Vaibhav Agarwal

Huge respect for how Canva has handled the recent layoffs. - 6 months of salary - 12 months of healthcare & career support - Removal of the equity vesting cliff - A $10,000 fund for employees who want to start their own business And even letting employees keep their MacBooks, as many won't have personal laptops. It's easy to treat people well when they're working for you. The real test is how you treat them when they're leaving. A little compassion goes a very long way.

90 days notice period. 6 rejections. 0 interviews. The most expensive line in your offer letter isn’t the salary. A friend of mine works at a big-name company. Strong resume, solid experience. Every company he applied to passed before the first call. The common thread: his notice period. Hiring managers need people now. Same skills, shorter notice, and the shorter one gets the call. What freshers don’t hear while signing: → Notice period is agreed on day 1 and paid for on your last day. → Buyout isn’t a right. The company decides, and you pay. → Some new employers cover your buyout. Don’t count on it. → A big brand no longer buys you time. Before you sign, ask 3 things: What’s the notice period? Is buyout allowed, and at what cost? Can it be 30-60 days, in writing? You negotiate salary for weeks. Negotiate your exit too. Higher package with 90 days notice, or lower with 30? 👇

I know, shocking. There’s a popular belief that life at Google looks like this: Eat breakfast ☕ Go to the gym 🏋️ Play foosball ⚽ Attend one meeting Eat lunch 🍽️ Zumba 💃 Arcade games 🎮 Cycle around campus 🚲 Free snacks again Cab home by 5:30 🚕 All true. But also… somewhere in between, we actually work. We write code. We debug things that break at 2 AM. We review PRs. We ship systems used by millions. The perks aren’t there so people can avoid work. They’re there so people can do deep, hard work without burning out. Free food doesn’t replace effort. Gyms don’t replace ownership. Comfort just removes friction. The work is real. The responsibility is real. The scale is very real. And yes — after all that… foosball hits different 😄

If you feel lost, get bored. Most people who feel stuck do the same thing. They make a Notion dashboard. They plan their whole life. They watch podcasts and read books a “21-year-old millionaire” told them to. Then they feel productive. You’re not. You’re just busy. A packed schedule fills your head. You get fast at doing tasks, but you stop seeing the big picture. The ideas that change your life don’t come when you’re busy. They come when you sit with nothing to do and stare at the ceiling. So stop planning every hour. Protect your empty time.

Recently I was talking to a few juniors. 15 𝘓𝘗𝘈 𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘬𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢: “𝗛𝗺𝗺… 𝘆𝗲𝗵 𝘁𝗼𝗵 𝗸𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗯𝗵𝗶 𝗻𝗮𝗵𝗶 𝗵𝗮𝗶?” What surprised me more was this — some of them haven’t even cracked a 3 LPA job yet, but the mindset is: “𝗸𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗵 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗵𝗮 30 𝗟𝗣𝗔.” That mentality is dangerous. Let me be very clear. India mein 15 LPA is a very good offer. For many families, that number changes lives. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 — 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵. 𝘈𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘺. 𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩, 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙣 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪. Social media has ruined perspective. 𝘾𝙏𝘾 𝙨𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙩𝙨, 𝙥𝙖𝙥𝙚𝙧 𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙮, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙐𝙎 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙐𝙎 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙨. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲. It’s a starting point. Keep the hunger. Drop the entitlement. Perspective matters more than noise. 𝙈𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 — 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨.

Had a conversation with a senior manager about the rapid AI shift in software engineering. The honest consensus? Nobody knows exactly what the IT industry will look like 12 months from now. But if your livelihood depends on your 9-to-5, these are some tips we should look at.   1. Upskilling is no longer optional: Stay updated in your field, whatever it is, and always ready to learn.  2. Reduce unnecessary expenses. Have at least a 12 months living buffer.  3. Take your current job more seriously than ever. Give your 100%, take ownership of your responsibilities, and make yourself valuable to your organization. The market is changing, but the fundamentals of being a highly valuable engineer haven't. How are you preparing for the next year in tech? Let me know below. 👇

Earning ₹30 LPA in Bangalore vs. ₹30 LPA Remote is not the same salary. 𝗜𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝘅 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲. 𝗦𝗰𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼 𝗔: 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲 (𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗽) Rent: ₹30k (Decent 1BHK in society) Food/Maid: ₹15k Traffic: 2 hours/day lost Savings: ~40% Lifestyle: Surviving the hustle. 𝗦𝗰𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼 𝗕: 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲 / 𝗧𝗶𝗲𝗿-2 (𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗰𝗸) Rent: ₹0 (Home) Food: ₹0 (Mom’s cooking) Traffic: 0 mins Savings: ~80% Lifestyle: Building wealth. We spend hours optimizing our code for efficiency (O(n) vs O(n^2)). Why don't we optimize our location for wealth, What do you think is the major problem stopping us ?

𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝗮𝗰𝗵𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 6 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝘁 (𝗦𝗗𝗘 1) 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 ₹30+ 𝗟𝗣𝗔 (𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗶𝘅𝗲𝗱). Here’s how the interview looks like 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 1 – 𝗢𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 • Stack-based problem: remove substrings if a character repeats ≥ k times • Queue simulation problem 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 2 – 𝗖𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗮𝗱 • Standard Grid DP • Merge N sorted arrays into one sorted array 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 3 – 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗹𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗺𝘀 (𝗗𝗦𝗔) • Maximize frequency of an element with limited increments (Sliding Window + Binary Search solution) • DP on stocks 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 4 – 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗹𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗺𝘀 (𝗗𝗦𝗔) • Shortest paths with negative weights → discussed Dijkstra’s limitation, explained Bellman-Ford & Floyd-Warshall • Sliding Window problem (Fruit Into Baskets) 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 5 – 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 & 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 • Started with project experience, discussions around Kafka • System Design: “Design Twitter” • Covered FRs, NFRs, APIs, Entities, HLD (Load balancers, Microservices, Cache, CDN, Async Processing, S3, DynamoDB, Fan-out services) 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 6 – 𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 • Behavioural questions, problem-solving approaches, team collaboration