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

I have 4 weeks before I begin as an entry level engineer in a popular big tech company in their cloud offering division. I wanted to get at least 3 actionable steps on how to set myself up for success in my new role both in tech and in relationships. Please also discuss any common anti patterns I need to be aware of. I'll be using a new technology (cloud) and my first step was to buy relevant books. But I realized that it's inefficient and took up an online course to build a small project. Just want to hear how you would approach your month before the job.

I am at a legacy telecommunications company (one of the big 3). I currently work on relatively modern tech stack with SpringBoot, Java 21, and Angular 14. I have 2 years of experience as a professional developer and graduated this year. At this stage of my career, my goal is to become as technically proficient as possible, so that I can have more money and options in the future. My team consists of many developers that have been at this company their entire careers and that don't want to implement things like automated testing, or CI/CD pipelines. I fear this lack of enthusiasm for engineering growth will stunt my technical abilities, as I am the only one suggesting these kinds of upgrades. We support an application with ~500,000 monthly users, but I have never had a discussion about building more "scalable" code. I rarely get any feedback on my PRs and our team doesn't have any clear guidance about great vs bad code. My concern is whether getting better at this job in this role, while helpful to be promoted, may not be pushing me in the most "industry-standard" direction, leaving me behind my peers in technical ability. I worry that without team feedback and focus on "great code", then 3 years from now I am going to vastly under leveled compared to a developer with strong tech leads that have been giving code-reviews that entire span. Would you recommend I focus on interviewing/job hunting to get into a MAANG company, so that I am surrounded by top-tier talent, or on staying put and using the techniques taught here to individually improve my abilities and our codebase? Or, perhaps there is another option you would recommend. I would love to hear your thoughts, thanks!

I am moving teams for the first time in my three-year long career and the team I am moving to is full of very experienced folks(15-20) with the least experienced person with 10 YoE. Some of these folks have also been in the same team for years. I will be new in the team as well as tech stack. How do I create impact, learn from these people, be able to create my own identity and not be shrugged off as a "junior engineer" who is not given important tasks? Any additional tips on how can I leverage this move as a fresh start? Like relationship with manager, team and my attitude towards the work?

I'm a recent college graduate who started my first job a couple of months ago. Recently, Amazon reached out to me for an interview, and I decided to go through the process to explore my options. I'm fortunate to have received an offer from Amazon, but now I find myself in a predicament. Work at my current company (paypal) has been going well so far, there are parts that definitely could be better but overall the project I got has a high scope (working with more cross-functional teams and leaders) and allows me to sometimes present to people at a much higher level than I am at. The offer from Amazon comes with a slightly higher salary. However, compensation isn't the primary factor for me in making this decision. My main goal is to become a better engineer by gaining access to strong mentorship, engaging in challenging projects, and building a strong portfolio early in my career. Eventually, I do see myself leaving my current position for a reputable, faster paced startup or a large company that is known for excellent mentorship and the development of young engineers. While I'm uncertain if Amazon itself meets these specific criteria based on conversations I've had with recent graduates working there, Amazon's strong brand name and its engineering opportunities could potentially lead to more opportunities aligned with my goals. Would love feedback on this decision and let me know if some parts need more info.

Hi all. I am considering starting my own development consulting company in Jordan. People are well educated there but wages are low. You can hire great engineers there for the same that a restaurant worker gets paid in California. I don't have any problem finding and hiring good developers because I know the language and I have family there. I can find developers that are fluent in English but it's harder. I am not sure how to start getting contracts in the U.S. I see that iOS and Android development are popular so I was considering to specialize in iOS development. I only have about 2 YOE in the U.S. at FAANG so I could also run into a problem where I am not experienced enough to lead a team or company. Legal stuff in Jordan is no problem. I have a relative that's a lawyer in Jordan and he explained what I need to do. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

not sure if this is the right place to ask but recently i landed a new grad job at a fast growing startup and i am a bit anxious especially about navigating the first few months into the job where i have to onboard, build relationships, understand complex codebase etc i do have a manager but am not sure how transparent i can be with him compared to with a personal mentor (eg if i don't feel confident about my swe skills i cannot explicitly tell that to my manager) hence i am looking for a mentor that can help guide the first few months. i am only a new grad so would appreciate it if the rates are affordable :) thanks!

I will be interning at Meta during this summer. After watching Alex's amazing video regarding Meta's internship, I learned that interns are expected to perform at the level of an E3 new grad by the end. I want to make sure I am correctly understanding the key signals a junior/new grad software engineer should be demonstrating. From what I understand, I come up with the following: Coding velocity (code output) Coding quality Independence (can unblock oneself without too much reliance on mentor) Debugging Asking great questions Responds well to feedback Builds great relationships with team members Disambiguation I'm sure there is more to be included, so please feel free to add anything I may have missed. I hope this list could be helpful to other interns/new grads who are seeking to improve their skills.

Hi everyone, I have to drive this E4 level project. The project is focused on Health and monitoring. I have to create an Eng plan focused on how we’ll add loggings, build dashboard, alerts, and add tests. I have a TL to guide me. I’m totally new to this and I need help and wisdom on how to go about this. I want this to be a successful project. Or if you can provide any resources that will be helpful too. Thank you for your prompt response.

I'm an earlier-in-career software engineer, and I work in an extremely busy startup on a small team (<10 engineers). I do a lot of things, including: Manual QA - I test every build and find a lot of crazy bugs. Release/deployment - I make sure the apps go out well and am looking into CI/CD. Development - I work wherever I can to fill in the gaps and am happy to pick up any ticket. However, at the end of the day, tickets need to get done and I've had some trouble with that. How can I get better at this? Do I just need to "put in the reps" when it comes to coding?

Hey guys, I'm really interested in this company and think I am a good fit. I have a friend who is at the tail end of the interview loop and may get an offer. If he gets an offer, he'll be able to refer me in. Should I wait for the outcome of his interview or should I just apply anyway (without a referral?) I'm pretty junior (1-2 YOE) so the market has been tough for me, especially without referrals. Not sure if taking a chance at applying without a referral will reduce my chances.

I am currently an entry level engineer at a big tech company and started 3 months ago. I am looking to move to a company with more fast paced work and a better engineering culture after a year. Right now, the market seems tough for junior level engineers. What advice would you give towards landing new opportunities in this position?

I was going to ask what is the best way to approach recruiters from each company and what type of questions would you ask? Also what type of conversations would you try to have with the recruiter as well? Overall I was really looking to know how to get the most value out of a career fair as I can.

After being laid off 8 months ago, I’m in a new role! 6-month contract that started earlier this November. The first two months revolve around holidays, so stuff might be slow, but things will pick up after. I want to do everything I can during the first trimester of my contract to earn fulltime with the company. This is a junior position. My manager is a kind person who says nice things about my ability to communicate, learn, and write documentation. I reviewed the complete onboarding guide on Taro. Since I was a tad bit tired from my job search entering the company, didn’t have much direction with my first task provided in my first week, and my manager was the only person giving me communication, my initiative in my first week and a half of onboarding was lax. But now, I have sense of urgency to do more! I was learning company cultural norms, meeting people, etc. There was lots of stuff different from my previous employer. I also noticed there wasn’t a clear onboarding strategy. I was just given code to read through, and went over it with my manager. I’d ping my manager in the morning and in the afternoon with status updates summarizing what I’ve learned and used the formula from the guide to ask great questions. Due to my initial confusion, I decided to make an onboarding guide myself for future engineers! Eventually, I was given a senior engineer to shadow, who I also reach out to during the morning and afternoon just like my manager. I’m also building relationships with my teammates, slowly but surely finding out what teammates are in the give knowledge buckets vs the get knowledge buckets. I’m always vigilant to add impact. Just today, I noticed that anyone had edit access to some really important documents other than read, so I reached out to the person in charge of the documents saying “hi, I found anyone can accidentally edit these. To prevent a future mistake, I found this link that shares an idea of how to stop this.” Every week I make 3 goals for myself to improve on, such as “understand this code base”, “improve skills in SQL”, “make my first meaningful code contribution”, etc., and record my progress on these set goals throughout the week. My manager would have a meeting with my contract team monthly to discuss how things are going. My manager told me I’m still just in the onboarding phase, so I should just follow the formula, and everything will fall into place. Given all this, what else should I do?

Hi Taro community, I currently have 1 YOE as a SWE at a large bank and I am on STEM OPT. I want to be more intentional with my career. In short - I want to know how to get domain expertise. My tech stack is mostly python, SQL, and some Angular. In short, I don't feel like an 'engineer' at all and since it's a bank things don't move that fast and I feel like I will get complacent or obsolete with how fast the tech landscape is evolving with artificial intelligence. My issue is I don't think I am gaining the 'depth' of knowledge that I would hope to acquire. I am just working on stories as they come and the knowledge I am getting is mostly proprietary to the org I belong to. I can't see how transferable the knowledge will be. I am trying to figure out what my next move should be. So far I have tried: Applying to other jobs. The bad thing is that the tech job market is awful and while I don't mind leetcode, it becomes a parasitic activity that leeches on my free time. Switching to another team - roadblock here too. We have a hiring freeze. I've had some luck interviewing with startups but unfortunately a lot of them don't sponsor. I actually think that had my visa situation not been a problem, a startup would be a great way to supercharge in improving my skills. Build projects - I've seen this advice on here before and it seems like the only wiggle room I have until something better comes up. But, as far as projects, past a certain point they are just toys I feel - they lack the complexity, and business context that makes a good engineer. I mean after all, engineering is a team sport. Also, I am not sure how it gives me the 'depth' that I want. Courses/Technical papers? This is another option I am thinking of: maybe start or join a reading group for technical papers and try to re-implement and discuss the concepts discussed? Maybe brushing up on computer science fundamentals/system design will help? I am a little worried because it seems like I will be at this job for a while - which is not a bad thing because I'm very lucky to have one to start with, but at the same time, I don't want to be left behind. Thanks for reading and I look forward to reading your comments!

I just joined a team in AWS and the team has approximately 8 L3s (SDE 1s) out of 12 people some of whom have been Amazon for approximately 3-4 years. I want to make sure I am set up for promotion and that this does not become an obstacle for me. How should I navigate this situation?

I finished my final round interview in early November for Meta SWE New Grad, but was informed recently that "Due to the high volume of applications received, it may take some time for us to get back with next steps". I solved all the technical questions correctly in my interviews but may have interviewed later than others who have already received offers. Fortunately, I have received an offer from another company to start in February. Should I inform Meta about this offer, or would doing so make them rush their decision and potentially influence it negatively due to headcount constraints (e.g., they might reject me because they haven’t secured the headcount yet)?

This may seem like a dumb question, but I'm rather lost here. I've been here for about a year at Amazon, but I don't know how best to review my team's code. Most of the other engineers on my team have been here for 3+ years, so their code is usually quite good in terms of business logic and doing what it needs to do. When I look at the types of feedback I get on my own code, it's a mixed bag - some people leave comments on how we should handle exceptions, other ask about why we use certain libraries instead of others. There's a whole range of comment types that focus on a variety of different things from different people. I sometimes leave a few comments here and there when I see something I know could be better, but I feel like I have no effective process, paradigm or checklist for reviewing at other people's code. What would you recommend I read, watch or learn to do this better so I can help my team? How do you generally look at code? Are there areas or parts of it you focus on? Thanks in advance!

Hi! Will the recording for the chapter 9 of the Taro Book Club: Designing Data Intensive Applications - Chapter 9 (Consistency & Consensus) be available? Thanks!

Hi all, hope you're all doing well! TLDR: Is it possible to get promoted from L3 to L4 by changing FAANG companies? Context: Currently 1.3YOE Exp as FAANG SWE at L3/fresh graduate Level 9 months of prior experience as a graduate SWE at a non-FAANG company Work Environment Extremely high workload+stress: 60-85+ hours per week (everyone on the team works these hours so it's not a question of my inefficiency) Consistent weekend work required to meet deadlines Unrealistic expectations, tight estimations and tighter deadlines. Management unwilling to adjust timelines or provide additional resources - results in employees working on sick leave, solving user issues on PTO etc. No senior engineers in my team working within 40 hr/wk, I say this to paint the picture of the working env for people who are 'well settled' into the job. I'd go on but hope this gives an idea. My Performance Exceeds expectations in all categories. Gained significant experience due to the high project throughput. Taking ownership of multiple features. Go-to person for user issues related to certain features. System design experience for small to mid-sized projects. Questions/Concerns: Is promo from L3 -> L4 in FAANG by moving companies, even possible? What should I say if the recruiter asks me for my current job level? - I don't want to be down-levelled if I disclose my current L3 level. - However, I don't want to be dishonest either. What if a recruiter reaches out to my current company to ask about my level? What parts of my experience can I highlight to show I'm performing at the L4 level? Closing thoughts: By the time I prep for interviews and likely land a job I'll probably have 1.7yrs of FAANG exp (L3) and 9 months of non FAANG exp. Hopefully, this is enough for a L4 promo. Ideally, I don't want to grind my health down for a promo. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Awesome platform by the way, it's really helped in my career development and I can't express how grateful I am for Taro :)

I'm working as a SWE and the current learning curve at my job is good. However, similar to others, I want my resume to be future-proof, as in, I want my resume to stand out if I'm applying to newer opportunities. People often look at resumes and stay too short or too long at the company. Is it always recommended to switch companies in a couple of years? Or could staying in your current company make you hireable for years? Wanted to know what other folks and EMs think about it.

When doing personal coding challenges like maybe creating your data structures and algorithms and or just working on your personal projects. Is it bad to set a condition for yourself like you can't ask for help or no ai tools. Really only relying on Google searching or videos/documentation

I just started a new SWE role at an AI startup and this is my third day at work. This is my first time changing jobs and I’m on my second ticket so far. I followed the tips that Rahul gave in his onboarding course to quickly get to action and try to make impact. The tickets that I have been given so far are mainly small tasks but I’m taking extremely long to just do some basic things like filtering etc because the codebase is massive and I m unfamiliar with it, and I often need to ask my buddy or someone else for some help. Is this ok or am I underperforming? How long should I take to be properly familiar? I am a full stack SWE so some changes do require me to look at both the front and backend. hope to get some advice on what’s considered normal so I know where I am at! I have 2+ YOE.

Hello! I am wondering if big tech firms sponsor masters degrees if they are related to your work (eg computer science) in top schools like Stanford if you are an employee? Is it part of the employee perks and is there a bond to fulfil after that? Asking this because it is otherwise very expensive to do masters at these top schools

I have an upcoming conversation with a Google recruiter for an early career software engineering role. She mentioned that the call isn’t an interview, but rather an informational session about the interview process and timeline. Still, I want to prepare thoughtful questions that could help me when the actual interviews begin. Any advice on what to ask? Also, how can I politely ask to schedule the interview further in advance to give myself more time to prepare, without making a bad impression?