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  • in career
  • 4 min read

2024 Wrapped

Pivot

This year was a huge pivot for me. At the beginning of the year I was working on an AI startup founded by two of my friends. It was my first introduction to the world of AI, and a great learning experience. It developed my interest in applied AI - specifically, that area in between research and practical applications. Keeping up with the latest research, and then figuring out how to apply it to real-world problems.

However, by April I realised I needed a break. My partner pointed out that I had not taken a proper break since starting grad school, back in August 2008 And since then I had only worked at intense places - a PhD, Palantir, a crypto startup, and then the AI startup.

I took about 6 weeks off to reflect on what I wanted to do next.

Reflection and Experiment

One key realisation was that identifying what would drive me was not easy, especially looking forward. The last time I felt that level of narrow focus was when I chose to do my PhD - there was no doubt whatsoever in my mind that I wanted to do it. In fact there were many people who tried to talk me out of it, but I was convinced. And since finishing my PhD, I have oscillated between being driven by the impact, the people I work with, the day-to-day work, and the learning opportunities. At different times, each of these has been the primary driver.

Given this, I decided to do an experiment with two key constraints:

  1. I would explicitly not try to identify what would drive me, but instead set up transactional contracts. Tactically, this meant I would not take equity in any company I worked with. This would force me to be thoughtful about the time I spent on a project.
  2. I would work at a slower pace - 4 days a week.

Early Results

Initially I was worried that I would not be able to find enough work. But I was pleasantly surprised. I managed to land a couple of consulting gigs - one with a boutique consulting firm, and another with a startup. The consulting firm has been a great experience. I have been working with former Palantirians, and there's almost a sense of homecoming. The startup scratched the AI itch, giving me a chance to work on a real-world problem using AI.

The first couple of months went quickly - a honeymoon period of sorts. But one of the gigs ended, and I realised that I needed to be more proactive about finding work. As someone who has no idea about sales, this was a challenge. Honestly, I freaked out a bit, but then I found my own way of generating leads.

Sales

I started writing more. I wrote about my experiences at Palantir, especially the hiring process. This resonated with a lot of people, and I started getting inbound leads. Interestingly, not all were hiring related. I started working with another AI startup, a crypto startup, and a couple of hiring related projects.

So far this is the only way I have tried to generate leads, and it has worked well. I still don't feel confident that I will consistently manage to bring in business, but I will cross that bridge when I get there.

Hiring

The hiring projects have been the most non-trivial. I have worked with a few companies on their hiring, the most notable being Comand AI. The level of trust they have placed in me has been humbling. Hiring is one of the most high-stakes things an early stage startup does, and I am grateful for the opportunity to help them.

It has also pushed me out of my comfort zone. Yes, I learnt a lot about hiring at Palantir, but fully owning the end to end outcome is a different beast. Additionally, I now also have to articulate my approach and be methodical about it - forcing me to rely less on instinct.

Highlights and Conclusion

Over the course of this year, I have worked on the following tech:

  • Palantir Foundry
  • Python: to build LLM-based applications for the AI startups
  • Golang: to build tools in the crypto space for the crypto startup

And I have learnt about:

  • Golang concurrency
  • AI tools: Claude, Zed, Gemini, etc.
  • RAG architectures
  • Being a freelancer
  • Designing a hiring process

I am happy with how the year has gone. I have managed to find work, and I have enjoyed the work I have done. Interestingly, even though the experiment started off as transactional, I have found myself getting attached to the work. I have been invested in the outcomes, and I have cared about the people I have worked with. This doesn't come as a surprise - I have always needed to care about the work I do, and/or the people I work with. But it's interesting to see how this has played out with the transactional initial conditions.

I am looking forward to 2025. I am excited about the work I have lined up - specifically in the AI space, as well as the hiring work. The AI projects should give me the opportunity to learn and grow as an engineer, and the hiring work will give me the chance to learn how to build a business. I am not going to force my hand either way - we'll see how it goes.

  • in career
  • 3 min read

Stochastic Growth Trajectory: Good or Bad?

We often have preconceived notions about the meaning of career growth. Typically, it's assumed to mean climbing the corporate ladder, moving into higher positions, and often transitioning into management. However, this linear path isn't the only way to grow professionally. My personal journey led me to experience a different approach: the stochastic growth trajectory.

Increasingly Confused

Throughout my career I have been nothing if not confused. In fact, the confusion has gone up over time. The last time I was confident of anything was when I was 13 years old - when I was convinced I wanted to do Physics. It was towards the end of grad school when I started considering leaving academia. But at that point I didn't know if anyone would hire me, and in what role. And I was really surprised to get hired by Palantir. This unexpected turn would shape my understanding of career growth in ways I couldn't have anticipated.

Palantir's approach to Growth

I spent 7 years at Palantir, and I can confidently say that I would not have stayed for that long if Palantir did not have the healthy approach to growth that it has. I got to explore a lot of different things in a relatively short timeframe. But there was more to it than just accelerated growth.

At Palantir it is expected that you own your growth. You are expected to be self-aware, critical, and intentional about how you grow. This is not an easy thing to do, especially early in your career. But it is what allows for people to grow into positions where they can have an outsized impact. It is also what keeps employees engaged and driven.

For me personally, this meant I was able to be an SRE, a Tech Lead, a backend developer, a product manager, a sales engineer, a data scientist, a data engineer, and a people manager during my 7 years at Palantir. This is what allowed me to go from managing a team of 20-25 people to being an IC dev on a backend team because I wanted to invest in my technical skills. Even when I moved from management to an IC role, I was still growing.

Flip Side

There is however a flip side to this.

Firstly, the responsibility of figuring out what growth means is completely on you. You have to figure out not just what growth means, but also how to grow in those areas. This can be quite hard. I was fortunate to have found the right leads, mentors and peers to help me.

Secondly, the micro-decisions you might make while trying to figure out what to work on next might not necessarily lead you to your macro-goals. To be honest, even today I am still figuring out what my macro-goals are. And the increasing awareness of not-knowing what I want to do gives me pause in figuring out what project to take on next.

Conclusion

I don't really have a conclusion for this post. I don't know if a stochastic growth trajectory is good or bad. Looking back I found the that "own your growth" worked for me, maybe. But it is not for everyone, and I don't even know if it worked for me or not.

Perhaps one way to think about it is to not worry much about macro-goals, especially if you don't have clarity about what they are. Instead focus on learning and growing in the near-term, and having faith that whatever you end up working on, there is a high chance that you will learn something new, and grow.

If you are curious, genuine, and keen to learn, you will land on your feet.

Is a PhD worth it?

Personally, it was worth it for me. I was fortunate to work with amazing people like Bill Dorland, Alex Schekochihin and many more. And I got to work on fun problems.

But, if you are asking this question, it probably isn't worth it for you. You should only do a PhD if you are so hell bent on doing one that no one could convince you otherwise. There were many who tried to tell me it was a bad idea to do a PhD, but I was not to be convinced.

Don't get me wrong, a PhD can absolutely be worth it. You get to work on something that you (hopefully) love. You get to push the boundaries of human knowledge. It is literally one of the most impactful things to do.

It also grows you as a person - you become better at learning new things, at systematically breaking down a problem and chipping at it till it becomes manageable. You learn to communicate your work to a wider audience. You develop a confidence in yourself that you can take on gnarly, seemingly impossible problems and just figure it out.

However, a PhD is a long and painful journey. It can be quite lonely. So if you have even the smallest of doubts about whether you should do one or not, then don't. Especially if you think it might be a stepping stone in a career outside academia. More than likely it is one, but that is not motivation enough to actually stick with it during.

Having said that I really enjoyed mine, so if you are that focused on it then go for it! It's also not a one way street. People do go back to doing a PhD after a career in industry - my good friend satej is a great example! After a successful career at Palantir he decided to spend some time in academia, and seems to be enjoying it.

If you are someone who is trying to decide between a PhD and a career in the industry, hope this short writeup helped. If you have any questions or want to discuss further, do get in touch - I am happy to chat.