What to Do and Not to Do?

Hi Grapevine, I'm Arnav, Director of Engg at Jio Cinema. I previously exited my startup to Scaler. Some of you may know me from ScalerPod. I've also led engineering teams at Zomato & Target. Here to chat with you about my journey in startups, leading engineering teams, and products at scale, among other things. Ask me your question. I'll be back at 8 pm and begin answering!

Hello people, I graduated last year and joined a fast-paced startup back in july as an SDE (2023 grad). So many things have changed so far within the company. Company has closed good series B funding. The top level management has changed, my manager and colleagues resigned due to the kind of work and cultural shift and lots of work but I stood there and delivered projects (was making them from scratch). Whatever was thrown on me during this time, I took that as an opportunity and delivered that. I literally worked on 4-5 tech stacks and built complex projects from scratch with 3 members team only. Now it seems like their ask is never ending and they again want me to put in another techstack since the existing products we built are working fine and we are just maintaining it now. The culture of the company is still very good despite having lots of work though the pay is above average. I am seeing my friends around me joining another company and getting much better hikes. I also want to make a switch but deep down in my heart I have these questions coming up: 1. Should I switch before completing 2 years since it's my first job and I have spent only 1 year so far here. I really don't want to make this habit of switching again and again. 2. The kind of bonding I have made with my colleagues so far. Will I be able to get the same environment in the new company? 3. Should I join the startup again or should I target MNCs now. Because I have been building multiple complex projects for the past 1.7 years (this is my 3rd startup) from scratch and this is also getting normalized for me. Is it time to work on a scale? 4. Feel less valued sometimes. Despite delivering lots of efforts, it seems like I am not getting valued much because it's kinda hardware company and things go around that only. 5. Although, I am working on complex projects here but sometimes I feel missing out if I hear what others are doing. Should I go to a pure software based company? 6. I am not making much here to be honest despite having much better coding skills (10 base + 2.5 PB + 2.5 VP) but I am able to manage my money well despite living in Bangalore. Should I be hungry for more? I would be happy to read your opinion on these guys.

I graduated in 2023 and currently I am working as a back-end developer (node js) in iot based start-up. My CTC is 5.8 Lpa and it is a WFH job. I have some free time in a day and want to prepare for the product based company. I couldn't figure out what I should start with? Should I grind leetcode or codeforces? Apart from this, what additional things should I prepare for product based companies? Any resources I should go through? My target is to switch in the next 6 months with some decent pay.

I graduated in 2021 and have worked in startups across EdTech, Cloud Communication, and currently in FinTech at a Series A startup. After 1.6 years in my first role, I pursued a 23% pay increase but faced a layoff after 10 months. Now, despite my experience, I'm finding it challenging to secure interview calls for an SDE 2 position. I currently work at a Series A startup where I joined after accepting a pay cut.(little above my first company ctc😢 and working for 7 months). My Job is really writing bunch of code but not designing or implementing any prominent systems as i am still SDE-1. I'm genuinely seeking your advice: 1️⃣ How do frequent job changes early in one's career impact hiring decisions, especially in different tech sectors? 2️⃣ Given my tech skills and startup background, what strategies can I employ to strengthen my resume for an SDE 2 role? 3️⃣ How significant is the company's reputation when considering a move to a more established startups/MNCs? 4. Is it worth changing or should i continue but pay is low than previous and i am not doing any sde 2 level job. Tech Stack: Java, Python, AWS, Flask, Springboot

Hi everyone! As a fresher eager to prepare for SDE2 positions and pivot to full-stack development, what are the best ways to stay updated with the latest technologies and continuously learn new skills? What crucial topics or areas should I focus on? Any resources, tips, or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated!

I'm a 4th year student from a pvt college. Did 3 internships, one in a decacorn, one in a unicorn. Have an offer from Amazon for SDE 1 when i graduate, and one from the company I'm working at right now. Reached so far only with development skills, projects, hackathon wins and OSS contributions. My leetcoding and competitive coding skills are downright garbage. I have absolutely no motivation to become a leetcode monkey and get more offers, but given the current market scenario, seems hard to get good offers without mugging up 800 leetcode questions. Folks in software engineering who made it with leetcode, how did you do it, and what did you do to kill that builder urge and mug up leetcode. I can't do this anymore.

Hi, I am a 2023 passout btech graduate. Currently I am working as a full time SDE (Full Stack) in a well established startup (8 years old , Series A funded). It's been nearly half year here. My compensation is 10.5 lakh base + 4.5 lakh performance bonus + free lunch and snacks + Insurance (Including parents) benefits I am pretty good at DSA (around 2000 rating on leetcode, 4 Star at codechef in 2nd year itself, 2000+ dsa problems) I have worked in 2 startups as an SDE intern during college days and completed 5 internships overall out of which one was a US based startup. Also, I have many publications under my name over the internet. I had many offers when I was graduating from college. Most of the time people say, "Hey, you have done so much so Why are you not working in a big tech". Well I always wanted to work for big tech during college days but after I started working in startups my thought process changed as here I got the ownership of the product. Now it has been nearly 1 year since I started working in startups. Should I give it a try for big tech now? Would like to hear your views guys

Brief intro about myself- I am a male 3rd year undergrad at IITD, not from a circuital department. Companies such as Amazon, Google, Flipkart and Adobe have already hired students from campus but they filter students via branch i.e. unless you're in CS, Maths or Electrical it's close to impossible to land an internship in SDE. Most top students in CS go for HFT companies but still recruiters prefer low GPA CS students over somebody from say mechanical or chemical. I've solved around 200 problems on leetcode/CF and I want to apply to companies by myself off-campus from January. How should I go about it and what are things I should be doing along with my college academics to increase my chances of landing an internship?!

I am going to be a 2nd year student after 1.5 months(B.Tech cse). What should i lean , i have AI as my specilisation alongside with the core btech.(in my collage you have to choose a spelisation in 2nd year along with the core btech). Tell me what to lean. Should i do web dev(html,css,javascript and js node) or something else. I don't know the market's demand. I heard that web dev is of no use as chatgpt can also do it. Please tell me a roadmap 🙏 along with resources (prefer to not spend my father's money🫠😭) My vacation is going on so i have plenty of time to learn and i am eager to learn

Hey guys a master's student here . So it's finally that time of year placements have started and the first companies to arrive are the hardware companies like micron , TA etc So here's the question is it ok to start your career in these companies considering they are not SDE profiles ? I am aware that the highly specialised roles that these companies offer will end up becoming dead end in longer run . They are offering position only for the masters students How difficult would it be to transition into different core cs companies? My coding skills are not that great , still grinding out leetcode ? Should I just end up joining these hardware companies or wait and try to crack sde positions ? (The competition is extremely high for those companies and undergrads are great coders)