Ask HN: How did Soham Parekh get so many jobs? • Hacker News Board

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

#321

Post by ls-a » Sat, Jul 05, 2025, 1:42 PM UTC

thomassmith65 wrote: post #29

tuckerpo wrote: post #11

All anecdotes I see about this dude is: "we hired him and he did a fantastic job, but once we found out he had multiple employment we fired him". ... why? If the guy's doing well by all metrics and not leaking IP, literally, who cares?

This shouldn't come as a revelation, but it's risky to employ people of low character. There's the risk of theft, lawsuits, etc – not to mention, nobody needs the frustration of dealing with lies and flakiness.

Then fire the CEOs, lawyers, investors, and top management with low character.

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

#322

Post by u89012 » Sat, Jul 05, 2025, 1:43 PM UTC

To anyone thinking this is the only hustle out there or this is uncommon, you've no idea what's really out there!

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

#323

Post by ls-a » Sat, Jul 05, 2025, 1:44 PM UTC

u89012 wrote: post #322

To anyone thinking this is the only hustle out there or this is uncommon, you've no idea what's really out there!

Sounds like you're really bad at hiring. Paying low wages is backfiring at you

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

#324

Post by msgodel » Sat, Jul 05, 2025, 1:46 PM UTC

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…

I'm worried people are going to start going after burnt out employees thinking they're over employed because it looks the same from the outside and there's no way to prove a negative.

I don't think anyone has the morals or trust anymore for the way we used to do corporate work.

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

#325

Post by msgodel » Sat, Jul 05, 2025, 1:50 PM UTC

mpeg wrote: post #176

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…

I don't doubt he's in the 1% or 0.1% of candidates you're interviewing, but there is one very simple solution startups could apply to make it easier to find top talent -> remove "US ONLY" from their job listings.

Lol because foreigners aren't known for being scammers.

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

#326

Post by ls-a » Sat, Jul 05, 2025, 1:56 PM UTC

CyanLite2 wrote: post #232

TLDR: Tech has cargo-culted the interview process and people are gaming the system based on that interview process.

TLDR: Low wages are backfiring

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

#327

Post by lumost » Sat, Jul 05, 2025, 1:57 PM UTC

Wouldn’t this be largely corrected by reference checks/letters in hiring? I’ve seen those becoming more frequent.

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

#328

Post by pwthornton » Sat, Jul 05, 2025, 3:06 PM UTC

isatty wrote: post #294

The amount of people saying “yeah he’s a great engineer” with the only supporting piece of evidence being “he cracked our leetcode interviews” is bonkers.

“He’s a great engineer.”

“Also, he never shipped anything good.”

Hiring is completely broken in a lot of tech. Getting the right companies on your resume early on — regardless of your skills — makes you a made person. And then if you know how to game interviews, you’ll be double made.

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

#329

Post by pwthornton » Sat, Jul 05, 2025, 3:09 PM UTC

dazzeloid wrote: post #10

he's a really talented engineer, crushed our interviews. the funny thing was that he actually had multiple companies on his linkedin at the same time, including ours. we just thought they must have been internships or something and he never updated them (he felt a bit chaotic). but then it turned out he was working at all of them simultaneously. worked for us for almost a year and did a solid job (we also let him go…

It seems to me a really talented engineer would deliver more than solid work, no?

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

#330

Post by pwthornton » Sat, Jul 05, 2025, 3:10 PM UTC

StackRanker3000 wrote: post #282

nyarlathotep_ wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he's a really talented engineer, crushed our interviews. Think it says a lot about this industry if "really talented 'engineer'" means passing loads of gamified interviews and not delivering things on time.

But the person you’re responding to said he did a solid job for almost a year.

That’s pretty faint praise.