Silicon Valley’s Hot Shot: The “Squid‑Job” Engineer Who’s Gone Wild
Picture this: a bright‑eyed Indian coder named Soham Parekh swoops into a Silicon Valley startup, claims a little about his CV, and then—just a week later—disappears into a career whirlwind. He apparently breezed through multiple gigs at once, spinning a web that’s now tangled in the startup community’s trust issues and remote‑work debates.
How the Allegations Unfolded
- Founder Suhail Doshi of Playground AI bite‑sized the scandal on Twitter, posting that Soham was secretly clocking in at 3–4 other firms while he was supposedly on board.
- Doshi cut Soham loose in seven days, citing false claims on the resume. He even hurled a private message from Soham, asking, “How can I fix the mess I’ve made?”
- Other veterans, like Nicolai Ouporov (Fleet AI) and Matthew Parkhurst (Antimetal), chimed in, confirming that the engineer was a “new rite of passage”—an in‑field legend who’d shown up in multiple places at once.
Why the Tech World is Freaking Out
In a 2024 SideHustles.com study, one‑third of remote workers juggle more than one job, dwarving the 20% of in‑person and 17% of hybrid fellows. Nearly a quarter of employees keep 2–3 roles, clocking 50+ hours a week across them.
Kevin Thompson, a finance nerd and CEO of 9i Capital, told Newsweek that the lifestyle shift owes to mounting living costs. “Remote positions are sort of turnkey—you can pull a few other gigs without dropping the ball,” he said.
Zero‑Tolerance Rule: The “Fist‑in‑the‑Door” Confrontation
A quick look into the chaos shows the startups’ reaction: instant terminations with a side of “no excuses.” After all, a works‑in‑parallel cheat is practically a breach of the honest‑work code. The heavy hands of credibility will not be left untouched for long.
When Opportunistic Recruiters Take the Wheel
Even the Cluley CEO, Roy Lee—who offers AI tools to “cheat at everything” from interviews to sales—has started pitching job offers to Soham. Whether he’ll bite or not remains a gaggle of “maybes.”
Stay tuned; we’ll keep feeding you the gossip.