Sourish walked away from a $250K TikTok ML job with no plan, self-studied AI, and landed at one of Silicon Valley's hottest AI labs.
Now he interviews candidates himself and he's exposing exactly what it takes to get in.
Computer science students, new grads, and software engineers…want to land your dream software engineering job or internship? Click here 👉https://www.amanmanazir.com/coaching/?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=podcasts_description&utm_campaign=SourishAI_TikTok&video=1kZDGkReE6w
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I’m Aman Manazir, a career coach and software engineer. I interned at companies like Amazon, Shopify, and HP in college, and the day I graduated I landed a $168,000/year* full-time software engineering job. I help you make it as a computer science student & software engineer and get your dream job offer.
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👉 Sourish's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sourishk07
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⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
02:30 Quitting TikTok With No Plan
05:57 The $250K Compensation Breakdown
07:10 What He Couldn't Say While Inside
08:15 Chinese-Only Culture At ByteDance
10:56 The TikTok Ban From The Inside
12:30 Life After Quitting: The Reset
14:26 Why Video Diffusion Changed Everything
16:51 When Job Hunting Actually Started
17:57 Second Recruiting Cycle Was Harder
20:15 Companies He Talked To
20:46 Why He Chose Luma AI
22:04 What Luma AI Actually Does
23:06 His Role: Optimizing The Inference Stack
23:33 Roadmap To Land At A Top AI Lab
26:14 How Long Should You Actually Study
27:23 Quit Or Study On The Side
28:14 How To Know When You're Ready
29:35 How To Get In Front Of Companies
30:26 Which Networking Events Are Worth It
32:20 What Startups Actually Ask In Interviews
33:10 How Many Interviews Before Luma
33:41 Why Experience Changes The Game
36:05 Breaking Down AI Company Types
41:23 Salary Ranges Across AI Companies
43:49 Highest Salaries He's Heard Of
44:31 What He Sees Interviewing Candidates
46:37 10 Years At Google Still Failed
47:43 The Harvard Candidate Who Got Caught Cheating
49:30 Should Interviews Go Back In Person
52:11 Philosophy On Learning Hard Things Fast
56:24 Are We Training Ourselves To Be Useless
58:01 Hot Takes: Are SWEs Cooked
58:22 Should You Still Major In CS
58:50 Big Tech Vs AI Startup In 2026
59:41 Is The Big Tech Dream Dead
1:00:09 Is LeetCode Still Relevant
1:00:31 The AI Belief He Got Totally Wrong