Taro Logo

Tech Career Events for Software Engineers

Our events foster growth and learning on your software engineering path: drive innovation and expand your network.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
[Office Hours] Starting A Startup - Idea Feedback And Sharing event
[Office Hours] Starting A Startup - Idea Feedback And SharingTuesday March 19, 4:00pm

This session is for wantrepreneurs (someone who wants to leave their full-time job and do a company) and early entrepreneurs. All attendees should be prepared to either pitch an idea or provide thoughtful feedback on other ideas.

In the last two decades, more money and attention have gone to early-stage startups. It's easier and cheaper than ever to start a startup, especially if you're an engineer!

Sample discussions:

  • Get feedback on the clarity of your idea, along with the opportunity size. Do you want a VC-scale outcome, or a "lifestyle business"?
  • Should you get pre-seed funding (generally $100K - $500K) from an accelerator?
  • How and when should you launch your product?

Also happy to share honest thoughts and feedback on well-known accelerators: Y Combinator, PearX, TechStars

What you get:

  • Hear ideas from other ambitious engineers to make your own idea/pitch better.
  • Taro (this platform!) is a YC-funded startup from S22. Rahul can share thoughts about how Taro got in and what he learned.
  • Rahul has personally reviewed and recommended 10+ companies that have gotten funding and launched their product.

Resources to take a look at:

This session will not be recorded. Group Office Hours are a communal way to get the personalized career advice you need.

Show more
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
From Multiple Rejections to Landing Six Offers and Negotiating Multiple >$100k Raises event
From Multiple Rejections to Landing Six Offers and Negotiating Multiple >$100k RaisesWednesday March 20, 4:00pm

Unlock all events and courses with Taro Premium. Join at a discount with Yogi's link: https://www.jointaro.com/r/yogi-sharma/

In 2017, amidst the bustling innovation and relentless pace of Facebook, I encountered a pivotal moment in my career. The sting of receiving not one, not two, but three job rejections in as many weeks (and first round rejections at that) set the stage for a profound professional transformation. This period, marked by deep introspection and resilience, was not just about coping with disappointment; it became a launchpad for unprecedented growth and success.

But all the came after an initial period of dejection.

The journey from those initial rejections to eventually landing six coveted job offers, with negotiations exceeding $100k, is a testament to the power of strategic habit shifts and mindset realignment. The experience, while daunting, unfolded the essential principles of leveraging one’s time and energy efficiently, ensuring readiness for job transitions without compromising current job performance.

In this talk, I aim to demystify the path from setback to success. I will unveil the practical strategies and mental adjustments that not only helped me navigate the turbulent waters of job searching but also equipped me with the tools to excel beyond expectation, which I have used in my work with over 400 professionals in my coaching practice. This narrative is more than a personal victory; it's a blueprint for anyone facing the disheartenment of rejection, providing actionable insights to transform challenges into opportunities for substantial growth and achievement.

Join me as I dissect the critical principles, mindset shifts, and habit changes that can empower us all to turn job search woes into wins, illustrating that with the right approach, navigating the job market can be a journey of triumph even though tribulation are inevitable at times.

Negotiation content on Taro:

Yogi's next event about going from the PIP danger zone to a top performer: https://www.jointaro.com/event/behind-the-scene-from-meets-most-greatly-exceeds-in-3-months-at-facebook/

Show more
Friday, March 22, 2024
Saturday, March 23, 2024
Amazon Aurora: Design Considerations for High Throughput Cloud-Native Relational Databases event
Amazon Aurora: Design Considerations for High Throughput Cloud-Native Relational DatabasesSaturday March 23, 4:00pm

In this session, we delve into the intricacies of Amazon Aurora, a high throughput, cloud-native relational database designed to meet the demanding scalability and performance requirements of modern applications without compromising on the simplicity of access via SQL. The paper presents a thorough examination of the design considerations that underpin Aurora's architecture, understanding how it achieves unparalleled levels of efficiency and reliability within the cloud. We will explore key concepts such as Aurora's distributed and decentralized approach, fault tolerance mechanisms, and the optimization of data storage and retrieval processes.

Show more
Taro Book Club: Designing Data Intensive Applications - Chapter 4 (Encoding And Evolution) event
Taro Book Club: Designing Data Intensive Applications - Chapter 4 (Encoding And Evolution)Saturday March 23, 4:00pm

Topic: Chapter 4 - Encoding And Evolution

In this #taro-bookclub discussion, we'll be talking about Chapter 4 of "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" by Martin Kleppmann.

Here's the agenda:

  • Let’s get to know each other with some quick introductions.
  • We’ll break down and discuss the key concepts from Chapter 4.
  • There will also be time for any questions and answers you might have.

Please send your questions ahead of time to Lax Meiyappan in the Taro Premium Slack, so that they can be included in the discussion.

Get ready for another engaging and informative session!

Show more
👑 Taro Premium
Paper Reading: (Stable Diffusion) High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models event
Paper Reading: (Stable Diffusion) High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion ModelsSaturday March 23, 5:30pm

As Stable Diffusion 3, the new text-to-image diffusion model from Stability AI is released, we look at the original latent diffusion model (LDM) paper that got the ball rolling. We cover how diffusion models produce stunningly photorealistic images from any textual prompt, and delve into the core concepts that power them.

We will cover:

  • Variational Auto-Encoders (Background)
  • Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models (DDPM paper)
  • Latent Diffusion Models (LDM paper)

Note: This session will be followed by another session on Diffusion Transformers, the basis of Stable Diffusion 3. It will build upon what we learn in this session and the previous one on Vision Transformers.

How to join:

Join via Teams link.

  • Meeting ID: 310 267 993 213
  • Passcode: z773PU

Your host:

Hemang Chawla is an applied scientist in computer vision focusing on anti-counterfeiting at Scantrust. He has previous worked in the domains of robotics and mapping for ADAS, and has published several papers at top conferences such as ICRA, IROS, and WACV.

This event is free for all. For premium access to Taro, you may use this referral link for a 20% discount.

Show more
Sunday, March 24, 2024
Panel Discussion: Growing Your Career in Tech event
Panel Discussion: Growing Your Career in TechSunday March 24, 3:00am

In honor of Women's Month, we're excited to invite you to the "Taro Panel Discussion: Growing your Career in Tech", an event that focuses on achievements and insights of successful women building a thriving career in the tech landscape.

Discover how our panelists navigated the industry, overcame challenges, and what insights they can share for those looking to rise in their technical careers. Join us as we host three trailblazing panelists who've carved exceptional paths in tech.

Panelist Bios:

  • Jocelin Ho: Co-Founder & CTO at Cooby, Jocelin has a rich background as a former iOS and backend Engineer at Facebook. With a passion for startups and a vested interest in topics concerning Asia, she brings to the table a wealth of knowledge from the global internet industry.

  • Lucia Mocz: An ML Engineer, AI research scientist, and PhD mathematician, Lucia is working at the forefront of bringing large language models (LLMs) to real-world use cases. Her work, both applied and theoretical, seeks to unravel and advance the capabilities of these technologies, making her insights invaluable for anyone interested in AI's bleeding edge.

  • Erin Pangilinan: A leading voice in emerging technology, acclaimed as an author, software engineer, computational designer, and educator in spatial computing and AI. Her book, Creating Augmented and Virtual Realities: Theory and Practice for Next-Generation of Spatial Computing, topped the must-read list for VR books in 2019 and ranked #1 in Game Programming on Amazon. Translated into Chinese and Korean, the book is distributed in over 2 dozen countries. Erin is currently working on two new books and cross-platform productivity applications. She has been selected for tech and entrepreneurial fellowships such as GitCoin Kernel (2021), Alley (Verizon Ventures - 2019), Meta/Facebook’s Oculus Launch Pad (2018), and University of San Francisco Data Institute’s programs. Erin holds a BA degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

This event will NOT be recorded. Don't miss this opportunity to connect with and draw wisdom from these female powerhouses shaping the future of tech. 🌟

Show more
👑 Taro Premium
Saturday, April 6, 2024
Taro Book Club: Designing Data Intensive Applications - Chapter 5 (Replication) event
Taro Book Club: Designing Data Intensive Applications - Chapter 5 (Replication)Saturday April 6, 4:00pm

Topic: Chapter 5 - Replication

In this #taro-bookclub discussion, we'll be talking about Chapter 5 of "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" by Martin Kleppmann.

Here's the agenda:

  • Let’s get to know each other with some quick introductions.
  • We’ll break down and discuss the key concepts from Chapter 5.
  • There will also be time for any questions and answers you might have.

Please send your questions ahead of time to Rohit Katyal in the Taro Premium Slack, so that they can be included in the discussion.

Get ready for another engaging and informative session!

Show more
👑 Taro Premium
Paper Reading: Diffusion Transformer Architecture and Flow Matching event
Paper Reading: Diffusion Transformer Architecture and Flow MatchingSaturday April 6, 4:00pm

Note: The date of this even is subject to change. It will be finalized after the Paper Reading event on Diffusion Models.

With Stable Diffusion 3 being released recently, we look at the underlying papers that make it possible.

We will cover:

Your host:

Hemang Chawla is an applied scientist in computer vision focusing on anti-counterfeiting at Scantrust. He has previous worked in the domains of robotics and mapping for ADAS, and has published several papers at top conferences such as ICRA, IROS, and WACV.

This event is free for all. For premium access to Taro, you may use this referral link for a 20% discount.

Show more
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Behind the Scenes: From “Meets Most” to “Greatly Exceeds” in 3 Months at Facebook  event
Behind the Scenes: From “Meets Most” to “Greatly Exceeds” in 3 Months at Facebook Wednesday April 17, 5:00pm

Unlock all events and courses with Taro Premium. Join at a discount with Yogi's link: https://www.jointaro.com/r/yogi-sharma/

Imagine pouring your heart and soul into your work, only to be met with criticism instead of commendation. This scenario is all too familiar for many engineers who, despite their hard work, find themselves at odds with their manager's expectations due to a misalignment with business priorities. My own journey at Facebook serves as a testament to this common predicament. Tasked with two major projects, I found myself at a critical juncture halfway through, being told my efforts were not meeting expectations.

I was not always doing exceptional at Facebook, but this time I knew that I was not below the "meets expectation" mark. I had been there before, but this time was not it.

Learn more about ratings at Facebook (aka Meta): https://www.jointaro.com/topic/meta/performance-review/

Despite knowing that, the assessment of the manager was a bitter pill to swallow, leaving me furious and speechless. However, it also marked the beginning of a transformative journey. I ventured into realms that many engineers shy away from, embracing principles that I previously overlooked. This shift in behavior and perception propelled me from being perceived as merely meeting most expectations to greatly exceeding them, achieving a rating leap that not only vindicated my efforts but also significantly enhanced my bonus.

In this seminar, I aim to share the insights and strategies that catalyzed my dramatic turnaround. I will delve into how a recalibration of focus and an embrace of broader impact can elevate your work from good to exceptional. Additionally, I will touch on the crucial balance between maintaining stellar job performance and navigating a job search. This balance is critical for ensuring you are not cornered should your job search extend longer than anticipated. Join me as I unravel the nuances of achieving long-term career satisfaction through sustained excellence and strategic job search efforts.

How to master performance reviews: https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/b0B8uqIAUnBLE10jJHJG/masterclass-how-to-navigate-your-performance-review-in-tech/

Show more
Friday, April 26, 2024
Senior to Staff Engineer Office Hours: Check-In event
Senior to Staff Engineer Office Hours: Check-InFriday April 26, 5:00pm

As the first terminal level in your career, senior engineers independently solve problems and deliver business value. Many engineers are stuck for years as senior engineers.

This is part of the cohort-based course "Senior to Staff - Land Your Promotion As An Engineer". This session is to check in on your progress to becoming a Staff Engineer. There's no agenda or presentation planned -- come with your questions and discussions.

Sample topics:

  • How to know where you stand on the path to promotion.
  • How to get (or create) scope on a team with many talented engineers.
  • How managers and directors perceive very senior IC roles.

Taro resources:

Show more
👑 Taro Premium
Saturday, April 27, 2024
Paper Reading: Mamba - Revolutionizing Sequence Modeling event
Paper Reading: Mamba - Revolutionizing Sequence ModelingSaturday April 27, 8:05pm

Abstract:

Explore the Mamba paper's groundbreaking approach to sequence modeling efficiency in this event. Uncover how Mamba addresses computational inefficiencies in transformers, especially for long sequences.

Overview:

Discover the motivation behind Mamba, highlighting its improvements over subquadratic-time architectures struggling with language tasks. Learn about Mamba's content-based reasoning and enhancements for superior performance.

Key Features:

1. Selective Structured State Space Models (SSMs): Mamba introduces adaptive SSM parameters for content-based reasoning, allowing selective information handling for discrete modalities.

2. Hardware-Aware Parallel Algorithm: Despite forgoing efficient convolutions, Mamba's hardware-aware parallel algorithm maintains fast inference and linear scaling in sequence length.

3. Architecture Overview: Dive into Mamba's streamlined architecture without attention or MLP blocks, achieving efficiency without sacrificing effectiveness.

4. Performance Metrics: Witness Mamba's 5× higher throughput than Transformers, with linear scaling, showcasing its real-world improvements in language, audio, and genomics tasks.

5. Comparison with Transformers: See Mamba outperforms Transformers of the same size and match larger Transformers, especially in language modeling.

Join us in unraveling the secrets of Mamba, poised to redefine sequence modeling standards. Anticipate a paradigm shift in efficiency and performance in deep learning.

paper link: [
https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.00752]

Show more
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
[Office Hours] Starting A Startup - Idea Feedback And Sharing event
[Office Hours] Starting A Startup - Idea Feedback And SharingTuesday May 7, 4:00pm

This session is for wantrepreneurs (someone who wants to leave their full-time job and do a company) and early entrepreneurs. All attendees should be prepared to either pitch an idea or provide thoughtful feedback on other ideas.

In the last two decades, more money and attention have gone to early-stage startups. It's easier and cheaper than ever to start a startup, especially if you're an engineer!

Sample discussions:

  • Get feedback on the clarity of your idea, along with the opportunity size. Do you want a VC-scale outcome, or a "lifestyle business"?
  • Should you get pre-seed funding (generally $100K - $500K) from an accelerator?
  • How and when should you launch your product?

Also happy to share honest thoughts and feedback on well-known accelerators: Y Combinator, PearX, TechStars

What you get:

  • Hear ideas from other ambitious engineers to make your own idea/pitch better.
  • Taro (this platform!) is a YC-funded startup from S22. Rahul can share thoughts about how Taro got in and what he learned.
  • Rahul has personally reviewed and recommended 10+ companies that have gotten funding and launched their product.

Resources to take a look at:

This session will not be recorded. Group Office Hours are a communal way to get the personalized career advice you need.

Show more
👑 Taro Premium

Events With Tech Experts

We offer a comprehensive set of curated events tailored for junior to senior software engineers. We understand that the software engineer’s journey is not just about coding and algorithms, but more importantly, it’s about building meaningful connections with other engineers, staying updated on the latest industry trends, and mastering the skills of thriving in an organization.
All of our events are organized baed on the core idea that we are a community of tight-knit and curious software engineers who are constantly trying to improve themselves, as well as each other. Our past events have included local networking meetups where members have gotten career advice and exchanged contact information with recruiters.
Our members have started regular book club sessions where passionate engineers discuss popular engineering books, including “Designing Data Intensive Applications” by Martin Kleppmann.
In addition, we have hosted an event analyzing different white papers, including the famous “Attention Is All You Need” which has driven the current AI revolution in the recent years. Not only do the white paper events educate our community with the latest breakthroughs and studies in computer science, but it helps us cultivate a culture of critical thinking and informed discussions.
One of the obstacles that many software engineers face is succeeding at technical coding and system design interviews. it’s not just about knowing the right solutions, but it’s also about being able to convey your ideas effectively to the interviewer so they can recognize your problem solving ability. Our events for technical interviews are designed to give attendees a full perspective on how to prepare for interviews and what interviewers look for in a candidate.
Events include tech recruiters which provide another insight into how a decision from a technical interview is reached. By understanding what recruiters prioritize, you can understand how technical ability is weighed with cultural fit or how a company decides on a level for a candidate. Even more importantly, we dive into how to negotiate for your total compensation. The transparency in compensation has helped to inform engineers what they are really worth.
As you get further up the career ladder, you’ll have to deal with increasingly more complex workplace and organizational dynamics. The transition from individual contributor to team lead to manager or architect requires more than just being an excellent coder. It demands an understanding of team dynamics, effective communication, conflict resolution, and more. Our sessions help to address these different nuances, ensuring that engineers are more than just technically competent.
It’s our belief that every software engineer, regardless of background or experience, brings a unique perspective to the table. Everyone has the potential to make significant contributions at their company. Our events platform serves as an opportunity for you to foster growth and bring clarity to your engineering career.
Show more