Forem: Sonika Arora

The Uncomfortable Truth About Loyalty At Your First Job 💸

Sonika Arora — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:27:24 +0000

You know that feeling when you’ve been at a company for two years, you’re doing great work, and your raise comes in at… 4%?

Meanwhile, your college friend who jumped ship after 14 months just got a 20% bump in total comp.

That stings. And it teaches you something important early: loyalty is rarely rewarded in your first few years in tech.

I learned this the hard way. Let’s break it down 👇

My story (the short version) 🧵

When I started my career as a software engineer at Netskope, I thought the playbook was simple.

Work hard, be reliable, and the company will take care of you.

That’s what everyone tells us growing up.

And look, Netskope was a great experience. I learned a ton. But after about a year, I made the move to Amazon and saw something eye-opening: the biggest jump in my compensation didn’t come from being at the same place for another year. It came from changing jobs.

Not just in pay. But also in the kind of problems I got to solve.

Staying put would have been comfortable, but comfort never leads to growth.

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Why companies don’t reward loyalty (it’s not personal) 🏢

I have come to understand that this isn’t about your manager being unfair. It’s just a structure everyone follows.

Most companies budget 3-5% for annual raises across the board. That’s the pool. Your manager might fight to get you 7%, and that’s considered exceptional internally.

But when a company is hiring externally? They’re paying market rate. And market rate moves a lot faster than 3-5% a year, especially in your first decade in tech when your skills are compounding quickly.

So you end up in this weird situation where the new hire sitting next to you, doing the same job, might be making $20-30K more.

Simply because they negotiated a fresh offer while you’ve been collecting incremental raises.

Companies know this.

But they also know that most people won’t leave.

Inertia is powerful. You like your team, you’re mid-project, you don’t want to interview. They’re betting on that.

My mind map for navigating this

1. Set a two-year check-in with yourself 📅

I’m not saying quit every two years like clockwork. But calculate your personal ROI every year and every 2 years, seriously evaluate 3 things.

➡️ Am I learning new things?

➡️ Is my comp keeping up with the market?

➡️ Do I see a clear path to the next level here?

If the answer to 2 of those is no, it’s time to explore.

2. Interview even when you’re happy 📞

One of the engineering managers at my previous company shared this with me. Honestly this was a game changer for me.

You don’t have to be miserable to take a call from a recruiter. Interviewing when you’re not desperate gives you leverage and information. You’ll learn what the market pays, what skills are in demand, and you negotiate from a position of strength.

Worst case, you confirm you’re in a good spot.

Best case, you find something better.

3. Don’t confuse comfort with growth ⚠️

If you stay in a role because you’re “comfortable”, and the work is easy - it likely means you aren’t learning. And in tech, if you’re not learning, you’re falling behind.

Comfort feels like safety. But early in your career, it’s actually risk.

The truth is consequences are just delayed by a few years.

4. Your network compounds faster than your salary 🤝

Every job change I made expanded my network in ways I couldn’t have predicted. Former teammates became co-founders, referral sources, mentors, and friends who sent me opportunities and helped me with referrals for my next role.

When you move, you don’t lose your old network. You add a new one.

5. Negotiate like the company expects you to 💰

Here’s the secret: companies have budgets for negotiation.

When you accept the first offer, you’re leaving money on the table that was already allocated. I’ve seen offers go up $15-20K simply because someone asked. Not aggressively. Just asked.

And then this can all compound in long term investments.

📝 HQ Tip: When in doubt, it’s easiest to just ask a simple question while negotiating your offer: “I’m really excited about this role. Based on my research and experience, I was hoping we could get closer to [X]. Is there flexibility on your end?”
The worst outcome is that they say no.
And in the best case, it’s a yes, and that one sentence has made you a lot more recurring money.

The one exception ✋

There are times when staying makes sense.

If you’re at a company where you have a sponsor (not just a manager, a sponsor) who is actively pulling you into rooms you wouldn’t be in otherwise, that’s worth more than a comp bump. Sponsors are rare. If you’ve found one, think carefully before walking away.

But note I said sponsor, not “nice boss.” A sponsor is someone who advocates for you when you’re not in the room. That’s a different thing entirely.

The bottom line 🎯

Your first 7-10 years in tech are when you have the most leverage to make big moves. You have fewer obligations, more energy, and the market values your trajectory more than your tenure.

Companies will not optimize your career for you. That’s your job.

And sometimes doing your job well means knowing when it’s time to go do it somewhere else.

Loyalty to your own growth isn't disloyal, 🚀

It's the best investment in yourself. 🙌

Thanks for reading so far! Support my work and get your free guide on how to make a great first impression: https://onboardedhq.substack.com/subscribe

And for those of you who already subscribe, I am so glad to have you on board! Reach out by replying to this email or dropping a comment.

If this hit home, share it with someone who’s been at the same company for three years and hasn’t looked up in a while. Sometimes a nudge from a friend is all it takes 🙏

I wish you a great week!

Until next time,

Sonika

How to Understand Unwritten Rules at Work 💼

Sonika Arora — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 01:22:47 +0000

You read the onboarding wiki. You join your first few meetings. You nod along, follow the process — and still feel like you’re missing something. Everyone else seems to know how things really work, but no one’s said it out loud. Sound familiar?

Every tech company has two sets of rules: the ones on the wiki, and the unwritten ones that govern day-to-day life 🤷

Back when I was at Amazon, everyone lived and breathed their Leadership Principles. But even with a heavily documented culture like that, you still have to read the room to figure out how those written principles translate into everyday decisions.

The unwritten rules are the true operating system of your company.

If you don’t learn them, you’ll feel like you’re constantly pushing a boulder uphill. So how do you figure them out?

So let’s break it down 👇

Support my work and get your free guide on how to make a great first impression here.

Watch who is winning (and why) 👀

Don’t just look at the org chart. Look at who gets praised in all-hands meetings and project retrospectives. What behaviors are actually being rewarded?

Is it the engineer who ships fast and fixes bugs later?
Or is it the person who writes airtight, heavily researched design docs before writing a single line of code?

➡️ Figure out what kind of work is being rewarded.

Are they rewarding people to go deep into their role and be the go to person for X thing? Or do they want you to be flexible and be willing to help out — essentially be a generalist?

There are long terms impacts of growing as a generalist vs a specialist but you need to figure out which your company needs from you.

📝 HQ Tip: A company’s true values are defined by who they promote. Pay special attention to the traits of the people moving up.

Decode the communication hierarchy 📃

The fastest way to look out of touch is to use the wrong medium for the wrong message. You need to figure out the team’s communication heartbeat.

Where do decisions happen? Do they happen in formal meetings, asynchronously on Jira/GitHub, or in a casual Slack thread?
The meeting before the meeting: Often, the big meeting is just a formality. The actual alignment happens in 1:1s beforehand. Watch how senior team members prep for major reviews or design discussions.

Find a translator 🗣️

You can’t figure this all out alone. This is exactly why connecting with a mentor is so critical early in your career. You need someone who has been around long enough to translate the corporate speak into reality.

Find someone one or two levels ahead of you — ideally someone who isn’t in your direct reporting chain — and take them to coffee. Introduce yourself and be genuinely curious about them before diving into questions.

Ask them direct questions: “If you were starting on this team today, what’s one thing you’d do differently?” or “What’s the best way to get a proposal approved around here?”

If you’re looking for help with finding a mentor, send me your details here, and I’ll be happy to help.

Notice how failure is handled ⚠️

This is the ultimate litmus test of a team’s culture.

When a deployment breaks or a launch misses its target, what happens next? Does the team rally to write a blameless post-mortem, or is there a frantic scramble to point fingers?

Knowing the team’s risk tolerance will dictate how aggressively you should pitch a new ideas or push code.

➡️ If they scramble to blame someone, you know you need to heavily research, triple-check, and document everything you do to protect yourself.

➡️ If they encourage blameless learning, you have the psychological safety to move faster and innovate without fear.

Don’t wait until you’re the one who caused the outage to find out which type of team you joined. Watch how they treat others first.

What’s in it for you?

Mastering these unwritten rules isn’t “playing office politics.” It’s career leverage.

The faster you understand the true operating system of your team, the faster you build trust, ship real impact, and ultimately, grow your compensation and career.

Quiet rules are at play, 🏈

Find your way to stay 🥅

That’s it for today! Reach out by replying to this email or dropping a comment.

If you found this issue helpful, please subscribe to support my work here.

Let’s grow this community together 🙏

I wish you a great week!

Until next time,

Sonika

How to Disagree With a Senior Engineer (Without Killing Your Career) 🗣️

Sonika Arora — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 08:28:51 +0000

A practical guide for junior developers on raising concerns, getting heard, and building credibility when you think the room is wrong.

Read the full newsletter post here.

There’s a specific kind of dread that hits us early in our tech career.

You’re sitting in a sprint planning meeting, or a design discussion with your team. A senior engineer proposes something. And a quiet alarm goes off in your head. Their approach or thinking is going to cause problems. I can see it.

You look at everyone in the zoom meeting/room. Everyone seems to be nodding along. Maybe you’re missing something. Maybe you should just stay quiet. You’re filled with doubts.

I remember feeling stuck with 3 questions in this situation:

➡️ “Should I say something?”

➡️ “Will it really matter if I say something?”

➡️ “What if I am totally wrong?

This situation is more common than anyone admits. How you handle it will shape your reputation, your growth, and - if you’re right - the outcome of the project.

Here is my mind map for navigating this without torching relationships or swallowing your instincts 👇

Subscribe to get your free guide on how to make a great first impression HERE

Pressure test yourself before speaking

Before I say anything, I like to spend sixty seconds asking myself a few honest questions.

🤔 Do I understand the full context?

There’s a good chance the senior folks have considered constraints I don’t have visibility into - legacy system quirks, a business reason for why they made a decision, or a failed attempt at exactly what I’m about to propose.

If you want to raise your concern while also being respectful of the research that has already gone into the decision, here’s two ways that I think work best:

1️⃣ You can try to surface your concern as a question instead of framing it as a correction. This allows you to keep an open mind about things you may not know, while showing your thoughtfulness and curiosity to the team.

2️⃣ You can label it as a hunch. “I have a gut feeling about this and I want to make sure I’m not missing something” lands very differently than stating an objection as fact when you can’t fully defend it yet.

🧗‍♀️ Is this a hill worth climbing?

Not every sub-optimal decision needs to be challenged. If the stakes are low and the disagreement is just about style and has multiple sound options, let it go and keep your credibility for when it matters.

If you see a real scalability issue, a security gap, or something that will create months of tech debt, that’s different - staying quiet isn’t humility, it’s a disservice to the team.

My framework for how to raise your concern

How you frame it says a lot.

There’s a meaningful difference between these two sentences:

➡️ “I don’t think that’s going to work.”

➡️ “I want to make sure I’m understanding this correctly - if we go this route, what happens when we hit X edge case/scenario?”

The second phrase does the exact same work as the first, but it lowers everyone’s defenses.

If you’re wrong, they explain it and you learn something. If you’re right, the problem surfaces naturally through the question itself and doesn’t require you to “defeat” anyone in front of their peers. It gives the room a graceful out to say, “Ah, good catch.”

I asked a few tech leads for their go-to phrases, and they suggested adding these:

“I might be missing context here, but I’m worried about [specific scenario]. Has that come up?” - The hedge isn’t weakness; it’s precision. You’re flagging a specific concern instead of issuing a verdict.

“I’d love to understand the tradeoffs on this one a bit more.” - Useful when you can’t fully articulate your concern yet but feel something’s off.

“If we make this choice, can X be a problem?” - Useful when you think the decision adversely affects something specific.

“Can I ask a clarifying question before we move on.” - This is low-stakes to say and signals you’re actively listening, and not adversarial.

📝 HQ Tip: What you want to avoid is framing the disagreement as “I think you’re wrong.” Even if that’s true, it puts the other person in a defensive posture.
Think about it this way - your goal should never be to win an argument but to make sure the right information is in the room.

What to do if they brush past you

Sometimes you raise the concern and it gets acknowledged briefly and moved past.

This is frustrating but don’t treat this as the end of the road. There’s a couple ways I’ve seen people deal with this.

1️⃣ Write it down and send a follow up
After the meeting, send a short message to your manager or tech lead - not a long manifesto, just a note. Something like: “Hey, I raised a question in today’s meeting about X and I want to make sure it got captured. Here’s what I was thinking...” This creates a record without being confrontational, and it shows you’re thorough.

2️⃣ Ask for a one-on-one conversation
Team meetings are bad venues for changing minds on anything complicated. If you feel strongly, ask the relevant person if they have fifteen minutes to walk through your concern more carefully. Most of your engineering peers will likely respond well to this. It signals that you care about the outcome, not about being seen as right.

3️⃣ Know when to let it go and learn
If you’ve raised your point clearly, documented it, and the decision stands - let it stand. Ship the thing, observe what happens, and update your model of the world accordingly. Sometimes you’ll be right and it’ll bite the team later; sometimes you’ll realize you were missing something important. Both outcomes are data.

When I worked at Amazon, I lived and breathed one of their famous (and quite honestly one of the most useful) principles - “Disagree and Commit”. It means that you should openly challenge decisions during the planning phase but once a decision is made, the debate ends. You don’t drag your feet or wait around for it to fail. You execute on the chosen path as fiercely as if it were your own idea.

Building the credibility to be heard

There’s a longer game here.

The reason early-career folks get brushed past isn’t always that their ideas are bad - it’s often that they haven’t yet built the credibility that makes others stop and listen.

That credibility comes from a few things you can actively work on.

✅ Be right in smaller moments first

When you spot a bug in a code review, flag it clearly and correctly. Point out small misses or ask thoughtful questions about decisions in a design doc. These small wins build a track record that makes people take your concerns more seriously over time.

✅ Do your homework

If you disagree with an approach, come back with a concrete alternative or a specific data point - not just a feeling.

“I think we should look at option B because it would reduce our write latency in the P99 case we discussed last sprint” is much harder to dismiss than “I’m not sure about this” or “I have a feeling this is wrong”.

✅ Be genuinely curious

The engineers who get heard fastest tend to ask a lot of good questions before they issue a lot of strong opinions.

Curiosity builds relationships. Relationships build influence.

Don’t underestimate yourself

Being six months into a job and noticing something that a ten-year veteran missed is not as rare as you’d think.

Seniority ≠ always being right.

Speak up with a question, not a claim to win 🥇,

And you’ll be surprised how quickly the room starts waiting to hear what you think.

That’s it for today! Do you feel heard by senior folks on your team? Let me know in the comments!

If you found this post valuable:

I write short actionable posts on things I struggled with, which I have developed some mind maps for - how to navigate your tech job, network with people, and grow your net worth along the way, backed by my experience, tons of research and learnings from tech leaders.

I wish you a great week!

Until next time,

Sonika

The SaaS Business Model Explained - Looking Beyond Code 🧩

Sonika Arora — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 08:06:55 +0000

Read the full newsletter post here:
https://onboardedhq.substack.com/p/your-guide-to-the-saas-business-model

Let’s talk about something they probably didn’t cover in your data structures and algorithms class.

You spend your days shipping features, squashing bugs, and optimizing performance. You close your laptop feeling productive. But have you ever stopped to wonder how the feature you just built actually makes the company money?

🤷 I know, it sounds like a “business person” question. But stick with me for a minute, because understanding this is one of the biggest career accelerators you can have.

Most of us work for a SaaS (Software as a Service) company. The concept is simple: instead of buying software once (like the old Microsoft Office CDs), customers “rent” it by paying a recurring subscription fee. Think Netflix, Spotify, or Figma.

This “rental” model changes everything. It’s not about a one-time sale; it’s about a long-term relationship. And that relationship is measured by a few key numbers that dictate every decision your company makes - from the features you build to the marketing campaigns they run.

Here are the four metrics you absolutely need to understand:

🪄 The SaaS “Magic Numbers”

1️⃣ ARR/MRR (Annual/Monthly Recurring Revenue)

This is the lifeblood. It’s the predictable revenue the company can count on every single month or year. When your CEO talks about growth, they’re almost always talking about growing ARR. It’s the master metric.

Why it matters to you: The features you build should, in some way, contribute to growing this number. This can be by attracting new customers or by encouraging existing customers to upgrade to a more expensive plan (often called “expansion revenue”).

2️⃣ CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

This is the total cost of sales and marketing to land one new customer. If the company spent $10,000 on ads and salespeople last month and got 10 new customers, the CAC is $1,000.

Why it matters to you: While you don’t directly control this, building an amazing, intuitive product that people love can create word-of-mouth growth. This is the holy grail because it means you get new customers for free, which crushes your average CAC.

3️⃣ LTV (Lifetime Value)

This is the total amount of money a company expects to make from a single customer over the entire time they use the product. If a customer pays $100/month and sticks around for 36 months, their LTV is $3,600.

Why it matters to you: This is where engineers and product folks have immense leverage. When you build a “sticky” feature that customers can’t live without, you increase how long they stay subscribed, which directly increases LTV. When you fix an annoying bug that was causing people to cancel, you’re literally saving future revenue and boosting LTV.

4️⃣ Churn

The silent killer. Churn is the percentage of customers who cancel their subscription each month. A 5% monthly churn might not sound like much, but it means you’ll lose half of your customers in just over a year. It’s a leaky bucket; you have to run faster and faster just to stay in the same place.

Why it matters to you: Reducing churn is often more important than acquiring new customers. Your work on reliability, performance, and building genuinely useful features is the primary defense against churn. A delightful user experience is a churn-killer.

🌟 The Golden Ratio

Here it is. The one formula that explains the entire business.

LTV:CAC

You need to make significantly more money from a customer (LTV) than it costs to get them (CAC).

If your LTV is $500 and your CAC is $1,000, you’re losing money with every new customer. You’re on a path to going out of business.

If your LTV is $3,000 and your CAC is $1,000, your ratio is 3:1. This is considered a healthy, sustainable business. You can confidently reinvest that profit into acquiring more customers and growing the company.

🙋 From Bystander to Owner

The next time you’re in a planning meeting, don’t just think about the technical challenge. Ask the question:

“How will this feature help us reduce churn?”
“Will this improvement make our product stickier and increase LTV?”
“Is this what our highest-value customers are asking for?”

Thinking this way changes the game. You’re no longer just executing tickets. You’re thinking like an owner, connecting your daily work to the health of the business. And trust me, that’s the kind of thinking that gets noticed.

Your challenge this month: Try to find out your company’s LTV:CAC ratio. You might not get an exact number, but just asking a senior engineer or your manager, “I’m trying to understand the business better, are we generally happy with our unit economics right now?” will show a level of curiosity that 99% of your peers don’t have.

Understand the numbers, play your part 📊,

Shape your future, from the start 🌱.

That’s it for today! Reach out to me about the responses you get by replying to this email or in the comments.

If you found this valuable, consider forwarding it to your friends 🙏

I wish you a great week!

Until next time,

Sonika

Stop asking for coffee chats. Do this instead 🤌

Sonika Arora — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 03:18:25 +0000

Today I want to talk about an honest feeling I’ve had while reading networking advice in my early career. Most networking advice always felt… transactional.

“Reach out for a coffee chat.”

“Ask them about their career path.”

“Connect with 5 new people on LinkedIn every week.”

It all comes from a place of taking. You’re asking for their time, their advice, their connections. It puts you, the junior person, in a position of neediness, and I constantly felt like I was bothering people. Since, I’ve had some time to really think and try a couple things.

What if you could flip the entire dynamic? What if, instead of asking for value, you started by giving it? 🤔

🤝 The Hack: Become a Micro-Connector
A Micro-Connector: Someone who provides hyper-specific, valuable information or connections with zero expectation of anything in return.

The core principle is simple: Give first. Give specifically. Ask later (or never).

Here’s the step-by-step playbook.

Step 1: Pick Your Micro-Niche

You can’t be a connector for "software engineering" or "product management." That’s too broad. Your value comes from specificity.

Choose a tiny, emerging, or rapidly-changing corner of the tech world that genuinely interests you.

"AI/ML"

Instead, go for: "Open-source tools for fine-tuning small language models."

"Frontend Development"

Instead, go for: "New state management libraries in the React ecosystem."

"Cybersecurity"

Instead, go for: "Compliance automation for SOC 2 in early-stage startups."

Your niche should be specific enough that you can realistically stay on the cutting edge of it by spending just 2-3 hours a week reading.

Step 2: Curate Intelligence, Not Just Content

Your job now is to become the best curator for your micro-niche. This doesn’t mean spamming generic articles. It means finding the signal in the noise.

Where to look:

Hacker News: Search for keywords in your niche. Read the comments - that's where the real insights are.

Niche Subreddits: Find the subreddits where practitioners are actually talking shop (e.g., r/ExperiencedDevs, r/MachineLearning, not just r/cscareerquestions).

GitHub: Look for new, interesting projects. Who are the maintainers? What problems are they solving?

Academic Papers: Use Google Scholar to find the latest research papers. You don't need to understand everything, just the key takeaways. Use AI to summarize these.

You're looking for the hidden gems: a new open-source tool, a brilliant comment on a forum, a little-known research paper that solves a common problem.

Step 3: The "No-Ask" Outreach

Now, you find people you admire who work in or adjacent to your niche. A senior engineer at a company you like, a PM, a director. Instead of asking for a call, you send them a piece of your curated intelligence.

Here’s an example to show you what that can look like:

Get The Template

Here’s why this works:

It’s short: It respects their time. They can read it in 10 seconds.

It requires no response: The "That's all" line is critical. It removes all social obligation.

It provides immediate value: You’ve given them something potentially useful with zero effort on their part.

It positions you as a peer: You’re not a student asking for help; you’re a fellow enthusiast sharing something cool.

📝 HQ Tip: Do this once every month or two with a small group of people. Don't spam. Slowly you’ll build a reputation as someone who is thoughtful, connected, and provides value.

Eventually, when you do have an ask - for a referral, for advice on a project - you’re not a stranger. You’re the person who sends them the cool stuff. They’ll be happy to take your call.

🧠 The Psychology Behind It

This method isn't just a tactic or a hack; it's rooted in fundamental human psychology. Let’s talk about why this works.

1️⃣ The Principle of Reciprocity: This is the big one. Humans are wired to return favors. When you give something of value first, without expectation, you create a powerful social obligation. An email asking for a call is a withdrawal. A "no-ask" email with a valuable link is a deposit. You have to make deposits before you can make a withdrawal.

2️⃣ Reduces Cognitive Load: A senior person in tech has a mountain of decisions to make every day. A request for a "30-minute coffee chat" is another decision to make, another block to schedule, another context switch. It adds to their cognitive load. A simple, valuable link is the opposite. It gets them excited to check it out and reply to you.

3️⃣ Builds Authority: You don't need 10 years of experience to have authority. You're not claiming to be a world-class expert, but you are proving you have excellent judgment and a good filter for what's important. This is a rare and valuable skill.

Stop asking for a coffee chat. Start sharing intelligence. You’ll be amazed at how quickly the doors start to open for you.

Play the long game 🌱,

and Step-tember into your potential 🍁.

That's it for today! Reach out to me about your experience with this by replying to this email or meet me in the comments – we can all learn from each other's experiences!

If you found this valuable, consider subscribing or forwarding it to your friends:

https://onboardedhq.substack.com/

I wish you a great week!

Until next time,

Sonika

Becoming a Specialist vs. a Generalist 🕸️

Sonika Arora — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 03:12:26 +0000

Today I want to talk about a tough choice I faced 2 years into my career and one that I’ve talked to many people to see how they think about this — deciding whether to become a specialist. At the end of this post, I share a mind map I’ve created for myself to help me understand how to navigate this 🕸️

Often by the time you arrive at this decision point, you’ve accomplished many things - You’ve landed the job. You’ve survived the actual onboarding. You’ve navigated the sea of new names. And likely finished your first big project.

And then comes the question, sometimes from your manager, but more often from yourself: What now? What kind of contributor do I want to be?

I found myself asking this question in my second year in my career. I looked around my company and could identify two distinct types of people. There's the specialist kind - the Product Manager who is the undisputed expert on payment processing, or the Customer Success Manager who knows every single edge case of your Salesforce integration. They’re the go-to person for one critical thing.

Then there’s the generalist kind - that engineer who can jump from a React frontend to a Go microservice, or the product person at a startup who writes specs, runs user interviews, and pulls their own data with SQL.

This is likely the first major fork in your career path, and choosing a direction felt paralyzing to me, and I’m sure it did to many others as well. So break it down 👇

The Allure of the Specialist

The specialist trades breadth for depth. They commit to a niche and aim to become one of the best in that specific domain.

The Upside:

High Demand: True experts are rare and highly sought after. This often translates to higher pay and better job security, as long as the specialty is in demand.

Clear Impact: It's easy to point to your value. "I reduced churn in our enterprise segment by 15% by redesigning our renewal strategy." Your contributions are specific and measurable.

Intellectual Mastery: You get the deep satisfaction of mastering a complex subject, pushing its boundaries, and becoming a true authority.

The Downside:

Risk of Obsolescence: If your expertise is in a feature that gets sunset, or a market segment your company leaves, your value can decrease overnight.

Getting Pigeonholed: You can become the "monetization PM" and find it difficult to get staffed on core product work. It can make pivoting your career much harder.

Boredom: For some, working on the same type of problem for years can lead to burnout and feeling stuck.

The Freedom of the Generalist

The generalist trades depth for breadth. They value flexibility and the ability to connect disparate parts of the business.

The Upside:

Adaptability: The generalist is a Swiss Army knife. They thrive in ambiguity and change, making them invaluable at startups where roles are fluid.

Leadership Path: Seeing the big picture is a prerequisite for leadership. Generalists often have an easier path to roles like Head of Product, VP of Customer Success, or CTO because they understand how all the pieces fit together.

More Options: You’re not tied to a single domain, giving you a wider range of companies and roles to explore throughout your career.

The Downside:

"Master of None": In your early years, it can be hard to demonstrate deep, impactful work. You might feel like you know a little bit about everything but aren't truly an expert in anything.

Competition: There are a lot of generalists. It can be harder to stand out in a crowded field without a defining skill.

Lower Initial Ceiling: A specialist in a hot field (like an AI Product Manager) might command a higher starting salary than a generalist right out of school.

So, How Do You Choose?

Forget the pressure of a permanent choice. The best framework isn't about picking one forever, but about choosing one for now. Ask yourself three questions:

1️⃣ What Energizes You? Do you get a thrill from solving a single, incredibly difficult customer problem over weeks? Or do you love the variety of jumping between different projects, teams, and challenges throughout the day? Pay attention to what gives you energy versus what drains it.

2️⃣ What Environment Do You Prefer? Large, established companies (Big Tech) often have well-defined roles that favor specialists. Small, fast-moving startups need generalists who can wear multiple hats to survive.

3️⃣ What's Your Long-Term Ambition? This is tough to know early on, but give it a thought. Do you dream of being a Chief Product Officer, managing a diverse portfolio (generalist)? Or a world-renowned expert on user-centric AI ethics (specialist)?

My Mind Map About This: Become T-Shaped

My insight is that the specialist vs. generalist debate is a false dichotomy. The goal isn't to be one or the other. The goal is to become T-shaped.

Think of the letter 'T':

The horizontal bar represents your breadth of knowledge. For a PM, it's understanding engineering constraints, sales cycles, and marketing. For a CSM, it's knowing the product roadmap, the basics of the tech stack, and the sales process.

The vertical stem represents your depth. This is your specialty - the one area where you go deep. For a CSM, this could be mastering the enterprise customer segment. For a PM, it could be becoming the go-to expert on user onboarding.

For your first 1-2 years, your goal should be building the horizontal bar of your T. Be a generalist within your function. Say "yes" to projects that scare you. If you're in CS, work with both small and large customers. If you're a PM, try a project on a different part of the product. Expose yourself to as much as possible.

Then, around the 2-3 year mark, something will click. You'll find an area that you're not only good at, but that you genuinely love. That’s when you start digging your vertical stem. You double down, read the books, and seek out projects that build that deep expertise.

📝 HQ Tip: The key here is to also continue trying a couple of new things regularly - so when you find something else you like, you can dig deeper in that later on in your career.

I found that this approach gives you the best of both worlds: the flexibility of a generalist and the authority of a specialist.

This isn't a decision you make once. It's a process of exploration followed by intentional focus. You’re not locked in. You're just choosing your next move.

First roam the fields, a view so wide 🌾,

Then dig one well with patient stride 🚶,

Where breadth and depth can both reside 🌊.

That's it for today! Reach out to me about how you are planning to navigate this by replying to this email or in the comments – we can all learn from each other's experiences!

If you found this valuable, consider subscribing or forwarding it to your friends:

https://onboardedhq.substack.com/

I wish you a great week! 🙏

Until next time,

Sonika

What a Tech Recruiter Actually Wants to See on Your Resume 🔖

Sonika Arora — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 02:49:43 +0000

Alright, today let’s talk about that hollow feeling after you click 'submit' - the one where you wonder if your carefully crafted application landed in some company’s digital trash can 🗑️♻️

By the time you submit it, you’ve already spent hours tailoring your resume, picking the perfect "action verbs", and maybe even asked ChatGPT to "make it sound more professional." Then you hit 'submit' and get… silence.

What if the secret to standing out isn't adding more buzzwords, but mastering a simple, two-part formula that gets you a response?

I had a fascinating chat last week with Charlotte Steggall, a tech recruiter with over 10 years of experience hiring Gen Z for tech roles. She told me the applications that are impossible to ignore always do two things:

1️⃣ they tell a compelling story,

2️⃣ they provide concrete proof.

Let’s dive into the details 👇

https://onboardedhq.substack.com/p/what-a-tech-recruiter-actually-wants-to-see-on-your-resume

The Invisible Epidemic 😷: Facing the Silent Crisis of Burnout [with Sam Loeffler]

Sonika Arora — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 21:58:30 +0000

Original post: https://onboardedhq.substack.com/p/facing-the-silent-crisis-of-burnout

Something we all chase early in our careers is the "dream job". You know the one. It's got the impressive title, the top-tier company name, and the salary that makes our parents proud.

But what if climbing the ladder too quickly just gives you a better view of how lost you really are?

I recently had the honor of talking with Samantha Loeffler, and her story is one every ambitious person in their 20s needs to hear. By age 30, Sam was a Marketing Director at a leading fortune 500 company. She was the definition of success, rapidly climbing the corporate ladder and leading key initiatives 📈.

On LinkedIn, she was living the dream but if you talked to her you’d hear a different story. Internally, she was falling apart. Her career was draining all her energy.

Over the past few years she learnt how to spot the early signs of burnout and, more importantly, redefined her relationship with work and focused on building a career that energizes her instead of drains her.

And that’s where we can learn some magic from her - because let’s face it, our career is not a sprint, it’s a marathon 🏃

Recognizing the "Mask"

Sam told me about the gradual buildup of burnout that started in her mid-20s. As she took on more responsibility, she became a pro at "playing the corporate game". She was a people-pleaser, knew how to present well to execs, and collected promotions quickly.

But this outward success hid a deep internal struggle. She was wearing a mask, and it was becoming heavier each day 🎭

At work, whenever someone asked "How are you?", her answer was always the corporate classic - "I’m good, how about you?". But what no one heard or saw was that she was battling severe anxiety and the creeping feeling of losing her own identity every day. The version of her everyone saw in the office was calm, capable, and in control. But outside of work, she was deeply unhappy - her brain was unable to switch off from the constant pressure to perform.

Sound familiar…? It's a quiet exhaustion that many of us suppress within us.

Noticing It's Not a Personal Failure, It's a System Failure

For years, Sam thought a new environment was the answer. She job-hopped five times, each time hoping the next role would be "the one" and get her closer to a higher title, a higher salary, and to being truly happy. She finally landed a director position at what she thought was her dream company.

Within two months, she knew she'd made a mistake after noticing the toxic company culture. The breaking point came after a particularly difficult conversation with her manager. By then she had reached her tipping point and called HR and resigned.

Her company was surprised, 😱

her colleagues were surprised, 😮

but people close to her knew exactly what’s going on. 🧐

They had seen her “unmasked” version - the one that wasn’t pretending to be just fine.

Her story isn't about one bad job. It’s about realizing that no external achievement can fix an internal misalignment - which ultimately leads to burnout.

So How Can We Proactively Avoid the Burnout Trap?

Sam’s journey back from burnout wasn’t about finding a better job, but about redefining her relationship with work entirely. Here are the most powerful, actionable takeaways from our conversation that you can apply right now:

1️⃣ Build Your "Oh Sh*t Fund" 💰
The sad reality is we all have bills to pay and this can be biggest hurdle when we think about quitting a toxic job. So, this fund is a non-negotiable.

For two years leading up to her breaking point, Sam had been building what she called an "oh sh*t fund" - the financial cushion that gave her the power to walk away from a soul-crushing job without having to immediately panic about her next paycheck.

She viewed this fund as a direct investment in her mental health and future self. It’s the ultimate form of self-care.

Start building yours today, even if it's just a small amount from each paycheck. Your future self will thank you.

2️⃣ Question the "Success" Script 🏆
After quitting, Sam took an 8-month sabbatical. During that time, she had to unpack years of conditioning. She asked herself a critical question: Are the goals I'm chasing actually my own?

Sam's biggest fear wasn't about finances but rather what other people would think - specifically her family, friends, and colleagues.

📝 HQ Tip: It’s super easy to get stuck thinking what family or friends would say if you quit your job. But your life is yours to live, not theirs. When you're ready to share your decision, focus on your well-being and your growth. Tell them, "This decision is about prioritizing my health and long-term happiness, and I'm excited about this new chapter." If they disagree, you don't need to justify or debate; simply reiterate that this is the best path for you right now.

For the first two weeks after resigning, she told only her husband, and took time to process the experience privately before explaining it to others. When telling her family, Sam focused on the company not being a good fit and feeling like her best wasn’t enough. Four months into her sabbatical, Sam shared her story on LinkedIn, where she was surprised to see there were so many others who had experienced the same kind of pressures and had also been burnt out after 'wearing masks' at work.

Sam's advice to her younger self was powerful: "Slow down".

She realized that rushing toward promotions often means rushing straight into burnout. Today, she's intentionally taken a step back on the corporate ladder (from Director to Manager) because she values her peace of mind more than the title. And she’ll make the move up at the right time in her long life and career.

3️⃣ Own the Break + Train Like an Athlete 💪
This was my favorite analogy from our chat. Sam mentioned that we should be treating ourselves like athletes.

Think about it. No professional athlete trains 24/7. They understand that rest and recovery are non-negotiable parts of peak performance. Pushing through exhaustion doesn't make you tougher; it leads to injury.

In the corporate world, that injury is burnout. It can sideline you for months, or even years. Prioritizing rest, setting boundaries, and actually taking your PTO isn't lazy - it's strategic. It's what helps you have a long, healthy, and sustainable career.

Sam listed the sabbatical on her resume with bullet points about mental health focus and activities, which was received exclusively positively during interviews. She was honest and sincere when talking about it in interviews, and it almost made her more human to every recruiter she talked to.

Sam's story is about a powerful ongoing transformation. She's back in a corporate role she enjoys as of now, but has identified a love for coaching and mentoring others and wants to explore that further. She’s more authentic, her work is just one part of her identity (not the whole thing), and she actively sets her boundaries. She also manages some side businesses (vending machine, teaching yoga) she started during her sabbatical!

The biggest lesson? You are in control. You don't have to wait until you hit a breaking point to make a change.

Your well-being isn't an obstacle to success 🤷;

it's the entire foundation for it ✨.

That's it for today! Have you navigated a similar experience in your career? Let me know in the comments!

If you are found this valuable, consider subscribing — here

I wish you a great week!

Until next time,

Sonika

Early Retirement - What FIRE Is Absolutely Not About

Sonika Arora — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:05:48 +0000

If you're a new grad or early in your tech career, you've probably heard the buzz about "Early Retirement" and FIRE.

When I first heard the acronym FIRE I almost dismissed it as a fad.

It brought to my mind stories of extreme penny-pinching, of people who track every single coffee purchase in a spreadsheet and live in a state of constant, joyless self-denial. It just didn’t feel like the way I wanted to live my 20s.

My goal wasn’t to stop working in my 30s. My goal was to build a career I actually enjoy without feeling trapped by golden handcuffs or a toxic team. The "Retire Early" part seems completely out of touch and confusing in fact - can somebody please tell me what I would do after retiring at 35? 🤷‍♀️

I just dropped a post in my newsletter, OnboardedHQ, that unpacks the real magic behind the FIRE movement – the "FI" part. This isn't about giving up your 20s. It's about gaining an unfair advantage that lets you:

🏢 Walk away from a toxic team without a second thought.

🧠 Fund your dream startup without the usual money worries.

⛵️ Take a sabbatical whenever you decide, not when your boss allows.

Don't get stuck in the traditional grind. Unlock the power, control, and freedom that's waiting for you.

➡️ Read the full breakdown and get your FI Starter Pack now (before everyone else catches on): https://onboardedhq.substack.com/p/early-retirement-what-fire-is-absolutely

What's one thing you wish your college career center had taught you about money and freedom? Let's talk in the comments!

The First Tech Interview is a Filter, Not a Test. Here's How to Get Through♟️

Sonika Arora — Sun, 08 Jun 2025 04:55:40 +0000

Hey Dev community!

The tech job market is getting increasingly tough to navigate if you're just starting out. I've seen a lot of new developers get discouraged after the first few interview calls, so I wanted to share a mental model that might help.

This post is all about reframing that first interview — not as a scary test, but as a simple "filter". Below, I break down what that means and the three key signals you can send to make sure you get through to the next round. Let's dive in!

I’ve done quite a few screening rounds myself at startups I’ve worked at, and over the past few years, I’ve also talked with a bunch of tech recruiters about how they run interviews and, more importantly, why they end up rejecting candidates 🤷

And it’s almost never “they didn’t know enough about data structures” or “their Python skills weren’t strong enough.” It almost always came down to something much simpler. It was about clarity, professionalism, and whether the candidate was, in their words, a “safe bet” to pass along to the engineering team.

Here is how I understand this - most of us get nervous, treat the first interview like an exam, and end up getting a polite "we'll keep your resume on file" email a week later.

📝 HQ Tip: Think about it from the company's perspective: interviews are incredibly expensive for a company. Every hour a candidate spends with an engineer is an hour that engineer isn't building a product. Because of that, the first interview has one simple goal: to decide if you are worth the investment of a second, more expensive interview.

So the goal isn't to be perfect. It’s to give them an easy "yes."

Let’s dive into the signals you can send in your first interview which move you ahead in the process 👇

Signal #1: Show them you get it (with your 30-second story) 😇

When they hit you with "So, tell me about yourself," this is your moment. They want to know if you can connect your experience to their needs in a clear, compelling story.

It might sound like this: "Hi, I'm Alex. I just graduated with a CS degree. I know Python, Java, and JavaScript. I had an internship where I worked on a web app, and I’m looking for a software engineering role."

It's not bad, but it's forgettable because but it's what they hear all day. Now, imagine if you said this instead:

"Well, I'm Alex, and I just graduated and I focus on building full-stack applications. I really enjoy working on back-end systems to make them clean and fast. In my last internship, I actually got to rebuild a core API with Python, which ended up improving its speed by about 20%. I was really excited when I saw this role because it looks like I'd get to tackle similar performance challenges, but at a much bigger scale."

That's the stuff. You’re not making them do the work of connecting the dots. You’ve already done it for them. You’ve shown what you do, that you did it well (that 20% number is gold), and how it connects to their job.

✅ That’s a huge signal of competence!

Signal #2: Show them you actually care (the "why us?" check) 😏

Look, we both know you're probably applying to a bunch of places. But from their side, they are drowning in applicants who would take any job. Genuine interest is your secret weapon.

Before the call, just spend 10 minutes on their website or engineering blog. All you need is one little nugget.

"I saw you just launched that new dashboard feature. I was playing around with it and was really curious how your team handled the real-time updates."

"I read a blog post from your team about your migration to a new database. It sounded like a huge challenge, and I’d love to hear more about it."

✅ This little bit of effort sends a massive signal that you're intentional. It tells them they aren't just another line on your spreadsheet.

Signal #3: Show them you're a pro (the E.Q. check) 😌

Okay, this last one is the tie-breaker. It’s what separates the good candidates from the ones who get the offer. You have to show them you’re a professional who they can trust to work with their team.

The best way to do this is with the questions you ask at the end. Your questions show what you care about. So instead of the basics you can find online, try asking things like:

"What would a successful first six months look like for someone in this role?"

“What kind of a person would you consider perfect for this role?”

"What's your favorite part about working here?"

✅ These questions show you're thinking about your future impact, about what the team is looking for, and that you’re a real person trying to connect with another real person.

📝 HQ Tip: The reason I'm telling you all this is because it's a skill that goes way beyond this one job search. Knowing how to communicate your value is how you’ll get picked for interesting projects and how you’ll argue for a promotion later.

This is how you start building a career, not just looking for a job.

Additional Topics and How To Prep For Them 🗒️

1 - Your resume and about any online content you have (including github projects, or blogs you’ve written)
Think of your online presence as your 24/7 advocate, working for you before you even get in the room. Your GitHub tells a story about your coding habits. Your LinkedIn shows how you think about your industry. Before they ever speak to you, interviewers are looking you up—make sure what they find is telling the story you want.

📝 HQ Tip: One more thing—if you're interviewing at a startup, don't be surprised if behavioral questions pop up right away. My go-to resource for this is this fantastic post on dev.to that breaks down different storytelling frameworks, like the STAR method.

2 - Why you left/are leaving your previous role and what you are looking for in the new role
When an interviewer asks, "So, why are you interested in this role?" they're testing your motivation. It's easy to walk into one of two traps -

⚠️ The Logistics: This is when you mention things like compensation, a short commute, or remote work. Of course these things matter. But they aren't your motivation. Leading with them makes it sound like you want a paycheck, not a purpose. Keep them separate for the negotiation phase after you get an offer.

⚠️ The Rear-view Mirror: This is where you complain about a past job. Even if you're fleeing a genuinely toxic culture, never say, "I'm trying to escape my terrible boss." Instead, you must reframe what you're running from into what you're running towards.

Instead of: "My old job was chaotic and had no direction."

Try: "I'm looking for a team that has mentors who I can learn from and a defined vision which I can help make progress towards."

See the difference? One is a complaint; the other is an ambition.

Yeah, the market's tough. No doubt. But it's not a lottery after you get that first interview. Stop trying to "pass a test." and just show them you're a safe bet who is competent, interested, and professional.

Show you care 🌱,

Frame it forward 🚀,

and know how to communicate your story 🤝.

If you found this guide helpful, please feel free to read more here: https://onboardedhq.substack.com/p/the-first-interview-is-a-filter-not

I also talk about related topics about navigating your tech career and building wealth. Thanks for reading!