←back to thread

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

291 points jshchnz | 8 comments | 02 Jul 25 20:28 UTC | HN request time: 1.092s | source | bottom

Soham Parekh is all the rage on Twitter right now with a bunch of startups coming out of the woodwork saying they either had currently employed him or had in the past.

Serious question: why aren't so many startups hiring processes filtering out a candidate who is scamming/working multiple jobs?

Show context
gargoyle9123 ◴[02 Jul 25 23:50 UTC] No.44450088[source]▶
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 ridiculous and unbelievable, up until it's obvious he's just lying.

Other people in this thread are incorrect, it's not a dev. shop. I worked with Soham in-person for 2 days during the work-trial process, he's good. He left half of each day with some excuse about meeting a lawyer.

replies(20): >>44451943 #>>44452130 #>>44452579 #>>44454933 #>>44455825 #>>44464702 #>>44466618 #>>44466761 #>>44467187 #>>44467327 #>>44467349 #>>44468081 #>>44469987 #>>44470878 #>>44472784 #>>44475315 #>>44476353 #>>44483740 #>>44490801 #>>44500486 #
anon_2222 ◴[03 Jul 25 13:37 UTC] No.44454933[source]▶
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 recruiters getting him in front of yc people. also you say you worked with him in person but other reports say he was in india. something not adding up here. i can verify my story by giving you the Nth character of the quirky email address he uses. can you do the same?
replies(3): >>44464682 #>>44469969 #>>44481071 #
1. anukin ◴[04 Jul 25 14:04 UTC] No.44464682[source]▶
It’s probably because the interview process relied heavily on leetcode questions. If it did, one can effectively prepare for that and only that and can be overemployed.
replies(3): >>44464695 #>>44468387 #>>44469660 #
2. koakuma-chan ◴[04 Jul 25 14:05 UTC] No.44464695[source]▶
Is it still common to ask leetcode questions during interview?
replies(1): >>44465183 #
3. Sevii ◴[04 Jul 25 15:04 UTC] No.44465183[source]▶
Leetcode questions are still the primary way to test skill in interviews.
replies(1): >>44465841 #
4. throwaway173738 ◴[04 Jul 25 16:25 UTC] No.44465841{3}[source]▶
Where? I have candidates solve a real closed-ended problem in the space we’re working in. I also give them a lot of source code to read and respond to and find issues with.
replies(2): >>44467303 #>>44495219 #
5. johanyc ◴[04 Jul 25 19:43 UTC] No.44467303{4}[source]▶
most medium to large size companies
6. wanderlust123 ◴[04 Jul 25 22:22 UTC] No.44468387[source]▶
No explanation has been provided to show hes good at leetcode either.
7. jacob_a_dev ◴[05 Jul 25 02:26 UTC] No.44469660[source]▶
I assume its because his resume showed hes worked at sexy startups recently (true or not)

Having worked at sexy-startup for 9 months recently with a good excuse why you left would get your resume to the top of the pile if it was read

8. bigfatkitten ◴[07 Jul 25 22:23 UTC] No.44495219{4}[source]▶
But this approach takes a certain amount of time and effort, and requires interviewers who are skilled at interviewing.

Leetcode provides an extremely lazy and cheap way of “solving” the problem of assessing an applicant’s skills.