Having The Proper Mentality To Minimize Your Chances Of Getting Laid Off

It's way too easy to start panicking and living in an anxiety-ridden world in this current layoff-rich tech economy. However, this is a very counterproductive mentality to have as a software engineer - This video covers the mindset shift you should make to actually set yourself for success against layoffs.

Here are the core points:
- **Stop freaking out** - It is not healthy to be constantly checking the news for layoffs and having it always take up prime real estate within your mind. *This will ironically make you more likely to get laid off as your performance will suffer.*
- **Your behavior shouldn't change** - The optimal things to do to insulate yourself against layoffs are things you should always be doing anyways. [Building relationships](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/tyaPFMXPoz2pmzB7OVzt/masterclass-how-to-build-deep-relationships-quickly-in-tech/), [optimizing your performance review](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/b0B8uqIAUnBLE10jJHJG/masterclass-how-to-navigate-your-performance-review-in-tech/), and [working on a high-impact team](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/9OwPRwFFSMvEoVj6Zt5Q/how-to-figure-out-if-a-team-is-important-to-a-company/) are all necessary for fast career growth in general.
- **Focus on what you can control** - It sucks, but if you're already working a job that you like, it's simply not possible for you to directly control your destiny when it comes to layoffs. Just do your best as you normally should be and hope for the best. Continue treating those around you with kindness, shipping great projects, and improving your skills.

Related resources:
- ["Staying motivated among lay-offs?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/EEMkoCSNPzdRToTHjuSb/staying-motivated-among-lay-offs/)
- ["How to survive potential layoffs?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/ydZFpJz0x8wKUIfd8E1r/how-to-survive-potential-layoffs/)

System Design Series: Taro Playlists [Part 3] - Defining The Requirements

You can [find the full system design doc here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/15WaM8Ojan82g0m2mtz6kC2Hiyj0Q6VbjfqRmVNDI3qw/edit?usp=sharing) - Feel free to use it as a template for when you're designing systems at your job!

The concrete details are covered in the doc linked above, so this summary will focus on the "meta" context behind this part and additional commentary:

- It's very important for engineers to clearly understand the requirements of the product as they need to build them.
  - A common failure mode is that the proposed requirements aren't technically feasible. It's important for engineers to call this out as early as possible, which is why it's a valuable exercise for them to really lay out in the requirements in their system design doc and overall process.
  - Very senior product managers may give broad strokes in terms of what the product should do. Another reason why this exercise helps engineers is that it's actually up to them to convert the high-level points from their PM into very concrete features and requirements.
- "Jobs to be done" is a mental framework championed by Kevin Systrom, the co-founder and initial CEO of Instagram. The idea is that every product is "employed" by users to do a certain "job" in their life. This is a very important thing to understand about a product and clarifying this serves as an intermediary step towards creating concrete requirements.
- Something that's missing from this document are designs - This is because Taro has no dedicated design support at this stage. At a more mature company (which you almost certainly work at as the viewer), you would have designs at this stage in the document (it can be its own section). For front-end products, you need to put pixels on screen at the end of the day, so it's crucial for engineers to have designs to really understand the requirements and provide concrete feedback.

Taro at YC's Demo Day (Summer 2022)

Demo Day is an event where Y Combinator-funded companies present to a room full of specially selected investors and press. This is our presentation about Taro. 

Since the presentations are only 1 minute long, the goal is not to cover everything (that'd be impossible), but instead to say enough such that investors want to learn more.

We launched Taro Premium earlier in the summer, so a lot of our pitch focused on the traction we found in a short time.

Thank you all for being on this rocket ship with us. If you want to support what we do even more, [consider joining Taro Premium](https://app.jointaro.com/membership). Right now, we're pretty early so, so we can be very hands-on with each new member!

If you're thinking of doing your own startup someday, here's some resources to help with that:
- ["How did you decide to quit your job and make a startup?"](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/beZzIkLUP28WinNQctlP/how-did-you-decide-to-quit-your-job-and-make-a-startup-9132022/) - In this video, Rahul's cofounder Alex walks through his decision-making process behind starting Taro
- ["Career advancement or building a startup? Which one is harder?" ](https://www.jointaro.com/question/EquWmWjZhqiiujyltreJ/career-advancement-or-building-a-startup-which-one-is-harder/)

360 Feedback: The BEST Performance Review System Top Companies Use

- The goal of 360 feedback is to generate as holistic and fair a picture of employee performance as possible.
- It does this by getting feedback from all directions:
  - Within (yourself)
  - Above (your manager)
  - Below (your reports if you are a manager)
  - Laterally (your teammates)
- This system prevents employee performance from reducing down to sucking up to the manager, which is the case in more traditional companies that aren't using this system.
- 360 feedback also makes the power dynamic between manager and report more equal. A manager will have a bad feedback packet if their reports all share bad feedback about them. This holds bad managers accountable.

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/)

David Pan's Career Journey - Becoming An Engineering Manager

Manager 1 on 1s Are A Litmus Test For Seniority

True or false: In tech, operating at senior levels means that you are driving more, if not most, of the conversation in your manager 1 on 1s.

Why do senior employees tend to drive more of the conversation in manager 1 on 1 meetings?

One-on-one meetings evolve as career levels advance. A key sign of professional growth is taking ownership of these conversations and using them to drive impact.

- **Initiative reflects seniority**: If recent one-on-ones are led primarily by a manager with direction and feedback, it's likely an early-career dynamic. As experience grows, the expectation shifts toward independently setting priorities.
- **Ownership of agenda is critical**: A senior-level contributor brings a clear agenda to one-on-ones, proactively using the time to align on strategy, surface blockers, or present ideas—not just receive instructions.
- **Setting direction is the goal**: Defining one’s own work and outlining what to focus on next are hallmarks of operating at a senior level. The more someone guides the conversation, the more they demonstrate leadership and self-management.

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 1] - Rahul's Story

The best way to grow is to make mistakes, and [Rahul Pandey](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpandey1234/) is proud to say that he's made a lot of them (and learned a ton along the way). That's why this course exists - Rahul is here to teach you everything he's learned throughout his \~15 years of struggle, so you don't make the same mistakes he did.

In this lesson, Rahul covers:

- His prestigious background
- Why patience is key to actually learning and growing as a software engineer
- The core components behind a successful engineering career

How To NOT Learn A Codebase

The biggest mistake engineers make when going into a new codebase is to excessively read through the code and documentation. This is a horrible way to learn. 

The problem is exacerbated because the supporting documentation of the code is usually out-of-date: the docs can't keep up in a fast-moving tech company.

Instead, just dig in and start coding!

- Break things
- Add all the print statements ever
- Get the debugger working
- Run the code and see what happens

The key takeaway is that you should **get your hands on the keyboard** (even if it's uncomfortable).

The Common Misconception With Help

When you're new, there's an overwhelming amount of information to absorb. You should plan to ask many, many questions, which means it's important to have the right framing of that interaction.

Obligatory Confucious quote:

> The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life

Myth #1:

- **Myth**: Asking for help is a sign of weakness ❌
- **Reality**: You’re expected to ask questions to gain knowledge and foster interaction ✅

Myth #2: 

- **Myth**: Everyone knows so much more than me, I’ll waste their time ❌
- **Reality**: Each person’s knowledge is incomplete ✅

Instead of thinking that building expertise in something is difficult or impossible, realize that **you can become more knowledgeable than anyone** as long as you narrow the scope appropriately. (e.g. "In one afternoon, I can go understand more about the flags to configure **git log** compared to anyone on my team of 10 people.")

Becoming A Staff Engineer In Big Tech (Panel Discussion)

The journey to Staff Engineer is unique for everybody. Let’s talk about all the ways we got there! Senior Engineer is a terminal level at most tech companies.

Staff Engineer is the next level up. This is referred to as Staff at Meta/Google, or Principal Engineer at Amazon/Microsoft. ([Rahul's promotion story](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/qvp2quodqAEWSkN7sayt/case-study-building-a-meta-internal-tool-to-empower-an-entire-org-staff-promotion-story/).)

Partial list of questions discussed:

- How do you know which problems are worth solving?
- How do you communicate to your manager that you want Staff promo? And what do you look for in a manager?
- What type of teams do you think best support growth into the Staff level?

Panelists:

- [**Zach Wilson** - Airbnb](https://www.linkedin.com/in/eczachly/)
- [**Rahul Pandey - Meta**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpandey1234/)
- [**Carly Taylor - Activision**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/carly-taylor-data/)
- [**Lee McKeeman - Google**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lmckeeman/)
- [**Ryan Peterman - Meta**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/)

See discussions about Staff Engineers on Taro: <https://www.jointaro.com/topic/staff-engineer/>

Watch the full [Senior to Staff course on Taro](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/NE3J4vWP7BoWlNgbRtCw/becoming-a-staff-engineer-in-big-tech-panel-discussion/).

How To Decide To Leave A Company: Generalist to Specialist shift

Philip spent many years at Microsoft, followed by many years at Facebook (Meta). What led him to finally decide to leave each company? 

More to explore: 
- Our masterclass on [How To Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/tyaPFMXPoz2pmzB7OVzt/how-to-build-deep-relationships-quickly-in-tech-12172022/)
- Connect with [Philip Su](https://www.linkedin.com/in/suphilip/)
- [Why Slack Sucks for Team Communication](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/yurIkW9cyU9lkG3FjYnU/what-gets-communicated-gets-done-why-slack-sucks/)

What The Optimal Discussion On Code Review Looks Like

In this video, we explore the **spectrum of code review discussions**, highlighting what kinds of conversations are appropriate—and which are not—for an effective and healthy code review process. We emphasize that great code reviews live in the middle: technical, constructive, and context-rich.

### Key Takeaways:

- **We avoid extremes on the code review spectrum**: Debates about architecture or product behavior should happen *before* the code is written. On the other end, trivial nitpicks like formatting should be automated with linters—not left to human reviewers.
- **We aim for meaningful middle-ground discussions**: The best code reviews focus on topics like naming clarity, input assumptions, and logic validation—things that improve understanding and code quality without being overly granular.
- **We talk about testing and future-proofing**: We use code review to validate testing strategies and anticipate how upcoming features or changes might interact with the current code—enabling forward-thinking design.
- **We reduce unnecessary friction with agreed standards**: By aligning on style conventions and automating formatting checks, we free up our code reviews to focus on higher-order thinking and shared learning.
- **We use code review to transfer experience and context**: A reviewer’s knowledge of future plans or broader system behavior adds lasting value. These discussions aren’t just about code—they’re how we build team wisdom.

Come Up With 500k+ User Project Ideas [Part 1] - How This Course Works

Are the projects on your resume not helping you at all when it comes to impressing hiring managers and getting job opportunities? Let's fix that. 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. Most importantly, he goes through how he's built 30+ side project apps with 3 of them getting 500k+ users, getting him interviews at top companies like OpenAI, Google, Uber, Instacart, and more
- The exact definition of what a side project is and how it shouldn't be a startup
- You'll understand the many benefits of side projects and why they're almost always underrated by engineers. Side projects can do a whole lot more than getting you interviews and helping you pass them
- We walk you through the course objectives. By the end of the course, you will understand:
  - 💎 Understand what makes a side project **valuable**

  - 🫸 Avoid **common traps** that produce terrible ideas

  - ⚙️ Have a **process** to generate *feasible*, quality ideas

  - 💡 Follow a **framework** to judge a project’s quality

  - 💪 Set up the **right mentality** to build projects long-term

If you want to learn more about Alex's rocket ship career trajectory, take our overall job searching course here: [Ace Your Tech Interview And Get A Job As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/ace-your-tech-interview-and-get-a-job-as-a-software-engineer/)

Master The DSA Interview [Part 3] - Struggling? That's Completely Normal

You are smarter than you think. Yes, this is even true if you're struggling with LeetCode easy problems. This lesson teaches you:

- Why engineers often underestimate their ability when it comes to data structures and algorithms
- How the learning progression curve for data structures and algorithms works for 90%+ of engineers
- How to set up your mentality and goals when it comes to studying data structures and algorithms

Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer [Part 17] - Share The Context

Software engineers often have this flaw where they assume that everyone somehow automatically knows what they're doing and the nuances of the spare they're operating within. This often extends to their published pull requests. This lesson will teach you:

- The ingredients behind a high-quality context section on a pull request
- A simple tactic to greatly expedite your pull requests, build respect amongst your team, and get better feedback (hint: It's not just your teammates who can review your code)
- Exactly what a stellar context section looks like with an incredibly detailed, broken down example. This is a trademark sign of high-performing mid-level and senior software engineers

[Case Study] How I Get 500,000+ LinkedIn Post Views Per Week

[Alex Chiou](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-chiou/) is one of the cofounders behind Taro, and he owes a lot of his success building up Taro to his LinkedIn profile. As of September 2023, he:

- Has 66,000+ followers
- Gets 500k - 1M post views per week
- Spends just 10-15 minutes writing each post

Alex covers a lot of ground in this presentation, so here are just the Top 5 core points:

- **LinkedIn is extremely underrated** - When it comes to return on investment for your time, LinkedIn is easily one of the most effective content creation platforms if not *the* most effective. Unlike TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube which are media-based and require lots more effort, you can regularly go viral on LinkedIn with relatively short snippets of text.
- **Consistency is key** - LinkedIn is pretty generous at allowing you to post many times a week without your posts cannibalizing each other. Try to post at least 3-4 times a week with the upper bound being 2 times a day. If you post too frequently, you are leaving views on the table. Also, you are naturally going to have some posts that do terribly and some that do well: By taking more shots on goal, you are evening out your returns. *Variance can be conquered with volume.*
- **Keep it short, don't be too smart** - This is *by far* the most common mistake Alex has seen aspiring LinkedIn creators make. Engineers tend to be very smart people who love to cover all the nuance, which leads to overly long posts that are neither concise nor dense. This type of content does horribly on social media. Alex's style is to have 5-9 sections (each separated by a line break) with each section being just 1-3 lines for a 30-75 second read. Keep it snappy.
- **Write first sentences, not posts** - The entire purpose of the 1st sentence is to convince the reader to read the 2nd. LinkedIn by default hides the vast majority of your post's text behind the "See more..." button. Purely focus on writing a compelling first sentence, and the rest of the post should flow from there.
- **Never forget: It's just social media** - LinkedIn, like every social media platform with 100M+ users, is full of dumb stuff. *Don't let that get to you*. Don't be afraid to disengage from the platform and not read notifications and comments. And never ever couple your emotional state to how well your social media posts are doing.

Related resources:

- ["Why should I bother building a brand or becoming famous on LinkedIn?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/s1NVrO0VlvIufReDKCSl/why-should-i-bother-building-a-brand-or-becoming-famous-on-linkedin/)
- ["How to be brave and post publicly on LinkedIn?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/xUJSnOXQOmJyisZCB0Qa/how-to-be-brave-and-post-publicly-on-linkedin/)
- [\[Case Study\] Building An Engineering Brand - Why And How (LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Substack)](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/t06NajpS2kSCk98IEmQm/case-study-building-an-engineering-brand-why-and-how-linkedin-youtube-twitter-substack/)
- [How Rigid Should You Be With Your Coding / Content Schedule?](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/GaOB5qFLoTbGilp7UokF/how-rigid-should-you-be-with-your-coding-content-schedule/)
- [Presentation slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-_it2buJQ764fQAf5MgXtIKRrYJPI_ayUv5WdU5cslw/edit?usp=sharing)

How To Tell If A Layoff Is Coming At Your Company

Layoffs are scary and are often a complete surprise. This video covers some of the warnings signs you can use to predict if a layoff is coming and start preparing for interviews accordingly.

Here are the core points:
- *For public companies, the most obvious sign is a struggling stock price*
- In general, stagnant growth is bad
- Mass hiring freezes are a common precursor to big layoffs
- Trimmed perks and a more somber, frugal mood among leadership are other signs
- You can also listen through the "grapevine" but be careful
  - Blind in particular is quite flaky. Blind correctly predicted the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 layoffs, but *it also incorrectly predicted 18 other layoffs*
  - In general, treat online rumors with a massive grain of salt, and it's probably best to just stay away from them. There's no need to add a bunch of unnecessary stress to your life

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Survive Tech Industry Layoffs](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/axnVXYox5QeOneqcoyuH/masterclass-how-to-survive-tech-industry-layoffs/) - The full video where this clip was taken from
- ["What are the signs of an impending layoff in an organisation that can help an employee prepare themselves better?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/tNOO9FtALQIRrUXSqzV1/what-are-the-signs-of-an-impending-layoff-in-an-organisation-that-can-help-an-employee-prepare-themselves-better/)
- ["How to handle stress at work especially after a company layoff?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/mOjMnHL2Zhke2rSrtVdD/how-to-handle-stress-at-work-especially-after-a-company-layoff/)

Why Chasing Promotion Could Hurt You

Daniel has never gunned for a promotion when choosing teams or projects. In fact, he's actively turned down promotions he was offered at Microsoft and Meta (Philip Su famously down-leveled himself at Meta so he was no longer a Director). 

Here's why chasing a promotion could end up causing more stress and end up hurting your career in the long run. 

- Connect with Daniel Tomko on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieltomko/)
- Videos from [Philip Su](https://www.jointaro.com/tagname/Philip%20Su/)

Related video: 
- [Taro Premium Session: Mentoring Meta Engineers From E3 -> E5](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/EX9563YnxcJb62cCmetg/session-5-mentoring-junior-swes-e3-to-senior-e5-in-just-25-years-at-meta/)
- [Rockstar Software Engineer Story: SW2 -> Principal In Just 4 Years](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/Lvf1TDKt1R4ZJSCr9BVv/rockstar-software-engineer-story-sw2-greater-principal-in-just-4-years/)
- ["Is there something as growing too quickly?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/o9oyCcIjWT4Xa6w1Eau5/is-there-something-as-growing-too-quickly/)

[Case Study] Effective Communication: Leading A Multi-Org Re-architecture At Meta

Here are [the presentation slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/184dP9pi41lO5TlME4cn4fRblCPtKFdet7d5WmrpnbGc/edit?usp=sharing) and the [polished chat log](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/tech-career-growth.appspot.com/o/tps_chats%2Ftaro_premium_session_4_chat_notes.txt?alt=media&token=ca1a199d-fe36-42bc-8d2e-fc91371e691f) from the session.

As an IC, you don't have authority over engineers in the way a manager might. So your impact is defined by your ability to have **influence without authority**. Influence comes from consensus + collaboration, which comes down to communication. Said another way: Communication is the foundation for trust. 

Rahul talked about 3 parts to effective communication in this presentation: 
- **Start with the audience**
  - Understand how much context your audience has, and connect the dots for them.
  - Your communication should be as short as possible.
  - Bad news should never be a surprise.
- **Choose the right medium**
  - Do some reflection on what your objective is: build relationships or efficiently communicating some info? Be clear the difference between verbal and written communication.
  - Evaluate the current processes for communication in your org: standups, team meetings, email updates, cross-org communication. 
- **Be consistent**
  - You should have a regular drumbeat of posts for your projects. If you feel like nothing happened, you should explain why nothing happened.
  - For long-running processes like brainstorms or architecture reviews, you should consistently message the timeline and milestones.

Related resources:
- ["How can I come up with big initiatives, especially those at a Staff level?"](https://link.jointaro.com/sm57uikgXJ3RRpTv8)
- [Writing is thinking](https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/writing-is-thinking-an-annotated-twitter-thread-2a75fe07fade) - by Steven Sinofsky (Former President @ Microsoft)
- [Be plainspoken](https://boz.com/articles/be-plainspoken) - by Andrew Bosworth (VP of Eng @ Meta)

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.