I interviewed Soham Parekh — right here’s what it was like

When one recruiter obtained Silicon Valley’s notorious serial moonlighter Soham Parekh’s job utility two years in the past, he was instantly impressed.

This was two years earlier than the younger Mumbai-based engineer was uncovered for working remotely at a number of Silicon Valley startups concurrently.

“I used to be his resume, and his resume was so good that even my CEO on the time pinged me and was, like, ‘Russ, this man appears to be like superior. let’s discuss to this man,'” Russell Pompea, recruiting supervisor at AI video startup Topaz Labs, informed CNBC Make It.

Pompea mentioned Parekh despatched his utility by way of the corporate’s profession web page for a software program engineering place on June 2, 2023, and that he determined to interview the younger engineer over a cellphone name on June 12. CNBC Make It verified Parekh’s interview with Topaz Labs by way of screenshots.

On the time, Parekh listed AI-video startup Synthesia, in addition to a lesser-known AI firm, Bodo.ai, as earlier employers on his resume.

Pompea mentioned this mixture of corporations made him a extremely engaging candidate, so interviewing him was a no brainer.

“I keep in mind him being an excellent communicator,” Pompea recalled from the preliminary screening. “That was one among my first notes: ‘Soham is a superb communicator.’ I’ve talked to 1,000 software program engineers or one thing over the past 12 months, and so they’re not often superb at speaking.”

Nevertheless, in the course of the interview, Pompea picked up on a number of pink flags that in the end stopped him from progressing Parekh to the following spherical.

“I feel he discovered some classes from this interview, ” Pompea mentioned.

In an interview on tech show TBPN on Thursday, Parekh admitted that it was true he was working for a number of startups directly and wasn’t pleased with what he had performed.

“Nobody actually likes to work 140 hours per week, however I had to do that out of necessity,” Parekh mentioned within the present. “I used to be in extraordinarily dire monetary circumstances.”

Topaz Labs didn’t confirm whether or not Parekh labored on the companies talked about on his resume on the time as he didn’t progress to this stage of the screening course of.

When Pompea tried to dig into the main points of Parekh’s expertise within the interview, he recognized what he thought had been “three main issues” along with his responses.

“It appeared like a tremendous profile, even when it was somebody who was comparatively junior, however then he was lacking a good bit of precise particulars within the merchandise that he constructed,” Pompea mentioned.

When he pressed him about his work for Synthesia, Parekh was imprecise. “Folks often have nice command of the main points,” Pompea famous.

Pompea additionally noticed that the dates between Parekh’s expertise at Synthesia and Bodo.ai overlapped, and he wasn’t in a position to provide you with an ample rationalization for why.

“He informed me that he was working at each full-time and that there was an overlap in his discover interval … I wrote it down, like, this can be a massive pink flag,” Pompea mentioned.

Parekh’s resolution to depart Synthesia additionally did not make sense to Pompea. The engineer claimed the corporate was rising too quick and he felt “pigeon-holed,” in keeping with Pompea’s recollection.

“I requested him, ‘Did you attempt going to a different workforce or one other operate?’ And he simply completely skirted the query … you do not often simply depart a top-tier, tremendous high-paying firm since you’re annoyed. You attempt to discover one other job [in the company] first.”

Topaz Labs requires staff to work on-site at its headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Parekh glossed over particulars about whether or not he was going to maneuver to Dallas and mentioned he was in New York on the time, in keeping with Pompea.

In early July, two years after Pompea interviewed Parekh, Suhail Doshi, the founding father of Playground AI, took to X to warn other startups in regards to the moonlighting engineer who he mentioned is “preying on YC [Y Combinator] corporations and extra.”

A number of startup founders then got here ahead about hiring Parekh, saying they fired him after seeing Doshi’s put up.

Parekh mentioned he began moonlighting on this manner in 2022, and the grueling way of life meant he grew to become a “serial non-sleeper.”

He added that he “cared about these corporations” and “greed wasn’t an incentive,” regardless of his monetary scenario. He mentioned he all the time took the decrease pay, larger fairness provide at corporations.

For Pompea, it was a aid that Topaz Labs didn’t rent Parekh.

“I feel I used to be glad that we weren’t a kind of corporations that got here out and mentioned that we employed him and needed to hearth him. I’d a lot relatively be any person who noticed by means of it,” he mentioned. “That being mentioned, I truly really feel somewhat unhealthy for lots of those corporations, as a result of these are folks working in good religion.”

Pompea mentioned folks like Parekh make the job of a recruiter tougher — but in addition emphasize the significance of vigorous screening.

As a hiring supervisor, Pompea mentioned delicate abilities like teamwork and collaboration are simply as essential as technical abilities — and generally fast-moving startups overlook these human qualities.

“What I’ve found [while] hiring for Topaz labs for 2 and a half years, but in addition a number of different comparable corporations, is that you just virtually by no means have to fireside anyone as a result of they can not study a brand new software program language, or they can not study a brand new framework, or if there’s some kind of technical drawback,” he defined.

“The those who do find yourself getting fired have perspective issues, dedication issues, or work price issues.”

He mentioned that lots of the AI startups that Parekh utilized to work at are “shifting at 1,000 miles per hour,” and have to get merchandise prepared for launch inside days. In consequence, they might delay background checks till after the candidate is employed.

“A few of these startups may rent you two days after you do your remaining interview, and so they’re like ‘Hey, it is Thursday. Are you able to begin Monday?'”

Finally, Pompea mentioned that if Parekh cleaned up his act, then he’d have a shiny future forward of him. Actually, a variety of startups that employed the engineer praised his technical abilities, even amid the backlash in opposition to him.

“I additionally really feel unhealthy for the child, too, like he is a really good child. I hope that he alters and finally ends up having an excellent profession,” Pompea added.

Soham Parekh did not reply to CNBC Make It is request for remark.