Junior Engineer Career Development Videos, Forum, and Q&A

I'm an sde 1 at Amazon and been working there for 2 years. I have changed multiple teams during that time unfortunately. In every team, I have struggled with getting noticed by the team. I have observed that the best performers talk about active tickets even when they are not on call. How do I balance between my task and working on extra tickets to get noticed? What else can I do to get noticed apart from my own task and high sev tickets?

Basically, I feel like I have so many unnecessary ‘DUH! I can’t believe I missed that!’ moments in public -- mainly when asking for help and creating PR's. For example, I recently was so focused on the more difficult part of a ticket, thinking about edge cases and trying to really polish this bit of functionality, that I spaced on reviewing the ticket before creating a PR. This meant the lead engineer reviewing my PR had to explain to me that I missed some other aspects of the ticket. Another time, I spent a while trying to right a really good question about a solution to what I suspected was a tough issue. The problem? I hadn’t thought to test my hypothesis and confirm that this issue would occur (it didn’t) before formulating and asking my question. So I needn’t have bothered anyone else or myself about navigating this hypothetical problem. When this happens, it makes me feel like my work isn’t thorough or to a high standard, not mention making me look bad. So it’s something I’d really like to improve, but it seems when I focus on being thorough it perpetuates the problem like in the two examples above. I feel like I need some checklists/processes as guardrails for common scenarios (e.g., creating PR’s, asking for help) I can fall back on, because otherwise I feel my brain will keep missing things and making easily preventable mistakes.

One thing I have noticed about competent engineers is that they have a very strong understanding of upstream and downstream dependencies in terms of what are the typical parameters being passed into our API's and what we return and what are the things we pass into our dependencies API's and what they return, How can I learn the context behind what data is typically being passed quickly? I understand that one of the best ways to learn is to start tinkering, and call the API's myself and see what they return. I was wondering if there is any faster way because surely a staff/principal/TL doesn't have the time to tinker with all of the different dependency services and understand what they take in and return. Is it just a matter of reading documentation and asking around?

I feel like it's more joyful to positively impact the life of others vs. only getting a really high title/pay. The latter also has high stress, and I don’t want work to be everything. I believe that teaching is a way to improve communication skills and software engineering skills overall, and I would like to mentor more junior engineers than myself at work. Another option I'm considering is going back to my bootcamp App Academy bootcamp to teach others how to code.

To give some context, I am a Masters student in the US, with 5 years of experience as a software engineer. I try my best to learn as much as I can about Software development, Machine Learning, System Designs and everything developers are interested in. I read blogs, books, research papers, and news feeds from LinkedIn, Twitter and I am part of multiple discord channels of up and coming AI startups and open source communities. I am also part of GDG study groups who connect on slack that focuses on Google Cloud solutions and discussions on Taro as well. So, I basically have a lot of data sources and I am overloaded with information. As much as I want to focus on one domain (ML in my case), I don’t want to miss out on what is happening in the industry. I am trying really hard to reduce distractions: I have setup a second brain account with Notion, which has helped me organize the informative links I receive from my data sources but I am always doing a catch up because there is only so much I can learn and remember. I am working on a bot which can classify discord messages as random conversations or important links or conversations and push them to my notion database. I want to expand this to other data sources eventually so I can ignore comments and random conversations lying around a certain topic which are irrelevant. I also have a lot of hobby project ideas that I have noted down like PRD documents, some very small which can be built in few week and some which will take months to build with a good architecture. You can ask why I am trying to learn everything. My simple reason is little bit of FOMO and a fear of not knowing enough. But also, as a CS student, I am also preparing for interviews and I want to be able to explain how a certain technology works and be able to build and design using those technologies. I have faced this information overload while I was a software engineer and continue to feel it as a student. If you have read till here and you are able to relate to this, I would like to know how you would suggest one should go about staying organized and maximizing the information gain.

Hi Taro. When choosing a team, we also have to choose their specialization and tools. If the specialization is niche and the team uses exclusively internal tools I won't gain any transferable skills. I got laid off from AWS and I am realizing that I have little transferable skills. I used mostly internal tools. Believe it or not, many AWS teams do not use AWS extensively. How can I choose a team or focus area for transferable skills? I was considering pivoting into Android and IOS development because I see many job openings for these.

If I'm interested in exploring a new area in my company, say I want to do back end development and I'm currently an SRE, but I don't have any real experience in backend development, do you have some suggestions on how I can explore this and possibly switch over to being a backend engineer? Like, if I wanted to take on new tasks in backend, for instance - how would I go about identifying opportunities and/or tasks in that area if I don't have such tasks in my current team?

I'm a little over two months in at this large (10k+ employees) org, and I work remotely in internal tools to try to automate processes. My immediate development team is fairly small and mostly junior. Most of us onboarded right before the 2023 holidays when things were winding down. I am trying hard to fit in here and balance, but I am struggling. Our group chats are pretty dead, and it doesn't seem like group-questions are rewarded. We have daily standups, but a lot of work here seems to be conducted "behind-the-scenes" and in 1:1 conversations. I've gotten a bit of a vibe check on this scenario from folks who don't work in tech, and that seems to be normal for those environments. Things feel like they take an age. For some reference: I get that everyone is different, but also sense a direct correlation between curiosity (to get questions answered and work done) and our team velocity. Maybe it's not something I should be worried about nor even my business, but I still am. I'm still working on disambiguating how performance reviews work, but in the meantime, it seems like we will be judged on velocity metrics, probably sometime in Q3/Q4. I come from a space where questions were welcomed / encouraged. It doesn't feel that way here, which I feel like I need to adapt to healthily for the near future. A conversation starter model I've found helpful from a managerial relationship is "I've noticed a different communication style here. Is there any way we can discuss?" Any additional suggestions for coping at this stage would be enormously helpful. I also definitely want to be mindful of being careful what I wish for and the impacts of "going fast" on junior devs, especially because there's a bit of trauma for me there on that side.

I know about the Pomodoro Technique but I feel that 25 minutes is too short of a time block to get and stay in the zone. How would you organize your day into time blocks for deep work while maintaining focus and not burning out? Four-hour blocks with a break in between? One eight-hour block (if there are no meetings)? One six-hour block?

With a recent, completely unexpected reorg, the product my team owns has effectively been cancelled and will be sunsetted. The company is trying to figure out new scope for my team, but in the meantime, I don't really have stuff to work on. Here are my questions: Is having 1-2 months of downtime like this okay for my job and career? What can I do in the meantime to be productive? I've mainly just been doing auxiliary things like reading documentation.

I'm not sure what theyre actually trying to ask here I feel like as a new grad i just do what im told haha. I almost always trust my seniors instincts and judgement over mine. If I suggest something and its wrong I admit it and rectify it but I dont have a good response. My mistakes are usually pretty small and can be easily corrected i.e. there's no million dollar losses happening. I havent taken down prod or have any interesting stories about mistakes I was asked that in an interview and I was stumped. I used the advice in the behavioral course to say like yeah usually before making huge decisions I always get others inputs on things so I've never made a huge mistake with severe consequences.

I recently joined Meta as a junior engineer and my hope is to be able to try out several domains (guessing realistically 2) to see where my interest lies. I’m not on an AI team currently, but given the rise of AI, I hope to be able to explore that area. However, I understand that switching teams will disrupt my productivity and growth as a junior engineer. I’m wondering: When should I approach changing teams/domain? More specifically, is it better to change teams after being promoted to mid-level? How should I approach changing teams?

I am seeing many people making posts about Gaza or Israel on LinkedIn. American politics are becoming extremely polarized and many people feel a responsibility to speak out for what they believe. Gaza and Israel is the main example right now, but there are others. I also saw this trend when SCOTUS overturned Roe Vs Wade. I might be seeing only a small percentage of people on LinkedIn but many high level engineers, managers and others at top companies are bringing politics into LinkedIn. To be clear, I am not trying to make Taro a place for politic debate. There probably is not any right answer to this, but I would like to hear opinions. Thanks

Hey everyone, I’m right now exploring breaking into Big Tech and want to determine if Formation.dev is for me :). Background: BS in CS (2022), 1.5yr SWE at Series B YC startup ($150M) Left Jan 2024 for break, explored GovTech/startup ideas Pivoted to Big Tech goal (Nov 2024) Completed 150+ Leetcode, 26 mock interviews on TryExponent Did 5 startup interviews Jan 2025 (rejected) - realized startups need different prep & chose Big Tech. Along the way, I’ve tried creating interview prep groups but that failed. Current state: Formation TIRA score: 525/1000 (could pass easiest tech interviews at JP Morgan Chase) Have referrals at Meta/Stripe/Google/Microsoft Got and failed Uber L4 first recruiter screen (7/18/24) Solo prep isn't working well & I’m clearly not at a level to pass any Big Tech interview. My main priorities rn: Find a community. Interview prep alone is tough & feels inefficient. Have accountability to level up. Have real-world challenges (such as mocks interviews with real Big Tech engs) Know what to work on. Spoke with recruiter and Formation.dev offers: AI-generated DSA exercises Weekly small group interviews (5 people) with industry eng Weekly 1:1 mocks with staff eng Job recommendations Daily manager check-ins Cost: $5k upfront + up to $15k ISA Worth it or not: Alex said: “So Formation.dev is one of the better interview bootcamps out there. They have results, and the founders are legit. However, their results have definitely dwindled in this market, especially among junior engineers.” My current thinking is to do the 7 day free trial and just see how it goes. Questions: Given the 2025 market, is Formation.dev generally worth it? How about given my situation? Is the cost ($20k total possible) concerning? What Big Tech level should I target? I received a L4 recruiter interview at Uber (7/18/24) and failed the recruiter call so that makes me a bit confused.

I just got my first project, and I have no idea where to start from and I have 2 weeks to complete the project. I have code pointers. How do I understand the codebase better to even start my project? I need the best actionable advice I can get right now

Hi all. I have a verbal offer for a contract role. The recruiter said that they are going to send the official offer letter tomorrow. This company moved really fast and based on how fast they moved, they probably expect me to sign same day as receiving the offer. I am in the final stages for a couple of other companies. I sped up the interviews as much as possible but I can't imagine they can get me an official offer tomorrow. How should I handle this? I would like to finish these last interviews and see if I get an offer but the timeline is not lining up well. Update: I decided to take the offer. I talked to one of the companies that I am interviewing with. They said that they need over a week to get an offer out and they have two other candidates for the role. If I get a full-time offer, I will decide if it's worth it to renege the contract role. The market is so brutal that I don't feel comfortable risking my only offer, and I have no clue how the competition looks for the roles I am interviewing for.

I'm in my last semester of my master's program. One of my professors asked me if I was interested in pursuing PhD. I like to write code and learn to build software rather than learning from theory. I like the idea of research, and I know if I pursue PhD focusing on ML, I will be able to learn a lot and break into the ML/AI industry much easier than my current state. I'm only worried about not being able to earn substantially for the next 4-5 years until I complete the PhD and join the industry. Given the current state of IT market, and also being an international student who eventually wants to remain in the US, I feel, PhD might be the right choice. Can someone help me evaluate the pros and cons. Edit: Some additional context that I think I should have mentioned. I love the idea of pursuing PhD. I have always liked research work. I'm not considering it only as an alternative. I just don't like the idea of a prolonged study while not able to earn as much during the same period. The main question that I am trying to answer is: Will a PhD help me in the long run? How valuable is it compared to having work experience during the same time?

Hi I was wondering whether you know where I could find just entrepreneurial people that try to solve a problem with AI and maybe make a business out of it? I would be interested in working on a project from some entrepreneurial person that tries to solve a problem with AI. I would like to do my own project, since now is the time to build stuff with AI maybe using ChatGPT API. However, I am very extroverted so I can't do my own project - I don't have the motivation, so it's hard to build that way. Or are these folks mostly in Silicon Valley?

I am a new graduate working as a data scientist at a mid-sized company. I'm wondering about the importance of LeetCode for data science interviews. I'm comfortable with SQL and can handle hard-level SQL problems, but I struggle with medium and hard-level coding questions (non-sql/algorithm style) on LeetCode. On the flip side, I am very comfortable with ML and DL algorithms. Should I focus more on building ML/DL projects or on mastering medium and hard-level LeetCode problems?

Background : I'm a new-grad junior engineer, recently joined the company around 3 months ago, so still pretty early in my career. I'm currently working on an assigned project which I own and believe it has impact. Details : My manager recently recommended I take on a quarter-long project in parallel to my current project (as we're short on bandwidth), which I don't feel very passionate about and don't see much impact in it. My understanding is that the work for that project will be on & off while my main focus will still be on my original project Question : It is good to take on additional responsibility, as long as I have the bandwidth for it, I agree. I'm just not sure if this new project would be beneficial or is the best thing to work on. How can I handle this situation ? Should I be concerned too much about the project's impact (as opposed to taking more responsibility), especially since I'm still early on in my role / career ?

In a recent behavioral mock interview, I was asked the question "Tell me about a time you motivated a colleague in your team." From my understanding, the question's focus appears to be on teamwork and collaboration. A story I had was when a colleague in my team was struggling to meet deadlines for a group project and complete his work due to him having multiple upcoming exams in a short timespan. I proactively approached the colleague for a 1:1 conversation to listen to their concerns and empathized with his struggles, understanding how tough it was for him to balance multiple priorities. I then suggested to collaborate on the project and offered to help him with some of his tasks so he could focus on the ones most important for the project. After communicating with the team, I assigned him the task of identifying and fixing a tricky bug in our system, as debugging was one of his key strengths, and this allowed him to focus on what he did best. My colleague became more motivated to contribute to the project by working on a task tailored to their strengths. This approach not only helped the project stay on schedule, but also reduced their stress and boosted overall morale and team productivity. Do you think this answer is on the right track? I would gladly appreciate any thoughts or feedback on this answer. Big thanks for reading through all of this - I know it is a very long post and I really appreciate your time!

I'm currently happily employed and I want to cultivate a strong network so that when I need a new job in the future, I am not struggling I have watched the Taro course on referrals and cold emailing, but my issues is that I went to a small no-name state school and I don't know that many alumni. Also work at a 5-10 person YC backed startup so I don't interact with many people at my job I understand networking is a long term game, but I feel stuck trying to build deeper relationships and especially trying to level up I'd love something actionable on how I can add value to people and network that doesn't rely on my job/college I'd also love to know how to leverage the fact that I work at a YC backed company to network with other YC backed startups? Everyone wants to work at a YC backed company so I worry that the eng leads/founders get tons of spam email, so how can I stand out -- especially if they are a B2B company where I cant use their product and offer feedback or if they're more mature (series A/B) and I don't really have a lot of feedback

Hi, I last posted here: . I’m a junior since I have 1-2 YOE and my bachelors in comp sci from NYU is outdated from 2019. Some people think I should go for a masters maybe in AI / ML or security or some other specialization to try to get back into the industry. Since I mainly worked with JavaScript / TypeScript and React and some Python / Ruby on Rails, do you recommend sticking to that stack or picking up something new altogether like mobile (I prefer iOS over Android) when it comes to implementing my ideas? I recently completed some free hire train deploy program over 10 weeks that uses Java SpringBoot mainly in order to land a job via one of there clients. I last worked at Civis Analytics, a data collaboration company from November 2021 to December 2022 before getting laid off due to company downsizing using JS / TS on the frontend and some Ruby on Rails, Docker, and AWS on the backend. As a web dev at West Point, I utilized tech such as Vue and Flask but I didn't get to do much as they didn't have version control set up so I quit after working on some mocks after 6 months. I haven’t really been getting interviews since failing the Meta L4 interview. Thanks.

I currently have 2-3 side projects that are OK. They had some usage, shows my skills in building non trivial software. But it feels like if a project doesn't have 10k users then its pointless in this market and I feel hesitant to do a project because I have this go big or go home mentality Also 10k users feels like such a massive goal and if im not able to hit it then all the hours spent is wasted. There's also no gaurantee that the project will ever hit 10k users. Plus getting to 10k users is not just a function of building good software its also basically going to need you to be a part time salesperson/marketer which feels annoying/I dont enjoy it My main motivation to build a project is to get more interviews