*24th October 2025* The last time I was looking for jobs was way back in 2014 when I was applying for internships for the Summer of 2015. It was the time when React vs Angular was the big debate and I got super lucky with React taking off after I built a few projects using it. Ten years and a few failed startups later (I like to think of them learning experiences) I'm back in the Bay Area again looking for my next thing. It's been a couple of weeks or so since I started applying to jobs but I've got some thoughts that I wanted to share. While the rollercoaster of emotions and the way it makes me feel hasn't changed a lot the process itself is so much better. Applying has never been smoother and it's been so refreshing to hear back at speeds that I never imagined was possible (both Yeses and Nos). Twitter has been so good for discovering the companies I want to work for. There's still a bunch of noise but it really surprised me just how many awesome people I've been able to find just scrolling 15-20 minutes a day. There are good interview processes and bad interview processes and it's all about the failure state. In a good process you learn something when you fail, something about the industry, the company or about yourself. A bad process on the other hand, like grinding on LeetCode, doesn't really teach you a lot. I've found the journey pleasantly liberating. Perhaps the weight of purpose slowed me down as a founder more than I realized. That's mostly it for now. Will add to this essay as I go through more of the process. I'm in the market for Product Engineering roles preferably at a fast growing AI startup so if anyone's hiring drop me a note at [email protected]. <div class="subscribe-box"> <p>Get notified of new essays and receive an email whenever I publish something new.</p> <form action="https://buttondown.com/api/emails/embed-subscribe/vignesh-prasad" method="post" target="popupwindow" onsubmit="window.open('https://buttondown.com/vigneshprasad', 'popupwindow')" class="embeddable-buttondown-form" > <label for="bd-email">Enter your email</label> <input type="email" name="email" id="bd-email" /> <input type="submit" value="Subscribe" /> </form></div>