I walked in ready for the usual "AI is coming for your job" sermon.

Then a PayPal AI engineer — a guy who's also logged time at TikTok and JPMorgan — looked at me and said he's never once watched good code make anyone a dollar. One sentence, and the whole hour reset.

Sohil is early enough in his own story to remember the scramble, and senior enough now to see what big tech actually rewards. So we skipped the platitudes.

We open with what companies really screen for in AI agent jobs in 2026, and why leetcode refuses to die even though an LLM can solve most of it in seconds. (Yes, I asked him why. His answer beats the LinkedIn takes.)

He walks through why take-home tests are basically dead for senior engineers, how AI reshaped his actual day at PayPal, and the edge-case trap that quietly wrecks AI-written code before you spot it. If you're prepping for a senior software engineer interview, that part alone earns the listen.

Then came the takes that rewired my brain.

The "10x productivity" thing? He calls it a myth. His number is 2x, maybe 3x on a great day, and he shows exactly where the ceiling sits. Anyone chasing AI coding productivity headlines should hear this before they overpromise to a manager.

Here's the one that stuck with me: higher code quality almost never moves revenue. Sit with that. It changes how you think about getting promoted in tech, because the thing you're proud of might be the thing nobody upstairs can see.

We also go inside ByteDance during Project Texas and the TikTok ban — what it felt like from a desk, not a headline. And how he pivoted from finance into big tech without a resume that matched the job on paper. (If you're plotting a career pivot into tech and your background looks "wrong," this is your permission slip.)

This is the honest version of software engineer career advice nobody bothers to post. No hype about whether AI will replace software engineers. Just a working ai engineer telling you what the tech job market in 2026 looks like from the inside.

If you're early-career and stuck on your next move, press play. 🎧

Connect with SohilLinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/sohil-vinod-shah/

Ready Set Do covers AI careers, tech hiring, and your next move. New episodes weekly — subscribe on YouTube and Spotify.

Timestamps:

00:00 — Navigating the Hiring Landscape in Big Tech

07:40 — A Day in the Life at PayPal

12:26 — Leveraging AI in Code Development

18:11 — Contrasting Experiences: TikTok vs. PayPal

22:21 — Productivity Gains and Challenges with AI

23:51 — Quality Output vs. Business Value

27:40 — Navigating Challenges at ByteDance

30:10 — Transitioning from Finance to Tech

34:13 — Strategies for Career Advancement

38:09 — The Future of AI in the Workplace