Fired in 3 days by IITian founder, AI engineer says she now earns 8 times more

Ritu Maurya, an AI automation engineer, detailed her experience of being dismissed in front of a client within just three days of starting her job. However, that did not stop her.

A tech professional’s early career setback has gone viral after she revealed that she was fired by her IITian employer in front of a client just three days into the job. A year later, she says her determination to relearn the skills has helped her earn eight times her original salary.

Ritu Maurya recently recounted the incident in an Instagram post, describing how her brief stint at a startup ended abruptly during a meeting with a client. According to Maurya, the company’s founder, an IIT graduate, had assured her that he would personally guide her during the early days of the role.

However, she soon realised that the support she expected never materialised.

Maurya said she struggled to navigate the new work because she was still learning the tools and processes involved. Despite repeated attempts to seek help, she claims the founder was largely unavailable and often responded to messages hours later.

“Just two days into the job, there were a lot of things I did not know, and he had mentioned that he would be the one guiding me, but he was nowhere to be found,” she wrote, adding that he would rarely take calls to explain things in detail.

Things came to a head on the third day when the founder allegedly criticised her work during a conversation with a client. According to Maurya, he said, “You’re not doing the work right. I could have done this in an hour. We cannot move forward anymore.”