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Ask HN: How did Soham Parekh get so many jobs?

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Re: Ask HN: How did Soham Parekh get so many jobs?

#261

Post by asdf6969 »

Aurornis wrote: post #74
jasonthorsness wrote: post #6

He should pivot to giving talks on landing an interview and interviewing

You the phrase about how when something becomes a metric it ceases to be a useful measure because everyone starts gaming it? The same goes for hiring tricks. When some hiring signal becomes a trick that gets passed around by influencers, it ceases to become a useful hiring signal because everyone is gaming it. If this guy started advertising his process, everyone would start doing his process and it would stop workin…

Not true or else leetcode would be gone. They made a lot of money off the old paradigm and somebody will certainly take advantage of whatever comes next

Re: Ask HN: How did Soham Parekh get so many jobs?

#262

Post by [deleted] »

gargoyle9123 wrote: post #23

We hired Soham. I can tell you it's because he's actually a very skilled engineer. He will blow the interviews completely out of the water. Easily top 1% or top 0.1% of candidates -- other startups will tell you this as well. The problem is when the job (or work-trial in our case) actually starts, it's just excuses upon excuses as to why he's missing a meeting, or why the PR was pushed late. The excuses become more r…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How did Soham Parekh get so many jobs?

#263

Post by asdf6969 »

nottorp wrote: post #114
oh_fiddlesticks wrote: post #107

What is the difference between this and leadership being in the committees, boards and executive seats of multiple companies? Why is it the social expectation that an IC must devote 100% of their time and energy to the operations of a single company, when their senior leadership often manages their time between the affairs of many companies in their purview?

Incidentally, why aren't there more part time positions? Probably because said leadership would then be unable to keep their employees in meetings since they're supposed to do some actual work once in a while.

There aren’t formal part time positions but there’s a lot of jobs that only occupy half your full time and don’t ask questions when you disappear for a few hours

Re: Ask HN: How did Soham Parekh get so many jobs?

#265

Post by johanyc »

TimorousBestie wrote: post #255
y-curious wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm hoping that the section 174 fix from the latest tax bill will slow this down significantly

I’ll be surprised if it does. Software jobs are slumping for several reasons and the section 174 hack fixes one for a while but causes between one to four other problems depending on where you live.

One to four other problems? what are they

Re: Ask HN: How did Soham Parekh get so many jobs?

#266

Post by asdf6969 »

Barrin92 wrote: post #154
tkiolp4 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please. Employers are going after the your last drop of blood. The only reason that’s socially accepted is because they have the power to do so, and because it has been like that since ever. You make one mistake and you’re fired (sometimes even you’re fired randomly); the company is not earning as much as last year? Layoffs! AI can do part of your job? Layoffs! It’s silly and servant-like to think you are in an equal…

I'm in an equal to equal position to not sign any contract I don't like. What is it with this whiny attitude in this industry? We're talking specifically about software engineers. The guy worked four six figure jobs raking in 40 grand a month and didn't show up to work. Can we stop pretending we're oppressed workers because we have to show up from 9-5, Jesus.

In my experience I have no leverage and the contract is too vague to mean anything. The contract I signed says my job conditions and work hours are subject to change at any time. I understand I took a risk, but things were fine for years before they wanted me to start being available 24/7 or work late into the night. In environments like this the only sane thing to do is reluctantly accept the terms of the contract and push as many boundaries as I can.

Just because the employer pays me and I signed a contract doesn’t mean I can’t complain or push back. Do you think I should also dance like a Walmart employee in the morning if my employer tells me to? The contract I signed says yes but in reality it doesn’t matter

Re: Ask HN: How did Soham Parekh get so many jobs?

#267

Post by asdf6969 »

freefaler wrote: post #160
tkiolp4 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please. Employers are going after the your last drop of blood. The only reason that’s socially accepted is because they have the power to do so, and because it has been like that since ever. You make one mistake and you’re fired (sometimes even you’re fired randomly); the company is not earning as much as last year? Layoffs! AI can do part of your job? Layoffs! It’s silly and servant-like to think you are in an equal…

Employment contract is a contract and usually it's fixed hours per workday for a salary. So basically you as employee swap X hours per Y amount of money. If one of the parties is in breach of that contract it's normal it to be dissolved. If you don't want to work, you don't need to sign that contract. The really moral part of free market economy is that both parties are voluntary entering a contract. You as a person…

Salaried positions are explicitly not selling time. Whether I work 2 or 12 hours the compensation is the same. The only reason these contracts make sense is the unstated agreement that my employer won’t abuse the contractual power they theoretically have. And what’s the alternative? Signing bad contracts and leaving when things go to shit is probably 10x better for my career than pretending that I have agency in contract negotiations

Re: Ask HN: How did Soham Parekh get so many jobs?

#268

Post by altairprime »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #224
tomp wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If he's that competent, he could hire/mentor juniors and just use his skills to run a contracting business and keep making big bucks while not having to lie all the time? Much much easier said than done. 99% of companies that want to hire employees won't hire a contractor/consultant instead for that job. How do I know? 15 years experience, top candidate in many interviews, great salary / employment. Yet every time…

I think this is a US specific thing. I work as a contractors with all my clients (who know of each others) and they all pay significantly more per hour compared to an employee. As an employee I could expect to make 1/4 of what I actually make. The only exception in this arrangement was when I worked with an US company, they wanted to hire me as an employee and paid 1k per month to some company in my country just to h…

Yes: US salary costs include having to pay healthcare fees (it’s not universal here), so work contracted prices are generally discounted by that amount relative to salaries.

Re: Ask HN: How did Soham Parekh get so many jobs?

#269

Post by twright »

andai wrote: post #127

Reminded me of this guy. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27454589

The date on that post says a lot more about the state of hiring in ‘21-22 than overemployment (though 10 is a ridiculous amount). Everyone was over-hiring, ZIRP, etc. Then the music stopped in ‘23 and almost everyone was laid off.

Re: Ask HN: How did Soham Parekh get so many jobs?

#270

Post by ojr »

mkipper wrote: post #76
NameForComment wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can tell you it's because he's actually a very skilled engineer. He will blow the interviews completely out of the water. Easily top 1% or top 0.1% of candidates -- other startups will tell you this as well. It is hilarious that companies that hired a guy who was scamming them are also convinced they are great at assessing the skill level of devs.

Is it so hard to believe that someone can be a great candidate in an interview when you're getting 100% of their attention and then be horrible at their job when you're getting 20% of it because they're juggling 5 jobs?

he had no proof he can code, no projects, no github, only hired because he gave them a lowball offer, it was lowball because he was scamming
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