Taro's official blog designed for Software Engineer career growth. Onboarding, compensation, promotion and more

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Meta Software Engineer Interview Question Breakdown: Finding Unique Integers

Meta Software Engineer Interview Question Breakdown: Finding Unique Integers

Back when I was at Meta, I interviewed ~100 engineers, specializing with data structures and algorithms (DSA) questions (internally known as the "Ninja Round"). Meta has a pretty rigorous and standardized process for training its interviewers, and I really came to appreciate that as I worked at the company and

How I Became An $800K Meta Staff Engineer

How I Became An $800K Meta Staff Engineer

In 2021, the last full year I worked at Meta, I made more than $800,000 dollars. In this post, I'll break down my compensation and how it changed each year. Here's the proof from one of my last paystubs in 2021: I joined Facebook, now known as Meta, in

Talk and Observe: A Framework For Engineering Onboarding

Talk and Observe: A Framework For Engineering Onboarding

I've been "the new engineer" at 7 different companies in my career, at varying levels of seniority and company size. I've also directly worked with 100s of software engineers where the same topic comes up repeatedly: onboarding. The onboarding period, usually the first 2-3 months in the company, is critical

How I Became A Tech Lead And What I Learned Along The Way

How I Became A Tech Lead And What I Learned Along The Way

If I tell you how I became a tech lead you’re going to laugh. You see, I became a tech lead first in my head, and later in reality. There I was, a fresh Eng 2 who just came back from a leadership training for which my manager at

The Ultimate Software Engineer Internship Survival Guide

The Ultimate Software Engineer Internship Survival Guide

We're entering our favorite time of year – summer intern season! From excited new faces joining the team meeting to anxious faces trying to make sense of a massive codebase, internships are hugely important for students. Done correctly, interns earn valuable experience, accelerate their careers, and sample the life of a

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

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

Software Engineers and Startups - Finding Your Perfect Fit

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