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Why You're Not Getting Promoted (as an Engineer)

It's not technical skills you're missing Engineers often try to get promoted by focusing on their technical skills. Like writing more unit tests. Or learning a new programming language. After all, the best engineers get promoted. Right? Being good at your job is different than advancing in your career. The

Why Every Engineer Needs a Work Journal & How to Maintain One

Have you ever found yourself feeling overwhelmed with tasks, struggling to remember what you did last week, or unable to effectively communicate your progress with your team? That's what the first few months of my Software Engineering career looked like, until I adopted the practice of a work journal. A

Avoid This Mistake When Proposing A New Idea

I asked 7 senior software engineering leaders a simple question: What's your worst mistake when proposing a new idea to stakeholders? One mistake came up repeatedly: not writing a 1 pager for your idea. In this article, I'll discuss the 3 phases of writing a quick document about your proposed

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome During My Time At Meta (Facebook)

I’ve been reflecting on the time I spent at Meta. In particular, how far I’ve come since my initial Imposter Syndrome when I first joined. I want to share what that experience was like for me and how I was able to overcome it (spoiler alert: it took

Mo’ Code, Mo’ Problems - Engineering Advice for Non-Technical Founders

I often hear the same startup stories play out among founders. It goes like this: 1. They quit their jobs 2. They spend 6 months building a product 3. They launch 4. They get 0 customers And then they run out of savings and wonder what went wrong. The issue

System Design Primer - What Is This Core Software Engineer Skill?

If you're a software engineer, you have probably heard of the term "System Design" before, particularly when it comes to interviews. As the interviews suggest, system design is an important skill, especially for senior software engineers. The problem is that system design for interviews and actual system design are two

The Basics Of Interpersonal Communication

Communication is one of the most important skills in the workplace, but it's extremely underrated, especially in the tech industry. Communication is often regarded as a "soft skill", which makes its gravity less appealing. However, because building software is such a collaborative exercise, having excellent communication skills is absolutely crucial

I Just Received a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) -- What Should I Do?

A PIP is a formal document to let an employee know about recurring performance issues. The performance improvement plan (PIP) indicates that the employee is not meeting expectations for their job, and without an improvement, they'll be let go. There's no denying that receiving a PIP is extremely unpleasant. In

The AI Battle Between Microsoft and Google - How ChatGPT and Bard AI Will Shape Society

The rate of innovation in AI has never been faster. In the past week: * Google released their highly anticipated chatbot, Bard AI * Microsoft and OpenAI held a joint live event announcing the integration of their chatbot, ChatGPT, into Bing and the Edge browser The increasing power of Artificial Intelligence has

How to Quit Your Engineering Job (the right way)

3 things to consider before leaving your job I gave a virtual talk yesterday. It was for a career mentorship app called Taro. Rahul Pandey, one of Taro’s co-founders, hosted the event. He often invites engineering leaders at well-known tech companies to give guest talks for Taro. So when

Every Junior Engineer Must Learn This - Software Project Decomposition

Back in November of 2021, I shared my repo of organic, feasible, and at least somewhat original/unsolved side project ideas. I have seen that a lot of engineers, junior ones in particular, have trouble exercising the product ideation muscle, which makes sense as they’re still learning how to

Weak is Strong: Asking Questions Well is a Superpower

In my ten years of engineering as an IC and manager, one of the most common mistakes I see junior engineers make is not asking enough questions 🤐 Driven usually by intense impostor syndrome, you toil away quietly on a cryptic error log, frantically Googling and asking ChatGPT for help, but

Introducing Taro Referrals

Starting today, when a user joins Taro Premium through a referral, both the new member and referring member can receive hundreds of dollars in rewards. Find your unique link here: https://www.jointaro.com/rewards/ Taro is our corner of the internet where software engineers get credible advice to advance

Software Engineers and Startups - Finding Your Perfect Fit

Startups are fundamental to any thriving tech ecosystem. One of the beauties of the tech industry is that most of the FAANG companies started off as a startup in someone's college dorm room or garage! Working at a startup can be an exciting experience for an engineer at any stage

Capitalizing On Opportunities As An Engineer

Last Friday, at an office social, I noticed one of the engineers standing off on her own, completely disengaged from the others. I asked how she was doing, and she immediately revealed that she was unhappy with her role. She was simply not excited by the work she was doing.

I Made $9K from my YouTube Channel in 2022 and it's Powering my Company

In the spirit of transparency, I'm sharing some stats around my medium sized YouTube channel and how it helped me start a semi-successful business. In my opinion, this pattern of YouTubers using their distribution to build companies will become increasingly common, so I hope this is a helpful data point!

Inside The Layoff Era of Big Tech (Meta, Google, Amazon Layoffs)

In the past 5 days: * Google laid off 12,000 * Microsoft laid off 10,000 * Amazon laid off 18,000 When I joined Meta back in 2017, I never expected to see large-scale layoffs at the biggest, most profitable tech companies in the world (Meta laid off 11,000 employees

Improving Software Engineer Discussions on Taro

Taro is dedicated to helping software engineers achieve career success. Everyday, Taro members engage in healthy, positive discussion with other members at top companies. Today, we launched two new features on Taro to increase community engagement: 1. true identity answers and 2. public profiles. True Identity Answers True identity answers

The biggest mistakes to avoid while receiving feedback

I was an L4 engineer at Youtube, working on a multi quarter, multi-PA project. I put in tons of hard work designing and executing. A week away from the planned launch date, we learned that the other Product Area (PA) was nowhere close to being ready. A few months later,

Why I Quit a $450,000 Engineering Job at Netflix

I thought I was going to stay at Netflix forever. Top of market pay. Freedom and responsibility. Unlimited PTO. What more could you ask for? So when I quit Netflix in May 2021, everyone thought I was crazy. My parents objected first. Coming from cultural revolution China where they barely

You will gain your team’s trust and respect fast when …

Whether you’re starting a new job or transitioning to a new team, here are a few tips to gain your team’s trust and respect quickly. 1. You're transparent and friendly Your attitude is key. In software engineering, it’s important to be willing to offer help when needed

12 things I learned in my first year as a software engineer

“Fail. Learn. Grow.” — Anonymous I started my first full time software engineer role at Mistplay a little over 3 years ago, and am now a Team Lead. Since then our engineering group has grown from 4 to 25+, our company from 20 to 150, we’ve been named the 16th

A comparison of European tech hubs: Amsterdam, Barcelona and London

There are several tech hubs in Europe and I have had the privilege to have lived in three of them. Whilst London is far and away the main destination, there is a lot of subjectivity and lack of knowledge surrounding others. There is a high quality talent pool of engineers

The Patterns of the Most Efficient Software Engineers

In a competitive job market, efficiency is more important now than ever. This is especially true in the field of software engineering. With new technologies and approaches emerging every day, it can be difficult to keep up. That's why it's so important to learn from the most efficient software engineers

How to Be a 10x Software Engineer

3 common mistakes junior engineers make. Are you making them? The best engineers are 10x better than an average engineer. Like a one man army, they deliver more value, faster, by themselves, than a team of junior engineers combined. But how could that be? Isn’t more always better? In

A Framework for Learning New Tech Fast

As time passes in your engineering career you’ll quickly learn that part of being a Software Engineer is learning new technologies and effectively applying them (as quickly as you can). Therefore a prerequisite to this guide is at least a strong fundamental understanding of a single stack (this can

4 Things You Can Do to Stand Out as a Junior Developer (That Have Nothing to do with Coding)

Technical proficiency doesn’t always parallel career trajectory in software. As it shouldn’t. Luckily, there are 4 ways to stand out on your team even if you aren’t a code wizard...

Taro's 2022 Year In Review

Taro was born in 2022, so of course it's been a special year for us 🐣 Some stats: * 350,000+ views on Taro's video and Q&A content * 17,000+ registered active users * 650+ Taro Premium members from 20+ countries, with dozens of engineers at companies like Meta, Google, Amazon, and

Software Engineer Interview Guide - System Design

Congratulations, you are now proficient with both algorithms and behavioral questions and are at the final step: System design questions. System design questions are scary and tricky, because they have no right answer, similar to behavioral questions. This is why these questions are crucial for passing your software engineering interview:

Taro is now on Learnerbly!

Our goal with Taro is to accelerate the careers for ambitious software engineers. We do this by focusing on the non-coding parts of the job, bringing together the content, community, and stories that are critical to maximize productivity and impact. Our top priority is to help as many engineers as

Software Engineer Interview Guide - Behavioral Questions

You now know how to ace data structures and algorithms questions, but you’re not sure how to tackle the second most common kind of software engineering interview questions: Behavioral questions (otherwise known as “cultural questions”). Well, you’re in luck, because this article will teach you how to do

3 Ways to Create Luck in Your Career (as an Engineer)

It’s more important to get lucky than to work hard. I got into Netflix by going to the gym. When I worked at Amazon in Seattle, I noticed a guy at the YMCA on the same workout schedule as me. Over time we started talking, and eventually I invited

Software Engineer Interview Guide - Data Structures and Algorithms

You made an awesome resume, applied to a bunch of jobs, and landed a couple interviews. You diligently prepared for them, and the time has come for the real thing. So what should you do once you step foot into that interview room? Well, that's what we're going to do

ByteByteGo is now part of Taro Perks!

Taro Perks is a collection of high-value discounts from trusted partners, available exclusively for Taro Premium members. Taro is designed for engineers to accelerate their career. We do this by focusing on the non-coding parts of the job, bringing together the content, community, and stories that are critical to maximize

Announcing Taro Perks and our First Partner: Formation.dev

Today we're announcing Taro Perks, a collection of high-value discounts from trusted partners, available exclusively for Taro Premium members. The goal with Taro is to accelerate the careers for ambitious software engineers. We do this by focusing on the non-coding parts of the job, bringing together the content, community, and

The Unseen Plague Among Software Engineers: Imposter Syndrome

Too many engineers let imposter syndrome screw up their confidence and career. This is such an important topic because, for software engineers, it's not a question of if you'll encounter imposter syndrome, it's a question of when. Here's how to deal with crippling self-doubt. What is Imposter Syndrome? Imposter syndrome

How To Get Stuff Done In Tech (Time Management 101)

I spend a lot of time thinking about time. Time is the most important resource we have, but so many people squander it day by day, week by week, and eventually, across years. In this article, I want to share 3 tactics to maximize how much you get done on

5 Junior Software Engineer Learning Traps

Something I deeply believe in and have shared several times with Taro's community of 15,000+ software engineers is that time is the only resource that truly matters. In today’s extremely chaotic landscape, the world is filled to the brim with distractions and ineffective time sinks. Unfortunately, I see