This time, even Software Engineers.

Yes, the prestigious ones who once felt secure in the past while other roles were eliminated due to macroeconomic conditions.

But what about those who’ve grown comfortable vibe coding with Copilot, Claude, or Cursor?

It’s good that they’ve adapted—but that’s no longer going to be enough.

Well, you still need someone to write long-term Software Vision. Roadmaps. Strategy docs. Right..?

Well, AGI has that covered too. The AI context windows are becoming practically infinite.

Hmmmm….Leaner teams? The new normal.

Layoffs…?

Well, unless you've been living under a rock, it's already happening. Here's what leaders at top companies are saying and doing:

Harsh... right?

Here’s the thing: It’s not new. Every technological revolution reshapes the job landscape.

Software engineering roles won’t vanish entirely.

But only a few archetypes will rise to the top.

That raises the next question:

When it's time to chop off the puff—

What decides if you're "for here or to go"?

Or put another way—

What are the archetypes that will survive?

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Thought Leadership, Human Psychology and the Mysteries of the mind!

Today, I am sharing an article in ‘Tech, AI & Leadership’ section of this newsletter.

It’s my prediction there are three archetypes of Software Engineers who will survive.

Archetype 1: Intraprenuers

Let’s understand these engineers via a true story about Mike (named changed to maintain anonymity):

A long time ago, I worked with Mike, a Product Manager at my former company.

Brilliant at his job. He wasn’t just obsessed with customers and products—he was obsessed with how engineers coded.

He had a software engineering background but had moved into product management.

Empathetic. Visionary. Business-minded. But...

He was limited by engineers because he hadn't coded in years.

He'd ping engineers daily:

"Can we build this?"
"How much effort?"
"When can we ship?"

Engineers would scramble, estimate weeks, and deliver slowly.

He grew impatient.

With his engineering background, he understood concepts enough to dive into the codebase himself. He would question estimates, perform QA testing, and fix smaller bugs.

Crazy, right?

We joked:

“Mike could replace half of us—if only he knew coding better.”

Over time, he actually sharpened his technical skills and turned out to became a “Technical Product Owner”—a role specifically created for him.

Fast forward to today.

I truly believe people like Mike have a higher chance of thriving in the AI era.

As a leader, if given a choice between:

• Someone who only codes,

• Or someone who deeply understands customers, identifies problems, pitches solutions, rapidly prototypes, and leverages AI to build—

I’d always pick the latter.

Companies often assign prestigious labels to such people.

Some call them “those who think like owners.”

Others refer to them as the “CTO of their small teams.”

And some call them Intrapreneurs — “entrepreneurs within the company”. covered this topic well in her latest article in The Pragmatic Engineer. (Must read!)

These folks talk to customers, challenge the status quo, and understand that there’s a human on the other end of the product.

They possess strong interpersonal skills and deep empathy for their teammates and customers.

They bring in the deals. They create business.

They are the real leaders.

Archetype 2: AI Checkers

This type is relatively easier to understand.

They validate whether AI is doing its job well—similar to how senior engineers review the work of junior engineers. I simply call this archetype the AI Checkers.

These are exceptional Software Engineers who specialize in niche domains.

Think Infrastructure Architects.

Cybersecurity Networking Engineers.

Data Engineering and Security Experts.

Don’t get me wrong—AI will eventually make inroads here too.

But these areas are often deeply tied to company-specific systems and practices.

That’s exactly where human specialists will step in—to oversee how AI agents operate and identify when they fall short or go off track, and course correct.

Archetype 3: AI Builders

This one is even easier to grasp, especially if you’ve been following what’s happening in the industry right now.

I call this final archetype the AI Builders.

These are the engineers building the foundation of the AI era.

They train large models, fine-tune them post-deployment, and stitch together multi-agent workflows that resemble mini-AI companies.

They don’t just adapt to AI tools—they build them.

They don’t just automate tasks—they create the automation.

These engineers will not only become essential—they’ll become elite.

The top 0.1%.

Highest paid. Most in-demand. Courted by everyone.

Meta, for example, is already poaching OpenAI engineers with multi-million packages.

Companies are forming entire divisions just to attract and retain these folks.

Closing Thoughts

You’ll need to fall into one of these three archetypes to stay relevant in this new era.

Now is the time to reflect.

Figure out what aligns with your strengths, passion, lifestyle, and personal goals.

Do you enjoy building things from scratch? You might be a future AI Builder.

Do you love working with customers and solving business problems? You might be an Intrapreneur.

Do you have deep expertise in systems or infra? You could thrive as an AI Checker.

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer here. But there is a path for those willing to adapt.

What exactly should you start doing today?

That’s a whole article in itself—and maybe, just maybe, I’ll write that next.

🤝 Let’s Connect

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Gourav Khanijoe

Today’s article features a special guest, , Engineering Director at Taranis and the author of the Leading Developers newsletter, a must-read for engineering managers and team leaders. His content offers sharp, actionable strategies for leading dev teams.

Without further ado, I’ll pass the mic 🎤 to Anton 👏

"Honey, what have you done? My father wants to kill you!”

😨

I never knew my tendency to refactor stuff would get me in so much trouble…

Let’s back up a little.

Yes, I promise this relates to the software world.

Back in February, my wife's parents invited us to their home for 2 weeks. We had a 3-month-old baby (our first), and we appreciated the invitation.

The help was amazing - we finally had some free time, slept well, and ate great food!

Near the end, I decided I wanted to pay back the kindness. On a Saturday morning, they all went out, and I had a great idea.

The house has a huge yard, which was a complete mess:

• Piles of garbage

• Fallen leaves everywhere

• Abandoned tools in random places

• Old and rusty buckets getting in the way

Her mom always complained about how messy it was, so I thought my idea was GENIUS!

I cleaned up everything - I organized the tools on the shelves, collected all the fallen leaves, and threw away the garbage and the old buckets. The result was something like 5 huge bags full of trash!

I took a shower and went for what I thought was a very well-deserved nap.

Imagine my surprise, when I woke up to my wife saying: “Honey, what did do? My father wants to kill you!”

You get where this is going, right?

• Turns out that although I cleaned up some real garbage, I also threw away

  the compost corner my father-in-law started a few weeks ago.

• In addition, the leaky buckets were placed under strategic places where the gutters overflowed during heavy rains, and they distributed the water in a better way.

• And worst of all, my mother-in-law was very happy, and kept saying: “Look what a great job Anton did! You should learn from him!”

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

And one more:

🤦‍♂️

But enough about my in-laws, let’s go back to tech.

Why do developers always want to refactor?

How often did you hear from someone in your team: “This repo is in terrible shape, we must refactor it!”.

I’m working at a 10-year-old startup, so there is no shortage of old repositories and obsolete code lying around.

I agreed with most complaints, and that’s what I usually did: if we needed to do substantial work in a certain place, I factored in ‘tidying it up’ in the estimation.

Until one day, the ‘this-repo-is-in-terrible-shape-and-I-can’t-understand-anything’ complaint was directed at a codebase that I wrote myself 2 years ago! It was covered with UnitTests, well documented, and still highly used!

I was confused. Was I a worse programmer than I thought? After consulting with some people from other teams, and asking them to go over that code, I concluded that it’s not my fault (this time).

Since the dawn of time, developers always wanted to re-write things.

Joel Spolsky wrote in his great 25-year-old article:

Programmers always want to throw away the code and start over - as they think the old code is a mess. And here is the interesting observation: they are probably wrong. The reason that they think the old code is a mess is because of a fundamental law of programming:

It’s harder to read code than to write it.

This is why code reuse is so hard. This is why everybody on your team has a different function they like to use for splitting strings into arrays of strings. They write their own function because it’s easier and more fun than figuring out how the old function works.

You can ask almost any programmer today about the code they are working on. “It’s a big hairy mess,” they will tell you. “I’d like nothing better than to throw it out and start over.”

This was written in 2000(!), and I find it fascinating it’s still true. It can cause an endless cycle - if a code I wrote mere 2 years ago is already considered ‘legacy’, who will guarantee that the new code will be better?

From the same article:

It’s important to remember that when you start from scratch there is absolutely no reason to believe that you are going to do a better job than you did the first time. You’re just going to make most of the old mistakes again, and introduce some new problems that weren’t in the original version.

The concept is best explained by the famous illustration by Manu Cornet (there are many more great comics on his website!):

Old code is the best code

Jumping back to my father-in-law’s backyard story (I swear, it’s real. Since then we made up, but this stain will last a while…) - when you try to rewrite a codebase you don’t fully understand, you will fail.

During lunch a few weeks ago, someone asked one of the developers in my team how long it would take to write one of our internal-facing systems from scratch.

He looked at me and said: "Something like 3 months, right Anton?"
And I replied: "Closer to 6. And then 3 more years to add all the edge cases".

The longer the code exists - the more stable it is. When I started leading my team 2.5 years ago, I was given a legacy system to support, that nobody really knew. So far, it had maybe 2 small problems due to external API changes, and is just working flawlessly…

Code is like wine - it ages well.

Vadim Kravchenko wrote a great article about it:

Why should you consider aging your code? Because the longer your code has been around, survived different cataclysms (read: business pivots), and evolved, the more robust it is. The team that has built it before you had time to debug, to optimize, to improve — the code has accumulated years worth of bugfixes that are in places you cant even imagine.

The kinks have been worked out, and what you're left with is a mature, stable system that can handle whatever comes its way.

Finding the balance

I'm not saying that code should be kept forever. Requirements change, and new technologies emerge.

My point is that developers should be much more careful with how they define ‘legacy’, and how trigger-happy they are with refactoring.

Your role as a manager is to help the team find the balance - represent the developers, fight for the time to refactor when you believe you need it, but also represent the business side, and push back if you believe a refactor is not critical right now.

2 things I advice you to do before starting a refactor:

1. Think about the future. Are there big features planned in that codebase in the near future? If not - wait for them before you do anything, they might never come.

2. Make a TRUE effort to understand the old code. Let a developer spend a few days trying to understand the existing code. I’m surprised how often 6-8 weeks long refactor projects are started without even spending a day to understand what you are trying to replace!
   
   If the developer feels more confident after a few days, maybe a huge refactor is not that urgent.

The next time you consider refactoring a working codebase - remember my father-in-law...

🙏 Thank you Anton

Gourav here again 👋

Thank you to Anton for sharing this backyard-cleaning escapade which not only made us laugh but also served as an unforgettable metaphor for one of the software world's biggest dilemmas: refactoring versus understanding legacy code. This article should act as a humorous yet great reminder on finding balance, appreciating the value of "aged" code, and thoughtful decision-making before diving into a rewrite are invaluable for engineers and leaders alike.

To get more such valuable insights from Anton, check out his newsletter, Leading Developers.

Shoutouts for this week 🔊

1. How Changing Teams Can Boost Your Career Growth by

2. The one framework every engineer should know by &

3. CPTO: A role every company should consider? by &

4. How to Identify Silent Disagreements? by

🤝 Let’s Connect

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

This is an edition type of The Curious Soul’s Corner newsletter where I share my free flowing thoughts and curations.

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

The Anxious Generation

Wow, 90% of the surveyed public think there is a mental health crisis in the United States, with half of young adults and one-third of all adults reporting that they have felt anxious either always or often in the past year.

Tech companies are finding it as an opportunity and starting to monetize it.

The use of mental health apps continues to skyrocket.

What happened? What’s changing?

In 2020, interest rates were low and concerns about mental health were high.

Funding for digital mental health poured in.

In startup culture, funding based on potential rather than a proven track record is common and ongoing.

However, according to Stephen Schueller, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Irvine - “Evidence suggests that people benefit most from digital therapeutics when the apps are used in conjunction with some form of human support.”

So, the question really is: How could Tech alone solve this?

My opinion

Caring for mental health will soon be as routine as checking emails or counting steps, with mental health features becoming integral to everyday tech.

But emotional health is trickier than physical health because recognizing the need for change is harder. While being overweight is a visible signal to adjust habits, many miss the signs of emotional distress.

Without a breakthrough to rewire the mind-gut connection, I believe, solving this remains tough, though apps can help bridge the gap by providing knowledge and access to human support.

What do you think about this new wave? Reply to this email or comment on the substack app.

3-2-1

3 ‘Pics’ of life outside work

Traveling boosts your mental health and slows aging—says a recent study 😄. That’s exactly what I tell my wife whenever she rolls her eyes at my ambitious road trip plans!

As a road-trip enthusiast, I recently embarked on a 5-day adventure drive (and back) from Seattle to Yellowstone with my family. Spoiler alert: the excuse worked, and we had a blast!

We got lucky as we were traveling on the night of maximum aurora activity. Captured this 50 miles shy of Spokane, WA

We did a short hike to this view of ‘The Grand Prismatic’.

Finally, this is an awesome video I captured with my wife’s latest iPhone upon reaching the ‘Artist Point’ at The Grand Canyon of the YellowStone.

2 ‘Quotes’ I read recently and liked

and

1 ‘Book’ I am reading

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness: The book argues that overprotection in the real world, combined with underprotection in the virtual world, has disrupted children's development, reducing their ability to handle risks, setbacks, and social challenges—ultimately fueling today's mental health crisis among young people.

This Week’s Praise

Jordan is a Senior Software Engineer at Pinterest and the creator of High Growth Engineer, a newsletter with over 75,000 subscribers. His content offers practical, real-world advice that helps software engineers fast-track their careers to senior level.

I’ve learned from Jordan how to turn complex ideas into actionable insights—he’s a master at making content both useful and engaging. His newsletter isn’t just text; it’s an experience readers can visualize. Packed with career growth tips, it’s no surprise he’s built a loyal audience on Substack and LinkedIn.

More praises in next editions.

Mental Health Resources to Read & Watch

1. Technology in Mental Health: Trends and Key Insights

2. 20 Growing Mental Health Companies & Startups In 2024

3. The Interplay Between Downtime and Depression | The Tim Ferriss Show

Must Read Articles

1. How to do 6 Weeks Worth of Work in 2? by

2. Don’t Start Coding Yet: Here’s What Great Engineers Do First by

3. Grow in your career by organizing an engineering guild by

4. Taking over the Tech Lead role in your current team by

5. How Small Teams Can Achieve Outsized Results inside Big Tech by

🤝 Let’s Connect

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Gourav Khanijoe

Without further ado, I’ll pass the mic 🎤 to Jay. 👏

For the last few months, has been posting key elements regarding being an effective communicator.

He’s approached it from the perspective of writing, speaking, leading, and managing. Hopefully, you’ve had a chance to implement many of those ideas in your daily interactions.

How do you hang on to that growth and not slip back into bad habits?

Focus on one skill at a time. 🎯

If you practice one approach for two months, it will become your new habit. Then you can move onto the next skill.

If you are working on your speaking skills, prioritize maintaining eye focus with one person at a time for a full thought. Deliver one sentence to one pair of eyes and the next sentence to the next person.

If you master that skill, many of the other delivery skills will fall into place.

Slowly master effective communication across the full range. 🔑

Think instead of a “spectrum of effectiveness,” with less effective on one end of the scale and more effective on the other.

• The impact we have as communicators is not based on the single instance of a behavior or a single behavior trait. ❌

• It’s based on the cumulative effect of different behaviors - a combination of our delivery skills, overall sense of presence, the clarity of our message, the structure of how we share our details, and the specific language we use to describe our main points. ✅

• For instance, perhaps you’re like a lot of people and use a lot of filler sounds, like “um” or “ah”. If you say “um” two or three times in a meeting, who cares? It’s irrelevant. No one even notices. 🤷‍♂️

• But if you say “um” in between every sentence, it becomes a distraction. You sound like you came into the meeting unprepared, and you start to slide down the scale of effectiveness.📉

Go back through Gourav’s posts and select one trait regarding oral communication skills and one skill applicable to your writing.

Focus on those skills until you own them, and move on to the next.

It’s all about incremental growth. 🚀

It’s Gourav again.

Thank you, Jay, for sharing this path of incremental growth—mastering one skill at a time and transforming into an exceptional communicator. That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here. 📖

Jay writes about communication skills and leadership every other week for Forbes.com. He posts those columns on his LinkedIn page. If you’d like to receive them, please feel free to connect with him.

Interesting Reads

1. Why techies leave Big Tech by

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

A recruiter won’t schedule your interviews just because you’ve got 10+ years of ‘impactful’ experience on a fancy resume written with a best-practice template.

They have got hundreds of applicants with similar skills as yours.

Ouch! Painful to even get a chance to showcase your skills... right?

Tech job seekers need to digest these harsh facts when sending cold emails or LinkedIn messages to get a job referral.

No, the world out there isn’t evil.

There are legitimate reasons behind this, and I’ll cover a few.

But there’s a way out.

I call it “Interview-Call Insurance.” 🛡️

A few weeks ago, I shared a framework to land a $500k+ software engineer job without Leetcoding. But it’s important to get an interview before you can reach that stage.

That’s why today, I’m sharing a multi-faceted approach to getting that interview call. I’ll cover:

1. Why doesn’t cold emailing work? 📧

2. What’s an interview-call insurance? 🛠️

3. Four ways to buy that insurance. 💡

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind! 🧠

❌ Why doesn’t cold emailing work?

Short answer? Because they don’t know you.

People are generally more willing to do favors for those they know—both personally and professionally.

For instance, if folks like , , , , , , , , , hypothetically posted on LinkedIn today that they’re looking for their next opportunity, they wouldn’t need to cold-email anyone. 👋

Their LinkedIn post would be flooded with comments from people eager to help them out or make them their peer. 🫂

This is what happens when you cold-email or DM a stranger on LinkedIn asking for referral:

1. It get lost in their inbox. Tech job market isn’t what it used to be. Current employees are too busy saving their own asses and couldn’t get time to refer you. Referral bonuses—“free money”—aren’t on their priority list anymore.💼

2. Their image is on stake: It's tough for employees to justify referring someone they don't know, especially at senior levels where their reputation is at risk. That’s why you don’t hear back from senior leaders often.

3. Recruiting is screwed up right now: Companies downsized their recruiting teams in last two years. Limited recruiters are juggling multiple jobs with hundreds of candidates. This causes inefficiencies and burnout in filtering candidates.

🔥 Interview Call Insurance

The classic mistake candidates make is reaching out for help when they’re desperate.

Like “I need a referral now.” Immediately.

Well, you know there are no free lunches.

You pay the premium for car insurance before an accident happens. 🚗💥

The accident may or may not happen—hopefully, it doesn’t—but you still prepare for the worst.

It’s the same with getting an interview call. You need to “do the things” that buys you that “interview-call insurance” for yourself.

💼 Four ways to buy Interview Call Insurance

1. Build a personal brand and provide value.

The big problem is the internet doesn’t know what skills you have.

No, polishing resumes doesn’t work anymore. 🚫

To change that, you need to become more visible. You need to inform people.

Building a personal brand helps with that.

Today, you’ve got tons of options, thanks to professional social media. Here are a few, in increasing order of complexity:

• Share your perspective on others’ LinkedIn posts via comments.

• Post regularly on LinkedIn about something “valuable to others.”

• Reach out to people, offering help without expecting anything in return.

• Start a newsletter, like the one you’re reading right now.

• Start a YouTube channel.

• Build and teach others a course on a skill you’re an expert in.

Now, you might rebel and say, “I don’t want to be an influencer” or “I’m not a content creator.” 🙅

Yes, you are. You have to influence people every day at work to take action in some way. And you’re a content creator if you’ve sent an email, DM, or text message in the last 365 days.

Share your expertise in fields like distributed systems, databases, or system design. Your current projects. Your leadership style. The list of topics is endless.

But you also don’t need to be an expert to post something online. You can also write about how you feel working, the kind of work culture you like or dislike.

Trust me, I get way more job opportunities now than ever before—thanks to my writing.

2. Build friendships with leaders at work

No, not the kind of friendship where you gossip about others. Though funny enough, that works sometimes, too.

And definitely not the type where you break HR rules—if you catch my drift ;)

I’m talking about building relationships through supporting your leadership.

This is simple. Just do small extra things on top of your regular work at your current job:

Deliver results.✅
Make an impact.✅
Solve your leaders’ bigger problems.✅
Then ask them, “What else can I solve for you?”✅✅✅
Have regular 1:1s to catch up on life—both inside and outside of work!✅✅✅✅✅

When you solve your leaders’ problems, they’re willing to help you out. Sometimes even when you’re about to leave the company or get laid off.

I have a friend who got laid off due to bad luck—his entire project/org was shut down. Fortunately, a senior manager from a peer org reached out, gave him multiple leads, and connected him directly with recruiters from other companies.

Gone are the days when your managers would envy you for leaving.

3. Don’t lose touch with people who leave your company.

This one builds on the previous point. What if your leader friends leave and you’ve built a strong relationship with them?

Simple. Keep that relationship warm. 🔥

I’m still in touch with almost all the leaders from my past organizations. Actively with a few. Passively with others.

• Just text them once a month to see how they’re doing. Offer help if they need it.

• This can actually have a win-win outcome. When a leader moves somewhere else, they might need people they can trust—and they might vouch for you internally. This happened to me when I moved to Coinbase.

Building trust goes a long way.

4. Build relationships with recruiters

Wait, how? They don’t know you—and that’s exactly the problem we’re trying to solve.🤔

When your current job is stable, and the market is good, randomly apply and interview with companies once a quarter.

This has a few benefits:

• You get to know some recruiters and grab their direct contact information.

• You know your worth.

For this article, the first point is key. 🎯

Another way? Build rapport with recruiters at your current company. So, when they leave, you’ll know how to reach out—kind of like not losing touch with leaders.

Final thing: Never ignore a cold email from a recruiter during your good times. Reply with kindness, save their contact for future, maintain a friendly relationship.

Shoutouts 🔊

1. How to have 27 hours in your day by

2. Why techies leave Big Tech by

3. Lessons from Projects That Didn’t See the Light of Day by

4. You May Need a Gap Year - Five Reflections by

5. 3 Career Principles that got me to Director at Google by and

🤝 Let’s Connect

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Gourav Khanijoe

Once you land a management or leadership role, you must:

• Bring in business. 💼

• Talk to customers. 📞

• Lead the teams. 👥

• Hire and grow people. 🌱

• Delegate work effectively. ✅

• Set an example for others to follow. 🌟

In all these cases, the buck stops with the leader. It’s crucial that you can influence others with your communication to meet these expectations.

To become an open and communicative leader, do this:

1. During 1:1s or business meetings with stakeholders:

   1. Avoid vomiting information; instead, try to gather as much information. 🧠

   2. Set a positive tone to help solve others’ problems and build relationships. “I know we had a setback, but that’s business as usual. I have a plan that will solve it for you…Let’s create success….”.

2. Assign work in a manner that maximizes productivity. 🚀

   1. Delegate the work to either most experienced or interested person.

   2. Explain the role to the person to whom you are delegating.

   3. Set clear expectations, quoting specific, desirable outcomes.

   4. Portray the project as in how it benefits them. “I believe this will help bring your visibility in terms of leadership”.

3. Give actionable feedback:

   1. Ask for permission to give feedback. In most cases, it will be a yes.

   2. Use the sandwich framework: “You did well; however, you could have avoided…”. "But you are on the right path for…”. 👍

   3. Establish clear next steps. “For next time, would you like to practice…?"

4. Inspire and Influence:

   1. Talk less, do more, so that others learn to imitate by seeing rather than hearing you.

   2. Don’t strive to be a hero: “I don’t know everything, and that's fine." Speaking about this creates an environment of psychological safety.

   3. Speak with data-driven inputs and customer empathy in mind. 📊💡

   4. Use simple, short sentences inclusive of humility to influence without authority.

5. Be authentic:

   1. The more people know the “authentic you," the more they can relate to your speech.

   2. If you fear failure, be open about it, but show confidence in your plans. “I am afraid that there are unknown and we may not succeed, but without trying, we lose immediately.” 💪

That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here. 📖

We’re nearing the grand finale of the "Win that Communication" series! The next and final article will be a special collaboration with none other than the author of "Simply Said," - whose insights have been a huge inspiration throughout this series. He’s generously agreed to share an exclusive, game-changing endnote on this series, just for you! 🎉

That’s not all! With next chapter closing, our Reflection Series is gearing up for a brand-new series on an exciting topic. Curious to know what’s next? Stay tuned! 😄

References

• Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond

Interesting Reads

1. Regression Towards the Mean - Mental Model by

2. 5 Keys to the Hiring Manager Interview from a Meta Senior Manager by &

3. How to Stay Calm Under Pressure? by

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

• Shock: 😱 OMG, so long of a document?

• Denial: 😩 Do I really need to read it?

• Anger: 😡 Why didn’t the writer make it easier for me to read?

• Bargain: 🤔 Can I skim or skip a few sections?

• Guilt: 😓 Why am I not reading it effectively?

• Acceptance: 😌 Oh, geez! I need to just read it, but this is the last time I will do it.

If you are a writer, why make someone go through all this? 🤷‍♂️

There is a reason we tend to do this. We all experience events sequentially. So, we naturally want to explain things in the order we experienced them. It's called a "timeline" way. 🗓️

The system isn’t scalable because…<para1>
I checked logs and found…<para2>
I then tried monitoring stuff with…<para3>
I added the bug fix, it didn’t work so..<para4>
Finally, I realized I should do this. And finally it worked because..<para5>

We pour over many paragraphs, hoping that the reader first needs to understand the whole context to grasp the key point. 🧐

This may work for storytelling, but rarely is it appreciated when writing a business document or email. 📄✉️

But in reality, readers lose interest and are looking to save their time and “grasp” the key point ASAP. ⏳

When writing a business document or writing professional emails:

Adhere to these tips to maintain professionalism in your writing of business documents or emails.

1. Bring the key message in the first two sentences. 🔑 Use this format:

   ---

   1. Key Message: What readers should know and can stop reading afterwards.

   2. Background: Brief context to support the key message.

   3. Expanded Message: Only if needed, add explanation or additional context.

   4. Wrap up: Quick conclusion reinforcing the key message.

      ---

2. Write sentences of varied length: For example, one sentence of 17 words, followed by a bit longer sentence in the next line. Repeat a mix and match. 🎯

3. Don’t overwhelm the reader; move extra context to the appendices. 🗂️

4. Use bullet points so that your main line and each bullet point make up a complete sentence. 📋

5. When emailing someone to do something, use “Please” and “Thank you” 🙏, and curate sentences to meet the attitude of the reader.

If you need to provide additional context that is essential for persuading the other person, arrange a call with them, whether by phone, Zoom, or in-person meeting. 📞💻

Make it easier for them, not for you! 💡

That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here. 📖

References

• Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond

Interesting Reads

1. Why your job search is failing as an engineer or a manager (and how to fix it) by and .

2. How Google Search Works 🔥 by

3. 3 Keys to Onboarding by

4. Can We Please Avoid Over-Engineering by

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Code a bit. Then eat.

Cut time with your family. Grind Leetcode while dreaming about doubling your compensation.

Give interviews. Fail.

Feel like sh*t. Sleep.

Repeat.

Sounds familiar?

This is how most software engineers practice switching jobs.

It sucks when you have to spend a lot of time being an algo-coding monkey to crack interviews.

Reality at job is totally different. You are hired and paid to come up with ideas and solve business problems quickly, not to memorize algorithms like parrots.

But what if I told you something amazing? Something achievable.

As a Staff+ Engineer, you can land a $500k+ salary without Leetcode.

As a Senior+ Engineer, you can land a $300k+ salary without Leetcode.

As a Junior-Mid-Senior level engineer, you can land a $200k+ salary without Leetcode.

Yes, without Leetcode—it’s possible. I’ve been there, done that myself.

Today, I’ll cover:

• How Leetcode evolved and why it isn’t for everyone?

• Is it really possible to get high compensation as a SWE without Leetcode?

• A framework I use to land high-paying SWE jobs with almost no Leetcode.

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

How have Coding Interviews and Leetcode evolved?

Coding interviews existed long before Leetcode became a thing.

In 2016, I cracked my Amazon interview after practicing 100 known questions on GeeksforGeeks. Those were closer to real-world problems.

Over time, big tech companies found it convenient to use Leetcode as a proxy for assessing problem-solving skills.

Leetcode monetized this problem. To thrive on its subscription model, it began scaling and overcomplicating its problems.

Now, there are over 3,300 problems, mostly unrelated to what engineers actually face in their daily work.

Companies end up hiring algorithm experts, not necessarily great software engineers.

Why It Isn’t for Everyone?

For new grads with time on their hands, grinding through thousands of Leetcode problems is doable.

But for experienced engineers with families? That’s a whole different ball game.

We’re busy delivering results on real, high-impact projects at work. Plus, we’ve got lives outside of work that we can’t just put on pause.

Most of us are out of touch with those tricky algorithms and shouldn’t have to cram them like we’re back in college.

Think about it: the algorithms we’re expected to memorize took experts months to create!

Is it really possible to get high compensation as a SWE without Leetcode?

What’s the catch?

You can get into FAANG without Leetcode— it’s not an easy road.

Here's the thing: You don’t need to chain yourself to Big Tech to get the salary, learning, and growth you’re after.

You can find all that in mid-tier companies too.

The trouble starts when you get wrapped up in the whole “Big Tech Prestige” mindset.

Joe: “Hey, I heard you can land a fat salary without grinding through Leetcode.”

Nick: “Nah, man, that’s a pipe dream. No way Big Tech hires without Leetcode.”

Joe: “But what’s your priority? Is it the pay, learning, growth—or just having a fancy company name on your resume?”

I get it.

Working at Amazon, Google, or Netflix is the dream. Even your grandma knows those names.

But let’s take a step back for a second. What are you really aiming for?

If your next gig offers similar pay, growth, and learning as Big Tech, why not explore that?

Play a different game.

The best part?

Once you’ve got some solid experience under your belt, the dynamics shift.

If you are valuable, even Big Tech is occasionally open to bending their interview process to fit your terms. More on that in next section.

Use my EOF framework to cruise through coding rounds.

When I was on the job hunt after Coinbase, the last thing I wanted to do was grind through Leetcode.

So, I tapped into my network and found a bunch of non-FAANG companies working on some seriously cool stuff—places that value real-world coding chops over solving obscure algorithms.

And guess what? I scored four offers in just twenty days.

Two from mid-tier companies, one from a startup, and even one from Apple.

All of them over $500k for a Staff role—except the startup.

Here’s how I did it with the Eliminate-Offset-Frame (EOF) framework to sidestep the whole Leetcode circus.

Eliminate

I ‘eliminate’ Leetcode prep using these two methods:

1. I use a list of companies that don’t ask Leetcode.

   1. I then use levels.fyi and Glassdoor to filter companies based on my target compensation.

   2. Then, I find its employees on LinkedIn and try to understand the culture and work ethics.

   3. If everything aligns, I schedule interviews, and unless I had a bad day, 90% of the time, I get an offer.

2. I negotiate with big tech companies to skip Leetcode rounds.

   1. Many experienced folks know this secret, and it works a few times.

   2. Before interviewing with Apple, I negotiated to replace the Leetcode rounds with real coding challenges. I got the offer.

Offset

This is a fallback I use when I can’t completely cut Leetcode rounds.

I have a good grasp of system design interviews. I try to use this leverage to 'offset' one or more Leetcode rounds with these interviews.

At a mid-sized company, I replaced one of the two Leetcode rounds with an in-depth design discussion. For the other one, I prepared Blind 75 questions and was able to get through it without any issues.

Frame

This is my final fallback.

If I'm here, it's because a mid-tier company didn't meet my expectations for culture, pay, or ethics. Or, I'm desperately seeking a specific company that wouldn't accept my leetcode negotiation offer.

Two options. Either:

1. Smartly crack a few important Leetcode patterns with timeboxed preparation. Still no guarantee.

2. Take a step back and ‘Frame’ the problem differently.

I can join at some other role in company and later transfer internally at the role I aimed for.

Here’s how one of my friends did it:

He was a skilled Salesforce engineer who wanted to transition to a software engineering role at Amazon. The leap to prepare for Leetcode was too steep. Instead, he interviewed for a Salesforce engineer position at Amazon. Since it was a different interview loop, he avoided Leetcode-style questions and got the job.

Later on, he transitioned to SDE-2 role internally.

I acknowledge that this is a slow option, but it works for those who don’t have a strict timeline constraint.

Shoutouts 🔊

1. Being an engineering manager at Amazon by and

2. If you cannot track, you cannot improve by

3. Growing from engineer to Staff engineer and thriving by and

4. How to Cultivate Clarity and Kindness in Your Engineering Team by

🤝 Let’s Connect

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Gourav Khanijoe

Similarly, you would want to write a minimum of words to convey the most and ‘to the point’ information in written texts.

Unfortunately, we are so used to having clutter in our writing that it impacts our ability to land impact.

🌟 We need to challenge every word in our document.

🌟 A word should be present only to convey either content or tone.

🌟 The goal is to make it effortless for our reader to understand our ideas.

Use these tips to make your writing effective, crisp, and fluff-free.

1. Drop ‘Zero’ words and lengthy sentences.

Zero words are those that don’t add any value most of the time.

❌ “Currently, we have 40 staff members” —> ✅ “We have 40 staff members”

❌ “During the course of…” —> ✅ “During…”

❌ “At the conclusion of this talk” —> ✅ “After this talk”

2. Avoid confusing constructions

❌ Former and later: Avoid it. The problem is that you have to look back into the sentence you read to match former and later.

❌ And/or and using “/” in general: Pick one. It’s confusing when we say “easier/simpler” or “Let’s say Joe and/or Nick would do it." Do you mean easier and simpler, easier or simpler, or both? Would Joe and Nick do it together or would one of them do the task?

❌ Mid-Sentence Parentheses: If useful, move the sentence towards the end. Parentheses in the middle create diverging ideas.

3. Use the best possible shorter words.

Cut ‘-tion’, ‘-ment’, ‘-ance’, ‘-ing’, ‘this’ like words, and other weak verbs.

❌ “He made a statement that he was dropping out of the race” —> ✅ “He stated that he is quitting the race”

❌ “The process for reviewing documents is flawed. It doesn’t meet out needs” —> ✅ “Our process for document review fails to meet our needs”

❌ “The report missed one key number. The department didn’t report error. This led to poor decisions”. What does this refer to? —> A better line is ✅ “This inaccurate number led to poor decisions.”

4. Active and passive voices done right. Missing Actor is also valuable

Nike:

Active voice: “Just do it!” ✅

Passive voice: “It needs to be done” ✅

Missing the actor, a person or thing, when writing is also acceptable for legal writings:

“No admittance is permitted without authorization." ✅

That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here.

References

• Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond

Interesting Reads

1. What the world's #1 YouTuber can teach you about being a badass software engineer by

2. How I Almost Didn't Become A Staff Engineer by in collaboration with

3. From The Challenges - Cut by

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

This is an edition type of The Curious Soul’s Corner newsletter where I share my free flowing thoughts and curations.

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Starting this week, I’m experimenting releasing a curated article format once a month. If the feedback is positive, it might become a permanent feature in the newsletter.

Best Software Engineers do this

I experienced this for a long time..

Whenever I’d explain a concept, an issue, or a bug to a fellow engineer...

I felt an ‘aha’ moment. Suddenly, I knew the root cause of what happened.

Merely by explaining what I know, I find out what I didn’t know before.

I was fascinated by this and did some digging on this concept and found...

It’s a very simple but particularly useful technique used by some of the best software engineers for finding the cause of a problem by simply explaining it to someone else.

It’s called “Rubber Ducking”. This article explains it well.

The best thing about this technique is that you don’t even need a real human to listen to you.

If you are creative, it could be just a toy or... a ‘rubber duck’ to which you will be speaking out loud.

That’s how its name originated!

3-2-1

3 ‘Resources’ to Crack Tech Interviews

• shared resources he used to crack multiple Big Tech Interviews

• Tips that I shared to become 10x better in Tech Interviews in ’s newsletter.

• shared 3-Step Framework to never get down-leveled in Behavioural Interviews in ’s newsletter

2 ‘Pics’ of Life outside work

These two pictures shows growth progression and how we enjoy different phases of our lives outside the typical software engineering hustles.

Sept, 2024

My family and I attended a life-transformational spiritual retreat in Dallas, offering a break from the daily grind to reflect and reconnect with our purpose.

My toddler kept us busy, but that's how they start learning life’s key lessons early. They grow up so fast!

May, 2021

This 3 years old picture shows us as a carefree couple. No kids, No big house, No Car, just worries of weekend travel and material fun. We have ‘put up’ since then.

1 ‘Book’ I am reading

Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity is telling me astonishing facts about the latest scientific research on extending both lifespan and healthspan.

This Week’s Praise

: He’s fellow Staff engineer at Meta and writes a newsletter called Techlead Mentor to help you grow in your software journey.

With generosity, he offered invaluable feedback on my writing when I was just starting out. I learnt from him the value of genuinely helping strangers on social media. That’s why he has earned a loyal following among new content creators on LinkedIn & Substack.

More praises in next editions.

Must-to-Follow Tech Career Content Creators

1. , author of

2. , author of

3. , author of

4. , author of

5. , author of

6. , author of

7. , author of

8. , author of

9. , author of

🤝 Let’s Connect

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Gourav Khanijoe

You prepared so hard for it, but someone asked a question that you don’t know the answer to.

How to effectively answer it?

Use this mind trick:

• Gain time to think about it by speaking random yet meaningful stuff. It’s called "lead-ins."

• Use lead-in phrases like:

  • “Great question. Let me take a minute to discuss that”. 

  • "I appreciate your concern about timing.”

This works because your subconscious needs a moment to prepare a made-up answer. The lead-ins help it do this.

But be careful to NOT use this technique when answering the question directly is better.

As an example, if someone attacked:

“Aren’t you ripping off your customers with this gimmick?”

Give a direct response to this:

“Absolutely not. Instead, it will add value by…”

Imagine if you would have answered: "Oh, we are ripping them off. Thanks for asking. Let me think of it."

You would have lost credibility with it.

If someone asked a question filled with feelings and emotions that you don’t have a good answer to. Use ART:

A: Acknowledge 

“I appreciate that you are concerned about the budget."

R: Relate and ask for permission.

“I also felt it."

“Would it be helpful if I provided you with….?”

T: Transition and Answer

Now that you have gained time, deliver a good tactical answer. “Budget needs some thought process; all I know is that we have done it in the past within constraints. We will be able to repeat that."

Don’t use “but” or “however” in ART because that will negate your acknowledgement and relativity.

That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here.

References

• Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond

Interesting Reads

1. How to Unlock Critical Thinking? by

2. Become the engineer everyone wants to work with by and

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

His words resonated, and as I shared my own thoughts.

The next day, I expected things to feel awkward, but we picked up right where we left off.

Over time, we became casual and friendly. We discussed projects. I shared my advice on solving bigger problems.

Then he started involving me in key meetings. Soon after, I was leading a high-priority project. 🙌

Of course, it wasn’t just the newly built relationship—but also the trust he had in my past successes.

That moment taught me a powerful lesson—relationships matter more than anything else.

Today, I’m going to share how to build people connections beyond just technical skills that can open doors to your next promotion.

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

It’s About People, Not Politics

As a senior engineer, you’ve likely heard, “What got you here won’t take you to the next level.” — You feel its real impact hits when you start to grow in your role.

Career growth beyond the senior level seems to mean scaling your influence and solving bigger problems. But many engineers hit a wall. They've spent years honing their tech skills. But people skills are a whole different ballgame.

They struggle to build relationships with people, and it becomes their toughest hurdle.

They shy away, mistaking relationship-building for politics ❌. But there’s a difference between playing games and building real trust.

Here’s how to build real connections at work.🤝

🌟 Become a vent.

Most people miss the fact that the folks you work with aren’t just colleagues—they’re human, like you.

They have work stress, life stress, and family issues. They too feel overwhelmed, have insecurities, and sometimes need someone to open up to.

If you provide them with that space to vent and talk without judgment, and you listen attentively, people will feel heard and will then open up. They will start trusting you, respecting you, and may even follow you. 🙌

Here’s what I do:

1. ✅ I talk to people about ‘life’ outside of work.

   1. I try to dig into what they care about, what makes them tick, and what hurdles they are facing in both their personal and professional lives.

2. ✅ I give them my undivided attention.

   1. When they open up, I listen to their issues without thinking about my own next sentence.

3. ✅ I care for folks with sincerity.

   1. I often ask them: “Is everything okay at home?” or “How’s your kid doing now?”.

🌟 The Psychological Power of Face Time

While remote and hybrid work is an amazing perk, nothing beats those in-person moments.

It's because, psychologically, you gain a deeper understanding of someone by watching their body language, speech, movements, and reactions to jokes.

I often found that my assumptions about others changed after meeting them. Just talking made us both more comfortable.

For example, I once thought about an engineer being rude ❌. But after talking to them, I understood them better.🚀

Here’s what I do:

1. ✅ When working remotely, I find opportunities to meet people.

   1. I try to find common ground and make plans to meet in person outside work. Maybe they love catching up over a coffee, or they’re a huge fan of sci-fi movies. There are plenty of opportunities to meet.

   2. I never miss team summits or joint meetups organized by the company.

2. ✅ When in the office or meeting in person, I share a laugh 😆:

   1. If I am at the coffee machine or at a party-boozing together in happy hours — I tell a funny story or share my vulnerabilities. That way, they get to know me and I get to know them by how they react.

   2. I once told my peer that “I don’t feel like working today because the coffee machine isn’t working” and we clicked instantly.

   3. Recently, I also learned how my peer makes money doing options trading. :)

🌟 Solve leaders’ problems and make it their win.

When was the last time you solved a problem that wasn’t just technical, but helped to ease the burden on your leaders? Probably never. ❌

Once my manager told me about a micro-service we inherited that had become a liability.

It wasn’t a deep technical issue; it was draining resources and keeping him up at night. I saw it as an opportunity to solve his problem.

I worked on it, identified the cause of the alerts, and fixed it within a week. The team's operational workload shrank significantly.

When my manager’s manager got to know that, he appreciated him.

In the email chain, I thanked him for hunting the right problems. I didn't reveal that I solved the problem behind the scenes. 💪

Helping others solve their problems creates connections. These connections strengthen your leadership presence.

This is how you build loyalty, and more importantly, show that you care about solving the right problems and have an inner desire to help.

Here’s what I do:

1. ✅ I have regular 1:1s with my manager, project leads, and key stakeholders.

   1. I go beyond surface-level talk and ask about their real challenges: What’s keeping you up at night? What’s making your job harder?

2. ✅ I follow through promises.

   1. When someone shares a problem, I take action and circle back with progress updates.

3. ✅ I offer help.

   1. I tell them that I can take their on-call duties while they take some time off.

   2. If it’s my leadership chain, about what I can take off their plate. For example, I once relieved my manager of a few follow-up duties on 2 projects and it made him find some slack.

4. ✅ I celebrate their wins.

   1. I acknowledge the hard work and successes of those around me. Even if I have contributed to their win, I make it sound like their win. 🙌

Shoutouts 🔊

1. Scope Management 101 by

2. Wait What!? Delegation is Bad? by

3. Spirituality for Techies by

4. Build Influence Without Authority by

5. A 3-step framework for behavioral interviews by and

🤝 Let’s Connect

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Gourav Khanijoe

People present from slides having complex bullet points, graphs, visuals and say: “As you can clearly see…”. Well, they might not be seeing or understanding anything at all.

Use these subtle tips to enhance how you deliver your content to your audience so they can get the most out of it:

When presenting complex graphs and visuals:

Use RIDE

1. Read the heading - “I am showing you sales numbers”

2. Identify the type of graph: “ This bar graph/this chart/this pie chart shows..”,

3. Define parameters like “ The X axis shows..”

4. Explain what it means:" “This conveys that sales are increasing because..”

When presenting complex scenarios using sentences on slide:

First tell people what they are looking at before you tell them why they’re looking at.

1. When you move to a new slide, read its whole content "word-by-word." This seems counter-intuitive. Why read something already on the screen?

2. Well, the issue is that most humans can process only one thing at a time.

3. If you move a slide and then start speaking more information about it, your audience might still be reading the slide while you talk and no one hears you.

4. They will get lost if you don’t read what’s on slide first.

When explaining concepts:

Leave-Behind your authoritative key message beyond slides

1. Think of your slides as a "delivery tool" to engage your audience. After shifting the slide, and reading it verbatim, most of the valuable content that follows must come from you.

2. It should sound like you are the authority over the topic. This means you need to prepare details about each topic beyond just reiterating the slide content.

3. Possibly tell a story and use graphics that your audience will remember after the session ends, because no one remembers words on the slides.

That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here.

References

• Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond

Interesting Reads

1. 3 genius marketing tips for software engineers by

2. Paying down tech debt by

3. Complaint Filed About People Complaining by

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Throughout my career, I’ve been through countless performance reviews. While I’ve received both positive and constructive feedback, there are a few pieces of advice that truly stand out. Addressing them transformed my career and leadership skills in profound ways. 💡

In today’s edition, I’m sharing the top five critical pieces of feedback I received and how I tackled each one. Please shower some love and share with your friends if you like it! 💖

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Thank you for your kind support and love on my previous article.

1. Influence Without Authority

What Was I Doing Wrong?❗

When I first got promoted to a Mid-Senior Engineer in my career, I felt I was in power. Instead of acknowledging others' opinions, I imposed my own. ❌

I remember when a junior engineer, Sam, once questioned a code comment I had made. I was baffled and my ego flared—how could someone question their senior's comment? - I thought 🤔

The Feedback 📮

"You’re leading by asserting power," my manager said, "not by guiding others with respect and collaboration."

That hit me hard. 💥 I was causing friction in the team, and junior engineers were second-guessing their contributions because they feared my reaction. ❌

That night, I couldn’t sleep, replaying conversations in my head—realizing how often I shut down differing opinions and pushed my agenda. 😔

How I Addressed It 🚀

• I confided in my mentor, who encouraged me to talk to Sam. When I did, I realized he was right. I apologized and admitted my ego had blinded me to his valid points. ✅

• Over time, I embraced the idea that I didn’t always have the best answers. I encouraged others to lead discussions and share perspectives. I started asking others to lead sprint ceremonies and share their viewpoints. This created space for diverse perspectives to emerge. 🗣️💬 ✅

Key Takeaway 🌟

True leadership isn’t about control. It’s about influence— understanding, and guiding others by example, and not due to formal authority.

2. Active Listening

What Was I Doing Wrong?❗

During strategy discussions or critical reviews, I had a habit of interrupting others the moment they opposed my ideas. ❌

I wasn’t listening to understand—I was waiting for my turn to speak, cutting people off mid-sentence to push my justifications.

The Feedback 📮

In a 1:1, the senior engineer told me, “You’re smart, but it seems like you’ve already decided what the other person is going to say, and you’re just waiting to jump in.”🎯

It was then raised during my review. I felt a mix of frustration and embarrassment. 😳 I thought I was being efficient, but the reality was that I wasn’t listening actively. ❌

How I Addressed It 🚀

• I read the book 📖 You're Not Listening and realized that real listening isn’t just about hearing words—it’s about making people feel understood. I had to train myself to shift my mindset from trying to win a conversation to trying to understand it.🤝

• One of the most challenging changes I made was to satisfy my urge to speak by taking notes during meetings. When I felt the impulse to interrupt, I’d write down my thoughts instead. This gave me the space to listen fully. 📝 ✅

• I also made it a rule to be the last person to speak. The change was tough. But, it improved things. The discussions became richer, and people opened up more. 💡 ✅

Key Takeaway 🌟

Active listening is an underrated leadership skill. It’s about understanding, not just responding. When you listen with intent, you create space for better ideas and deeper connections.

3. Content Over Consensus

What Was I Doing Wrong?❗

I wanted everyone to agree before moving forward with any major project. I thought this would produce better results, but instead, it led to endless meetings and stalled progress. ✖️

One complex project suffered because of this. I kept revisiting the same conversations, trying to get everyone's approval. As a result, we lost weeks of valuable time.⏳ ❌

The Feedback 📮

I got this in performance review - "You’re spending too much time trying to get consensus. It’s stalling execution. You would benefit from getting consent, not consensus." 🛑

At first, I struggled because I had always believed that getting everyone to agree was key to effective collaboration.

But my manager explained that leadership isn’t about making sure everyone is happy with every decision. It’s about moving forward with the right intent, even if not everyone is fully on board.

How I Addressed It 🚀

• I began breaking projects into smaller phases, seeking consent to prototype early ideas instead of pushing for full alignment upfront. 💡 ✅

• One example was a critical backend payment processor project. Rather than waiting for everyone to agree, I secured permission to build a small proof of concept. ✅

• I got buy-in in my project when the prototype results spoke for itself and over time, even skeptics came on board. ♨️

Key Takeaway 🌟

Leadership often requires making progress without universal agreement. Aim for forward momentum and allow the results to speak for themselves, rather than waiting for everyone to be on the same page.

4. Scaling Myself

What Was I Doing Wrong?❗

I fell into the "do it yourself" trap. I was a fast coder and thought taking on tasks directly was the quickest way to get things done. ❌

But this led to burnout, and my team wasn’t growing because I wasn’t giving them the space to contribute. 🤯

The Feedback 📮

In my performance review, my manager didn't mince words. He told me, “Gourav, you need to scale yourself.” ❌ This wasn’t a surprise to me, I immediately agreed.

How I Addressed It 🚀

• I deliberately slowed down myself and instead started mentor others more. I would delegate tasks that I could have easily done on my own. ✅

• At first, it was frustrating—watching others take longer than I would have—but I resisted the urge to jump in. ☑️

• Slowly, I saw progress. Engineers began growing in confidence, delivering better results, and stepping into leadership roles. 🏆 ✅

• Finally, I led a project with a 12-engineer team on a major payments project, which we delivered on schedule and it resulted in several members earning promotions. 🎉 ✅

Key Takeaway 🌟

Scaling yourself requires slowing down to speed up. By mentoring, delegating, and trusting your team, you create a culture of growth and collaboration that extends beyond your own individual contributions.

5. Clear, Crisp, Actionable Communication

What Was I Doing Wrong?❗

I’ve always been a talker, often over-explaining. In meetings, I would give excessive context and over-justify my points, which confused people instead of clarifying. ❌

During a wider team meeting, I was asked for a brief update but I ended up providing a long-winded explanation, and noticed I was losing everyone’s attention halfway through. 🤦‍♂️

The Feedback 📮

In my performance review, my manager pointed out that my communication needs to get to the point and be direct and actionable. ❌

He recommended I read the book Simply Said, which focused on delivering clear, concise, and impactful communication. That recommendation was a turning point for me.

How I Addressed It 🚀

• I started reading the book, and it was a revelation. It taught me that effective communication about conveying what matters to others succinctly.

• One interesting fact is that I am still addressing that feedback. One practice that I have incorporated is that I am writing short reflection pieces on it every Sunday. As I am learning this, I am writing those down and sharing the knowledge with others on how to do it. ✍️ ✅

• My manager and I have observed that my Slack comms have became shorter and more focused, my presentations more engaging, and my conversations more efficient. There is still room for improvement but I am on the right path. 🎯 ✅

Key Takeaway 🌟

Clear, concise communication is a critical skill for any leader. When you cut out the noise and focus on the essentials, your message becomes stronger, and your influence grows. Say less, but mean more.

Shoutouts 🔊

1. Grinding My Way to Work-Life Balance by on ‘A Life engineered’ by

2. Best Mentors in the World Just For You by

3. Senior Engineer or Senior Citizen? How Can Vintage Tech Workers Age Like Fine Wine? by

4. Empathy is a superpower in the engineering industry by

🤝 Let’s Connect

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Gourav Khanijoe

I always wondered how people maintain eye contact with their audience when presenting quality content from their notes..

I mean, when they have to look at their presentation slides or notes to see what to say, and then actually speak about that... how do they manage to not roll their eyes back and forth, making them look weird and unprepared?

Well, the reality is that good presenters do roll their eyes, but they do it so gracefully that you don’t notice it. They make it so effortless for the audience to receive the information that the audience doesn’t get distracted by their momentary eye-rolling.

The framework they use is:

1. Take a ‘short’ pause that doesn’t end up being awkward.

2. Look at your notes, read next ‘Spot’ word, and bring out the context in your mind.

3. Choose one person from the audience and make eye contact with them.

4. Now that you know what to say using a hint from the notes, speak with confidence.

In short, “see it, save it, say it”.

In practice, follow this process:

1. Embrace the silence: While delivering presentations, a momentary silence between sentences or topics works wonders. Optionally, you can use filler words like “Ummm,” “Ya know...”. It gives the audience an opportunity to digest what you just conveyed. It also helps you maintain your composure and keep a mature posture while you read and prepare your next point.

2. Refer to your notes: To keep the silence short and get the best out of your notes, you need to make sure your notes aren’t full sentences. Rather, they should be bullet points centered on a page, divided among 4-5 key ideas or themes. Each bullet point should have a key word, also called an ‘anchor’ or ‘spot’ word. The idea is that you know your content well, and the notes are just providing you with a hint of what to say. Using this layout, you can refer to the next point within a second or two.

3. Demonstrate using eyes and hands: Now that you are ready to speak, bring your attention back to the audience, choose one person to maintain eye contact with, and start speaking. While you do so, also use hand gestures to help visualize your content. It’s important because no matter how fascinating your content is, people’s minds are often busy with other things, and all these tactics will help you bring their attention back to your presentation.

That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here.

References

• Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond

Interesting Reads

1. Replace All Staff Engineers with Multiple New Grads! by

2. How to be a 'SOLID' Programmer by

3. The impossible task of engineering managers by

4. Latest Innovations in Recommendation systems with LLMs by

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

One day, Nik’s pull request was met with a flood of comments. Already behind schedule, he DM’ed me on Slack:

"Can you please approve my PR? Everyone expects me to deliver fast, and I'm losing time."🕒

It was clear he hadn’t fully thought through the problem, which was why he was struggling. Concerned, I asked him:

“Why are you so stressed and didn’t do it right the first time?”

He quickly admitted:

"I’m dealing with sleep issues, demotivation, and depression due to work. I’m terrified of layoffs, worried about not meeting expectations, and constantly anxious about what others think. It’s affecting my work” 😓

He added, “Even when I’m not on my screen, my mind is still at work. It feels like I’m always working, never resting, yet I’m unsure about my performance. It’s becoming counter-productive."

I knew Nik outside of work—he had a loving family, good enough savings, and a support system in place. Yet, his mind was consumed by anxiety, fear of losing his job, and the constant worry about others’ opinions.

This is a struggle many of us face, fueled by misguided beliefs, wrong principles, and a lack of critical thinking. It’s no wonder that we're seeing a disturbing rise in heart attacks and strokes among young professionals in their 20s and 30s due to ever-increasing tensions. 💔

In today’s newsletter, I’ll share what I’ve learned about these deep-rooted issues in my career by sharing few examples and offer strategies to help you:

• Break free from toxic thoughts and beliefs.

• Overcome fear of performance expectations and layoffs.

• Face and handle complex problems at work.

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

1. Break Free from Toxic Thoughts and Beliefs

Each time Nik’s manager offered direct feedback, he saw it as a shadow of impending failure—a threat of getting placed on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). ⚠️

Though his manager was doing his part, he was unaware of how Nik was interpreting the feedback. Over time, Nik’s insecurities quietly grew stronger.

So, whenever he faced challenging problems that required timely deep dive, his fears and worries would dictate his uncoordinated actions, often resulting in unwanted outcomes. 🌀

I’ve been there too. I remember designing a flawed system under changing requirements and beating myself up for it. Instead of learning from feedback, I let negative beliefs take over. 😞

Root Cause ♨️

1. As Ray Dalio explains in his book Principles, our actions are driven by our beliefs and values. If we dwell on negative thoughts—like missing deadlines—we begin to believe we’re not good enough. 🚧

2. The more we dwell on negativity, the stronger those neural pathways become. Over time, these beliefs deepen and control our actions, habits and destiny. 🧠

How to overcome this? ⚡

Monitor your thoughts and remember—they don’t define you — you can distance yourself from them as separate entities. It helped me focus on taking action — fixing my design, when I messed up. 🔄

In practice:

1. Meditation helps manage your thoughts and brings clarity.. You can focus on your breadth, a godly Image or just empty space while sitting in quite place.

2. Focussing on gratitude and acknowledging existing skills, knowledge, and financial stability you’ve achieved goes a long way towards building positive neural pathways.

2. Overcome Fear of Layoffs

Layoffs have become a constant threat in tech. Over 124,000 employees have lost jobs in 2024 across 384 companies (at the time of writing this). Nik’s fear of layoffs was shared by many, and I’ve felt it too—especially during my time at Coinbase in 2022.

With ever-increasing expectations of high performance, it’s hard to focus on work.

Root Cause ♨️

1. After attending a few mindfulness sessions, I understood that this fear often comes from our brain’s tendency to jump to conclusions that we’re next in line.

2. We tend to over-index on hardships if the worst case has to happen. Many talk about saving for early retirement, they forget that these savings can also serve as a crucial safety net during tough times. 🛟 💼

How to overcome this? ⚡

Do your best work and prepare for worst rather than constantly worrying about it. The true job safety is knowing that you will get another job and can use your hard-earned money during tough times.

In practice:

1. Learn to pick highest-impacting projects wisely while focussing on elevating your skills, staying current with the latest technologies. 🎯

2. If you’ve saved enough to cover 6-12 months of expenses and kept your skills sharp, a layoff won’t keep you down for long. Don’t worry — AI is far from replacing us.💡

3. Facing and Handling Complex Problems at Work

Early in my career, I often avoided complex problems, thinking others were better suited to solve them—especially when it came to messy operational issues.

I remember finding a kernel memory issue as a junior engineer and threw it under the rug because I didn’t have anything to talk. I can empathize with Nik’s situation.

Root Cause ♨️

1. I was afraid of being judged for not knowing the solution. This fear paralyzed my growth. 🛑

2. When I discussed it with my mentor, she pointed out that this fear stemmed from a lack of confidence and a need to protect my image.

How to Overcome This ⚡

Over time, I learned to embrace challenging situations, seeing them as "interesting problems to solve." This mindset shift built my expertise and confidence.🔍💪

In practice:

1. Face problems head-on. Initially, it was uncomfortable and often required extra hours, but it paid off. I became more efficient at spotting patterns and finding solutions. While every problem is unique, I found that breaking them into smaller parts and tackling each step-by-step is key. 🌀

2. Admit when you don't know something. I was surprised that exposing my vulnerabilities opened doors for help and new perspectives without folks judging me. This shows that most of the times our mind make up stuff. People are more forgiving than we think, and saying, "I don’t know," invites valuable insights.☀️

Shoutouts 🔊

1. Should you Start a Startup? by

2. Nobody Is Watching — The Spotlight Effect by

3. How to say "No" and win back your time as a software engineer by

4. Why It Takes Forever to “Get to Staff” by

5. How I went from Tech Lead → Engineering Management by

🤝 Let’s Connect

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Gourav Khanijoe

“Do you want to share something at today’s meeting?”

“No. I’ll just sit and listen.”

Many of us view listening as a passive activity—a chance to check our phones, emails, or Instagram memes while someone else is putting their wholesome energy into conveying meaningful information. But how do you feel when others do that to you?

Effective communication isn’t just about sharing-out information; it’s also about truly absorbing-in what’s being shared with you.

A speaker feels valued when the listener responds with a simple "ah-ha," "hmm," or "okay, I see." No one wants to talk to a blank slate, wondering, "Are you still there?"

Why is this so important? To be a good leader, you must make others feel included. Giving them your full attention and being fully present in the conversation makes you memorable in their minds. They’ll feel comfortable sharing openly, and you’ll earn their respect because your active listening will help you understand the details better and make better decisions.

So, how can you become a better listener? Practice the following:

• Take Notes: Jotting down key points not only helps you remember but also shows the speaker that you’re fully engaged. Listen to the full sentence, then capture the essence in a few words. Note-taking should enhance, not distract from, your listening.

• Listen to Understand, Not Compete: Often, we’re eager to jump in with our thoughts, turning conversations into competitions. Break the cycle by saying, "That’s interesting; tell me more." You’ll gain more by listening fully.

• Ask Probing Questions: Once the speaker finishes, ask thoughtful questions. Open-ended questions like "What do you think of...?" encourage deeper discussion, while closed-ended questions like "Did you finish the memo?" help clarify specifics. Both types are valuable depending on the context.

• Confirm and Clarify: If something’s unclear, don’t assume—ask for confirmation. For example, "If I understand correctly, you’re saying it should be delivered by X. Is that right?" This ensures you’re on the same page and reinforces your understanding.

That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here.

References

• Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond

Interesting Reads

1. How to propose an impactful improvement to the codebase and own the implementation by

2. From Meh to Wow: How to Answer “Tell Me About Yourself” in an Interview by

3. Following Industry Trends Can Be a Career Trap by

4. Why does Big Tech enter Gaming? (Netflix Games, Apple Arcade, Xbox, Tencent and more) by

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

To look confident, we need to emit positive, easy vibes. Let’s understand this:

• Your body is an energy store. To stand out as a great communicator, you need to manage how your body emits that energy.

• Most of the time, it is dissipated via your Body Language and Voice. Watch out for that! These are the only natural tools you need to work on.

Make the following positive changes to these two aspects of your personality, and you’ll be amazed by the results.

Body Language:

1. Avoid Closed body Language: If someone walks into a room with their arms folded, it may be perceived as negative, angry, or upset. Even though they may not be, maybe that’s their comfortable position. The goal with body language is to minimize the audience’s ability to misperceive you.

2. Sit Straight: If you sit all the way back in your chair, you risk being misperceived as bored or disengaged. It’s not a rule, but a weird observation. Slouching isn’t good for your back as well. Try to keep your spine vertical.

3. Use hands for gesture while standing straight: Why keep your hands apart? Upon contact, they will likely fidget, like massaging and wiping sweat. The same goes for standing on one leg. You will keep shifting your body weight and look foolish. Instead, use your hands for gestures that add positive emphasis to your expressions and reinforce your words.

4. Keep a charming face: When presenting information face-to-face, one of the keys is to smile. Many salesmen forget this fact and are then not trusted for their jobs because their faces look terrible when conveying a point. If you are told that you look angry while talking, a simple trick is to open your lips slightly, which helps soften the face.

Voice:

1. Slow Down your pace: Speak slowly and take pauses in between. When you speak too fast, you sound like you are apologizing for taking the audience’s time. When you don’t take pauses in between, you aren’t giving folks time to digest what you just said, and they will lose their train of thought.

2. Adjust Volume: Always speak at the volume needed to reach the person farthest from you. Be just loud enough. Beyond that, raising your voice will add urgency. Do it only when needed. Use modulations in volume.

3. Speak with Positive Tone & Clear Inflection: If you speak with a smile, your voice reflects that. That’s why teams with customer service folks have mirrors or “Smile” signs in front of them. Along with smiling, use sharp, clear, and definitive hand gestures. Together, this makes your tone positive.

That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here.

References

• Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond

Interesting Reads

• How I grew this newsletter from 0 to 18K in one year by

• Going Slow Is the #1 Sign of a Truly Successful Person Living a Badass Life by

• Is Consistency Hurting Your Sustainability? by

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

"Originality" is a key trait of great writing, especially in the age of Gen AI, where anyone can create fake content. Thankfully, our brains can now (as of July 2024) distinguish original content from AI-generated. And that’s why only a few great tech writers stand out for their humane narratives.

Creating original content takes time and effort. Writers sacrifice family or leisure time to deliver valuable, authentic content. There is no replacement for that if you want to be a great writer.

However, once the original draft blessed with personal experiences is ready, writers still have to spend hell lot of time making an article “publish-ready” which includes:

• researching data,

• fixing grammar, adding images and emojis,

• using SEO-optimized words,

• ensuring simplicity and clarity, and much more.

Experienced writers use different AI tools to incorporate these in their original drafts, which is justified given the effort involved. But using those tools is costly and the process is cumbersome. For new writers, overcoming these challenges comes with experience and following best practices.

To ease out this process, I am openly sharing a custom GPT Workflow that I’ve created — “Tech & Leadership Newsletter GPT”. I'll demo it in today's newsletter. This tool helps content creators worldwide become more efficient and reduces friction for new writers in sharing their stories.

To access this GPT tool, all you need to do is subscribe to this newsletter for free. In the newsletter’s welcome email, you will have a personal link accessible to use this efficiency tool. Existing subscribers would get the link in a separate email as a freebie.

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

This article is little different from my typical writings. However, it holds the power to enable Techies across the globe to share their stories in an efficient way.

Demo of using this tool

The tool is designed to be used as a workflow. The steps of the workflow are ordered to help:

• draft an outline,

• take-in original draft and iterate on ideas,

• image creation and insertion

• adding research data and stats

• adding emojis

• simplicity checks to make sure its grade 7 read

• proof reading and final grammar checks

With that, let’s get started.

Kickstart using the tool

• Once you have subscribed to the newsletter, you will have the link to the tool. On the onset, it will give you an intro message asking you details about your topic, theme, title and target audience.

• You can ask it about the overall workflow before starting with the draft.

Start by sharing your idea!

• Here you will provide some input points to the tool.

• It will then ask you if you have an outline to share.

  • It can generate an outline for you as well if you don’t provide your own and ask it to create it for you.

• It will then create an professional outline based on your rough ideas and inputs. Further, it will ask you for your initial draft.

Start Preparing the Draft

• You can play around with surprises that GPT can give to you, aka, ask it to create draft for you. but I highly recommend creating your own draft with your own tone, structure, stories.

  • Below is just an example where GPT created the draft for you.

• Here, I asked it to ignore its draft and rather take my draft.

Refine your draft

• Then, it will tell you the next steps in the workflow.

• It can create an AI image for you, if you want.

• Then, it will can help you add some stats in your draft.

See example below:

• Then, it will make sure the article is simple to grade 7 level and simple to read.

• You can also ask it to add emojis at appropriate points in the next step.

• Post a final review, it will make it publish ready with proof reading, consistency checks, etc.

Disclaimer

First, you would need GPT-4o subscription to use this tool for longer periods of time as free Open AI usage may have some limits.

Second, this GPT tool is solely my creation, refined over a few days to streamline workflow and integrate best practices for newsletter writing. I've incorporated insights from great reference articles and the personal style guides of various authors. However, it's important to note that this is still a GPT tool and may sometimes produce inaccurate or unexpected information. Please use it at your own discretion. It's designed to enhance your efficiency, not replace your creativity or judgment.

Shoutouts

1. How to Impress in High-Stakes Presentations by

2. From Staff Engineer at Meta to Y-Combinator Founder by

3. How the Fear of "Unknown" is Blocking your Growth by

4. Why perfectionism destroys your productivity, and what to do instead by in collaboration with

5. 5 reasons why your best developers will quit - and how can you postpone it by

🤝 Let’s Connect

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Gourav Khanijoe

Here’s the catch: Most people are okay talking to one person at a time. Even if that one person is a stranger, we often feel confident talking to them. The key is to apply the same technique when talking to the masses.

But we all know that’s not easy. Have we ever enquired ‘why’?

The main reason is that in a one-on-one setting, we can maintain eye contact — a key element used to maintain connection and convey a sense of commitment to the person we are talking to.

When talking to hundreds of people, we tend to lose that connection with the audience as we aren’t able to scale up talking to and maintaining eye contact with so many people at the same time.

When you enter a room full of people you have to present to, your brain takes in too much information to process. You notice someone is judging you, another person is yawning, and someone checking their phone. The brain, just like a computer, freezes when taking in so much information and kicks in a “fight and flight” response.

Your heartbeat increases, and you enter a panic mode, leading to a bad presentation.

Here is a solution and key-takeaway

Look at one person at a time for a complete sentence. And then move on to another person for the next couple of sentences and so on.

This works because then you aren’t talking to 200 people, you are just talking to one person, same as your one-to-one setting.

You look composed, and confident and immediately build rapport with the audience, increasing your confidence further.

But take care of a nuance here: Just don’t focus too much on one person, especially when in a small group. Imagine if, in a board meeting, you spend your whole time talking and impressing the CEO, and afterward, the CEO turns to the CFO: “What do you think?”, the CFO would have lost you already. In general, it takes less energy to be nice to everyone than to figure out whom you have to be nice to.

That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here.

References

• Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond

Interesting Reads

1. Premature Abstractions by

2. Junior (IC3) to Staff (IC6) via Job Hopping by about

3. 12 Ways To Tell If You’re A Difficult Engineer (And What To Do About It) by

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter