
Would you hire someone who has multiple jobs at once?
Yes, I'm kind of referring to the Soham Parekh story that's now taking the internet by storm. đ
TL;DR: He worked on several startups at the same time, had the best interview results, but according to his employers, he never delivered results. (You can comprehend it from these tweets, e.g. 1, 2)
Ultimately, this reveals, for example, the weaknesses of remote work or that HR/management can be fooled.
What is your opinion on such a thing like hiring the same person for more than 1 project?
My 2 cents:
I like working on multiple projects because I get to meet different people and have access to many ideas, inspiration and yes, sources of income. But in that case, I don't want to neglect any part of the project and put my colleagues at risk by not completing my tasks.
What's in it for me:
Working on multiple projects on the condition that I deliver the agreed parts.
Replies
I've been an entrepreneur for ~20 years. Have built business with contractors - and they work multiple jobs all the time. As long as they delivered what I expected from them - it didn't matter. I didn't care if they worked for competitors either. I did tell them not to; but it never mattered.
Businesses hire to get results.
@kaustubhkatdare Definitely. Unfortunately, in my country, the mindset of many companies is like: Work only for us. These people are losing potential experiences.
@busmark_w_nika - it's the mindset in most of the countries. I'd not blame the owners. They want 100% loyalty from employees; but would not think a moment when firing them.
It's a sad reality. But we have to accept it.
@kaustubhkatdare @mannyojigbo I would wish to save these answers somewhere in the PH folder because this is such a good discussion!
@mannyojigbo @busmark_w_nika haha.
I've so many amazing topics; but 9 out of 10 of my new threads get rejected by PH.
@mannyojigbo @kaustubhkatdare When did you start posting? I think that it takes time you earn some trust in the platform. There used to be a lot of bots, so they are maybe still suspicious.
@mannyojigbo - Absolutely. I've been working remotely since 2009 and always thought it's the future of the work. I could hire talent anywhere in the world and not rely solely on the talent in my city.
Loyalty is a joke. People who worked for 20+ years at Google were fired in a blink of an eye. Work is transactional and that's how it should be treated by both employees and employers.
If he didn't deliver results why he wasn't fired?
@turazashvili Good question. :D probably management overlooked his inactivity? Really dunno :D
@turazashvili @cristian_stoian_urzica The only benefit of "being a number" in a corporate :D
@cristian_stoian_urzica I thought he was getting hired by smaller YC companies.
I think this case reveals interview process flaws more than remote work weaknesses. If he never delivered results, it points to him gaming interviews rather than having real technical skills - which is way easier with AI tools now. He got caught because he got greedy and overextended, not because remote work is broken.
HR absolutely can be fooled - we've seen countless examples of people faking resumes and credentials.
The companies that got burned had loose hiring practices. This is more about lazy hiring than remote work problems.
At my last job, having a second role would've been nearly impossible - daily standups, weekly 1:1s, lots of team collaboration, and my manager knew what we were working on without micromanaging.
Multiple projects are fine for contractors, and while most companies wouldn't like it for employees, I think it's acceptable as long as you deliver what you were hired for. The real issue isn't working with multiple companies simultaneously - it's the cheating and fraud.
This guy should never be hired in tech again, and I hope someone pursues legal action if possible. This isn't just being "overemployed" - it's straight-up fraud at the next level.
@olga_s52 I think he would be more successful if he "delegated" his work to someone else and supervised outputs â he would have less work for himself, quite good pay, and still delivered results... but somehow... it ended up like this.
I like to work on multiple projects.
This is why, learnings can be transfered. I've learned from one team and used my learnings to get benefits for another team.
But I should probably mention that I do not work for competitors. That way no one looses.
I think the major goal should be on delivering results.
@janefrances_christopher I have the same approach, learning and transferring. When I have 2 competitors, I do not feel it is morally good, but I need to detach from this because also ad agencies have competitors, clients. Marketing organisations operate a little bit differently in these terms, as you need to come up with different creatives for each company to differentiate them and bring results that make everyone happy.
IXORD
I think it depends on the person individually, but also on the type of work. I think everyone should be given a chance, but you need to consider what he could do without other jobs and what he can do with other jobs. If the productivity is the same, then why not?
@ixord I think it could be bearable if you balance the energy for each work, but he signed up for 4+ full time jobs and didn't deliver anything :D
IXORD
@busmark_w_nika I recently heard a story where an employee was working 3-5 jobs at the same time and during Zoom meetings he was just working for another company. And vice versa. I think anything is possible these days đ
@ixord Wasn't it Soham? :D
IXORD
@busmark_w_nika I don't remember, I just saw it in posts on social networks :)
100% agree with you, Nika! I'm currently juggling multiple projects too, but like you said - the key is delivering on ALL commitments. Being a perfectionist means I won't even consider taking on more work if my existing projects might suffer.
The remote work era definitely makes multi-job setups possible, but that Soham case shows the dark side when people game the system. For me? I'd absolutely hire someone with multiple gigs... if they consistently meet deadlines and quality bars across the board.
Though honestly, I admire anyone who can context-switch effectively - my brain maxes out at 3 projects before everything turns into alphabet soup! đ
@rani_zagita I feel by each day that we are the same person :D If the guy delegated he could create a good agency where he would be salesperson :)
1) Would you hire for hours or outcomes?
2) What were those startups doing to engage him?
that's how i would look at it.
@manu_goel2 I am really curious how they couldn't notice that :D
It is very difficult to handle multiple projects at once; it is becoming risky.
@vinoth_kumar_e Yes, it is, but I reckon he is at the age to now that fact :D