Mid-level Engineer Career Development Videos, Forum, and Q&A

I was wondering if you need to be part of a specific type of environment in order to make quick jumps in your career? Like to get promoted to senior level in 2 years. I was asking because from my experience, there seems to be an invisible social hierarchy in every work place. Other people in the team may not allow me to make these jumps since this kind of anomaly will break the social hierarchy: There is project specific information, in absence of really god wikis you have to rely on the peers in the team to provide you such information (like how are specific parts in a service working, or how is an obscure internal tool working etc). From what I see, often times they will provide small chunks of information, as much as you need to do your task, but small enough such that they still have the information and you depend on them (probably a measure to prevent others from replacing them). Envy might appear between other senior folks if you progress quicker than them and might start to backstab you (For example, you need some information from them about a piece of code they wrote in order to progress, but they might do the knowledge transfer in such a way that it looks like they told you what you need to know, but in reality you got nothing; or might tell you to go debug to figure out how is something working, and you can spend days debugging modules when it would've been an 1 hour stretch if they simply told you or there was any wiki). Manager might not want to give you extra money and compensate at your true value. If you work too much, or too hard there's going to be problems withe the peers, because you increase the bar and kind of force them to work harder too. I was asking these things, because I was wondering if I got anything wrong about these fast jumps or in general that I have a broken view about work. My first professional experience was an internship at a big tech and when got there the seniors told me that I have the same knowledge as a senior engineer, but best they could do was another internship next year (still in college).

I am trying to start a conversation to get across my technical proficiency so that the manager is likely to recommend me for an interview at the big tech company. The company has an engineering blog that I have read, but not sure what I should ask. This is for a mid-level (ideally senior) backend role. The manager has said that if I send them a list of questions they would be open to a call to discuss said questions. Also the company is Uber ->

I want to figure out how to draw explanations in Google Docs efficiently: I only find these resources if there is a mock interview recording. But is there a standard way to communicate with the interviewer? I struggle a lot in this area - Even though I know the solution, I get stuck

Hi Team, My team currently consists of 2 Pods, for one of which I'm a Pod Leader for and a good friend of mine being a Pod lead for other. I've been helping the other lead consistently in making better design decisions and providing right set of resources to help aid in making right decisions. I also consistently review their documents pre-design reviews, and have contributed to close to 50% of design decisions taken. However, I have lately been feeling this consistent help from my end would end up affecting my promo path (Due to team needing only 1 SE3 at the moment), I do not get any open credits for this except random one off instances where my friend mentions that he discussed xyz with me. My current scenario is that If i stop helping abruptly it might seem odd, and can affect overall team's health, but at same time i feel a bit demotivated with the lack of credit as this takes decent amount of bandwidth (5-6Hrs a week). How can I best navigate this situation where I can help as well as get credited for the help I provide?

Hey folks, I don't know how to contribute to our team's monthly planning. How should I come up with ideas for things that the team should work on and contribute to our team's road-mapping meaningfully?

Well, I've read the choosing the right team blog here on Taro and I've a more extended question to it. The team I'm working with is not focused in communicating in a high quality level or a thought process. Probably the leadership is fearing job security and impostor syndrome such that there is no process or documentation followed. Even the way the normal communication is happening is very weak. Though everyone is well-paid the direction is not clear enough. The other day I was learning GMAT syllabus especially the verbal section and I can see the difference in the lingo and effective communication. Please share your thoughts.

Hi Taro Community, I’m scheduled for a 1:1 meeting with my skip level manager, who was also my initial manager when I first joined the company two months ago. This will be our first one-on-one discussion since the management shift, and I want to ensure it’s as productive as possible. Given the context that he was directly overseeing my work initially, what would be important topics to discuss in this meeting? Here are a few points I’m considering: What else should I consider bringing up during this conversation? If you’ve had similar experiences, how did you navigate your 1:1s to maintain a supportive and constructive relationship with a skip level manager? Thank you for your insights and advice!

I am not confident whenever I try to code a new library or a service. I simply copy-paste, look at other samples in the coding repo, and complete my tasks. How can I be better at coding, without copy-pasting? How can I gain confidence in this?

Hello, I’ve been going for senior level positions even though I was mid level at my previous FAANG company. Before FAANG I was senior level at a startup so I think I can handle senior again. But when a recruiter asks what level I was previously, should I tell them or should I be vague somehow like when they ask for what compensation I’m looking for?

I have been an Android engineer since my first job 7 years ago. I learned React and React Native along the way and made myself into making apps for iOS. I really like working on this environment and would like to gear myself up with native iOS dev skills. I do get to design solutions and review other mobile engineers' design docs and code. I often find myself struggling to review the objective C code and nuances of iOS platform API usage (like animations, background operations, ARkit etc). Where should I start to get better in iOS native app development? I want to become better at Writing objective C/ Swift code using native iOS platform APIs Reading iOS platform documentations Thanks!

Hi all. I suck at following deadline. Every time I signup for some task, I end up either being a mediocre or finish it late passing deadline. I want to come out of this vicious cycle. Please don't suggest things like set timer, break big tasks to small tasks, use calendar all those. It doesn't help me. Please suggest some practical solutions that can be followed. TIA

These are Google levels for discussions/comparison sake and that I came in under-leveled. I can do work in below capacities: L3 - individual contributor and doing my tasks well. L5 - Delegating work to others as well. means developing and maintaining relationships XFN teams which are costly in terms of time/meetings it requires in order to do that. Also doing system designs /architecture/ planning /preparing content for consumption. If I work in the L5 scope ..will the calibration meetings/equivalent give me sufficient credit for that or will I still be viewed as a L3 ( my actual level. If so then my raw code output will be primary metric)? Code output is something I won't be able to do if I focus on delegating work ( scope of L5). So will my L5 work lead to penalties if I am viewed as L3? Lines are bit blurred in terms of R&R as I have to do product management work as well in order to get the project to succeed. I have regular meetings with many L5/L6s in order to drive the ideas and occasional ones with Directors and Senior Directors to get their buy-ins.

Hi all, I just got put on a 30 day PIP after ~6 months of not good performance. I have been working through grief of losing two extended family members during that time, and my work productivity really fell. The company is offering me a separation package before starting the PIP that I am pretty strongly considering taking. In the long term I know the company isn't a good fit for me, and I have definitely lost a lot of trust among leadership. Is there any downside in taking the separation package? Thanks!

At my last job, I was working on machine learning infrastructure and moving towards becoming a machine learning engineer. I switched jobs because I was miserable for other reasons besides the work, but I'm now at my new job working on a completely new domain in distributed systems. I'm not sure if I like this domain compared to what I was working on before. I'm going to give it a year, but if I figure that I don't like it, how difficult would it be to move back to my previous work?

Hello! So, my job's getting outsourced this summer, and I'm deep into figuring out my game plan for interviews. I'm mostly a frontend engineer, working with Angular, SCSS, and ngRX for our app. I've dabbled in backend too, even went full-stack in my team, but my backend skills aren't great. My manager supports me marketing myself as a full stack person, but I'm wondering if going all-in on full stack jobs is worth the effort during the interview prep, especially since I'm not a big fan of backend work. Then I wonder if the downside of applying for frontend jobs is that there are not that many and the barrier for frontend is lower (maybe because of coding bootcamps and it can be self-learned) so competition will be higher. Now, I'm drowning in prep work - data structures, algorithms, frontend know-how, and system design. Recently got hit with a surprise system design coding round in an interview (an internal position I arrogantly thought I had in the bag) I thought was all about frontend and DSA. Did okay, but not stellar, and now I'm feeling unprepared for every interview. I feel crippled to even apply to positions. It's a bit of a mess. So questions: Any tips on tackling system design questions, especially the coding part? Most online resources seem to focus more on design rather than coding specifics. How should I balance DSA, system design, frontend prep? What topics and how much time should I commit to each of them? Also, am I on the right track leaning towards applying for just frontend roles? Appreciate any & all feedback!!

I'm in bootcamp right now, and many teams are telling me that they have all 3 of these things. My bootcamp mentor says that's not really feasible - There are trade-offs. Am I gullible if I believe these teams at face value?

Hi, I had got an E4 offer from Meta sometime back. Although I've been really excited to join, I'd need to decline the offer - specifically because I'm not able to move to London at this point (due to some personal reasons). As I'd need to decline the offer, I want to keep the channel/opportunity open for me to be able to join Meta sometime in the future. Is there anything specific that I can do to gracefully decline while keeping my chances open to join in the future?

Hi folks, I have roughly 2 weeks to prepare, I wanted to know thoughts on what should be my plan to give it my best shot? Main Problem that I am facing right now is implementing a solution correctly.

Hi how can I ask a colleague for positive review on LinkedIn. My colleagues have worked with me and know what I can do they often say positive things about me. Yeah not sure how to ask for LinkedIn recommendation. The thing is it would be really helpful to me. In interviews I don't have 10 years of experience just 2 years. But my colleagues know that I learn faster than usual and what I did in 1 year was really a lot compared to average. But someone working at another company interviewing me they don't know. LinkedIn Recommendations from my colleagues can really help me. But I am worried about asking them for positive review on LinkedIn they might think that I want to leave the current company. Actually sometimes they kind off subtly tell me to leave the company, well some of them. My mentor at work tells me if I want higher salary it's best to look for different job than stay at 1 job. This will get higher salary faster and I shouldn't tell the manager he told me this. I want to ask my mentor for a recommendation for linkedin. Also after I ask my mentor this he/ the team might start treating me differently calculating for me likely/potentially leaving the company more so than staying. Giving me less scope. So how to approach this in a professional way. Hey, can you give me a LinkedIn recommendation? Why? So people that haven't worked with me before also know what I'm worth. Why? you intend to leave this company? Uh....

I joined this June. Our team has two chunks, one is doing project M and the other doing project H. For the first three month, project M was my ramp up project and manager said I did well. In the mid of October, my mentor told manager that I have code quality problem, writing too fast with bugs in diff. Manager talked to me once and pointed out, which I appreciate. Then the last quarter began, I was assigned both project M and project H work, project H is very coding heavy because of the design pattern and for project M, the tl didn't give any input, I would have to basically guess in the doc, according to the previous pattern, we can present the doc, let people comment, at the same time, start to work(it's building a dashboard), but my manager insist that I need to get a signoff from the project M tl, which I previously actively ask for input, no response, after the dashboard was drafted, the tl was not satisfied and told manager, manager told me he will let other people take over this. That's part one. Part two, the tl from project H provided detailed guideline and I raised diff in time, but the person was really busy, I can't get my diff reviewed, for a whole week, I only got one review, even though the work has a target date, but that seems not to be meaningful with the sluggish review process, I also asked other team members involved in project H to take a look at my diff, only one person responded after three days. The feedback from this tl is that he can't approve my diff fast. Then the manager think it's still my code quality issue, which I paid extra attention after last feedback, so I was really confused with what he said. The diff review process is always an issue, it was brought again and again during team meeting, but nothing was done to really solve it The PSC is looming, good part is that I don't need to participate it since I'm TNTE. But I still sense the atmosphere has changed from manager. I thinks the work assigning has some issue as I have never worked on project H before and because of this heavy coding task, I needed extra time for it, hence having no time for project M's dashboard. Should I be worried at this team? I am not eligible to transfer now, what should I expect next year?

I joined company A in October (prior to which I did a contract job at company C for 1 month) but I already had an offer from company B which was delayed and joining was pushed to Dec. Now, I need to inform my manager at company A that I have to leave the company. It breaks my heart because all we have been doing so far is kind of training and stuff and no active work however, I do not like the kind of work I would be doing here as it is more like a Salesforce developer/ tester with the development outsourced and they are building a team to bring development inhouse. So even though the company is quite stable and has good benefits I have decided to leave it for a better paying role that I feel will satiate my career aspirations. Here are a few questions I am seeking answers for: The company has a Winter break starting Dec 22 and my manager goes on leave from 20, when should I break this news to him? (In my last company I informed my employer with a two week notice and I was given the last date to be just a week later. I am a foreign student in USA who has just started working and utilized almost half the number of unemployment days I have for this year to be precise 2 July, 2024) How should I tell him about this decision without burning the bridges. Honestly, I have this feeling that I am kind of cheating my employer so I am finding it difficult to justify it in front of my manager. Thanks in advance!

Hi all, I need an advice on quite a random thing. I recently changed teams at Amazon. Since I shared a close bond with my previous team members, I continue to hang out with them sometimes and my ex-manager is quite aware of it. (He was new, and has worked with the team for less than an year) Is it fine if I continue engaging with old friends, or does it make me look bad from professional aspect?

I started working at TikTok last September. So far I feel like I have learned a lot but am unhappy with the work-life balance and the expectations to work long hours. I don't see a path for promotion here so I would like to move to a company that isn't under so much political pressure and the path to career development is clear. One caveat is that my official title is DevOps but I am doing SRE work. I like SRE work and would like to get that official title. I have 11 months to prepare for my next role. What should my preparation look like? What kind of companies should I aim for? I made a list from blind of the 2023 prestige companies and wanted to shoot for high TC. I am thinking that after the prep phase, I would start interviewing at companies I don't want to work at and get practice and offers so I have some leverage during negotiations. How can I connect with other SREs from top companies that I can ask them how it is to actually work there? At this stage of my life, I need to begin more focus on my social life. I have been working on my career only and I don't have the abundance in my social life to justify the work I have been doing. So I am hoping to land a role at a company with prestige, solid TC, and work-life balance so I can accomplish both my personal goals and my career goals.

Hello everyone, Excited to be a part of the community. I have been out of the work force for a while and have worked on different projects for my own consulting company for a while. I was wondering if I could get my resume critiqued by someone with experience and get some feedback? All the best, Rob