Abhinash Khanal

Some people say timing is everything. In recruiting? It’s the whole game. Some of the best candidates aren’t ready… until they are. I first reached out to this embedded systems engineer back in 2024. They weren’t looking. Not then. Not a few months later either. But I stayed in touch. Fast forward to this spring - everything changed. Their company was shutting down the site and their role was eliminated. And because we’d already had a few conversations, I knew they were a great fit for one of my aerospace clients. So we moved fast. Qualified. Submitted. Interviewed. It was a relocation role, so the company flew them out. They spent a weekend exploring the area with their family. By the end of the weekend… offer accepted. They made the move from Illinois to Colorado and have already made a quick impact on the team. Total time from “I’m ready” to “I’m in”? Four weeks. Here’s three reasons why this matters if you’re hiring: 1. The best people aren’t always on the market. But when they do start looking, they move fast. 2. Building relationships before the need is what fills roles faster. 3. Headhunting is about timing, persistence, and trust. Not just job posts. Recruiting is more than a process. It’s about connecting the dots - between great people and the right opportunities. Quality > Quantity. Always.

18

3 Comments

🚀 If you have an Embedded Systems interview coming up… this weekend roadmap might save you. Last time I shared this, the post went viral — thousands saved it, and many messaged me saying it helped them crack real interviews. So I’m reposting it for everyone preparing right now. If your interview is next week, follow this exact weekend plan 👇 🧠 9 AM – 12 PM: Structures, Pointers, Memory This is where 60% of fresher interviews are filtered out. 🔧 1 PM – 4 PM: Embedded C + Hardware Basics Registers, peripherals, MMIO — must-know topics for any core job. 📝 5 PM – 7 PM: Mini Mock Tests Solve 10–15 questions, analyse your mistakes. This builds actual interview confidence. 🧵 Next Morning: RTOS & Device Drivers (9 AM – 12 PM) Scheduling, semaphores, ISR flow, device driver fundamentals. 🐞 Evening: Debugging & Problem Solving Most candidates fail here. If you can debug well, you stand out. I’ve included everything in one visual roadmap (posting it again below) because students told me this structure made their prep 10× faster. 📌 Want a detailed step-by-step roadmap for Embedded preparation? Comment "Roadmap" and I’ll share the free guide with you. Let’s make sure you go into your next interview fully prepared. You deserve the offer. 🚀 #EmbeddedSystems #VLSI #CareerPrep #InterviewPreparation #Freshers #Semiconductors

315

62 Comments

The biggest fear with remote engineers? Trust. You've been burned. I get it. -A dev disappeared. -Code was a mess. -Deadlines were missed. That's not a remote problem. That’s a vetting problem. We don't just find engineers at Kovil AI. We pre-vet them. We build trust first, so you don't have to risk your roadmap on a promise. Stop hiring with hope. Start hiring with trust. #Hiring #Leadership #Startups #Technology

8

Most software engineers negotiate too late. Standard advice: wait for the offer, then counter. But here's what the data shows for tech hiring. 58% of candidates accept the first offer without negotiating. They leave money on the table. Of those who do counter, 85% get at least part of what they ask for. But here's the thing everyone misses about tech compensation. Timing matters before the offer stage. You don't negotiate salary expectations early. You establish them. When hiring managers ask about comp expectations before an offer, most developers either dodge the question or anchor too low. Both hurt you. The move: give a range based on market data for your role and city, then pivot to learning more about the full package. In the GTA, that's $110K-$150K for senior developers, $80K-$110K for intermediate. This isn't negotiating. It's alignment. 45% of tech companies increase their initial offer when candidates counter. But those offers start higher when expectations were set clearly up front. Once you get the offer, 73% of employers expect you to negotiate anyway. So set the baseline early, negotiate the details later. Have you ever negotiated salary before receiving an offer, or only after?

12

6 Comments

Thinking of starting your own consulting company in 2026? I had a long conversation this week with a senior embedded engineer who’s planning exactly that — going from solo freelancer to building a small company of consultants. And a few themes came up that are worth sharing. 1. The biggest risk isn’t sales. It’s lack of planning. Hiring your first consultant on a permanent contract is a financial commitment many people underestimate. A simple rule that works: don’t hire until you either (a) have 6 months of their salary saved, or (b) already secured an assignment. Ideally both, but if (b) is in place, (a) can be 3 months. 2. “70% of the billing” models work… until they don’t. Many new small firms offer zero base salary and only pay 70% of the hourly rate if they are on assignment. It looks great on paper, but once consultants realise they carry all the risk, they usually ask: “Why not just start my own AB and keep 90% instead?” If you're going down this route, a hybrid model works better: A small fixed base + a transparent percentage when they’re assigned. 3. Your first clients will likely come from your personal engineering network Your credibility as an engineer is your unique advantage. Most small consultancies don’t grow because they try to compete on “we care more” messaging instead of leveraging actual technical trust, and it turns out they all "care more". 4. If you want to differentiate, support work permits. Gothenburg, in particular, has a large expat consultant population. If you can partner with the right migration advisors and offer smooth visa renewals, you’ll attract talent that's already local but feels neglected by the bigger firms. 5. Don’t send CVs without consent. Ever. Seven consultancies sent the same candidate to a client last week. The manager refused to look at the CV at all. Fastest way to ruin trust in a small consultancy is behaving like a desperate one. 6. Your consultancy becomes attractive when you can offer two things: • Stability (a thoughtful salary model, reliable assignment flow) • Upside (product work, internal R&D, something more than just “another consultancy”) After years in this market, these patterns repeat every year. The ones who succeed are the ones who plan, differentiate and put people first.

32

1 Comment

The most underrated part of engineering isn’t tools, it’s consistency. I recently met a Senior Staff QA/Automation Engineer who has stayed hands-on for 25+ years because solving problems and shipping reliable software still matters to him. He’s not chasing titles or meetings. He’s writing automation, fixing issues, and making systems work. At Synopsys/Blackduck, he’s spent over a decade building automation frameworks with Cypress, Selenium, Java, JavaScript, CI/CD, Docker, and Kubernetes. Before that, he was trusted to build test automation from scratch at companies with no established processes, creating solutions that later became industry standard. He focuses on reliability and doing things right, not buzzwords. If your team needs a senior individual contributor who actually delivers quality, I can make an introduction. #AutomationTesting #EngineeringLeadership #SDET #QualityAssurance

32

1 Comment

One thing I see a lot in mid-market engineering teams: Senior engineers are slammed. Just not always on the work that moves the product forward. The teams that actually ship the product aren’t always the ones with more people. They’re the ones where senior engineers get to spend their time on the work that matters most. In smaller engineering teams, every senior engineer matters. But a lot of that time goes to operational work. Things like testing cycles, manual reviews and keeping systems running. Important work. It has to happen. But it doesn’t always require your most experienced builders. One developer put it like this during a workflow discussion. “We spend a lot of time keeping the machine running.” The teams that start pulling ahead usually do two things. They automate more of that operational work. And they make sure the right people are handling it. Senior engineers get back to building the product. That’s where mid-market teams gain real leverage.

13