Rahul Pandey quit his $800,000/year FAANG developer job to build a startup [Podcast #137]

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Rahul Pandey. He's a software engineer who left his $800K / year FAANG job to build his own startup. We talk about: - The post-layoff developer job landscape - Developer interviews and how to differentiate yourself - Why salary negotiation still makes sense - His belief that 10x engineers exist – and even 100x and 1000x developers Can you guess what song I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from Also, I want to thank the 10,443 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate Links we talk about during our conversation: - Rahul's Android app tutorial on freeCodeCamp (4 hour watch): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-how-to-build-and-publish-an-android-app-from-scratch/ - Rahul's video about post-college job offers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rceUVaiXQgU - Taro, Rahul's company: https://www.jointaro.com/ - The story of a software engineer who moves back to India to run his father's chemical business after his death: https://anandsanwal.me/2018/06/19/dad-company-sale/ - Conference talk about the correlation between interest rates and developer hiring, by Pragmatic Engineer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpPPHDxR9aM - Rahul on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpandey1234/ Chapters 0:00:00 Introduction and Background 0:08:44 The Power of High-Achieving Peers 0:12:41 Quantity Leads to Quality 0:21:53 The Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) in Decision-Making 0:24:53 The Value of the Journey 0:27:30 Navigating the Transition from Startup to Acquisition 0:31:10 The Value of Working in a Structured Environment 0:33:23 The Importance of Specialization and Depth 0:36:45 The Impact of Interest Rates on the Tech Industry 0:54:04 Becoming a Top Performer in Your Field 1:01:16 Becoming a 10x Developer - Focusing on What Matters 1:04:46 The Power of Soft