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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?

#381

Post by joshuanapoli »

Eisenstein wrote: post #332
joshuanapoli wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is obviously some distribution of productivity in software developers. In young startups, a highly productive developer has an outsized impact. A delay in product development can mean the company is entirely blocked from advancing its growth. The cost of a “slow” developer can become the entire burn rate of the company, as everyone waits for X to be finished. A more productive developer has a better chance of s…

And how much delay is caused by waiting for that developer to show up and get hired?

Yep, you are also right.

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

#382

Post by davidgerard »

joshuanapoli wrote: post #314
ungreased0675 wrote: post #291

I suspect most companies are cargo culting their hiring process. This guy is one more piece of evidence. He knew what hiring managers wanted to hear, and used that to get in the door. My advice to companies is to stop chasing unicorns and 10x engineers. Intentionally try to hire ordinary average engineers. Your company making a SaaS app doesn’t need talented programmers, it just needs ordinary ones. Ego leads founder…

There is obviously some distribution of productivity in software developers. In young startups, a highly productive developer has an outsized impact. A delay in product development can mean the company is entirely blocked from advancing its growth. The cost of a “slow” developer can become the entire burn rate of the company, as everyone waits for X to be finished. A more productive developer has a better chance of s…

One effect is a fresh set of eyes. When I started my last job I immediately reorganised a pile of stuff in useful ways just based on my previous job - which made up for not knowing anything about the local lay of the land as yet. It can give your first few months a real perception boost!

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

#384

Post by jen20 »

ReptileMan wrote: post #66
crossroadsguy wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For my last job — the guy who was supposed to verify my permanent address called me and asked me to ask someone in my village to take a photo of the house with same day newspaper in the view and send it to him. I forwarded the request to my future employer asking whether it was the normal verification procedure :-)

Unicorns are easier to find than newspapers. If you threaten to shoot me unless I bring newspaper - I am not even sure where they sell them anymore in my city.

Last time I was in New York City I could not for the life of me find a paper copy of the New York Times to read. Newsstands appear to just be selling candy and drinks.

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

#385

Post by jen20 »

ozim wrote: post #136
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?

when their senior leadership often manages their time between the affairs of many companies in their purview It is kind of tiring for me to read people equating "Elon Musk" with "all those rich guys being CEOs". When you really are a business owner OFTEN you have to devote 120% of your time and energy for running the company and single one. People you see on TV flying private jets to expensive holiday destinations ar…

Musk isn’t even the first person I thought of here (it was Jack Dorsey).

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

#386

Post by NegativeK »

altairprime wrote: post #108

I did two full-time jobs for a month as part of changing jobs fifteen years ago and it’s exceedingly intense but otherwise was fine; eighteen hour waking days leave a lot of boredom time, no matter how many hobbies you have. Employers don’t like this because that’s a lot of work they could have persuaded an employee to provide as unpaid overtime labor instead; much this outrage is simple jealousy. If you’re doing the…

I've never seen that perspective.

Work has always been a distraction from my hobbies. _Always_. Sometimes they're related, but often they're not.

Though... Your stance lines up with people who work well into their retirement years while not needing the income? I'd struggle to give two weeks notice if I suddenly had enough money to live on for the rest of my life.

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

#387

Post by ls-a »

lexarflash8g wrote: post #363
ls-a wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish he was never caught. The companies deserved that

Realize that a lot of candidates who followed the rules and told the truth were screwed out of jobs. Right now there are massive layoffs and lots of good people are out of jobs and this guy is being praised by sticking it to “corporate greed”? Is Luigi Malione a hero and deserves to be pardoned by this logic ?

Wow that escalated quickly. I'm just saying why would an engineer who's been rewarded a seat at a company based on his leetcode abilities think that the company cares about anything else.

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

#388

Post by ManlyBread »

mock-possum wrote: post #372
pwthornton wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Why bother, when you get the paid the same regardless? I don’t know the guy, but I feel like a lot of people are missing this angle - just because you’re technically capable, doesn’t mean you’re actually motivated or that you actually bother to deliver. You can also be lazy and just collect your check.

This is my experience for the past 10 years I've been working in the industry. As soon as someone finds out I am more capable at something than the rest of the colleagues on the team I get to do all the work in that area yet receive nothing in return. Every time I tried to bring something up as an example of doing something more my achievements were downplayed as part of the regular duties or my mistakes were put on the pedestal instead. There were also calls to do more, even though I already was doing more than the average programmer on the project. Nothing was ever enough.

In my current job I aimed to be painfully average at everything I do and so far I haven't seen any difference. I still get the same reviews I was getting all these years and the salary increases are still as mediocre as the ones I was getting when I was trying my best. My only fear is that this strategy might lead to complete stagnation. I am already bored out of my mind and I would switch jobs in a heartbeat, but I can't currently do that due to variety of reasons.

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

#389

Post by commandersaki »

anon_2222 wrote: post #63
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…

we interviewed him and passed. he was horrible. it blows my mind seeing these reports of him crushing interviews and being a great dev. the bar for programmers is woefully low. on second thought there's got to be more to this story because he came to us through a recruiter who talked him up big time. did he come to you through a recruiter too? if so then either the recruiter is in on it or he has an army of different…

I'm intrigued by this guy, he could only have a few years of experience. What does he have to show for it resume wise? Has he ever built something, oversaw a large project, contributed meaningfully - and does he back this well in his interviewing?

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

#390

Post by gfdujdufituj »

swores wrote: post #379
lexarflash8g wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Realize that a lot of candidates who followed the rules and told the truth were screwed out of jobs. Right now there are massive layoffs and lots of good people are out of jobs and this guy is being praised by sticking it to “corporate greed”? Is Luigi Malione a hero and deserves to be pardoned by this logic ?

> "Is Luigi Malione a hero and deserves to be pardoned by this logic ?" You say that like you're unaware that huge numbers of people (I doubt anywhere near a majority, but significant numbers certainly) DO think that he is a hero who deserves to be pardoned. For a quick example, see https://x.com/search?q=Free%20luigi&src=typed_query

I wouldn't call far-left terrorists "people".
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