The Curious Case of Soham Parekh: Moonlighting, Overemployment, and a Tech Industry Reckoning
Moonlighting has long been an open secret in the IT industry, particularly in India, where many software developers and engineers quietly take on additional freelance or full-time roles—often with the lure of earning in dollars while drawing modest salaries at home. The trend surged during the remote-work boom of the pandemic, and now, thanks to a bizarre and increasingly viral story, the ethics and realities of moonlighting are back in the spotlight.
At the center of the storm is Soham Parekh, a young engineer whose outrageous tale has sparked both fascination and disbelief. Whether he is a scammer or a misunderstood genius remains unclear. Some suspect he might not even be real. But after multiple digital breadcrumbs, public interviews, and employer statements, it’s fair to say: if Soham isn’t real, someone has gone to incredible lengths to make him appear so.
The Spark: A Tweet Heard Across Silicon Valley
The saga began when Suhail Doshi, co-founder and former CEO of Mixpanel, posted on social media platform X accusing Parekh of simultaneously working for up to four startups—several backed by startup accelerator Y Combinator. Doshi claimed that Parekh was briefly hired by his company but was let go within a week after they discovered overlapping job commitments.
Doshi’s post went viral, triggering a flurry of reactions from tech founders and industry insiders. Marcus Lowe, founder of productivity startup Create, also came forward, stating that while Parekh had demonstrated strong coding skills during the interview process, he began missing work soon after onboarding. Lowe later found GitHub activity showing Parekh was committing code to another startup (Sync.so) during hours he had claimed to be on personal leave.
“His attendance was spotty, and when we looked into it, we found GitHub commits to other startups during hours he was supposed to be off,” Lowe said. “It was a huge waste of time—such directly immoral behaviour felt worth speaking out about.”
Andriy Mulyar, CEO of Nomic AI, also confirmed that Parekh had previously worked for his company.
Ghost or Genius?
No one knows exactly how many companies Soham applied to or worked for, but some posts suggest he may have cracked interviews at over 70 startups. That led to speculation that Parekh wasn’t just moonlighting—he was a master interview-hacker, acing LeetCode challenges and technical interviews at scale. Others alleged he was outsourcing his work to junior engineers in India while pocketing multiple salaries, reportedly making $30,000–$40,000 per month at the peak.
Then came the online sleuthing. Tech founders began revisiting old emails and DMs, realizing Parekh had pitched himself to almost every YC-backed founder. Some remembered brief exchanges. Others said they had considered hiring him. Soham, it seemed, was everywhere and nowhere.
He had a digital footprint: An interview on the Meta Blog from his time at the Major League Hacking Fellowship; a resume listing a final-year computer science degree from Georgia Institute, US (though Georgia Institute reportedly denies having a student by that name); and a claimed IT engineering degree from Mumbai University.
A Face to the Name
Eventually, Soham Parekh appeared in an interview on the TBPN tech podcast, where he admitted to the allegations:
“It is true,” he said. “I’m not proud of what I’ve done. But I had to do this out of necessity. I was in extremely dire financial circumstances. No one really wants to work 140 hours a week, right? But I had to do it.”
He claimed he personally managed all his jobs—no AI tools, no outsourced help. Originally from Mumbai, Parekh said he had long aspired to study and work in the US, finally moving in 2020. Mounting bills and limited opportunities pushed him toward “overemployment.” According to him, this wasn’t driven by greed—it was about survival.
A Polarizing Symbol of Modern Work Culture
Parekh’s case reignited a fierce debate about moonlighting and overemployment, not only in India but also across Silicon Valley. While not strictly illegal, holding multiple full-time jobs often violates employment contracts and raises critical concerns about ethics, transparency, and trust.
In India’s IT sector—where median salaries remain low compared to global peers—the temptation to moonlight is particularly strong. But Parekh’s case goes beyond moonlighting. It’s about exploiting the remote work model, using savvy tech skills to juggle high-stakes roles under the radar, until it all unraveled.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that about 5.5% of Americans hold two or more jobs, a number that surged post-pandemic. But few do it like Soham—allegedly with multiple full-time tech gigs, concurrent deliverables, and no disclosure to employers.
A Second Chance?
After the backlash, Parekh reportedly ended all side jobs and accepted a full-time role at Darwin, a startup led by Sanjit Juneja. In a public statement, Juneja said:
“Soham is an incredibly talented engineer, and we believe in his ability to help bring our products to market.”
In a post on X, Parekh added:
“I’ve been isolated, written off, and shut out by nearly everyone I’ve known and every company I’ve worked at. But building is the only thing I’ve ever truly known, and it’s what I’ll keep doing.”
Final Word
Whether you see Soham Parekh as a tech grifter, a victim of systemic inequality, or a poster child for the broken work culture of the remote era, one thing is clear: His story has become a flashpoint in a broader conversation about how we work, who we trust, and what rules apply in the new digital workplace.
And in this strange case, the biggest question might not be “what did he do?” but “how many Sohams are out there, quietly doing the same?”
