Need guidance please, read below and let me know your thoughts.

So basically, this started a month ago. I was actively looking for opportunities and I got a call from Naukri.com from a company, Kearney, for an operations-side role. So I proceeded with it.

Now, before moving ahead, please know that I already have 1 year of customer service-side experience from Zomato and 1 year as an Analyst at KPMG.

So, I gave all the interviews and I cleared every interview successfully.

Now comes salary negotiations after 1 month of rigorous 4-round interview process.

So, just for background, I received a call from a hiring consultant from Naukri, and he sent my resume with a job CTC around 5.5 LPA. (This I gave because I joined Zomato at 4 LPA and came on a pay cut in KPMG at 3.5 LPA due to a profile switch, so I felt that much expectation was okayish.)

So, after the 2nd round, HR called me and asked my expectations. I understood the workload this profile holds and revised my expectations to 8–9 LPA, for which they agreed if I was open for negotiations, and I said yes and they proceeded.

So everything got sorted and negotiations started directly from 5.5 LPA, for which, of course, I pushed ahead and said, “See, I have more than 2 years of experience now and I am looking at least for 50–55k+ in-hand.” And she said, “Let's see if something can happen between 6–6.5 LPA.”

Now, a week passed but I received no call. So I connected with the hiring consultant, and he said that the HR reached out to the business, but the business denied it as they were already giving me a 40%+ hike. They cannot go more than that, and since I said I was also giving other interviews and was under negotiations there, the business is not going to exceed the amount.

But guess what? This was not communicated to me officially, and the HR is ignoring my calls and messages and not even informing me if we can settle at least at 5.5 LPA. They themselves agreed to reach out, and now nobody is telling me anything.

What to do here and what went wrong?

I desperately want to increase my salary, and I also have 2+ years of experience now. My salary is way too low, and I am also not getting many calls for real.

Please guide me on what to do ahead. I am feeling wasted.!

I was getting interviewed for 2 different roles in 2 diffirent companies. I honestly told both that I am talking to the other company.

Company A came back already with an offer and an employment contract for 350k monthly but my title got downgraded. The work is likely simpler with less headache. I already accepted via email but havent signed any contract.

Company B was radio silent for 2 weeks since my last interview so I thought that is a dud. However, they suddenly came back and said they are really keen on me and they want to schedule me for 2 more interviews. The offer if it ever materializes retains my existing title and could be higher than 500k monthly. The work is much harder but will push me to be better.

Now I have a dilemma. Should I go ahead and sign the contract with company A or wait for company B. Aside from reputational risk, what are the other consequences? The salary difference is quite substantial.

Initially, I asked for ₹5 LPA. Later, I said I’m expecting around ₹35K in-hand since there’s a 2-year bond. They said they’ll validate and get back to me.
I now feel I may have quoted too low, because i searched their glassdoor or ambition box reviews they are offering 6-8lpa for associate technical consulting roles, when the hr calls me should I negotiate it to 6lpa saying based the researches i have done and the bond, I am expecting 6 or 6.5lpa, will that be okay?

I also have 4 months of prior experience at Zensar(not related domain at argano), here at argano i got referred to integration development domain, initially they said they would put me to production support and then after 3-4 months move me to boomi or mulesoft projects

Honestly my goal is not to get into this domain but since the market is bad, im willing to do so
I wanted to move towards more data oriented roles