I have moved to Hyd recently and have gone through the ritual of house and school hunting.
For staying close to office, you have kondapur, madhapur & gachibowli areas. Big gated society rents are on the higher side with 2BHK between 30-40K or even higher depending on the society and location.
A little further you may chose Manikonda on the west/south side and Kukatpally/Miyapur areas on the west/north side. Here you will find a mix of IT and non-IT crowd but fewer (large)gated societies. Rents will be less compared to the above areas. You can find plenty of independent apartments(10-20 flats) with reasonable rents but enquire about parking and water availability. Also, check if water logging will be an issue on kukatpally side during rains.
On the house hunting, if you have time and can find a bike, you can pick an area of your liking and search on bike. For leads, try any of the online rental aggregators. If you don’t want the hassle you may choose to go with agents but I’d avoid that if possible. Best way is via reference i.e enquire within your colleague/relative/friends circle about vacancies in their societies as they can give impartial feedback and pointers.