Scaling people
Growing engineers, not just systems
A better senior hiring process, mentoring engineers into senior technical roles, and more than a decade of teaching outside the job.
30+
engineers mentored who went on to senior technical leadership roles
Mentoring alongside my role.
Context
The Philips India site leader asked me to improve how the site hired senior engineers.
Each part of the organization hired in its own way. The quality of hires varied, feedback during interviews was collected inconsistently, and people were hired for one team rather than for the company.
The decision
We redesigned the senior hiring process with a cross-functional team, and measured the result through candidate and hiring-manager NPS.
We wrote the process down, phase by phase, including what evidence to collect before, during and after each interview. Every interviewer had to be trained before joining a panel, and every round ended with written feedback on the behaviors we hire for. We then piloted this on 5 to 10 full interview loops before rolling it out, and brought in bar-raisers, experienced interviewers from outside the hiring team.
What I did, and what the team did
I led the cross-functional team that redesigned senior hiring at Philips India, and have served as a global hiring bar-raiser at Philips. At Amazon I ran 68 interviews in 16 months. Over the years I have mentored more than 30 engineers who went on to senior technical leadership roles.
I have given more than 150 talks, workshops and training sessions since 2010, at IBM, Exeter, Amazon and Philips and at more than 25 colleges. They range from design patterns and SOLID, behavior-driven development and observability to Scrum workshops at Amazon, clean-code and unit-testing workshops at Philips India, and talks for students on interviews, uncertainty and learning. More recently I have taught: GitHub and Copilot, code craft, GenAI workshops, the 2025 Philips University skill-building program I led, and 27 AI sessions so far in 2026. Since 2015 I have also run a community book drive for rural schools.
Outcome
Across Philips
supervisory leadership of software competency experts in India and North America
Throughout my Philips career, with responsibilities for delegation, timelines, hiring recommendations and annual performance reviews.
+18%
candidate NPS after redesigning senior hiring
Asked by the India site leader to fix senior hiring. Hiring-manager NPS rose 15%.
68
interviews in 16 months at Amazon
Later a global hiring bar-raiser at Philips.
150+
talks, workshops and training sessions since 2010
At IBM, Exeter, Amazon and Philips, and at more than 25 colleges.
5,000+
people in those sessions
Counting only sessions with a recorded headcount; most internal sessions record feedback responses only.
₹9.6 lakh+
raised for books for rural schools over 9 community drives
Grew from ₹37,500 in 2015 to ₹2.35 lakh in 2026, with colleagues and friends contributing.
What I would do again
I have failed about 50 interviews, 26 of them in a single four-month stretch, and many ended with no reason given. That taught me what a candidate needs from a hiring process: a clear bar, honest feedback, and interviewers who are themselves held to a standard.