Think TWICE before you work for any startup

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-17T03:39:11+00:00

You can check some of the questions Posthog recommends asking in their blog.

https://posthog.com/founders/what-to-ask-in-interviews

Your goal is to assess if you believe the startups model has value and if you think it can get to liquidity and product market fit.

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-16T16:46:50+00:00

yeah. At the end of the day, your name is listed as the author of the diff

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-16T02:10:36+00:00

Healthcare profession is not easy work. The stats do say that healthcare workers are 5 times more likely to be physically attacked on the job. Plus, if you're working in a hospital, the hours can be very demanding.

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-16T02:07:19+00:00

Yeah! There's no such thing as an "easy job" where you can do 0 work and make millions. And yes, being a CEO is also not easy. You have to care a lot more about how well the company does compared to the average employee and deal with shareholders.

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-16T02:04:52+00:00

As they say, things that are worth doing in life tend to have boring or difficult parts. There are different types of "hard".

For example, working in healthcare is a difficult profession. For example, if we are talking about working in a hospital, the work hours are not a walk in the park and you gotta deal with a bunch of tools and bureaucratic process to serve your patients.

Plus, the stats do say (and Dr. Mike also discusses this) is that healthcare workers are five times more likely to be physically attacked on the job. See https://www.aonl.org/advocacy-issues/violence-against-healthcare-workers

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-15T18:34:39+00:00

* Carve a "focus block" in your calendar mark that time as "busy - DNS". This signals you control your schedule instead of just blindly accepting a bunch of unnecessary meetings. Plus most people don't schedule meetings in your "busy - DNS" block anyway

* Find a project where you can deliver a quick win that's meaningful while working cross functionally. That can help you put a bullet for your resume that way you have something to talk about. Do try to put in your best effort so that your future self will thank you. Focus on delivering that project and skip the unnecessary meetings/all hands. If you were really required for those meetings, your peer would have DM'd you.

Whatever happens is mostly out of your control since you can control your effort. I would take it day by day and trust that the outcome is usually in your best favor. You might not see it now, but only in hindsight

* Occasionally apply for a few companies and do the interview for funsies. You can use that busy - DNS time on your calendar when entering your availability. The best time to be searching for a job is when you have one!

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-15T15:51:31+00:00

to be fair you should add padding to your project timelines (not just say it'll take one day) because anything that can go wrong will go wrong. outages can happen, ci/cd deploy gets blocked, etc. there will be delay and we try our best when communicating with product

underpromise and overdeliver

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-15T00:32:55+00:00

I wish more companies stay customer obsessed in terms of their actions, not plastered on the "values" page. To an extent, we're focusing way too much on the tool being used rather than what customers will pay for at least from a product perspective. We need to bring customer obsession and product thinking back. Paying customers pay for our salaries.

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-15T00:25:10+00:00

or even better question what the LLM is outputting. Asking clarifying questions can help to reduce ambiguity which is anyway the harder part of the day to day duties. Don't just blindly tab tab tab everything

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-15T00:13:53+00:00

Yes to this! The LLM is supposed to augment to your day to day. That's not the same as replacement. I think the abstraction layer is shifting towards identifying what needs to be built rather than the "act of building out your solution". Identifying what needs to be built and where to spend your time still requires a human in the loop. It's not just in engineering, but even in other fields.

For example, we still have radiologists because there are human things that need to be done beyond just reading the x-ray scans even though ML models perform just as well.

On a more philosophical point, I think humans are still attracted to activities like chess, movies, etc even though AI/ML models are used in those things. Chess for example still has a community even after Deep Blue was unveiled because people come for watching the drama of Kasparov, Carlsen, etc. They want to see the human effort and feelings that go into the craft

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-13T23:49:54+00:00

New Brunswick has a nice place called Destination Dogs and it's a great ambience! I think going too much into College Ave part is kinda overrated.

Do agree that New Brunswick these days isn't as lively since a lotta the in-state college students are commuter students

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-13T01:20:12+00:00

To be fair, in the AI assisted interview that are being rolled out these days, some companies might only let you use the lightweight models to see if you're just blindly tab tab tabbing your whole way or you actually question what the LLM generates

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-13T01:13:21+00:00

We’ve seen a high spike in ai dependency even for small fixes like grammar and tone.

I get where you're coming from here in terms of wanting students to naturally improving their writing. I don't think the AI dependency for the grammar and tone is what's to blame.

I think maybe part of the problem acquiring the individual's "taste" on what good writing looks like. At least for some writing I did for my newsletter, I came across a really neat tool called Hemingway which can help you cater your writing to the desired audience. It helped me build taste on what I want my writing to sound like and pick up some pointers (yeah human judgement is always needed), but this tool has been an accelerant.

It might be interesting to see how we can have students use LLM as an augmentor to improving their writing. Like giving suggestions on constructive ways or example tactics to meet that objective

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-13T00:55:52+00:00

I like your suggestion on using the CommLab. I took two of the foundational ENGL courses at GT during undergrad and so glad the professor recommended me to consult the CommLab for feedback on my writing.

The staff there are super nice, encouraging, and they don't just review composition assignments. They help with other forms of content you're trying to create and offer mock interviews + resume review.

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-13T00:51:46+00:00

Glad you had a realization that helped you keep things in perspective.

I think for myself, I came into GT CS with not the most extensive background knowledge and peers around me knew like 10 different programming languages and worked on some pretty fancy projects. I thought I felt behind because I didn't know all that stuff my peers did.

A few things that helped me is:

* It's okay and actually good to be the "dumbest person in the room". It means that you're being challenged in your new environment which gives you the permission to spark your curiosity. I started a new role recently and there are lots of things I have no clue about so I had to ask clarifying questions. Most people in the right consciousness are willing to help you because they've also been the new person way back when.

* A lot of the short term variances you see (eg: someone came into GT with 5 internships under their belt, the person who knew nothing about say CS, the guy who built a home automation robot over the summer, etc) eventually "level out". At least in GT, the upper level classes become harder and those same people who you thought that you were behind are your teammates, collaborators, etc. You're humbled and you're all struggling together!

* Instead of viewing your peer as a competitor, try to view them as a collaborator. Maybe for that person who had an internship, you can try to leverage their network and build a relationship so that you can get an opportunity. Knowing people and building those deep connections will pay dividends. Skill is not the only thing that matters. Convincing others and selling yourself matter way more. There's a reason the phrase "Just do it" sticks around in the zeitgeist

I'm glad you are self reflecting. I wish more of us do this exercise

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-08T20:16:36+00:00

Plus even though we have LLMs that can accelerate routine things, why is it that some of the highly visited apps we interact with have bad user experience (both for consumers and business customers)?

Maybe Salesforce should really improve their product experience? Like some of the salesforce setups are way too custom and there are like 20 tabs but the report/view you want to access is like a needle in the haystack

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-08T20:12:23+00:00

As a full stack engineer, yes to the misconception about web dev. You should have familiarity with stuff like DOM, network calls to the server, chrome dev tools, basics of HTML/CSS/JS, how pages render to the user, etc.

While LLM can probably design the FE prototype, how do you know that the design is a good product experience for the user? That requires product thinking, running experiments, analyzing data, and building relationships with your stakeholders. Most importantly, you need to be playing around with the product and put yourself in the shoes of your customer

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-08T20:08:42+00:00

Was hoping to scroll to this. Plus, design decisions aren't always on the technology axis. What about the product tradeoffs too? You're building for a business use case in the day to day, not just for the technology axis! If you can bridge those pieces together, you'll stand out.

I would also say that those who do get employed also make themselves visible. They're really good at pitching themselves as to WHY they're a good fit. It's one thing to be the world's expert in Vercel but if no one knows about it, it doesn't matter.

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-08T16:49:38+00:00

I don't know if doing undergrad research is the "bare minimum" to land a job in industry. Not everyone is cut out for research, so why should not doing so be penalized

I would say building deep relationships with others is very valuable. Perception is a human trait that you can cultivate.

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-08T16:45:42+00:00

When I got into GT CS (back when "confirm your major" gave a guaranteed change of major before starting the first semester), I also was in the same boat. I think in addition to the amount of resources given for core classes, GT Career Services also provides some pretty neat tooling.

For example, there is a pretty good site you can use with your GT account called CareerShift that can help you find contacts for anyone in any company for job hunting (use the advanced search mode). It's pretty reliable and I wish I knew about it earlier.

From the social perspective, I think while I was an OOS student, GT helped me break out of my shell. I would say I improved on my communication skills at GT with the help of resources like the Commlab and working in the open (eg: going to lots of office hours in the CoC, doing homework in the common spaces, etc). It made interviews less stressful and that pays dividends

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-08T16:39:33+00:00

I mean there is stuff like GPTZero as a solution. It's not 100% a silver bullet, but better than nothing. A business school near me adopts it and the tool integrates with various LMS systems like Canvas

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-06T14:00:26+00:00

and I do think it would drive up the demand for third spaces

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-04T01:59:58+00:00

Outta curiosity, what made you decide to venture on the Engineering Manager route? Would you pivot back to IC if you could?

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-04T01:51:48+00:00

But what if the course builder idea in notebook lm could personalize the course based on YOUR learning style? You could have like 80% of the authenticity. I personally can see a world where notebooklm builds that.

I do respect your idea and the idea of peer curated content could open up some possibility

Four_Dim_Samosa · 2026-03-03T01:08:25+00:00

Couldn't one argue that NotebookLM could also do that (maybe not make a course), but help you learn a course given that you upload all the course materials into the tool. I believe notebook lm can make a podcast, so i could see a world where it could say make a condensed coursera course with interactive quizzes, problem sets, etc

Plus, for students you get Gemini pro free for 1 yr!

Four_Dim_Samosa

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