Hey Reader, Welcome back to Guided Growth where we talk about the skills that accelerate your career beyond just writing great code. This is The Unwritten Rules #2: a 4-part series where I share the career rules that exist but nobody shared them with you. What do you think matters MOST in the final interview round? Coding skills System design depth Cultural fit Communication skills Last quarter, I interviewed 11 candidates for a senior backend role. I asked all of them: "Design a URL...
16 days ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, Welcome back to Guided Growth where we talk about the skills that accelerate your career beyond just writing great code. This is The Unwritten Rules #1: a 4-part series where I share the career rules that exist but nobody shared them with you. A reader replied to my newsletter last month. "200+ applications. 4 months. 6 callbacks. 0 offers. What am I doing wrong?" What do you think matters MOST in the final interview round? Coding skills System design depth Cultural fit...
23 days ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, Welcome back to Guided Growth where we talk about the skills that accelerate your career beyond just writing great code. You spent 3 months on the analytics dashboard. Nights. Weekends. Shipped perfectly. Promotion cycle: Not mentioned. Your peer wrote a design doc in 2 weeks. Got promoted to Staff. I've reviewed 47 promotion packets. Pattern is clear: Only 4 types of projects get you promoted. THE 4 PROJECTS THAT MATTER 1. Multiplier Projects Make your team 2x more effective....
3 months ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, Welcome back to Guided Growth where we talk about the skills that accelerate your career beyond just writing great code. In August of 2025, I interviewed 3 engineers that I’d have hired in 2023. Same experience. Same fundamentals. Strong system design. All three got rejected. Not because they couldn’t code. Because, when I asked how they use AI in their daily work, the response was the same three times: “I have been wanting to go explore that.” Meaning to. For two years....
4 months ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, Have you ever seen a situation where 2 engineers have identical experience but one consistently gets way better offers than the other? I have. In fact, I’ve been on both sides of it. Before 2023, I had watched engineers with less experience get interviews I couldn’t land. No difference in skills, but LinkedIn profiles. Then I grew my LinkedIn from 5K to 160K+ followers in 2 years. I stopped writing like a resume and started positioning for impact. Within months, recruiters with...
5 months ago • 4 min read
Hey Reader, Today, I am revealing the system I wish someone taught me while I was at 4.25 LPA. My friend Sagar called me last night. "Abhishek, be honest. ₹14 LPA at TCS. Bangalore rent. EMIs. Parents asking for money. I save maybe ₹3L a year. How the hell am I supposed to become a millionaire?" I told him the truth: "You're asking the wrong question." The question isn't "how do I save more?" The question is: "How do I think like someone who will have ₹2 Crores by 45?" Because Sagar will...
6 months ago • 9 min read
Hey Reader, Last week, a mentee asked me: “Should I just ignore office politics and focus on my work?” My answer surprised him: “I tried that too. But it’s the fastest way to get left behind.” Let me explain: After my first switch, at a new company, I led a project that increased system reliability by 60%. Never mentioned it to anyone outside my team. When the promotion cycle came, I wasn’t even in the conversation. A peer who shipped less but networked more? Promoted. That’s when I realized:...
6 months ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, Last week, I asked what’s blocking you from clearing DSA interviews. The most common response: “I know DSA but can’t perform consistently under pressure.” I’ve seen this hundreds of times as a hiring manager at Google and Walmart. Engineers who solve LeetCode mediums at home freeze on easy problems in interviews. The problem isn’t knowledge. It’s a training environment mismatch. Here’s what I mean: How you practice: Unlimited time, no one watching Can pause, Google, restart Think...
7 months ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, Most engineers complain that tech companies use DSA for interviews. "It's not relevant to real work." "It's just gatekeeping." "Why can't they test actual project skills?" After being on both sides as a candidate and a hiring manager at Google, I've realized something: DSA is the best thing that has ever happened to engineers trying to switch jobs. Here's why. Imagine if companies stopped using DSA tomorrow. What would interviews look like? Google tests you on Google Cloud...
7 months ago • 2 min read