- Role landed
- VP of Engineering
- Company
- KNX
- Time to offer
- two and a half months
- Interviews landed
- 15
Parv was at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Two and a half months after starting with us, end to end, he accepted a VP of Engineering role at KNX, an AI and healthcare startup.
Along the way he interviewed at 15 different companies, including Anthropic, Netflix, PayPal, Roblox and Snowflake.
The thing he changed was deciding not to manage us
His account of what shifted is not about tactics. It is about handing over the wheel, which is the hardest part for a senior engineering leader who is used to owning the plan.
“A few days into the process I realised I have to go along with the process. I’m not going to insert my editorial comments. I’m like, hey, you know what you’re doing, I’m just going to show up. Then the fear is gone. Now let me just look aggressively at what’s out there.”
The result of removing himself from the mechanics was breadth he would not otherwise have had:
“I interviewed at more places than I ever would have.”
His advice to anyone considering it
“It comes down to what I said: trust the process, and treat us as partners in making something happen.”
He also draws a distinction worth keeping, about the difference between a tool and a partner:
“Sometimes people talk to ChatGPT and Claude and they forget that that is just a tool for you to do something. That’s not your parent, that’s not your kid.”
What he told us at the end
“I should have started sooner with you guys.”
The search in numbers
- Interviews at 15 companies, including Anthropic, Netflix, PayPal, Roblox and Snowflake
- VP of Engineering at KNX, accepted two and a half months end to end
- Level: VP. Function: Engineering
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