9 Months to a role - How to stay valuable in times of AI

Talk given at AI Camp Berlin 2026 on Apr 24, 2026 at the wonderful mobile.de campus.
Talk Abstract:
- My last job search took 9 months: the hardest of my career.
- In times of AI when there are fewer roles and many strong candidates, every little counts and I had to rethink how to authentically stand out in my own job search
- I'll share what helped with my job search and how I'm currently adapting and building resilience to constantly get better and also remain useful.
- We’ll also talk about how to be in the drivers seat of our own lives for the longer term - moving from reacting to constant changes to planning ahead with strategic foresight.
- For engineers, PMs, founders, and anyone trying to stay relevant and self-reliant in ever changing times of AI

Transcript

1. 9 Months to a role - How to stay valuable in times of AI A first principles approach to learning & continuously improving in ever changing times of AI
2. man muss immer umkehren(Invert, always invert) “[Jacobi] .. ..hard problems are best solved when they are addressed backward,” - Charlie Munger Credit: Charlie Munger Quote above taken from: https://fs.blog/inversion/ German Mathematician
3. • Principle: A players hire A alayers • Why?: Average hiring mistake costs fifteen times an employee’s base salary What are the companies looking for? - A players(Top performers)
4. What companies look for? - When hiring look for values fit, but culture add 2. When hiring, look for values fit, but culture add. - Meri Williams, CTO Credits: (Skiller Whale blog)
5. How to Get the Interview - Make Authentic Community Connections Credits: This Youtube video around 17:54 from Jobwunder 2025 & Rouven Sperling (from Berlin Partner)
6. How to find jobs - Slack Communities in Berlin - Other Slack communities(Invite links to some here) - Startup Berlin - Data Berlin - Berlin Techs - Rands Leadership Slack Group - Apply here - A Discord community that I(Mohnish) runs - ‘I am because we are’ - Join here - In case invite link expires, I’ll update this doc with new links - In case I missed out(contact me via email last slide)
7. Request Other Hiring managers to vet your resume(Inversion Principle) How?: Via the #vet-my-resume channel on Rands Leadership Slack Group
8. Request Hiring Mangers For Practice Interviews through Mentoring Club(Inversion Principle) Mentoring-club.com - Personalized guidance through free community sessions or paid coaching
9. How to Stand Out: Use Cover Letter to Radiate Genuine Customer Empathy
10. How to Stand Out in One’s Job application - Personal User Manual - Helps Practice Self Awareness - Inspired a Hiring Manager, Recruiter to create their own
11. How did I Get the Interview - Blog + Github Posted Job Opening + Resume + Talk A hiring manager that eventually hired me for a recent role remembered my talk from 2024 A blog had a link to the job opening which pointed to their Github page
12. Get the job(General Advice) - Care to know & Authentically connect with the interviewer Something I personally apply + Also a TA Manager also mentions here
13. In Interviews - Your Positive Energy + Genuine Care + Enthusiasm + Vibes matter • Many interviewers have appreciated the positive energy I go into the interview As mentioned by a TA Manager here
14. In Interviews - Your body language + Cues + Tone matter Signals & Peter Drucker: The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said here
15. In Interviews - Your ‘Full’ Presence + Paraphrasing/Reflection Builds Genuine connection Credits: This FB post here by Gordana Stankovic
16. Get the job(General Advice) - Communication(via emails and in interviews) is Paramount Credits from this post Credits from this post
17. Get the job(General Advice) - How you make them Feel + High Agency/Ownership(I’ll figure it out) Credits: This Linked post here
18. Technical Interview What hiring managers look for? - Structured Thinking + Pragmatic Problem Solving Abilities Credits for this post from here
19. Cultural Interiew - Your alignment with the organization(values, mission, vision, purpose) as a whole Fabian a Hiring Manager in Germany that did 100+ Cultural Interviews via here Detailed Insights in this blog here featuring the same hiring manager, Fabian Really good candidates show an ability to self-reflect.
20. Leveraging a Principle/Mental Model to write well crafted code Helped me Get a Job cost(tidying) + cost(behavior change after tidying) < cost(behavior change without tidying) Thank You, Kent Beck :)
21. What Helped me Get a Job - Applying Kent Beck Formula + Disciplined Commit Messages even in Side Projects From this commit
22. Key Differentiators/How To Standout in Tech Interviews - Useful code comments - Documentation - API’s - Runbooks - Playbooks - Ordered Commits Credits from this post
23. Part 2 - How To Stay Valuable in Times of AI
24. Why the need to scale ourselves in the age of AI - To Remain Valuable - Input is abundant - Learning is Fragmented
25. Personal Story - Transitioning from Blue Card Visa to Freelance Visa during Covid
26. Underlying Principle Behind that Decision To Become a Freelancer Principle - Control the Controllables
27. Dealing with the “AI Overwhelm” - Knowing we can’t control everything helps us Stay Calm “Knowing that we can’t control everything also helps us stay calm, which is vital for us to practice good judgment in high-pressure situations.” - Risk Mitigation at Scale, Shopify Blog Credits: https://shopify.engineering/risk-mitigation-at-scale by Kathryn Tang
28. Staying Valuable Approach 1 - Principle Based Thinking To Compound Judgement Principle Based thinking from Billionare Ray Dalio here
29. Why focus more on Principles now? - Emphasis shifts more towards decision making As mentioned in this link
30. What are the companies looking for in times of AI? - Systems Minded/Systems Thinking “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” - Atomic Habits author James Clear ‘If you are struggling to improve, the probem isn’t you, it’s your system’ - James Clear from here
31. The missing link between Information and Result is a System Credit: Ali Abdaal Success is Hard Until you build systems (this video)
32. What companies are looking for in current times of AI - High Agency, Systems minded thinking As mentioned in this link - Senior Engineer who is High Agency, Systems minded
33. Companies looking for High Agency People in times of AI - People Who Solve Problems Without Being Asked to Solve Probems As mentioned in this link featuring Naval Ravikant, Chairman of Angelist
34. Staying Valuable Approach 2 - Leverage First Principles(Like ‘Learning How to Learn’) First principles is like - Starting from/Going back to the basics, again
35. Why Invest in (Re) Learning How to Learn ? “The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage. —Arie de Geus” Credits: Read this in the book: HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Career Resilience
36. Staying Valuable Approach 3 - Learning from the Right Books Credits for the Bookmark: KK Books, India
37. Why (else) to Learn from Books ? “Books are the closest thing you ever come to finding cheat codes for real life. “ - Tobi Lütke A podcast episode between Tobi Lütke(Shopify CEO) & David Senra(pic here)
38. Tap into the Wisdom of Books - Books have been those Friends which gave me Hope “Too many people overestimate what they lack, but underestimate what they have.”
39. Art of Learning Book - Also recommended by Tobias Lütke(Shopify CEO) here “Cultivate Love for the Process” “Intuition was the hand of God.” “Growth comes at the point of resistance. We learn by pushing..”
40. Staying Valuable Approach 4 - Tapping into Spirituality & Your Inherent Spiritual Strength “What is delayed is Not Denied. Keep the faith” - It’s The Scripture “As is your faith, is done unto You” - Lord Jesus Credits: Netflix ‘s Series - A Coach’s Rules for Life(Dawn Staley) “Tat Tvam Asi”(Thou Art That/You are That) - The Chandogya Upanishad
41. Staying Valuable Approach 5 - Knowing Yourself Continually & Plan Ahead
42. Staying Valuable Approach 6 - Community (Human Connection & Feedback loops) Ubuntu - “I am Because We Are” | Essence of Being Human Credits: Netflix ‘s Series - A Coach’s Rules for Life(Doc Rivers)
43. Takeaway 1 - Cultivate Principles Based Thinking to make better and faster decisions in the same time frame Above Quote is from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Credits - Ryan Holiday in his post here
44. Takeaway 2 - The only way out is ‘In’ - Know oneself continually to get better Bruce Lee: The Most Important Thing A Person Should Learn - ‘To Know Oneself.’ Why? See here
45. You’d like to continuously improve? - Join the ‘I am because we are’ community Discord Invite Link to the above community: https://discord.gg/hcetaQTD47 A Key Focus of the Community: All People Remain Valuable + Live Self Reliant Lives The ‘Gemba’ is the real place where value is created. Photo Credits here
46. A Question that can Cultivate better Relationships and Drive Continuous Improvement “What are you doing to keep your blindspots in check on a regular basis?”
47. Thank you for holding the space to listen 🙂 Any feedback is much appreciated :) Mohnish, a fellow human from Mother Earth Github boddhisattva Work As Senior Programmer(Rails, Hotwire) | Software Consultant & Coach | Facilitator Blog https://awellroundedengineer.substack.com/ Email mail4mohnishj@gmail.com Personal User Manual http://bit.ly/personal_user_manual_mohnishgj LinkedIn https://de.linkedin.com/in/mohnish-jadwani-9a924619