Soham Parekh and moonlighting: Why this is a rising trend among India techies

Moonlighting is once again grabbing headlines after an Indian tech professional was accused of working for multiple startups in Silicon Valley. The case came to light after Suhail Doshi, co-founder and former CEO of analytics platform Mixpanel, called out Soham Parekh on X for his alleged actions.

Moonlighting has been a contentious topic in India, despite the concept being prevalent in other nations. The phenomenon has increased in recent years, especially in the Indian tech sector. But why?

Let’s take a closer look.

Rise of moonlighting in the India IT sector

Moonlighting, or holding a second job while having full-time employment, has increased in India since remote work became common during the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to background verification firm AuthBridge, five out of every 100 candidates have two jobs. Roughly 90 per cent of these cases are from the IT services sector, mostly in Telangana, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, Times of India (TOI) reported.

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Background verification firm OnGrid has already conducted 23,000 employment verifications in the first six months of 2025, compared to the total of 26,000 last year. The main factor behind the rise in such checks is moonlighting. The firm’s screening found 2,900 such cases in the first half of this year, a jump from 2,201 in the entire 2024, as per TOI. 

Randstad India’s report in 2023 revealed a 25-30 per cent surge in moonlighting over the past three years in the Indian IT sector.

A 2022 report by job portal Indeed found that 43 per cent of employees in the I ndian tech sector were in favour of moonlighting. However, employees in many other sectors opposed holding simultaneous jobs as most of them considered it “unethical”.

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As per the portal’s findings, less than one out of five employees, or 19 per cent, surveyed by Indeed wanted to moonlight in India, while the remaining were not interested in getting an additional job.

While employees in other sectors may not approve of the practice, moonlighting remains acceptable among Indian techies.

A 2022 survey by Mumbai-based Kotak Institutional Equities found that nearly 65 per cent of IT employees said they or someone they knew had been moonlighting or pursuing part-time opportunities while doing remote work.

Why do employees moonlight?

Amid job uncertainty and poor hikes, employees are seeking ways to meet their financial needs. Many young tech workers are resorting to moonlighting for the money they are unable to make in their first job.

“The root cause is the money, software developers are not paid proportionate to the amount of work that they are doing. I think a lot of us would not moonlight if we feel we are paid fairly,” Abhishek, a software developer in Bangalore, told CNBC in 2023.

Moonlighting is not new in India, but it has become more common since the pandemic brought job uncertainty.

Speaking to BBC, employment-law expert Veena Gopalakrishnan said that the practice has “become more rampant post-pandemic, with employees working remotely, infrequent or relaxed employer supervision, and increased time and bandwidth for employees to take up another job”.

As per Indeed’s report, techies and a few others who engage in a side hustle do so for two main reasons: to safeguard against job loss and supplement their incomes.

“These include the desire to supplement their income due to low salaries and rising inflation, the need for financial independence, the impact of the pandemic on job security, and the quest for entrepreneurial pursuits,” Sashi Kumar, head of sales at Indeed India, was quoted as saying by CNBC.

While salaries are comparatively better in Bengaluru, also known as the ‘Silicon Valley of India’, the cost of living is also higher.

But money is not always the reason for employees to moonlight. Some are pursuing their passions or upskilling through a secondary job.

Rajan, a full-time employee at a leading software company in Bengaluru, told BBC in 2022 that he has his own YouTube Channel, which he runs anonymously and monetises through advertisements. “I belong to a middle-class family and have ambitions of studying abroad, and this will help me fund it,” he said. “The pandemic made me realise that one has to be prepared for the unexpected and have a buffer of savings. I work from home, so I am able to manage both well.”

Some are working more than one job to grow their contacts. “With this (working two jobs), one could earn extra and be prepared for the worst. Right now, the scenario is different, but besides money, one can also make contacts, and you will never be short of jobs,” a Delhi-based techie told CNBC-TV18. 

But moonlighting comes at a cost. Some employees face fatigue and sleep deprivation when they log on to their full-time employment while holding a second job. But even that is not a deterrent for moonlighters.

Why employers are unhappy

For many employers, moonlighting is a red flag. In 2022, Wipro fired 300 of its employees who were also working for its rival companies. Rishad Premji, the chairman of the tech and consulting firm, said on X about moonlighting in the tech industry: “This is cheating - plain and simple.”

Infosys, which warned its employees that “dual employment is not permitted” in September 2022, later softened its stance on moonlighting. As per reports, India’s second-largest IT services company allowed employees to take up “gig work” with the prior consent of managers.

To curb moonlighting, some companies have started calling back employees to the office or carrying out productivity checks to identify possible slackers.

As per the Indeed report, 31 per cent of employers are of the view that employees moonlight as they are not completely engaged in their work, while 23 per cent believe that workers have ample time to hold a second job.

Some companies, however, have allowed employees to take up a side hustle, given that there is no conflict of interest. However, Gopalakrishnan told BBC that it is uncommon for employers to get on board with employees taking other jobs when “there is a conflict of interest, a risk to confidential or proprietary information, or likelihood of the employee’s productivity being impacted”.

But, at the end, employers may have to bend rules to allow employees to moonlight, at least in the tech sector in India.

India is witnessing a talent crunch, specifically skilled labour. “Talent is scarce today and … if you need the best talent, you got to embrace what the talent likes,” Viswanath PS, managing director and CEO of Randstad India, said to CNBC.

“Previously, the second job was a need for employees, now it has become a want. Once it becomes a want, it’s about how employers can pave the way in making accommodations and ensure that both parties’ interests are equally protected.”

With inputs from agencies