🧭 Introduction: The Multi-Job Engineer Who Broke the Internet

On July 5th, 2025, headlines exploded with a story that seemed ripped from a Netflix script.

Soham Parekh, a mid-career techie, was caught working for multiple early-stage startups at the same time, juggling several jobs while presenting himself as a “founding engineer” at each.

The tech community responded with swift outrage:

“He scammed startups!”
“How can anyone possibly work 140 hours a week?”
“This is what happens when you glorify hustle culture!”

But if you stop at the headlines, you miss the far deeper question this story raises.

What would drive a talented, top-0.1% engineer — someone capable of landing $250K offers — to risk it all?

This isn’t a story about fraud. This is a story about fear, fragility, and the future of work in the AI era.

🎯 Who Is Soham Parekh? Why Does This Matter?

Soham wasn’t some amateur grifter.

He was smart. He passed multiple rigorous hiring interviews. Founders described him as “highly capable,” “incredibly sharp,” and “able to ship fast.”

At least one startup publicly admitted offering him a $250K/year compensation package, which he declined. Others handed him equity-rich offers, believing he was all-in.

Except… he wasn’t.

He was working for multiple startups simultaneously, hiding from co-founders, avoiding syncs, and context-switching across projects — until one suspicious Slack thread exposed him.

💡 “No One Likes to Work 140 Hours…”

In a rare interview following the exposé, Soham said:

“No one really likes to work 140 hours a week, but I had to do this out of necessity. I was in extremely dire financial circumstances… This wasn’t about greed.”

This is the line that made me pause.

Because I’ve been there.

Maybe not juggling four VC-backed jobs — but burning through sleepless nights, context-switching between failing startups, and taking consulting gigs just to keep my family fed.

I know what desperation looks like when you're wearing it with a smile on Zoom.

💰 The Equity Trap: When Offers Look Big but Bank Accounts Stay Empty

One key reason Soham gave for his overemployment: he consistently took the “lower salary, higher equity” option at startups.

And that makes sense — on paper.

In startup land, that’s seen as “believing in the vision.” It aligns you with the company’s success. You’re not here for the paycheck; you’re here for the mission.

But let’s break down what this often really means:

So if your rent is $3K/month and your equity is locked until a potential Series C or acquisition… you’re broke in the short term, even if you're a future millionaire on paper.

This is what I call "The Startup Illusion of Wealth."

It makes overemployment seem not just justifiable — but necessary.

🌍 The Rise of Overemployment in Remote Tech

Soham’s story isn’t an outlier. He’s part of a fast-growing, shadow economy in tech — sometimes called the "overemployed movement."

There’s even a subreddit for it: r/overemployed — with over 500,000 members.

It’s filled with stories of people juggling:

• 2–3 software dev roles

• UX research at one company, QA testing at another

• Customer support for one SaaS tool, freelance content for another

The reason?

Fear. Fragility. Financial pressure.

In an era where AI is eating mid-level jobs, tech companies are laying off tens of thousands, and inflation is relentless, even high-skill workers feel replaceable.

🤖 Jobs in the Age of AI: Talent Isn’t a Moat Anymore

This is where Soham’s story becomes especially important.

He wasn’t average.

He beat the odds. Cleared interviews. Landed founding engineer roles.

And still felt the need to stack jobs to survive.

If a high-talent engineer doesn’t feel safe…

What does that say about the system?

📉 The Systemic Pressure That Created Soham

Let’s map this out:

Now add one more layer: founder culture that values relentless commitment, blurred work-life boundaries, and the glorification of all-nighters.

You get Soham.

Not as a villain.

But as a signal.

😶 Ethics, Yes. But Also Empathy.

Was Soham wrong? Yes. He deceived people. He breached contracts.

But this blog isn’t a court.

This is a place for reflection, especially for those of us trying to rebuild our careers, systems, and identities after layoff trauma, startup failures, or burnout.

We’ve all faced moments where we had to choose between survival and values.

Sometimes the gap is smaller than we’d like to admit.

🧠 What I Learned From This

I’ve juggled jobs, dreams, and fears.

I’ve been:

• A solo founder who couldn't pay his team.

• A laid-off techie who didn’t know where rent would come from.

• A man rebuilding with AI, automation, and discipline — because hustle nearly broke me.

So when I saw Soham’s story, I didn’t just see deception.

I saw a cautionary tale of what happens when smart people are pushed into unsustainable lives, in systems that offer no backup.

🔁 Systems > Hustle: The New Playbook

My answer wasn’t to work more.

It was to build smarter:

• One blog → 15 platforms

• One idea → leveraged across YouTube Shorts, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram

• One identity → aligned, honest, system-first

Instead of managing three jobs, I now manage one workflow that earns while I sleep.

This isn’t passive income. It’s repeatable resilience.

🚨 Final Reflection: Soham Is Not a One-Off

There are hundreds like Soham.

Working quietly. Hiding second jobs. Hoping equity turns liquid. Chasing deadlines and dreams simultaneously.

We can choose to shame them.

Or we can ask better questions:

• What kind of tech ecosystem expects relentless loyalty for unproven equity?

• Why do we praise "hustle" and then punish it when it breaks boundaries?

• How can we help talented people build systems — not collapse into survival loops?

📣 Call to Action

If you’re reading this and feel on edge — exhausted, stretched, afraid…

You’re not alone.

But there’s a way out.

Start building systems that work for you, even when you rest.
Learn to monetize once, distribute infinitely.
Stop adding jobs — start creating assets.

Because hustle is short-term.
Leverage is legacy.