At e27, we have kickstarted a new articles series called work-life balance to learn more about tech enablers and executives and their lives beyond working hours.
Vaibhav Aggarwal is a Senior Engineering Manager at Coinbase, leading core features and foundations for scalable growth. He is currently based out of San Diego, California, and he previously worked at LinkedIn and MyFitnessPal.
Aggarwal loves solving problems and building products. He also spends a lot of time thinking about new ideas, learning, work-life balance, living in the present and sharing that with people around him.
He is a regular contributor of articles for e27 (you can read his thought leadership articles here).
In this candid interview, Aggarwal talks about his personal and professional life.
How would you explain what you do to a five-year-old?
I work with many smart people building cool things on the internet, computers and phones. I focus on getting more and more people to use those cool things.
What has been the biggest highlight/challenge of your career so far?
I have been fortunate to work at amazing companies and build great products. My biggest highlight has been working with my teammates on their growth as individual contributors or transitions to management. It has been highly fulfilling.
How do you envision the next five years of your career?
In the next five years, I want to become the best in the industry for leading product growth and the growth engineering strategy. I want to propagate the knowledge and help scale the companies I work with.
What are some of your favourite work tools?
Slack, Google docs/sheets, Xcode (when I was a developer).
What’s something about you or your job that would surprise us?
I’m from New Delhi. I moved to Fargo, North Dakota, for school and survived -30F for over four years.
Do you prefer WFH or WFO, or hybrid?
I prefer a hybrid model. I am currently fully remote, living in San Diego, which I genuinely enjoy.
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However, there is something to be said about social currency and energy. Every now and then, I wish to meet my team in person to work together, deepening our human relations and not working with boxes on the screen.
What would you tell your younger self?
Play long-term games. Do not optimise for the short term. Have one or two key goals and focus on that. Lastly, life is long, so have fun as you go along.
Can you describe yourself in three words?
Builder, curious, determined.
What are you most likely to be doing if not working?
Sitting on the La Jolla shores, at the gym, learning something new, generating ideas.
What are you currently reading/listening to/ watching?
I’m currently reading Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson
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