Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 3] - Interviewing: Why It Sucks

A lot of software engineers don't really know what happens on the other side (i.e. the interviewer giving you the questions), especially for top companies like FAANG. This lesson teaches you:

- Why interview processes are much messier than job candidates expect
- Why tech interviews are inherently unpredictable and random
- How incredibly hard it is to create a quality interview process that both only lets in good talent while not being too torturous for the candidates
- Why it's near impossible for this dark reality of terrible interviewers and interview processes to ever change

If you want to dive even deeper into the interviewer's perspective, check this out: [\[Masterclass\] How To Be An Amazing Interviewer In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/OYKgGZ7syfymlvIJKzuf/masterclass-how-to-be-an-amazing-interviewer-in-tech/)

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. Here's how to do that:

- Start discussions in the Taro forum: <https://www.jointaro.com/questions/create/>
- Join Taro events, especially Group Office Hours: <https://www.jointaro.com/events/>

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/)

The Framework Through Which To Evaluate Engineering Productivity

When you reflect on your day or week, two spectrums through which to evaluate how your time was spent: 

1. How much of your time was spent **reactively vs proactively**?
2. How much of your time was spent **consuming vs creating**? 

The most productive engineers (and the most senior engineers) are very proactive, and they also lean heavily on the creating end of the spectrum. That means you should spend less time passively attending meetings, and more time breaking down projects, writing code, and setting direction for your team.

It’s much harder to create content compared to consuming content. But the majority of impact as an individual or business comes from creation. As a result, the world rewards the people who are able to create high quality video/code/writing over a long period of time.

- [Reactive vs proactive as a manager](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/VCSrWjEBu3WCaSWCn2ak/signs-of-a-bad-engineering-manager-reactive-vs-proactive/)
- [A hack to supercharge your learning when you create - the Lego Model](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/9cVK5zsAQstbTCc1wrWx/how-the-best-software-engineers-learn-the-lego-model/)

Connect with Steve: 
- [Taro](https://www.jointaro.com/profile/aZJL3ucq9dQnscO09F4JDRkgPo72/)
- [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@ALifeEngineered)

Software Engineers - Don't Forget These 2 Things When Considering A Team

These 2 more tactical aspects are often forgotten by software engineers when evaluating a team, even though they are huge influencers on your work-life balance and career growth on a team:
- **Oncall** - You want to make sure that the team has a healthy system there where you aren't oncall too often, and the system is stable (so you don't need to wake up in the middle of the night constantly to fight fires). For more information on how to evaluate the health of an oncall rotation, check out the linked discussion below from an Atlassian Software Engineer.
- **Code review speed** - It is easy for slow iteration here to stack up. If your team takes 3 days on average to review your PR and you need 3 revisions to finalize your commit, that means it will take you 2 entire weeks to land code (which is abysmal). A good team will turnaround code reviews in <1 day.

This clip was taken from our [masterclass on finding the best company/team for you - Click here to watch the full thing](https://link.jointaro.com/F4DDyKfuo3hMhj868).

Related resources:
- ["How do I factor in oncall into my team selection?"](https://link.jointaro.com/3LHQz46Ft1c7ZoXo6) - Question from a Junior Software Engineer at Atlassian
- [Code Review MUST Be Fast, Otherwise The Team Is Unhealthy](https://link.jointaro.com/oxK55E1bkX8nMeNGA)

The Core Principles Behind Writing Great Performance Review Feedback

- Don't procrastinate writing performance review feedback, especially for your peers! It's such a intimate, powerful thing, and if you truly enjoy working with your peers, they deserve meaty, thoughtful feedback from you.
- Keep it organized
  - Have clear sections. If your company has performance review axes, these can usually be used as your sections.
  - Use bullet points. People hate reading essays and paragraphs.
- Be concise: Use your word count efficiently and avoid repeating yourself.
- A lot of resume feedback applies to performance review as well. Use strong verbs, show the impact, and "Show, don't tell".

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)

What Big Tech Data Structures And Algorithms Interviews Generally Look Like

FAANG interviews are some of the most well-defined in the industry. However, this style of software engineer interview is often completely failed due to a lack of preparation. Here's what to expect when it comes to data structures and algorithms interviews for Big Tech.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **Phone screens are Leetcode easy and medium** - This will either be 2 easy problems or 1 medium problem. This means that if you haven't progressed to onsite rounds yet, don't spend much time on Leetcode hard problems: That's a premature optimization. Make sure you have your easy and medium problem mastery down, so you can even make it to that final round.
- **Onsites are Leetcode medium and hard** - This will either by 2 medium problems or 1 hard problem. If you receive a problem that's more on the medium side, make sure to budget your time well. There's a good chance the interviewer wants you to solve another problem on top of that.

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview - Data Structures & Algorithms](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/V4sTACzfOh22nMVcUV3w/how-to-ace-your-big-tech-interview-data-structures-and-algorithms-7172021/) - This is the full video this clip is taken from
- [[Masterclass] How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview - System Design](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/J3I9fTW9ulr6T9KjxpqY/how-to-ace-your-big-tech-interview-system-design-1162021/)

Your Tech Resume Should Look Boring

True or false: As long as you have basic proficiency with everything on a job posting, you will get an interview for that job.

How much time does a recruiter spend reading a resume, on average?

True or false: Your resume should be boring and straightforward, especially with its format.

What's the main reason you should avoid the paid flashy resume formats you find online?

True or false: In order to stand out from other applicants, you can use a very unique format to make your resume more memorable to the recruiter, thus increasing your chances.

Create An Onboarding Doc

The **onboarding doc** is a reference guide as you join the company. This document is literally designed for you, outlining your role + team, people to meet, and how you can get started. Generally, your manager will provide an onboarding doc for you, but you should feel free to augment or create your own if the doc is lacking. This is a great place to collaborate and deepen your relationship with your manager -- point out further areas of discussion.

Components of a good onboarding doc:

1. Team charter (translated down from the company mission)

2. Partner teams + people

3. Expectations + milestones 

   1. These should be clearly defined so it'll be clear if you achieved the expectation or not

4. Project ideas with t-shirt sizing

5. Engineering rubric or career matrix for your role, if one exists

Reference question: [What should be part of an onboarding doc?](https://www.jointaro.com/question/FL7XdfLsG9Da6YyfbjZ3/what-should-be-part-of-an-onboarding-doc/)

Did You Just Get Laid Off? This Is How You Should Think About It

Getting laid off is rough and a huge blow to your mental state. This video covers how to have the proper mentality if you are laid off, so you can bounce back.

Here are the core points:
- **Being laid off is not a reflection of who you are** - Who gets cuts in a mass layoff is effectively random, and incredible software engineers will get hit by them all the time. *There is absolutely nothing wrong with you if you get laid off.* Don't let some out-of-touch tech executive's bad decision determine your self-worth.
- **You *will* recover** - This is especially true in the tech industry where severance packages tend to be quite competitive, even generous. Use the time to really process what happened, find peace, and figure out your next move. The silver lining of being laid off is that the door has started opening to your next opportunity: You just need to walk through it.

Related resources:
- ["Aftermath of layoffs?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/7Gav09HFuLlGDlM749UY/aftermath-of-layoffs/)
- ["How open should we be to recruiters about employment status?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/Lo8W7fMRFbcwUQ9WyTVF/how-open-should-we-be-to-recruiters-about-employment-status/)

Effective Communication Guide [Part 6] - Communicating In A Remote World

- What is lost in a remote work environment when it comes to communication?
  - **Volume:** A lot of ad-hoc communication ("water cooler chats") can't happen anymore.
  - **Depth of presence:** When you're on a video call, it's mainly just your face that's visible. In an in-person meeting, especially 1 on 1 meetings, your entire body is visible, which lets you express a lot more via your body language.
- **If you're comfortable, have video on during calls** - Use your facial expressions to really show that you're listening and truly hearing what the other person or people have to say.
- **Book 1 on 1s very aggressively** - 1 on 1 meetings are the core building block behind strong relationships. In an in-person environment, you will build relationships naturally through other means like team lunch, but since those are lost in a remote environment, you need to lean on 1 on 1s far more.
- **Get really good at technical writing** - In a remote world, especially with teams distributed across multiple time zones, a lot more communication has to happen asynchronously.
  - Project updates are very important in particular. It's much harder to stay aligned when everyone is apart.
  - If you aren't already, try to write a project update for your work every 2 weeks or more.

[Masterclass] Understanding And Optimizing Your Pay In Tech

Related resources:
- ["If my main goal is compensation, would it be wise to learn blockchain tech since it will potentially be the tech of the next couple decades?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/tyS6MzzADqBzt10802Mh/if-my-main-goal-is-compensation-would-it-be-wise-to-learn-blockchain-tech-since-it-will-potentially-be-the-tech-of-the-next-couple-decades/)
- ["How do people in Big Tech deal with constantly fluctuating Stock Prices from their company?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/JhEDkJl8AexlsL4IXBOH/how-do-people-in-big-tech-deal-with-constantly-fluctuating-stock-prices-from-their-company/)
- [[Taro Top 10] Pay Negotiation](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/uyWSc5q79zFw2Ei7w59d/)
- [Presentation Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MdJrfT-wBDI6p-3z2_4rNY8IJwlvj1X7n3E5bmYajFU/edit?usp=sharing)

Quick Tips To Get Higher Quality Code Reviews Faster

In this segment, we focus on how to **ramp up effectively and build trust through proactive code review habits**. By learning from past diffs, referencing previous work, and anticipating reviewer questions, we strengthen both our code and our relationships with teammates.

### Key Takeaways:

- **We study past code reviews to ramp up faster**: Reviewing recent diffs helps us identify codebase hotspots and learn how experienced teammates structure context, write test plans, and address feedback.
- **We reference prior diffs to preempt questions**: When making similar changes, we compare our approach to earlier ones (especially from tech leads) and explain why we took a different route—saving reviewers from needing to ask.
- **We proactively comment on our own code**: By flagging areas we’re unsure about and inviting feedback up front (e.g., naming choices or design alternatives), we guide reviewers toward the most relevant parts and show that we care about quality and collaboration.
- **We show respect for reviewer input**: Code review isn’t just about getting approval—it’s about listening. Ignoring thoughtful feedback undermines trust. We strive to acknowledge and incorporate suggestions to create a positive, team-first review culture.
- **We demonstrate maturity through initiative**: These habits—referencing historical context, asking for help, and valuing reviewer input—aren’t just tactical. They signal leadership and self-awareness, accelerating our growth and reputation on the team.

Engineer Your Ideal Tech Career [Part 1] - The 3 Step Framework

Hi, I'm [Sophie Novati](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophienovati/) and welcome to [Formation.dev](http://Formation.dev)'s course on career pathing and pivotal career decisions made in partnership with Taro!

In this video, I introduce a 3-step framework for evaluating your career, making pivotal decisions, and crafting next steps in order to forge your most successful career in software engineering. This includes:

1. Reflecting on day-to-day work that excites and challenges you

2. Mapping that to long-term career goals

3. Plotting out near-term next steps to get you there

Finally, you will hear from other accomplished engineers about how they’ve made these very decisions!

Be sure to follow along at the worksheet linked to leave with an actionable plan.

Looking for mentorship from tech’s top engineers + personalized job hunt assistance and interview prep? [Formation.dev](http://Formation.dev) can provide you unlimited career coaching, technical mentorship, personalized practice, and mock interviews. Join us here: <https://formation.dev/partners/taro>

Worksheet: [Formation - Coding Your Career](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/tech-career-growth.appspot.com/o/courses%2Fslides%2FFormation%20Career%20Direction%20Worksheet.pdf?alt=media&token=f6344b78-529a-411e-a449-7a34a8d55fc8)

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

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 16] - One Diff, One Thesis

One of the biggest and easiest ways to level up your code doesn't even lie in the code itself and is about how you split it up when submitting it for code review instead. This lesson will teach you:

- The most common way low-performing software engineers mess up their code when submitting it for review
- Why championing the concept of "One Diff, One Thesis" massively boosts your productivity alongside your code quality
- How to tell whether your pull request follows the principal of "One Diff, One Thesis" or should be broken up into smaller pull requests instead
- How to split up your technical task or project into chunks, so you can map out its pieces to a series of pull requests following "One Diff, One Thesis". We do this with an in-depth example further digging into the login flow

[Masterclass] How To Stop Writing Messy Code As A Software Engineer

It's 10x easier to write messy code instead of good, clean code. The hard part is that unless you have good role models, it's extremely difficult to learn how to write quality code. If you're a software engineer going through this struggle, this masterclass is for you.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **There's no such thing as objectively "clean" code** - A lot of engineers treat code quality as something to "solve" where after they learn the best tech stack/database/framework, they can just plug that in everywhere and win. That's simply not how software works. The reason why writing truly great code is hard is because it's all about the context and nuance. Code that's good in one codebase can be horrible in another.
- **It's all about the user experience (UX)** - At the end of the day, the end-user doesn't care about your code quality. Most end-users have never read a single line of code in their life. The end-user simply wants a good UX, which means that if you need to write code that's a little messy to uphold good UX, you should do that.
- **Feel the pain of your bad code** - True learning comes from struggle, and if you really want to stop writing messy code, you need to see your own code break and struggle. Go outside of the happy flow and dogfood your own products and features aggressively. Read your old code every once in a while and see how horrible it was - If you groan then, that's a good sign of growth.
- **Break down your tasks** - A marquee trait of bad software engineers is that they jump straight into the coding, write a gigantic messy commit, and get demolished in code review. To prevent that, proactively decompose your tasks into smaller ones where each one is ideally 1-3 commits or a few days of work. This lets you come up with an actual plan for the task and invite your teammates' feedback at an earlier stage in development (i.e. before you write much or any code). For an in-depth guide on software decomposition, check out the discussion here: ["How do I make software less overwhelming?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/YseMPDw538jhyS1MWlTs/how-do-i-make-software-less-overwhelming/)
- **Write clean pull requests (PRs)** - It doesn't matter if the code in your PR is bad as long as it's "dressed" well and optimized for your teammates to leave good feedback (which will make your code good!). Write atomic commits, have a real PR title, attach a thorough context section + test plan, and proactively call out tricky areas. Learn how to do all that with the following video and its related resources: [One Diff, One Thesis - What Every Code Review Should Be Like](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/3NAbmgiaY3IpvayNIoVl/one-diff-one-thesis-what-every-code-review-should-be-like/)

Related resources:
- ["How to Learn/Practice Clean Code, particularly by oneself?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/6DcTkiS9UJhDkQz1HIAL/how-to-learnpractice-clean-code-particularly-by-oneself/)
- ["How to upskill effectively, especially with the software design aspect?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/JALOyWIOCo7UXIMLlUz3/how-to-upskill-effectively-especially-with-the-software-design-aspect/)
- [[Masterclass] How To Write Better Code Faster As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/iYpRj8XfyzCSaTYnce3y/masterclass-how-to-write-better-code-faster-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [[Masterclass] How To Do Amazing Code Review](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/rhRFh49oouaUDhWUvkQb/masterclass-how-to-do-amazing-code-review/)
- [Presentation slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/106NsN9Z9QNvZR_-LMaiVu2rT8Kro_4YwXS44j-rNLXk/edit?usp=sharing)

How One Of FAANG's Biggest Upsides Becomes A Terrible Downside - Peer Pressure

A big reason engineers go to FAANG is to learn from the brilliant talent there. However, this benefit is very much a double-edged sword.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **Big Tech is very competitive** - You will be compared to your peers, many of whom will be better and more productive than you are. Most Big Tech companies make this competition explicit by having stack ranking where the bottom 5-15% of engineers are fired or PIPed every performance cycle. This means that if you're not superior to enough of your peers, your job is in danger.
- There are many side effects to this environment:
  - **Imposter syndrome** - Imposter syndrome is rampant at Big Tech where everyone is so insanely smart and hard-working.
  - **Anxiety and fear** - Being a low performer at Big Tech sucks and is almost always extremely stressful. A lot of engineers here spend a ton of time worrying about being at the bottom.
  - **Poor work-life balance** - You will be pushed by your peers to excel. Many of them will also be overachievers who work late, pushing you to do the same.

Related resources:
- ["How does Stack Ranking work (at FAANG) and how can I be proactive at a base level?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/lScy3l2NPIrWvRuHOjcF/how-does-stack-ranking-work-at-faang-and-how-can-i-be-proactive-at-a-base-level/)
- ["How do you deal with zero-sum situations where one's success comes at the expense of another?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/wDZ2LC0AzujhbOOBs43m/how-do-you-deal-with-zero-sum-situations-where-ones-success-comes-at-the-expense-of-another/)
- ["How do you push back against a PIP when it doesn't feel fully justified?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/4fLz0VmshEouTzQl2Iuc/how-do-you-push-back-against-a-pip-when-it-doesnt-feel-fully-justified/)

How To Find A Tech Company That's Less Likely To Do Layoffs

In a bull market like the one from 2014 - 2021, everyone's a genius. While you could work more or less anywhere before and get a couple solid years of career growth, that's not the case anymore. This video covers how you can choose a company that's less likely to do a mass layoff.

Here are the core points:
- **Prioritize profitable companies** - If the company is publicly traded, this is shared in every earnings reports and is easily Googled (i.e. "Is company X profitable?"). A good business needs more money coming in than going out, and companies with fundamentals like these will always be rewarded.
- **Make sure the company is hiring carefully** - The easiest way for a tech company to take on too many costs is by hiring people it doesn't need. If the interview process is too easy or the company is trying to 10x its headcount every year, that's generally a bad sign.
- **Leverage your network** - We all have people who are much smarter than we are within our network, and this is very prevalent in the tech industry. If the best and brightest in your network (i.e. those who really do their homework before accepting an offer) are going to specific companies, there's a good chance those companies have real legs.

Related resources:
- ["Insensitive to talk about applying to a company which has suffered from layoffs?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/LH6CCgWMUAVEAHKDDUWc/insensitive-to-talk-about-applying-to-a-company-which-has-suffered-from-layoffs/)
- ["Staying motivated among lay-offs?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/EEMkoCSNPzdRToTHjuSb/staying-motivated-among-lay-offs/)

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.