Amazon intern coder goes viral for choosing ‘grind’ over connections with top officials of Google, Microsoft, Walmart

Vyom Goyal, SDE (Software Development Engineer) intern at Amazon, in a social media post shared that he chose the difficult way in life despite appealing connections with top officials of Google, Microsoft, Walmart, SDE2 and SDE3's at most big tech companies. Final year undergraduate student at BMS College of Engineering, he said that he struggles with “loneliness" despite his attractive profile with shiny companies and brand names.

In the viral post on X, he stated, “I see a lot of students getting intimidated by all the companies/brand names on my profile be it on X or LinkedIn and the only thing they say is bro you’re soo lucky !!!!!!!”

According to his LinkedIn profile, he previously worked as a Research and Development Intern with Samsung. Winner of JPMorgan Code For Good 2025, he is 4-Star coder on CodeChef. Counting his other significant achievements, Vyom Goyal secured a position as National Finalist at Amazon HackOn Season 5, Code with Cisco ’25. Moreover, he was a regionalist in ICPC Asia West ’24.

However, all of these achievements came at a cost and with a disciplined lifestyle that many call it “luck”. Suggesting that it was his hard work, determination and grit that yielded results, he emphasized that he used to wake up everyday at 5 AM during his college days to study before classes. He voluntarily decided to put off unnecessary plans and follow his dreams. Vyom further asserted that he restarted the “grind again and again even after having bad days” despite the emotional turmoil.

An alumnus of Delhi Public School Ghaziabad, he further noted that he did not even take a day off even on his birthday because contests mattered more to him than celebration. All his efforts brought about an attractive profile but all of it with “different level of overthinking, narcissism and a lot of loneliness," Vyom Goyal said as he concluded the post.

In another post, he revealed that he had “all the connections for an easy start” but chose the “grind” to become deserving. To prove his point, he listed the following connections:

1. Vice President at Google

2. Senior Principal Engineering Manager at Microsoft

3. Director at Walmart

4. SDE2/3's at mostly all the big tech companies

Another user remarked, “I have seen your leetcode bro, it is equal to a senior dev I know. Your grind is real.”

A third comment read, “Nobody want to do grind but only want the results.”

A fourth user stated, “That’s true man , people only want to reach the top , they don’t want to go through the process.”

A fifth user replied, “I'm not even at the brands yet and i already feel this. thought something was wrong with me, turns out i'm just early on the same road (sic).”

A sixth user said, “People call consistency luck because it excuses their own lack of daily effort.”