When I started my job search, I couldn't have imagined that I'd get an opportunity to be one of the founding engineers at Rocketlane.
As we all know, Chennai is the SaaS capital of India. Some of the companies here are building world-class SaaS products. Getting the opportunity to work on one of those is a privilege—and it's not easy to get into this ecosystem. It's harder than we think.
With all this in mind, I narrowed down my desires for my next role to two important things:
- A flexible, open, and flat work culture
- An opportunity to develop the core of the product alongside a small but aggressive team—ideally with the founders
After two weeks of interviews, in the beginning of June, I received an offer from Rocketlane. This blog is about my journey—from expectations to astonishments.
A Brief History of Me
After working at HappyFox as a Full-Stack Developer for more than three years, I planned to take a break and try something new. I resigned on December 31, 2019.
Two months went by without much productivity. I took up some freelance work, and then COVID-19 hit. Four months into 2020, doing random freelance tasks wasn't taking me anywhere. So, I decided to put momentum back into my career and began my job search around mid-May.
I turned on the “available for hire” checkbox on LinkedIn, AngelList, GitHub, Cutshort, and Instahyre.
Tip: Getting a company's attention is hard. Improve your profile on strong recruiting platforms. Reply to people who reach out. Build relationships—even with strangers. Opportunities often come from unexpected conversations. (In fact, that's how I discovered Rocketlane!)
Job Portals: A Wormhole
I had never used job portals extensively before. But after polishing my Instahyre and Cutshort profiles, I began receiving notifications within a few days.
Between LinkedIn, Instahyre, and Cutshort, I responded to several recruiters, managers, and CTOs. Some aligned with my expectations; some didn't.
Then one day, I got a call from a Bangalore-based startup. Four years into my career, this was the first time I was giving a formal interview again. The excitement was real.
Call of Duty: The First Call
This company had three rounds:
- Online Competitive Coding Test
- Module Design & Development
- Test Run / Review Discussion
The coding test included three problems with serious test cases and seven theoretical questions. I'm not a competitive programming person—I don't grind Leetcode or HackerRank daily—but I pushed myself and submitted the test on Saturday.
Surprisingly, the HR called back with positive feedback, and I moved to Round 2.
Meanwhile, I also got another opportunity from Appknox via Cutshort, and an interview with the co-founder was scheduled for Friday.
On Sunday morning, I took Round 3 for the first company. I was asked to build a search interface for thousands of records, implementing relevance-based search from scratch. No libraries. I completed it and deployed to Netlify.
Lightning Strikes ⚡
Out of nowhere, that same evening, I got a message from Deepak, Co-founder & CTO of Rocketlane.
We discussed the product, tech stack, and interview process. I was excited—and we decided to proceed.
The following week was a roller coaster. From zero opportunities to juggling three companies at once. It was chaotic, but I didn't want to lose any chance.
"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."
This is how the interview process at Rocketlane unfolded.
The Rocketlane Interview Journey
Round 1: Technical Discussion (Zoom)
We started with basics—how the internet works, differences between frameworks—and gradually went deeper. I was even asked to run JavaScript code live.
Tip: Learn the fundamentals of the tools and technologies you use daily. Deep knowledge shines in interviews.
This is how I started the interview:
😎 Confident
This is how I ended:
😵 Eppa ala vidupa swamy 🙏
It was a productive one-hour session, and the next day Deepak shared the good news—I cleared it.
Round 2: System Design & Development
This round evaluates how deeply you understand real-world systems. You may be asked to design something like a typeahead search, Twitter clone, or chat system.
This is my favorite kind of round—it feels like brainstorming with another engineer to solve a real problem.
I was given 10 hours to build a complete interface using only HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. No external libraries. I spent the whole day building scalable, reusable UI components and deployed them by Saturday.
Tip: Revisit HTML/CSS fundamentals if you're a JavaScript-heavy developer. Also, learn system design. Try rebuilding components you use daily—modals, dropdowns, reselect patterns, etc. You'll understand open-source libraries much better.
Round 3: Pair Programming
Feedback was quick—thanks to Deepak—and I moved to the discussion round the next day. At this point, I dropped all other interview processes to focus entirely on Rocketlane.
This round involved improving my previous solution live. Coding on the fly is tough. You need alertness, clarity, and composure.
Throughout this round, I felt like Neo inside The Matrix, dodging bullets.
Tip: Practice live problem-solving with senior engineers or mentors. Be honest about what you know, confident about what you've built, and open to learning.
Round 4: Behavioral Interview
Reaching this round meant I had already impressed the technical team.
I had two discussions: one with Srikrishnan and one with Vignesh.
Behavioral interviews are crucial—they reveal who you are, what you value, and whether your mindset aligns with the company's.
Sri and I discussed career goals, why I wanted to work in an early-stage startup, and what I expected. He also shared insights about building startups and their previous success story—Konotor.
Vignesh and I had a long discussion about product ideas, customer handling, and SaaS fundamentals. It was enlightening.
Tip: Your vision must align with the company's. Be honest about what you want and what motivates you.
I had already declined every other company's offer. And the next day, I waited for Sri's call—nervous and excited, like Harry Potter waiting for the Sorting Hat's verdict.
Waiting felt like eternity…
It took 10 days in total.
Was it easy? No.
Was it worth it? Hell yes.
Final Note
"Decide what you want, and then act as if it were impossible to fail." — Brian Tracy
If you're looking for a job (or know someone who is), please:
- Practice online coding
- Learn system design
- Prioritize what truly matters to you
For me, it's always great people and strong product vision.
By the way, Rocketlane is hiring:
https://angel.co/company/rocketlane/jobs
My neural networks are super pumped for this new journey. Looking forward to the lessons and adventures ahead.
To infinity and beyond! 🚀
That's it! 😄