chunk. By the time everything was accounted for, the amount that actually reached his account was much lower than the number he had mentally calculated from the annual package.
Hidden Components in CTC
And that is before considering another reality that many first-time employees overlook. A large part of a company's CTC often includes benefits that never arrive as cash in your monthly salary. Employer PF contributions, gratuity, insurance coverage, and performance-linked variable pay all get added to the package value. They increase the CTC figure but do not necessarily increase your immediate take-home income.
That is why two people with identical CTCs can sometimes receive very different salaries in their bank accounts every month.
Key Lesson for Job Seekers
The post struck a chord because it captured a reality many professionals discover only after receiving their first paycheck. The excitement of a big offer letter often creates expectations that do not match the final salary slip.
Maheshwari's takeaway was simple: do not focus only on the annual package. Ask for the post-tax monthly in-hand salary. That is the figure that determines your rent, bills, investments, and day-to-day lifestyle.
His breakdown quickly gained attention online because it addressed something rarely discussed openly. Companies usually advertise the CTC. Employees eventually learn that the number that matters most is what remains after all the calculations are done.
And for many young professionals, that lesson arrives with their very first salary notification.
