Switching jobs in tech often looks simple from the outside. A better title, a higher salary and a clean career jump are usually what people see. But a recent post by Puneet Patwari, who moved from Microsoft to Atlassian, shows a very different side of that story.
Patwari cracked Atlassian’s hiring process and stepped into a Principal Engineer role, with offers from companies like Amazon, Salesforce, Deliveroo, Walmart and Confluent as well. But he says the experience behind the scenes was far from easy.
In a post shared on X, he explained that job switching often looks like a “clean success story” on platforms like LinkedIn, but the preparation involved can be intense and exhausting.
The biggest challenge was balancing everything at once.
At the time, Patwari was working full-time, raising a young child and preparing for interviews. That meant relearning technical concepts like data structures and algorithms, revisiting system design, and still trying to stay present for his family.
“I had a full-time job… I was relearning DSA… and still trying to be present as a dad and husband,” he said.
His daily routine became intense.
After long workdays, instead of resting, he would spend hours practising on coding platforms or working through design problems. “You log off from work already drained, then open LeetCode instead of Netflix,” he wrote, adding that even basic things like cooking started to feel difficult.
Weekends didn’t offer much relief either.
They turned into “mock interview days,” leaving little time to recover. Over time, he said, people in similar situations start feeling “guilty from both sides,” unable to give their best either at work or at home.
Patwari’s key message is simple.
Switching jobs can lead to better pay and growth, but it comes at a cost. “Switching is also a project with a cost… time, health, energy, relationships,” he said.
His advice is to treat it seriously.
Instead of dragging preparation endlessly, he suggests a focused approach. Either commit fully for a few months or pause the idea, rather than staying stuck in a long cycle of half-preparation and frustration.