Android and mobile development as a whole is something I'm very interested in. For example, I see the Taro Android app, and it's pretty smooth and performant while being built quickly. What can I do to get to this level?

This half I've been assigned to a new greenfield project and I'm having a tough time believing in the product idea and I think the product team is being overly optimistic.

I'm concerned the problem the product solves isn't important enough, that the solution won't be adopted and that the business value isn't clear. They're also pushing for rushed timelines even before we've decided on what will be delivered.

I'm worried if this thing doesn't get traction and we end up having layoffs that it would make our team a target.

How should I think about this situation? Try to make the best out of it? Try to get out of it?

What to do when you don't believe in a new product you're assigned to?

Here are some thoughts from me:
1. Freshly promoted to Staff - This means they are very close to the same path that I'm on.
2. Not within my org - To remove bias
3. Smooth conversation - So it's easy to talk with them

Do these make sense or is there something I'm missing?

How do I find a proper mentor within my company?

My goal is get promoted to senior [5A], and I'm currently working remotely. My manager is okay with me working remote only, but the promo committee might not be as Uber leadership overall is investing into RTO, and my team has gone back to the office for the most part. Do you think this will hurt my chances, and if so, any tips on how to navigate the situation?

My work will often times span across multiple services within Uber, which means that I need to write code in codebases outside of my team's. Sometimes when I do this, it takes a long time for my commit to land as there's many rounds of follow-up questions, leading to a lot of rebases, revisions, and time spent on my end. I understand that they're trying to be the best stewards of their codebase, but this can be a bit frustrating sometimes. How can I make this process smoother and land these kinds of changes more quickly?

How to get commits merged in faster when changing other teams' codebases?

So within my own area of the codebase and tech stack I own, I'm very comfortable and confident leaving feedback and sharing thoughts. However, I know that in order to grow to senior, I need to expand past my immediate area into other spaces like the components and services built by other teams in my org like sister teams. For those areas, I'm unsure how to share my thoughts since I'm not an expert in those codebases. So let's say I come across a code review from one of these more "separate" areas from my own and the engineer behind the diff is more senior than me - How can I leave my feedback in a way that respects the situation?

How can I share my thoughts on domains I know less about?

Additional questions:
1. What tactics can I use to get buy-in?
2. Who do I need to win over? Do I need to convince the director?

How do I sell the vision behind a large, org-level project?

Uber is an American mobility as a service provider, allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi. It is based in San Francisco with operations in approximately 72 countries and 10,500 cities in 2021. Its services include ride-hailing, food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package delivery, couriers, freight transportation,[2] electric bicycle and motorized scooter rental.

I'm relatively new to the company, and I want to grow fast. I imagine an engineering mentor can really help me with that. Here are some thoughts on what the ideal mentor would look like for me:
1. Freshly promoted to Staff - This means they are very close to the same path that I'm on.
2. Not within my org - To remove bias
3. Smooth conversation - So it's easy to talk with them

Do these make sense or is there something I'm missing?

Uber

Senior Software Engineer [5A]

First, I recommend [this Q&A on finding a mentor within your own company](https://link.jointaro.com/9owyh2nwj3SaYvMv5), which covers (and agrees with) some of the tenets of your question.

Moving on, I think #1 and #3 are spot-on, but I actually don't agree with #2. While a mentor outside your org can work, I haven't really seen the bias thing come into play (a good mentor should be honest no matter where they are in the org chart relative to you). This is why I *heavily* prefer having a mentor from within your org, ideally within your own team:
1. **They can be tactically helpful** - Closer to you means a higher chance of having worked with the tech stack that you're working on. While a mentor, especially for a senior engineer, is going to be more high-level and about behaviors, having a mentor that can help you with code helps a lot, especially if you're newer to the company.
2. **They understand the culture of your org** - In a huge company like Uber, there's bound to be sub-cultures across orgs, which means that different things are going to be valued when it comes to engineering performance. Since they're familiar with the culture, your mentor can help you pitch your work and behave in a way that's conducive to the org's culture.
3. **The incentives are way better** - Local impact is almost always better recognized than vague, high-level impact that applies somewhere across the company. Let's say I'm a Staff engineer on your team, acting as its TL. It makes a lot of sense for me to mentor you as I can directly work through you to achieve impact. It makes less sense to mentor a senior engineer in an org on the completely opposite site of the company as I can't work through them - It's also harder for me to achieve a concrete delta there as it will be harder to understand what their life is like.
4. **Manager alignment is easier** - It is vital for whoever is mentoring you to stay in sync with your manager, so they can give you the proper projects and grow you in a way that fills in gaps in your team. This is obviously smoother if the mentor is on your team (having the same manager) or on a sister team (probably knows your manager well, especially as this mentor is probably Staff).

Related resources:
- [Taro Premium Session on mentorship](https://link.jointaro.com/YdUM4JP89Sjh7ruv5) - It's more from the perspective of the mentor, going through how I mentored several Meta SWEs from junior [E3] to senior [E5] in ~2.5 years, but it does cover the mentee's angle as well.
- ["How do you get the most out of mentorship?"](https://link.jointaro.com/cBZaq2wbjiNCYCca6)

Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero, PayPal

Alex Chiou

How do you typically find a mentor at Uber? Is there some sort of matching process? Your criteria seem fine to me (though I like Alex's point about a mentor in the same org), but I wonder if a better question is "how can I best present myself to be mentored?"

I've seen that entering into the relationship is *harder* than finding the right mentor. The best mentor-mentee relationships are those where both sides feel like they're getting something.

If I'm a Staff engineer, what I'd look for in a senior eng to mentor is:
- someone likely to get promoted. The mentee promo will reflect well on me.
- someone interesting to talk to. perhaps I can even learn from them (either about some tech, or another part of the org)
- someone who takes my feedback and applies it quickly

So your job is to show these traits in your outreach or interaction with possible mentors.

Meta, Pinterest, Kosei

Rahul Pandey

Mentorship is the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person.

Senior engineers have proven themselves to be extremely capable at shipping high-quality, complex software efficiently. This collection breaks down how they operate and how you can get to this level too.

How do I find a proper mentor within my company?

Uber

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Uber