Rahul Pandey, former META staff engineer, attributes a large part of his career trajectory to Good Fortune. But you can always make your own chance – at least in part.
“You can make luck in the sense of being curious about the people and the opportunities around you,” Pandey said on an episode of the podcast “The Developing Dev”.
Pandey’s path through technology began to leave university when he joined a startup managed by one of his former teachers in Stanford. From there, he rebounded from Pinterest to Meta, where he finally went up to the staff engineer before leaving to start Taro, a startup supported by YC which offers career coaching to software engineers.
To align these kinds of opportunities, it takes a certain degree of luck, Pandey has recognized. But they are more likely to come if you develop a network-and do it by being authentic, he said. By stretching your hand on the basis of a real curiosity and making sure that you have something to share, you can avoid making a cold feeling.
“I do a lot of the work in my career in my career is just, once again, a little aware – what do the people I respect?” He said. “And so I think it can be a reproducible algorithm or a reproducible process that does not depend on luck. Simply change your approach to networking or speaking to people, and it’s a very good way to make luck.”
If your conversations feel stowed, Pandey suggests evaluating if there is an equal balance of dealers.
“I think one of the best ways to develop a relationship with someone is not only to ask a ton of questions or ask mentoring,” he said. “A very good way to develop a relationship is to say:” Hey, here is something on which I worked that could be interesting for you. “”
Pandey said that the strategy of “thinking about what you share” makes the speaker more likely to build productive relationships.
“You create gravity,” he said. “People revolve to you because they also want to have your opinion on things. So it’s like a double -meaning street.”
When he decided for the first time to start his career in an emerging company, Pandey said he thought it was a high -risk and high reward option.
On the one hand, “it could really go,” he said; But even in the worst case, it would be a “good story to tell”.
“I had the impression that it was almost too good in a story to pass. I could be one of the 10,000 or 20,000 engineers of Big Tech if I join Google or Microsoft or Meta – and I had received offers to all,” said Pandey. “But then, I felt like, okay, it’s a story where I had this connection, a relationship with the teacher. He gives me, I trust him, and it looks like a unique story of Silicon Valley.”
Pandey said he had used a decision -making framework to think of his career paths being a one -way or double -meaning door. This helped him decide between the game on a startup or to follow the most traditional (and generally more secure) path to sign with a large business.
“Most things in your career are double-meaning doors, in the sense that you are trying it, you learn something, you are experimenting, and then you can always go back,” he said. “You can always decide to leave the startup, then go to Big Tech if necessary, so it was a consideration.” “”
Another consideration: Pandey had already taken an internship with Meta in the summer before his diploma and had the impression that he had already obtained a level of approval from Big Tech. It was also important, he added, the “often neglected” narration potential of the more risky path.
“The story you can create on what you have done, why you did it and why it’s interesting – it’s incredibly powerful,” said Pandey. He obtained a lot of mileage to be able to describe his experience as an “young enterprising engineer” who “took a bet on a startup,” he added.
When you are on the precipice of a major career decision, Pandey suggested that it might be useful to consider what could possibly be the best story. These opportunities, he added, are generally those that allow you to meet more people and assume unique responsibilities.
“One of the things I say to people, on taro or simply in general when I mentor people, is that if you have the choice between A and B, and you feel like the one who will give you an exhibition to more unique opportunities, unique people, unique stories – it is a very good argument to offer you an option,” said Pandey, “because it will simply be a lot of perspective.
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