Santosh Yadav grew up in a one-room Mumbai chawl. He struggled with English in engineering college and landed his first job in 2007 earning Rs 5,000 a month. Instead of climbing the corporate interview ladder, he built things in public—contributing to open-source projects, writing technical content, speaking at conferences. Over the years, his reputation preceded him. Google named him a Developer Expert. Companies started reaching out, not the other way around.
Earlier this year, CodeRabbit—an AI code review platform based in Germany—came calling. No five-round gauntlet. No six-hour take-home project. They had seen his work. The interview was a conversation between peers. He accepted a senior software engineer role and relocated to Germany with his family.
Yadav's story went viral on LinkedIn this week, with many noting the contrast: when your work is visible, the process shrinks to a handshake.