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vikas5678

245 karma · joined January 29, 2008

I'm Vikas. I run product management at Ellie Mae, a technology provider for the mortgage lending space.
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vikas5678··on On Being a Principal Engineer
With every organization, once you are part of a product initiative for a few years, this question of "how transferable are my skills to a different domain or company?" is a valid one to ask oneself.

Also, it is easy to get so involved in the daily busyness, that your skills might not be transferable.

I think spending some time in being curious and learning/investing in transferable skills, and building a "brand" of helping others(either online or in person) helps significantly when it is indeed time to pursue that next opportunity.

vikas5678··on Ask HN: What skills to acquire in 2019?
https://www.amazon.com/Robert-B.-Cialdini/e/B000AP9KKG - Robert Cialdini's books are good.

Never Split the difference from Chris Voss is a good book. Persuasion and negotiation are also as much about effective listening. Something I've practiced hard this year is to be mindful of creating a pause before I respond. Pause for like 2 seconds.

For investing, etc - highly recommend starting with this - https://mebfaber.com/timing-model/

Forget stock picking, it is generally a fool's errand.

Also - Tony Robbins did a good job with his book "Money: Master the game". Look up the "All weather strategy" from Ray Dalio referenced in that book. Diversification across non-correlated assets, compounded over time creates wealth.

vikas5678··on Ask HN: What skills to acquire in 2019?
Maybe. Persuasion is also about finding shared success/common ground, and its almost a negotiation in that way. Look at Robert Cialdini's books on Amazon. Similarly books on negotiation by Maggie Neale or Chris Voss (Never split the difference) are really helpful.
vikas5678··on Ask HN: What skills to acquire in 2019?
I'm not a crossfitter either, but I've trained at Crossfit gyms for about a year in the past. Yes, high intensity training with complex Olympic movements create a situation where injuries might more easily occur, but if one just goes there for a few months to learn the basics of movements/lifting form, it can be beneficial even if you go workout by yourself later on.
vikas5678··on Ask HN: What skills to acquire in 2019?
3 critical skills that will help you through out your life: 1. Learn to workout well - crossfit, hire a trainer, etc 2. Basic financial knowledge - investing, taxes, RSUs/Options, etc 3. Presentation skills - most of your career will be determined by how effectively you communicate, influence and persuade. Invest in it.
vikas5678··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (June 2018)
Ellie Mae | Platform Product Manager | East Bay, CA | Onsite | 2 open full-time positions

Ellie Mae (NYSE:ELLI) is a leading provider of innovative on-demand software solutions and services for the residential mortgage industry.

My name is Vikas Rao, and I'm the Vice President of Product Management for our Lending Platform at Ellie Mae, and we are looking for teammates with strong platform expertise.

Prior experience in launching developer facing platforms, working with engineering teams to create platform services like activity streams, identity management, notifications, etc is key.

Please email vikas.rao@elliemae.com

vikas5678··on Andreessen Horowitz, Point72 Invest in Crowd-Sourced Quantopian
I worked with them for a little while. At a fundamental level, its a brilliant model. They're basically looking for strategies that have little to no correlation to the S & P. Also, any strategies that short the S & P market successfully are welcomed. They already have enough of the trend following, or mean reversion strategies which are found everywhere in quant trading books.
vikas5678··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (June 2016)
Ellie Mae | Pleasanton, CA | Senior or Staff Front-end Engineers | Full Time | Onsite/remote

Ellie Mae (NYSE:ELLI) is a leading provider of enterprise on-demand solutions, including an online network, software and services for the residential mortgage industry.

Come join us and contribute to Ellie Mae’s product development team in moving our leading mortgage software solutions to the next level. We are expanding our development teams and seeking to hire new software developers to help innovate EllieMae’s next generation SaaS Platform.

Primary skill set we're looking for is strong JavaScript, HTML and CSS experience in building large scale enterprise SAAS applications.

You can email me @ vikas.rao@elliemae.com

vikas5678··on Effects of a Year in Ketosis [video]
Not sure if its worth responding to your tone, but here you go. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24015695 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17341711
vikas5678··on Effects of a Year in Ketosis [video]
Please don't link to websites with a clear agenda against Atkins. A search of pubmed will reveal the positive effects of Atkins and similar diets on weight-loss, regulating insulin levels, energy levels, etc.
vikas5678··on Also Out at Twitter: Engineering Head Roetter (and More to Come)
Probably. Allowing people to create chat rooms/channels is another possibility, and allows them to enter the enterprise collaboration space. Competes easily with HipChat and Slack. Most people already have twitter accounts, so groups of people can collaborate on the fly.
vikas5678··on Also Out at Twitter: Engineering Head Roetter (and More to Come)
A potential acquisition of Slack and cutting number of employees to < 1000 are 2 things that come to mind. Owning slack opens up other potential streams of revenue in the enterprise space. Or allow twitter users to form groups/rooms on twitter ala Slack.
vikas5678··on Ask HN: What's a good real-time stock trading platform?
Interactive Brokers and Tradestation didnt have much issues, but yes, getting filled on trades, especially options trades was a nightmare.
vikas5678··on Ask HN: What's a good real-time stock trading platform?
Just one problem though, in times of extreme market volatility and volume, Thinkorswim freezes up. Like today, it was unusable at times.
vikas5678··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2015)
Aerohive Networks - Portland, OR - www.aerohive.com

Aerohive Networks (www.aerohive.com) just opened a new engineering office in Portland and we are looking for front end developers to work on our JavaScript development toolkit which will be used for all of Aerohive’s applications.

You will also be working on data visualization for our big data applications, so the role is a great mix of feature development and building/enhancing a JavaScript library.

A little bit about our company, Aerohive Networks is competing alongside companies like Aruba networks, Cisco, etc and winning. Now we’re expanding into the big data aspect of networking, where we are innovating and taking enterprise web applications to the next level.

To apply - please email me at vrao@aerohive.com

vikas5678··on Ask HN: Front-end “design patterns”?
This looks like a very useful tool Daniel. For comparison purposes, are there other products on the market which do the same?
vikas5678··on Immigration is about talent, not costs
Communities tend to gravitate toward each other. Your attitude towards these neighborhoods is the same as the attitude expressed toward the european immigrants in the early 1900s.

Does the H1B system need to be reformed? Yes I completely agree. But your reaction is xenophobic. America is a country of immigrants, get over it maybe?

vikas5678··on Google Shopping Express
Would love to use this service, but instacart does not service my neighborhood yet! Zipcode 95123 in San Jose.
vikas5678··on Google Shopping Express
I'm in San Jose, incase anyone knows of a service that does deliver?
vikas5678··on Google Shopping Express
What I really need is a service that can deliver milk and eggs and other staples in a day, seems like most cant do that.
vikas5678··on Study: Half of black males, 40% of white males arrested by age 23
I would love to see a breakdown of what they were most arrested for.
vikas5678··on Ask HN: How effective have the job posts on HN been?
I've posted many UI programmer job openings I have in my team, never even received a resume. Good programmers are hard to find.
vikas5678··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2014)
Sunnyvale, CA - 1 full time, 1 contractor - Local only

Aerohive Networks - http://www.aerohive.com/

Requirements - Strong knowledge in Object Oriented JavaScript Proficient at writing efficient and reusable UI code Experience with HTML5 and Responsive design and Ajax Strong understanding of web standards and cross-browser compatibility

Please email me at vrao@aerohive.com if you love building awesome web interfaces and like working in a fun team.

vikas5678··on Why you should move that button 3px to the left
I disagree with this. I'm a web engineer and I work with designers. I dont have the ability to design pixel perfect interfaces and I respect that skill in someone who can. I also dont have the time to spend countless hours interacting with a product manager who trying to figure out a finished design.
vikas5678··on AOL chief cuts 401k benefits, blames Obamacare and two “distressed babies”
I should point out however, that this 401K match at the end of year practice is already a standard at IBM, which is probably the worst place to work at in the Silicon Valley today.
vikas5678··on AOL chief cuts 401k benefits, blames Obamacare and two “distressed babies”
Yes, I was thinking the same. Clearly in a company, everyone will eventually find out who these women are, so although he didnt break any laws by revealing their names, these women are probably feeling pretty targeted right now.
vikas5678··on How startups can compete with big company perks
I've worked for 3 very early stage startups before I joined my current position at a pre-IPO company. My previous company also grew to a 300 person company when I left for my new job. Few observations -

1. I will never again work for a very early stage startup. The equity grant given in exchange for the reduced salary(compared to larger companies) and the long hours are just not worth it.

2. Small perks like helping with chores, catered food, etc don't matter. I'd rather take a break for an hour and eat outside and go home at a normal hour.

3. "Loyalty" and "Commitment" are empty words, companies have none. They do whats in their best interest, you should do the same.

4. Startups more often than not tend to be poorly managed, and it can be frustrating dealing with it.

5. Startups with excessive hierarchy are the worst.

vikas5678··on Google to Acquire Nest
With all the data google already has on me, as a new homeowner, I think I'm terrified of buying this product. What kind of profile would this allow Google to build on individuals?
vikas5678··on I Hired My Mom
I think I missed the part where this is a tax deductible expense for him? Otherwise I think I'd keep my family away from my startup. Its stressful enough without having to add family into the mix.
vikas5678··on Andreessen: Bubble Believers 'Don't Know What They're Talking About'
No, he's an investor, who understands the concept of risk. He's made a bet that the value of companies he's invested in will increase, and it may or may not come to pass. His opinions on his investment however, maybe largely biased.
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