Sundial and New Grads

I have been at Sundial since the beginning. Back then it was called Inspirit. But that is a story for another day. I have been at Sundial for almost 3 years now. I have seen it grow from a 6 person team to maybe about a 40 person team (I don't keep track now).

Here is answer to your most common questions, as succinctly as I can -

Work Culture

First, get to know both the founders. Chandra and Julie both are as humble as they are brilliant. They have worked with some of the top folks one could imagine and bring those learnings and experience to Sundial.

They have worked for a long time at Facebook (Meta) and bring the same culture of extreme transparency and flat heirarchy to Sundial. And I don't use the word "extreme" lightly here. I have seen it first hand. It is something of a rarity in Indian startups.

In brief, here are the values I have seen Sundial live by:

Extreme Ownership (You are responsible for your work and your team's work, success and failure)
Growth Mindset (You are not expected to know everything, but you are expected to learn and grow)
First Principles (question everything, including the founders, think clearly and deeply)
Compassion (to your team members and customers)

Work Life Balance

Sundial doesn't have a leave policy. You can take as many leaves as you want. And people do. We as a team are very understanding of each other's needs and accomodate them. Want to work for few weeks out of a different city? Sure. Want to take some time off to travel? We can do that. Want to take a week off to take care of your family? Sure. We are very flexible here, maybe to a fault.

That's why I wanted to add my personal opinion here. If you are looking for easy WLB, maybe don't join Sundial. I personally want to work with folks who can give it all. Maybe for a few years, but give it all.

PPO

PPO or Pre Placement Offer is a common term in BITS Pilani. It means that you get an offer from a company before you graduate. Sundial hires a few interns each semester from BITS through a program called Practice School.

Here is the gist, there is no filtering or % selection. Of all the folks that join as PS interns, we can and will offer PPO to all of them, if we see them fit for the role. We have done this in the past and will continue to do so.

improve your chances by doing the things you should be doing anyway:

take ownership
learn as much as you can
participate actively (discussions or fun activities)
learn the basics from tech to communication

If we both enjoy working with each other, we will offer you a PPO.

Hiring Situation

Sundial is not affected by the current macro-economic situation. We are growing and hiring actively. But we also get a lot of inbound applications. So we are very selective about who we hire. Keep the bar high.

Package / CTC

Sundial offers generous packages. I don't think this would be the right place to discuss the numbers but it should be easy for you to extrapolate from the PS intern stipend.

Sundial offers competitive packages if not more than the top companies in India. I don't think this should be a factor in your decision to join/apply to Sundial.

team

People don't usually ask this question but I think this is one of the most important questions to ask. Sundial has a stellar team to put it mildly. I'll give you an example that I often give to folks getting to know about Sundial. Chandra in our conversations would casually mention something along the line "And yeah so I asked Mark why ..." and we were wondering wait who is Mark? And it was Mark Zuckerberg. That's the kind of folks you would be working with.

Folks who have worked with Nobel laureates, top execs, politicians and have led large teams and built products that you and I use daily. But still humble, still curious. And that's what I love about Sundial.

You

This post could have been a single line - "I strongly think you should apply to Sundial". But I know that people just starting out in their careers are anxious. I have been on the other side too.

Whether you get an offer or not, don't mull over it too much for too long. You are choosing a company as much as the company is choosing you.

Keep moving. Keep building.

"Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. What people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity." ― Aaron Swartz

Built something cool? Find me on Twitter.

ciao. 👋