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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?

#421

Post by [deleted] »

seattle_spring wrote: post #343
jokethrowaway wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

In the US it's not uncommon to have a $200k base. Not even taking into account stock compensation and benefits, you'd need to command about $400/hr contracting to fit your 4x figure. Does that sound comparable to your setup?

[deleted]

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

#424

Post by ashoeafoot »

krageon wrote: post #312
aleph_minus_one wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do I know? 15 years experience, top candidate in many interviews, great salary / employment. Yet every time I've tried to get a consulting arrangement set up it's been extremely hard and ultimately unprofitable (i.e. pays significantly less than full-time job, on average). Sounds like a legit negotiation strategy: - You prefer a consulting arrangement over being hired. - The company prefers to pay less for the…

Companies don't want contractors because they're perceived as (and often are) unreliable. Lower pay won't fix that, and a good hiring manager won't let someone weasel their way through that with this kind of prestidigitation.

Contractors like CEOs send clear signals they refuse self exploitation and are willing to exploit others .

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

#425

Post by Greed »

ojr wrote: post #418
sfn42 wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OP said he blew interviews out of the water. Presumably they mean technical interviews, that's how he proved he can code. By writing code. Lots of devs don't have personal projects. I love programming but after spending the whole day programming I don't particularly want to go home and continue programming.

you wouldn't and he wouldn't get past me, lots of devs don't have personal projects? That is a good filter, give me the ones with higher agency that do. Maybe my standards are too high. I usually contribute the most lines at work, and have personal projects that helped get me the job in the first place. With agentic coding on the rise, it's easier to make a side project after a year of nights and weekends. Nobody wan…

I am like you, I'm someone that can happily code for eight straight hours on task and then happily jump to a side project afterwards in a totally different language / domain. Take it for the single point of data that it is, but: I have met equally as many high performers who do NOT code at home as I have mediocre ones that did. And the number of programmers who code solely on the job is far, far more common than those who take their work home with them. Statistically speaking, at least in my personal experience, that makes the at-home coder notably worse on average. As someone that used to think like you, I think the only thing you're really doing is the boys-club-esque equivalent of what the old Ivy League managers used to do (Oh, he's from MIT! That's perfect, we only hire MIT grads here). You're hiring what you know because you understand people with that background more.

You might find on the opposite end of the spectrum that someone with a perfectly equal skillset is laughing at the idea of taking on personal projects when he can just optimize for getting hired somewhere where they prioritize paying you to learn on the job.

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

#426

Post by pailhead »

NameForComment wrote: post #65
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 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.

This.

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

#427

Post by pailhead »

sbmthakur wrote: post #259
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.

With due respect, they probably just asked leetcode-esque and sys design questions.

One of them didn’t. They just said they have the best system to pick candidates, that they’ve learned at their respective FAANG places, and that it can’t fail.

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

#428

Post by db48x »

reshlo wrote: post #288
dragonwriter wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people think of "contract" as specifically a written document, but that's not what a "contract" is in law, the written document (if it exists) can be very powerful evidence that (1) there is a contract, and (2) what its terms are, but contracts exist without them. While US employment is usually at will without a defined contract term , there are mutually enforceable obligations, including some definition of…

What good is a contract if you can’t prove what its terms are? Such a contract is worth the paper it’s printed on.

They do print the terms on paper. Usually, companies that don’t have a formal contract that both the employee and employer sign will still write down all the important information. First the employer sends an offer letter containing important information unique to the new employee, such as job title, compensation, work location, start date, etc. Then everything else is in some kind of employee handbook. The handbook details the expectations for every job title, the rules employees are expected to follow, rules for promotions and transfers, etc, etc. Together these have everything you would expect in a contract that both the employee and employer sign, and they are just as binding.

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

#429

Post by db48x »

lproven wrote: post #172
FootballBat wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Employment contracts in the US are rare.

> Employment contracts in the US are rare. Really? Does that mean what it say: you get a job and you do not get a written contract? I don't think, in 38 years of working in 3 different countries, I've ever NOT had a written contract, even for temp or contractor roles. WTAF?

It’s not really rare, plenty of companies in the US use employment contracts. But a majority don’t, not in the European sense. Technically there is always a contract between any two parties who are cooperating; it doesn’t have to be formalized in any particular way as long as the cooperating parties have a common understanding of the terms and agree on them.

Many companies that don’t use formal contracts instead put all the information that is common to all employees into an employee handbook, and the details that are unique to a specific employee into the offer letter. The offer letter given to a new hire has details such as their starting salary and start date, and once they arrive they are given a copy of the handbook and often time to read it and discuss it with a manager. The handbook will explain in detail how promotions happen, the work expected from for various job titles, any rules the employees are expected to follow, etc, etc. Together these form the common understanding that underlies the contract, even if there is never a formal contract signed by both the employer and the employee.

Contractors, on the other hand, always have a formal contract. Often a contractor spends a significant amount of their time negotiating these contracts, especially the scope of work. I should know, I worked as a contractor for many years.

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

#430

Post by ManlyBread »

cardanome wrote: post #278
dalemhurley wrote: post #42

This is insane, there is a Reddit, of course there is, of almost 500K people, https://www.reddit.com/r/overemployed/ , who discuss all of the strategies to do this. Just imagine being one of the people who legit joins a startup, is passionate, working long hours, earning your vest, to have your coworker pretending to be working.

This makes no sense. The whole thing is idiotic. Seems to be a combination of LARP and some people trying to push a narrative. If you really can work multiple jobs, just go freelance. Offer some consulting or whatever. You will earn more and have less stress than juggling multiple jobs.

>If you really can work multiple jobs, just go freelance. Offer some consulting or whatever. You will earn more and have less stress than juggling multiple jobs.

You won't earn more. I've considered that at one point and most adverts on freelance sites like Upwork are written by people who are either clueless or downright insane. These people usually want you to create a completely new system from scratch using technologies of their choosing and the offers are like $8-$15 per hour or $800 for work that is supposed to take months to complete. Why would anyone want to agree to do that when apparently getting steady paychecks from multiple companies is an option?

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