Rahul Pandey quit his $800,000/year FAANG developer job to build a startup [Podcast #139]

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​ On this week’s episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Rahul Pandey. He’s a software engineer who left his $800K / year FAANG job to build his own startup.

We talk about:

– The post-layoff developer job landscape
– Developer interviews and how to differentiate yourself
– Why salary negotiation still makes sense
– His belief that 10x engineers exist – and even 100x and 1000x developers

Can you guess what song I’m playing on my bass during the intro? It’s from

Also, I want to thank the 10,443 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during our conversation:

– Rahul’s Android app tutorial on freeCodeCamp (4 hour watch): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-how-to-build-and-publish-an-android-app-from-scratch/

– Rahul’s video about post-college job offers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rceUVaiXQgU

– Taro, Rahul’s company: https://www.jointaro.com/

– The story of a software engineer who moves back to India to run his father’s chemical business after his death: https://anandsanwal.me/2018/06/19/dad-company-sale/

– Conference talk about the correlation between interest rates and developer hiring, by Pragmatic Engineer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpPPHDxR9aM

– Rahul on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpandey1234/

Chapters
0:00:00 Introduction and Background
0:08:44 The Power of High-Achieving Peers
0:12:41 Quantity Leads to Quality
0:21:53 The Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) in Decision-Making
0:24:53 The Value of the Journey
0:27:30 Navigating the Transition from Startup to Acquisition
0:31:10 The Value of Working in a Structured Environment
0:33:23 The Importance of Specialization and Depth
0:36:45 The Impact of Interest Rates on the Tech Industry
0:54:04 Becoming a Top Performer in Your Field
1:01:16 Becoming a 10x Developer – Focusing on What Matters
1:04:46 The Power of Soft Skills in Career Growth
1:08:23 Building Trust and Credibility on LinkedIn
1:21:31 The Future of Coding Jobs and Leveraging Unfair Advantages   Read More freeCodeCamp.org 

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