Ask Questions Well

What makes a high-quality question?

- You get the help you need
- You build trust with the person/group that you're asking the question to

Question asking is a deep skill that requires you to add sufficient context (but not too much) so people can easily help you.

- Prefer to ask in public forums
- Realize that your question may help others beyond you
- Your questions are a valuable signal to the team 

When you are asking a question, please don't just say hello and wait for them to respond: <https://nohello.net/en/>

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 4] - The #1 Trait For Interview Success

Software engineers overwhelmingly blame the wrong thing when it comes to why they aren't landing job offers, particularly their own lack of skill. This lesson teaches you:

- What the actual #1 trait among successful job searchers is
- How to build up your personal grit
- Why most software engineers have the wrong perspective post-interview and are unable to fully learn from their failures
- The success metric you should be weighing yourself against as you progress through the job search, viewing everything as more of a spectrum instead of a binary state

To go deeper into developing your grit and boosting your productivity, watch this video: [2 Ways To 100x Your Productivity That Nobody Does](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/RXEca9zfyZG0pl015att/2-ways-to-100x-your-productivity-that-nobody-does/?playlistId=JNCZ1vbRF3NwsOQCqblt)

Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer [Part 6] - Embrace The Pain

A defining characteristic of mediocre software engineers is that they run away from problems in their code and avoid confronting hard problems in general. This lesson will teach you:

- Why (and how) you should embrace the pain if you truly want to write better code as a software engineer
- The process to follow to go from writing bad code to good code
- What it means to actually learn system design
- How to level up your technical understanding with an in-depth example from Alex's past about how he truly mastered a deep Android concept and applied that mastery to learn iOS development almost instantly

Every Senior+ Engineer Must Decide: IC vs Management Track

There is one good motivation to become an engineering people manager: to help people. If that's not the priority, you should not become an EM (and you should avoid working with those types of managers).

Daniel toggled between individual contributor (IC) and manager several times in his career. His most fruitful experience was as a very senior IC engineer at Meta -- he had the influence + context of a manager, but none of the headache associated with the job. 

Connect with Daniel on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieltomko/)

Related content: 
- [Questions You Can Ask To Evaluate An Engineering Manager](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/VOQc7vIzQ4STtw7UrB29/questions-you-can-ask-to-evaluate-an-engineering-manager/)
- [How Do Effective Engineering Leaders Help Their Teams Achieve More?](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/xGJDCG7VL4hcZaq5XL92/how-do-effective-engineering-leaders-help-their-teams-achieve-more/)

This Is Why Most Engineering Managers Are Terrible

Let's not mince words: Most engineering managers suck. But why is that? This video covers:

- Why the incentives don't align between engineering managers and engineers
- What the best tech companies like FAANG do to make their engineering managers not suck (i.e. make them align the incentives between management and ICs)
- How the absolute best engineering managers balance the responsibilities of leadership with the needs of their team in a healthy way

To learn more about the software engineering -&gt; engineering manager transition, check out our playlist: [\[Taro Top 10\] Software Engineer To Engineering Manager (IC -&gt; M Track)](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/oz0mnJvHHgM8NfVF7rgp/)

Why You Should Always Negotiate Your Offers

- Negotiation is particularly life-changing, especially if you're early-in-career. It's also really high ROI as the cost is effectively just a couple emails and some potential awkwardness.
- Negotiation doesn't hurt anyone within or outside the company - It's effectively a part of life when it comes to the hiring game.
- What you negotiate for isn't connected to your costs: It's about getting what's fair given the market rate and your current leverage situation (i.e. do you have other offers).
  - Even if an offer is good given your personal situation, you should try negotiating, especially if it's below fair market rate for that level/company/geography and you have competing offers.
  - You can always do something with extra money!

If you need premier negotiation support, check out our 3+ hour negotiation course: [The Insider's Guide To Negotiating Your Tech Salary And Compensation](https://www.jointaro.com/course/the-insiders-guide-to-negotiating-your-tech-salary-and-compensation/)

Amazing Pull Request Example - Showing The Context

In this video segment, we highlight a real-world example of a **high-quality code review** that demonstrates how providing strong context can dramatically improve the review process. This example reinforces the idea that well-documented pull requests reduce friction and foster better collaboration.

### Key Takeaways:

- **We showcase an exemplary pull request**: Submitted by a community member to the Tech Career Growth app, this PR included everything a reviewer needs—clear references, detailed explanations, and strong rationale.
- **We value clear linkage to issue tracking**: By referencing the related GitHub issue, the diff immediately communicates *why* it exists and what it’s solving—eliminating ambiguity.
- **We appreciate front-loaded context**: The PR offered an in-depth explanation of the author’s approach and alternatives considered, allowing us to understand the logic behind each code decision before even reading the code.
- **We reduce review overhead with context**: This kind of thoughtful diff saves time, prevents unnecessary back-and-forth, and lets reviewers dive straight into meaningful feedback.
- **We encourage others to learn from good examples**: We’re sharing this PR and slide deck so our community can use it as a model for writing better pull requests and improving team productivity.

**Here's why this pull request is great:**

- Has the relevant context behind why this PR exists and what it does
- Goes through the considered approaches to the problem and why the current one was chosen
- Links relevant resources that helped write the code

You can find the pull request that is shared in the video here: <https://github.com/Gear61/tcg-android-archive-and-feedback/pull/19>

Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer [Part 3] - The Key To Understanding Promotion

We're told our entire lives that the key to success is to work hard. While this is admittedly true for most professions, it's very much not the case when it comes to software where you need to work *smart* in order to get anything done, especially for promotion. This lesson teaches you:

- The key insight behind understanding what promotion truly means, especially at top companies
- Why you can't get promoted by just working longer hours and writing more code, especially at very senior levels
- A framework to understand what separates incredibly senior (L6+) engineers from the more junior ones
- What it means to think multiplicatively instead of individually, including an in-depth example

Excited about developing better product intuition after watching this lesson? Check this out: ["How to develop product sense as an engineer?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/w84sxyM805YOCokfvuQ8/how-to-develop-product-sense-as-an-engineer/)

Why Onboarding Matters

This video discusses the importance of onboarding and how it can significantly impact your reputation and career growth. 

If you imagine a "**Trust Meter**" where 0 means you have no trust and 100 means absolute trust, your default score as the new engineer will be around 50. Existing employees will think you are smart and have good intentions, but you need to work hard to increase the score and unlock larger-scoped projects. This hard work begins in onboarding.

The other reason the initial months in the company are important is because the tech industry is changing increasingly rapidly. When the average tenure at a company is &lt; 2 years, you need to figure out how to fully ramp up in a fraction of that time. Even within the same company, you will likely switch teams multiple times. Re-orgs are so common!

By approaching onboarding with a proactive plan and a sense of urgency, you can set yourself up for success and build strong relationships quickly.

How To Negotiate A Raise At Your Current Job

Sometimes the goal isn’t to leave a job, but simply to be paid more for the work being done. Negotiating a raise internally is possible, but the dynamics are more complex due to limited leverage.

- **Internal raises are harder without leverage**: Simply asking for a raise based on merit often fails because the company knows most employees won’t go through the pain of interviewing and switching jobs.
- **Competing offers create leverage**: The most effective strategy is to secure a higher offer elsewhere and use it to negotiate a raise. This shows initiative and forces the employer to evaluate retention costs.
- **Company policy plays a role**: Some companies, like Facebook, may have policies against matching outside offers. Others, like Google, are more flexible and may respond aggressively to retain top talent, especially when the competing offer comes from a company perceived as a talent threat.
- **Raises typically come in equity**: When a raise is granted in response to a competing offer, the increase often comes in the form of additional stock (RSUs), rather than base salary.
- **This approach is a calculated risk**: Bringing a competing offer can trigger a raise, but it can also signal that an employee is willing to leave, which may affect internal perception. It should be done carefully and with genuine intent.

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 22] - Go Deeper: Follow Through

Download Alex's resume here: [Alexander Chiou Resume.docx](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NnAx2jYkRTMCQwbdDPPqSj1Fwxkahda-/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109380646850979301783&rtpof=true&sd=true)

Related courses:

- [**Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer**](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)

Master The Behavioral Interview [Part 2] - You're (Probably) Sleeping On Behavioral

Grinding LeetCode endlessly makes no sense and will not get you a great software engineer job, especially in a bad market. So why does it makes no sense? Because data structures and algorithms (DSA) rounds are far from the most important. This lesson teaches you: 

- The reason why companies weigh behavioral interviews so heavily (usually more than candidates realize)
- Why behavioral interviews are actually the most important interview type
- How engineers waste the precious time they have in behavioral interviews

Who Gets Cut In A Mass Tech Company Layoff?

After a layoff, some will be cut and the rest will survive. This begs the question: Who gets cut? There is a lot of misinformation about how these decisions are made, so this video goes over how this extremely painful process actually works.

Here are the core points:
- **Layoffs vary heavily based on company** - There is no standard when it comes to layoffs, and different companies value different things. *There is no such silver bullet that will protect you 100% from layoffs.*
- Potential layoff factors (remember, there are exceptions to all of these):
  - **Performance** - High-performers will be preserved over low-performers
  - **Org priority** - Higher revenue orgs will be preserved over loss makers
  - **Seniority** - Senior engineers will be preserved over more junior engineers
  - **Tenure** - Engineers with deep domain expertise will be preserved over newbies who are still learning the ropes
- **For most people, layoffs are effectively random** - At the end of the day, layoffs are almost always made by executives with very incomplete information. You can be a consistent high-performing software engineer who is a 10-year company veteran and still get cut. Do your best and keep your expectations realistic.

Related resources:
- ["How to survive potential layoffs?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/ydZFpJz0x8wKUIfd8E1r/how-to-survive-potential-layoffs/)
- ["Are layoffs random or can I do something to prevent getting laid off?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/TIX9Mox7KAPJg6ZUujpg/are-layoffs-random-or-can-i-do-something-to-prevent-getting-laid-off/)

Avoid This Commonly Held Naive Perception Of Managers

Become A Debugging Master [Part 1] - How This Course Works

Most software engineers groan when they get hit with a random bug task while they're in the middle of feature development. However, this is actually the completely wrong reaction reaction to have - It should be the opposite! This course is here to teach you why bugs are a deeply underrated growth opportunity and how you can become amazing at fixing them fast.

Here are the core parts of the lesson:

- Your instructor [**Rahul Pandey**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpandey1234/) walks you through his extensive 10+ year Silicon Valley background with rapid career advancement, ending up as a high-performing Staff Engineer \[E6\] at Meta. Most importantly, he talks about how becoming a debugging master led to him getting to Meta E6 and boosting his total compensation to $800k+!

- We walk you through the course objectives. By the end of the course, you will:

  - 🧠 Learn how to **properly** **prioritize** debugging

  - 📋 Understand the **necessary prep work** before the fix

  - 💡 Develop a **mental framework** to fix any bug

  - ✅ Understand **the difference** between good and bad fixes

  - 🏆 Be able to **get maximum credit** for debugging

Joel Spolsky's wisdom: <https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/>

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 1] - How This Course Works

It doesn't matter if you have mastered 500 LeetCode problems if your resume isn't even good enough to get you the interview to begin with. Writing a stellar resume is one of the absolute highest-leverage things you can do as an engineer yet so many mess it up, making basic mistakes. With this course, you will stop making those mistakes. Here are the core parts of the lesson:

- Your instructor [Alex Chiou](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-chiou/) walks you through his extensive 10+ year Silicon Valley background with rapid career advancement, ending up as a high-performing tech lead making $750k at Robinhood. More importantly, he goes through how he reviewed (and rejected) 1,000+ resumes as he was extensively involved in the hiring loop of all of his prior companies.
- You'll understand why writing a stellar resume is actually quite easy, but the internet makes it hard due to misinformation
- We walk you through the course objectives. By the end of the course, you will understand:
  - 💡 Truly understand the **principles** behind a stellar resume
  - 🗑️ Avoid the common **traps** that make resumes suck
  - 💯 Get **maximum credit** by best framing your experience
  - 📊 Make the right resume based on your **level**
  - 🤔 Know what to do if your resume **isn’t enough**

Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer [Part 27] - Continue The Learning Journey

Watching one course is not going to automatically make you master of code quality (or anything really). To really learn these concepts and burn them into your mind, you need to continue the learning journey. What's next:

- If you have mastered code quality, then here's a great skill for you to move on to: [\[Masterclass\] How To Become A Debugging Master And Fix Issues Faster](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/ioR6WzamAIUTpySLAr7o/masterclass-how-to-become-a-debugging-master-and-fix-issues-faster/)
- Apply your coding skills to open source! [Become An Open Source Master](https://www.jointaro.com/course/become-an-open-source-master/)

[Case Study] How Engineers Unlock Huge Impact With Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This was a joint presentation from engineers who have been using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to become significantly more productive. The result is fewer repetitive tasks, fewer bugs, and more impact. The AI transformation is not some future technology that we are anticipating -- **it's happening now**. ChatGPT is the fastest application ever to reach 100M monthly active users.

We can broadly categorize AI tools into 2 buckets (generative vs analysis). Think about what is most helpful for your job and dig into other tools in that domain.

We focus primarily on productivity benefits from conversational agents like ChatGPT, Bard, and Anthropic. **The first response is usually generic and unhelpful, but simple tricks can make the output significantly more valuable**. Sample prompts: *"How can I send a text message in a Rails app with Twilio?"* and *"How can I show a div in the screen after 15 seconds of inactivity on a webpage?"*

Top 5 prompt engineering tips for Software Engineers: 
1. Ask ChatGPT to list its steps, work, or sources
2. Split your prompt into clear sections
3. Use “unique”, “unconventional”, and “creative” to get better responses
4. Make ChatGPT roleplay
5. Give ChatGPT examples of correct inputs and outputs

Some sample prompts from Jordan's [summary doc](https://www.notion.so/jordancutler/GPT-prompts-90179f5fc49440c6bffaeb94e5cfcb4c?pvs=4): 
- **[Feedback]** "Tell me 5 reasons this feature won’t work as intended"
- **[Engineering]** "Given the following code, write a comprehensive test suite in X testing library"
- **[Learning]** "Explain { topic } as if I am a principal software engineer with 10+ years of experience. Go into deep technical detail and explain how it works under the hood"
- **[Meetings]** "I’m a junior software engineer at a Series A tech company. Can you come up with 10 topics for me to talk with my manager about in our 1-1?"

Here are the top paid tools that the speakers use: 
- [Github Copilot](https://github.com/features/copilot) - $10/month
- [ChatGPT Plus](https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-plus) - $20/month
- [Notion AI](https://www.notion.so/product/ai) - $10/month

Speakers:
- [Donn Felker](https://twitter.com/donnfelker)
- [Jordan Cutler](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordancutler1/)
- [Mike Alnakhaleh](https://www.linkedin.com/in/malik-mike-a-32b63818b/)

Related resources on Taro:
- ["How to AI proof your career?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/3xg5SvXnyTQ0mhNLfbK1/how-to-ai-proof-your-career/)
- ["Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in side projects?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/20UiCYH3QwkWkvGTrFsY/using-artificial-intelligence-ai-in-side-projects/)
- ["ChatGPT plugins to your IDE - How to prepare?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/ZqQiiaPjpzYQ8XKPOQZK/chatgpt-plugins-to-your-ide-how-to-prepare/)
- [The slides for this presentation](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1lfMP8qlSix6IDNAUbyraamLgtIHwkxbbQgbpgcBqr2c/edit?usp=sharing)

[Masterclass] How To Survive Tech Industry Layoffs

Layoffs: They will always be a part of the tech industry. 2022 was the first year of massive tech layoffs in the post-covid economy, and 2023 is sure to bear several more. Not even FAANG is safe with Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon all having layoffs in 2022.

There were a ton of important points from this masterclass, so here's our Top 5 (in no particular order):
- **Layoffs are effectively random for almost everyone** - Individual contributors (ICs) and more front-line managers are generally not privy to what happens behind the scenes with cut decisions. You can be a well-connected high-performer in a healthy revenue-generating org and still be laid off. It's crucial to recognize this reality and be at peace with it.
- **Stop freaking out** - Ironically, the worst way to deal with layoffs is to worry constantly and drastically alter your behavior to optimize for them. It's not healthy to go to places like Blind regularly to stay "up-to-date" with layoffs. The best way to deal with layoffs is to continue living your life as normal and double down on responsible software engineer behaviors. For more context on what those behaviors our, read this discussion: ["What are software engineering fundamentals?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/3VNPK7wol76s89EkgFeW/what-are-software-engineering-fundamentals/)
- **Be deliberate with your performance review** - So many software engineers, junior ones in particular, assume that if they do good work and don't see any red flags, they'll get a good performance rating. This is very much not the case, especially at high-performance tech companies like FAANG. Maintain a transparent dialog about your performance with your manager and create a concrete growth plan. Here's our masterclass to help with that: [[Masterclass] How To Navigate Your Performance Review In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/b0B8uqIAUnBLE10jJHJG/masterclass-how-to-navigate-your-performance-review-in-tech/)
- **Build a stellar, wide professional network** - It is more important than ever to build meaningful, high-quality relationships in the workplace. Tech is an inherently collaborative space: You need a multitude of connections to help you grow, vouch for you in performance review, and provide warm referrals for your next opportunity if you are laid off. If you want to deepen your network, watch this: [[Masterclass] How To Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/tyaPFMXPoz2pmzB7OVzt/masterclass-how-to-build-deep-relationships-quickly-in-tech/)
- **Getting laid off isn't the end of the world** - There's nothing wrong with you if you're cut during a layoff. Don't dwell on how you messed up or what you could have better to avoid the layoff: Focus on your next step. The silver lining is that getting laid off opens the door to your next opportunity and likely comes with some time in the form of a severance package to allow you to seriously think about your future. To optimize your next move, check out: [[Masterclass] How To Choose A Good Company And Team As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/0WEmTNZOMIh8xAdfO3JH/masterclass-how-to-choose-a-good-company-and-team-as-a-software-engineer/)

Related resources:
- ["How to survive potential layoffs?"](https://link.jointaro.com/zGwioWXPLe8xhuA89)
- ["What are the signs of an impending layoff in an organisation that can help an employee prepare themselves better?"](https://link.jointaro.com/tkUnst8KKBdktPQq5)
- ["Staying motivated among lay-offs?"](https://link.jointaro.com/g9462CQrqy1KGtqR8)
- [Presentation Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Uyf04xDGTweN0ija_Z3nr9NZ_WsoDikh_54LR5AfZjU/)

Why Is Performance Review Important And How Does It Work?

- In the age of tech layoffs in particular, it is crucial to do well in performance review consistently. A lot of companies stack rank as well, where every performance review cycle, 5-15% of the lowest performing engineers are cut.
- 4 core steps of performance review:
  - Understand the yardstick (ratings)
  - Understand the process (how your rating is generated)
  - Prepare for success (come up with a plan)
  - Execute (go through the cycle and hit the calibration process at the end)

Tech Career Growth Videos

Our instructional videos provide software engineers with insights needed for career growth. Masterclasses go incredibly in-depth on a specific tech topic while case studies are real examples from established engineering leaders.