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

I joined less than a year ago out of college, and so far I've been able to learn things decently well, accordingly to what others on my team have told me. So, there's an internal feedback mechanism in my team, and everyone has asked me for feedback. From where I'm at right now, everyone else in the team (they're all more senior than me by at least 4 years at Amazon) seems really knowledgeable, talented and does their work well. How do I think about feedback I can give them as a (relative) noob?

Security teams are typically infrastructure teams rather than product teams. Security teams make changes to existing products to make them more secure, which are usually trivial changes, not intellectually stimulating. The interesting part is the planning happening before. For the first few months at Google, I did routine security fixes, which was boring but impactful. Then I found a project that allowed me to develop a more complex system for about 2 months, but that project has shipped to production and has concluded. I am working actively with my manager to find projects that would allow me to write more complex software that will also help me grow technically. So the question is: how do I find these projects? What I am doing now: stay up-to-date on new threats and what other security teams are doing at Google to see if I can draw some inspiration from them.

Hi, a little bit about myself: I am an entry-junior level software engineer. I just graduated from a coding bootcamp 2 months ago. But before that, I had been doing self-studies. I mainly build with JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Express, HTML, CSS, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB. However, I have knowledge in Python, Redux, OAuth, Jest, Docker, Kubernetes, and some services in AWS. I have been sending out a resume that has a long list of technical skills, but I'm concerned that the very long list might make me appear overreaching and amateurish. That said, I wonder if I should make different versions of my resume. P.S. I have sent out almost 500 applications, and only 4 reached out to me. I made it to the final round with one company, but didn't make it past the final round.

Questions: Is learning design a worthwhile investment as someone most interested in doing full-stack work at product-based startups? Might working in a small product-based startup be an effective way to pick up design skills while working as a SWE? How can engineers build more complex side projects without any design skills? Regarding #3: I’d argue that basic product design skills are critical for building any CRUD application. You can’t build something without defining what it’s going to do first. Literally - you can’t write code for a feature if you don’t know how the app will behave during a loading state, an error state, a complex edge case from a wonky user flow, etc. You can wing the design and iteratively dogfood it to improve its UX - but that’s the same as doing UX design while having zero UX design skills. It’s the software engineering equivalent of writing spaghetti code - except you’re not even improving. Personally, I find that UI libraries like TailwindUI or Flowbite are most helpful for solving UI problems like designing a button or a modal. However, they can’t help you decide how a screen in an app should work, nor can they abstract away all design challenges for more custom use cases. Also, any CRUD application built with poor design will inevitably feel like a crappy database client. The design problem applies to backend projects, too. Backends exist to service frontends, so you can’t build a backend without knowing what features the frontend needs - and you can’t do that, either, if you don’t design it first! These are all challenges I’ve faced working on my own projects. I suspect the best approach is really to just learn UX design and a design tool like Figma. However, that’d be a hefty investment given UX design is a separate field from SWE - especially if it’s just for a side project. Also, building cool stuff as a semi-competent engineer is tons more fun (for me) than learning design from scratch! What are your thoughts on my aforementioned questions?

Hello I wanted to ask anyone whats a good place to look for hackathons Im looking for event so I can really get the grasp of working with others and across meeting new people

I recently gave my first presentation ever and I was so confident about how to do it but when I saw so many people looking at my screen for the first time and going through my work with a fine-tooth comb I just froze and didn't know what to do. I've been on the team for a year and 6 months but never had to present before because I'm so used to coding heads-down. Lots of "ums" and "buts" and a few awkward pauses and I just wanted to crawl under a table and hide. I feel so defeated because everyone will judge me and my calibre and hold it against me as an L3 who doesn't know what he's talking about. I could feel 50 eyes looking directly into my soul. How do I recover from this? Are my chances at promo delayed? Did you experience this early in your career?

Hi Taro. I am starting a small SWE mentorship program for Palestinians living in the West Bank or East Jerusalem. I can take on 3 - 5 mentees. I can help with technical mentorship, university applications, job applications and, preparing for interviews. I can pay for Taro premium, Leetcode premium, Udemy, TOEFL exam fees and university application fees. My knowledge of immigration is very limited, so I cannot help with this. I cannot read or write in Arabic so I can only take on mentees that are fluent in English. To help me adapt to the cultural and religious differences, I would like to have some Christian mentees in my cohort. I was thinking 50/50 is a good split. I know this is a very poor time to start a mentorship program, but I prefer to start now rather than wait. If you know anyone, please send them my way. Just comment on this post. I feel a little strange posting this anonymously, but I have always liked to keep my race and religion private in professional settings. Here is a little bit about me. I worked in Big Tech for 2 years before I got laid off. I work at a startup now. I did several internships, worked in a research lab and published a few papers. I was planning to do a PhD and I went through the application process but I did not attend. This is my first time doing mentorship, so any advice is appreciated.

I've heard this advice a lot, and I would like to get more clarity on what that concretely means. In particular, what does a junior engineer being proactive look like? Can someone provide examples?

Freedom and autonomy are often mentioned as great perks of working in tech, but I feel like there can be too much freedom, especially for earlier-in-career ICs. As someone who's relatively new to my field, I feel like having more supervision could be good. Is that true?

Hi, I recently joined a FAANG 3 months ago as an L3 and I haven't been able to perform the best. One particular task is taking too long and due to that other easier tasks are also taking longer. My TL did mention to increase the velocity. Things I have done so far to increase the velocity, Multi-tasking, this works up to certain degree but I constantly keep going back to the tasks that is stuck. Ask for help, I have asked for help but since our team has a pretty important deadline coming up everyone is busy with their tasks and I do not feel comfortable asking. One of my teammates also mentioned that I ask questions that are very easy to figure out so that is also one of the reasons I try to do everything on my own. Work Longer hours, this one just feels like I am stuck for longer time and not progressing much. Although I am able to push out PRs for other changes. I have been actively asking for feedback from my TL during 1:1s and also making clear the expectations from my Manager as well. My constant fear is that I will be let go off due to performance issues, it has happened to me in my previous job (mainly due to me not taking the work too seriously, but I learnt from that). How can I improve as a SWE and, is not performing well consistently an indicator, that I should switch careers?

I just watched Alex’s ”Level Up Your Code As A Software Engineer“ course. I wanted to ask about the first portion of the “Better Code Strategy” module. A part that resonated with me is where Alex said he sees many junior devs fall into a trap of full stack when trying to specialize, which hinders them in the long run. It makes total sense that people would rather hire a 9/10 on front end than a 5/10 at front and back. I was in this situation at my previous employer - new grad role with a 4 month ramp up program. I didn't do so well on front end in training, and was told that I’d be placed in a back end role, so it “wouldn’t matter anyway”. Guess who got placed doing front end work? I had barely any support so I had to figure out everything myself. I was the only front end person on that team - the only other dev there was an L6 in back end. I also wasn’t good at communicating back then, so I was hindering the team a lot. 9 months later, I started handling front end. And right when I got good at handling front end tasks myself, I was told the architects wanted the apps my team was working on to make API calls to the backend rather than mid tier… so the team shifted focus to backend. I lost all my gains on backend by then, so that sucked. Another learning curve, within 2 months I gained independence. A week after I was told I was doing really well, I was laid off. Many people at the company outside of my team voiced that they put me in a "bad" position. I also point the finger at myself, because there was a lot that I needed to take accountability for. Eventually, I got another job, doing database work. When I look at SQL, I see consistency in SQL and other coding languages. APIs, cloud, data, it all needs databases! To understand the world of code, it’s like everything draws back to databases. In my current role, as long as I pass the onboarding phase, then I can achieve excellence anywhere I go in my career with incredibly transferrable skills. Although I feel like I found where I’d like to dedicate time to specializing to get to the upper echelon of software engineering, I noticed I’m somebody who doesn’t mind what I do because I like everything I’ve seen so far. That’s why I figured to go for the niche that is “best” for all around career growth. With this in mind, what do you think the best fields to specialize in are?

I’m a junior eng trying to break into big tech. I’ve done 1800 LC problems and am highly ranked. I’m looking for senior+ engs at big companies who can help me with resume reviews, referrals, and general other advice. I’ll happily help you train at Leetcode and answer any questions. (Based in US)

I recently joined a team for a project and I want to be prepared for any feedback I feel can be unfair and sometimes insulting. Should I just document everything? I want to be prepared to expect the worst even though I feel I'm doing fine.

This may be more of a vent than a question so apologies in advance. I recently had an online assessment with a company that I was excited to interview for. The assessment was comprised of 7 SQL questions each with varying amounts of time to complete them. The questions were more than fair however I completely choked and only passed 1 of 7. I know the obvious answer is more practice but I'm really frustrated that the penalty is really high if you can't recall the information you need at that exact moment or can't figure out the approach you need right then and there to resolve it before the allotted time. I feel like companies never consider that a candidate might very well have the body of knowledge they're looking for but just couldn't recall what was needed at that exact moment. In other words we're reduced down to a simple "pass/fail". I understand that companies have to use these tools to a certain extent in order to filter out and reduce the candidate pool size but I believe it's such a poor filter and terrible way to determine if someone has the right level they're looking for. My question is then, how do you over come this? I practice leetcode when I can and read up on concepts that I struggle with but I feel like it's just not enough to break through this hurdle. There's only so much time in the day and my energy is usually sapped after work.

I am a recent graduate who just started a new position at a small startup. Along my short journey thus far, I have connected with a few people outside my company whom I have asked for career advice and whom I think could be great mentors for me. However, I would like to formalize, or start formalizing, our premature (I have only spoken to them 1-2 times in total) relationship which currently consists solely of advice-seeking to a mentor/mentee relationship. What is the best way to approach this? It feels inappropriate and unprofessional to ask them to "be my mentor please!" Any advice is appreciated. I expect the answer here to depend on whether the mentor figure is outside or inside one's company since if they are outside (as in my case) it is much less of an expectation for them to give me their time free of charge.

I've gotten rejected from companies (unicorns, F500s) (in this rough market) because I didn't have experience with their specific tech stack. I know because one company gave feedback saying that I didn't have experience with a framework that the team uses (though I had experience with adjacent but not similar stuff) and also I was able to get someone to put in a referral, but that person responded back saying HM wanted someone who had experience with the team's language I'm curious if this is the norm? I've always heard that all that companies want is business impact. They have in-house/custom tooling so it doesnt matter what you used before Should I also be building projects in other languages just for the sake of showing experience? I'd rather just put in more time at my job and have more impact at work Because unless a project has sufficient depth which takes months of time, it has little value and time spent at work is 100x ROI compared to a side project

I enjoy reading case studies on how people were promoted to senior and staff but one archetype that stands out is the "Code Machine" archetype. Writing code is inherently not scalable, so if someone is writing and reading a large amount of code, how are they able to consistently work on projects that have the largest impact? Wouldn't that time be better spent? Talking with stakeholders and finding out what the highest impact problems are Project planning Writing status reports to keep everyone updated Delegating work to others as well as mentoring/unblocking them Essentially, doesn't the archetype of "Code Machine" contradict traditional staff-level engineer behaviors?

I was wondering what exciting new content is coming on Taro for 2025. After reading multiple posts, I noticed that many courses are planned such as Code review course Giving feedback Creating a startup Side project course #2 etc I wanted to ask if there are any other courses planned or any other exciting new content. Thank you!

I want to hear the Taro community's thoughts on what's overrated/underrated. It can be anything (IDE, language, food, headphones, chairs, keyboards, you get the idea), not just career/team stuff (Taro already has a vid on this) I'll start: Dark mode is overrated its too hard to read the text 😅

Episode 3 Episode one Episode two I reneged the 6 month contract role at Amazon for the 12 month contract role at Meta before I started at Amazon. Then I wrote a big and honest apology to the person at Amazon that helped me get the role. Plot twist ... after I started at Meta ... hold on to your seats ... the staffing agency said that they made a mistake and the role at Meta is actually 6 months. They told me and some others to deal with it. I have a chance to return to Amazon for a 6 month contract role. The same person that helped me get the contract before is offering to help me again. Hope to have him as a manager one day :). I mainly want to take it because: Amazon is onsite in a different city and that could help with some mental health problems I am dealing with. Meta is WFH. I was willing to deal with it because of the contract length. I have a better chance to find a team at Amazon to hire me since I already have 2 YOE there and while working in office I can make a lot of connections to teams that could hire me. Probably a better chance to extend the contract at Amazon. It's a much more important project and people have already had their contracts extended. This doesn't seem to be the case for this Meta team. Amazon is actually paying me more if you take into account taxes, but that's not a concern anymore. Just saying because Meta usually pays more. I am considering staying at Meta because it's only 6 months and instead of hopping around for contract roles, I should look for a full time role. My mental health has gotten really bad though, and I am not motivated to apply or work anymore. The environment change could help a lot. I used to think Amazon treats employees poorly. Amazon is heaven compared to this :(. It's unreal how badly these companies are treating me.

I'm curious since you now have the opportunity to design and interview candidates as you see fit, how would you design the interview for your next hire? How many rounds? Any takehomes? how would you source your candidates? what are things you would do to avoid doing the terrible interview practices companies usually do? How would you interview a candidate for a backend role vs a frontend role?

I'm an L3 software engineer that been working for a bit over 1 year. During this time, I've had three managers and am about to get a fourth that will be hired externally. I did not have great experiences with my past two managers. The team was also a bit of mess during that time (we would have oncall rotations that would average ~100-200 pages/week, 60+ page hours). I have a strong working relationship with my current manager and the team situation is better. We had discussed putting me up for promotion this past July, but that didn't materialize due to concerns about time at level and shipped impact. I was a bit disappointed but understood. However, I did receive Exceeds ratings and was been told that I am performing above my level. The current plan is to put up my promotion packet in the next cycle. I was operating under the expectation that, barring unforeseen circumstances, this should go through. Additionally, the company has been planning to hire an external manager that would report to my current manager for the past ~3-4 months. I expect that this position will be filled by end of year. I expressed concern about context loss for the January promotion packet, but my manager assured me that he would ensure the packet put up was strong and all context would be written by him personally. However, recently my manager has been hinting concerns that the packet may not go through in the next cycle and we may want to think about creating a strong packet in the cycle following. I am concerned about my promotion not going through in January and having to rely on an external manager (who I don't know and who doesn't know company processes) to put up a packet in the next cycle. I believe I've demonstrated my ability to execute and perform at L4 level for many months at this point already, shipped some meaningful and high impact projects, and feel that I should be promoted in the next cycle. I trust and really like my current manager, but I want to communicate these concerns in a professional way. How should I do this? Additionally, should I also start to look externally? I'm quite confident in my Leetcode/interview skills, have a Tier-1 school on my resume, and work at a FAANG tier company currently, but I understand the market is bad. Would it be possible to get an L4 level role externally now or in the next six months?

If you're at faang but gaining no useful skills because you're in some niche not SWE, but semi coding production sales role does it still have that faang value? and if you do get into FAANG SWE, how does it change career trajectory?

Example: