Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 6] - Social Pressure > Work Pressure

Too many software engineers focus on finding something cool to work on instead of finding cool people to work with. This lesson teaches you:

- Why a supportive team is far more valuable and effective when it comes to making you productivity compared to working on something shiny like genAI
- Tactics you can use to apply social pressure to yourself and enforce productivity

Learn how to find a good team here: [\[Taro Top 10\] How To Find A Good Engineering Team And Company](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/FWqTGeZYrXFohCOU38sR/)

Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer [Part 8] - Case Study: Instagram vs. Robinhood

Trying to nail down what good code looks like is equivalent to trying to staple jello to a wall. Almost every software engineer looks up to FAANG and FAANG-adjacent companies, and that's what this lesson will cover in-depth with an example. This lesson will teach you:

- The engineering philosophy behind Instagram's Android codebase, its unique attributes, and its priorities
- The engineering philosophy behind Robinhood's Android codebase, its unique attributes, and its priorities
- Why taking Instagram Android code and pasting it into Robinhood would have been terrible despite it being industry-leading in its own context (and vice-versa)

Have The "Meta Conversation"

A "meta conversation" is a **conversation about conversation**. It's a conversation you should have with coworkers to discuss **how** you should communicate.

- How often do you want to meet?
- How often do you want feedback?
- What is your preference for written vs verbal updates, and the format?

You will be working with your manager and team for 100s of hours over the course of a year, so it's worth spending some time at the beginning of the relationship to understand how you can best work together.

Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 17] - Meetings

Every tech company needs a ton of meetings in order to function. The tricky thing is that a lot of software engineers are introverts, so they have trouble participating in meetings, especially when they're more junior. This lesson teaches you:

- The differences between junior, mid-level, and senior engineers when it comes to meeting presence
- The difference in types of meetings mid-level engineers participate in vs. those of senior engineers
- How meeting ownership shifts as engineers grow from mid-level to senior
- Tips to run an effective meeting which is an efficient use of time

To dive deeper into how to run a good meeting: ["What are some thoughts on maintaining good meeting hygiene?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/CModSkZ4LWzw9bdaiakt/what-are-some-thoughts-on-maintaining-good-meeting-hygiene/)

PIP In Big Tech -- Amazon, Meta, Google

In this section, we cover the path for employees to enter a PIP for three Big Tech companies — Amazon, Meta, and Google.

At **Amazon**, the poor performance rating is called **Needs Improvement (NI)**. Poor performers are put on a Focus, which is a development plan to get back on track. Think of it like a warning. If the focus does not do well, the employee is put on a Pivot, at which point the options are to leave the company or accept a PIP. Learn more here: <https://www.jointaro.com/topic/amazon/performance-review/>

At **Meta**, the poor performance rating is called **Meets Some (MS)** or **Meets All (MA)** Expectations. If the HRBP (Human Resources Business Partner) is part of your review meeting, a PIP is likely. One unique policy of Meta is something called "up or out." This requires engineers to get promoted every few years until hitting Senior Engineer \[E5\]. Learn more at <https://www.jointaro.com/topic/meta/performance-review/>

At **Google**, the poor performance rating is called **Not Enough Impact (NI)** or **Moderate Impact (MI).** A "Support check-in" indicates poor performance and candidate for a PIP. Google is generally more laid-back when it comes to performance compared to other companies. Learn more here: <https://www.jointaro.com/topic/google/performance-review/>

Come Up With 500k+ User Project Ideas [Part 4] - Finding Inspiration

Good side project ideas don't grow on trees, but finding them actually isn't that difficult. This lesson teaches you:

- The mentality you should have with your day-to-day life to organically stumble into great software product ideas
- How frustration in general is actually a blessing in disguise, not just for side projects but for engineering in general
- Tactical ways you can improve on existing products in your life

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome - You Have So Much More Value Than You Realize

One of the biggest factors holding software engineers back is a simple one: They don't believe in themselves. This is very common in the tech industry where being surrounded by talented peers makes it very easy to end up with a case of imposter syndrome. This video explains why every single person in tech is wrong when they believe they can't add value.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **You can't be alive for 20+ years and not have something to share** - 2 decades is a long time. A lot of people don't believe they can share value when they're early in career, which completely discards all their years prior to their career. It's not like you only started generating value in the world after you embarked on your tech career journey. It is mathematically impossible to have been on planet Earth for so long and not have something cool you can share with others.
- **Believe in yourself** - You are limited by what you think of yourself: If you don't believe that you can offer value, then you won't offer value. The absolute first step to successful networking is recognizing your own potential and feeling empowered to help others.
- **Accessible ways that *anyone* can add value**
  - Interesting experiences
  - Odd talents
  - Learnings from failure
  - Being a friendly face

Related resources:
- ["How can I bridge my confidence gap to put myself out there more and ask for help more aggressively?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/mLKUkNXpLcCxQMfWopqU/how-can-i-bridge-my-confidence-gap-to-put-myself-out-there-more-and-ask-for-help-more-aggressively/)
- ["I've felt imposter syndrome from seeing super talented peers - How do I deal with this?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/MPUkGXFDaBixmxfjOg9i/ive-felt-imposter-syndrome-from-seeing-super-talented-peers-how-do-i-deal-with-this/)

Being New Is A Superpower

Instead of treating your newness as a liability, view it as a superpower.

- Nobody wants to be mean to the new person, so you have the perfect excuse to request resources aggressively.
- You can observe problems with the codebase, processes, or tools that tenured employees have learned to tolerate.
- You can connect the dots between different teams or ideas that would be harder for people entrenched in their roles.

Approach your onboarding with the urgency that "**You will never have fresh eyes again**."

As the most clueless person, if you revamp a resource (wiki, code, etc) to be easy to understand for yourself, you are making it easy for **everyone** to understand.

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 9] - Polish Your Resume

Your resume is the most important professional document in your life. However, a lot of software engineers are severely lacking in this department. This lesson teaches you:

- The perspective of the often underappreciated tech recruiter and why they automatically reject the overwhelming majority of resumes, especially if they work for a top company like Big Tech
- How to write a resume that recruiters won't hate and instantly throw in the trash, leveraging that empathetic mentality from before
- The steep, underestimated cost of basic resume mistakes, which are incredibly common among immigrant engineers where English isn't their first language
- Why you should make just 1 focused resume instead of several, especially if you're earlier-in-career
- How recruiters hyper-efficiently read resumes (spoilers: they often don't read the entire thing)

13 minutes isn't nearly enough to fully understand all the mechanics of a good resume, so you should dive deeper here: [\[Masterclass\] How To Write A Stellar Tech Resume That Gets You More Job Opportunities](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/OnQV2V3J8DYVBBuGbZx6/masterclass-how-to-write-a-stellar-tech-resume-that-gets-you-more-job-opportunities/?playlistId=PJqfgn35DG82NSm3QyfT)

Become An Open Source Master [Part 5] - The Benefits Of Open Source

We'll discuss the reasons why you should get involved in open source and the benefits it can bring, both professionally and personally.

- **Work on code that matters:** Contribute to projects used by others, gaining a sense of achievement and pride.
- **Improve your coding skills:** Receive feedback and learn from experienced developers, improving your coding abilities and knowledge.
- **Build relationships:** Connect with maintainers, contributors, and users, expanding your network and learning opportunities.
- **Enhance your professional portfolio:** Showcase your skills and experience to potential employers through your open source contributions.
- **Grow your personal reputation:** Gain recognition and build valuable connections within the open source community.

Connect with James: 

- GitHub: <https://github.com/jamesgpearce>
- Twitter (X): <https://twitter.com/jamespearce>

Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer [Part 7] - Code Quality Isn't Static

Things would be so easy if we could just copy-paste the tech stack of our favorite FAANG company and call it a day. The bad news is that this is a prime recipe for disaster. This lesson will teach you:

- Why there's no such thing as objectively "good" code and the primary vector stopping that (hint: It's the only resource that matters)
- The right mentality to have when improving your specific codebase in your specific situation
- How to think about your code architecture as it relates to scale

How Managers Hire Great Engineers [Part 1] - How This Course Works

With this lesson, you’ll begin your learning journey of how to effectively manage the recruiting process to build a strong team. [John](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwegan/) shares personal experiences and actionable insights for hiring success. We go through the course objectives, and after this course, you will:

- Understand the importance of prioritizing recruitment and building a robust candidate pipeline
- Learn how to evaluate and troubleshoot the recruiting funnel to ensure a steady flow of qualified candidates
- Discover strategies for sourcing top talent, especially when resources are limited
- Gain techniques for closing candidates who have multiple job offers, including specific tactics and phrases

Connect with John Egan on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwegan/>

Why All Great Engineers Are Great Debuggers

A lot of engineers will run away from bugs to solely focus on feature work instead. This is a huge career mistake as it deprives you of one of the core sources of engineering growth.

This video is a clip from our debugging masterclass. You can watch it here: [[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/)

Related resources:
- ["How can I become more independent and better at unblocking myself with tricky technical issues?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/QhqQQGrDgFjZbqohpKe0/how-can-i-become-more-independent-and-better-at-unblocking-myself-with-tricky-technical-issues/)
- ["What is the effective way to understand new repository in order to make the required changes in that repo?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/KoxB3UU2zWC9pdYU6Rx0/what-is-the-effective-way-to-understand-new-repository-in-order-to-make-the-required-changes-in-that-repo/)
- [[Taro Top 10] Junior Engineer To Mid-Level Engineer (L3 To L4)](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/iBKHYpkjd0BRWWLKQG2j/)

This Is How You Get Feedback - Making The Process Smooth

The best way to improve as a software engineer is to get feedback, especially when you're new to a team or company. However, this is much easier said than done - Simply having the mentality of being open to feedback isn't enough.

Here's the core points from the video:

- **Don't just ask "Do you have any feedback for me?"** - The cognitive load for the person you're seeking feedback from is simply too high: They need to mentally comb through everything you're doing and then think through every aspect of it to find feedback to give you. Instead of doing this, they'll often default to the "lazy" response of "Nope, you're doing great!". Lazy inputs result in lazy outputs, and you definitely shouldn't be lazy when asking for feedback.
- **Reduce feedback requests to yes/no questions** - Regularly retrospect on your own and use that to craft more pointed questions when asking for feedback. Let's say you're not happy with how clean your code is, evidenced by a lot of pushback when you submit it for review. Using this, you can ask something like, *"I feel like I could do a better job polishing my code; my PRs get a lot of thrash. Do you think I can improve here?"* If they say "Yes", you can then ask for tactics you can apply to get better here.
- **Core areas for onboarding feedback**
  - Overall velocity and output
  - Code quality
  - How good your questions are

Related resources:

- [Suppress Your Instincts And Treat All Feedback As A Gift](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/dpTu1KBbXJdnHdrQLxsG/suppress-your-instincts-and-treat-all-feedback-as-a-gift/)
- [How To Get Real Feedback So You Can Actually Improve](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/srTbalkn0HMwEH7HoOpY/how-to-get-real-feedback-so-you-can-actually-improve/)
- ["How can I find more opportunities to grow when I'm getting very little real feedback?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/7nrslKZuiFdYeutpeX5k/how-can-i-find-more-opportunities-to-grow-when-im-getting-very-little-real-feedback/)

Signs Of A Healthy Manager 1 on 1 Meeting

- **Golden standard**: Weekly 30-45 minute meeting
  - Bi-weekly can be okay, but weekly is ideal. Anything less frequent than bi-weekly is a red flag.
  - This should be recurring and scheduled, not ad-hoc.
- The meeting should feel proactive instead of reactive.
  - Reactive 1 on 1s happen when the meeting has no agenda beforehand.
  - The discussion should be focused and talking about future themes for you and your career like growth and career goals.
- The meeting isn't purely tactical: This is a time for you and your manager to build trust and get to know one another.
- The time should feel "awkward". Some "awkward" areas include:
  - Honest feedback
  - Emotions 

Related resources:
- [1 on 1s Are The Time To Be Awkward](https://link.jointaro.com/kuS9keFuUwRJk9rSA)
- ["How do I help my manager (who is also my mentor) be a better manager and mentor?"](https://link.jointaro.com/72SzjBb9HW1S46Dx8)
- ["How do I create a growth plan with my manager/mentor and what should it include?"](https://link.jointaro.com/fude3eS1nJwcMSp9A)

The Most Dangerous Thing People Don't Realize About FAANG

So many engineers focus on just the interview when it comes to breaking into Big Tech. However, cracking the FAANG interview isn't the main thing you should worry about: *Surviving at Big Tech is what's truly hard.*

Here are the core point from the video:
- **Big Tech expectations are very high** - In exchange for world-class pay, you are expected to have world-class productivity. For most engineers coming from non-Big Tech backgrounds, they're going to have to put out more work that's also higher quality compared to what they've normally done.
- **It can be hard to adjust** - This is especially relevant if you spent a very long time (10+ years) working at companies that weren't as cutting edge as Big Tech prior to going there. It is very difficult to do things in a completely different way to what you're very used to.
- **Performance review is stressful** - Since these companies are so big and have so much process, performance reviews are incredibly thorough and take a long time. It often takes months to write and collect all the feedback necessary to compute the final rating. Couple this with fear of PIP and stack ranking and you have an environment that really puts engineers on edge.

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Navigate Your Performance Review In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/b0B8uqIAUnBLE10jJHJG/masterclass-how-to-navigate-your-performance-review-in-tech/)
- ["What's the difference between a low performer software engineer and a high performer?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/nMxx2EMVIlJbl1oK4SGu/whats-the-difference-between-a-low-performer-software-engineer-and-a-high-performer/)

Building Software For Optimal Learning Example - Login Flow

A lot of junior engineers wonder why they have working software projects on their resume but aren't able to get a job. 99% of the time, it's because the projects they have built aren't anywhere near production quality.

This video covers an in-depth, concrete example of how you can level up a feature to be truly impressive in a portfolio:
- Bad login flow (bare minimum only):
  - Email input
  - Password input
  - Submit button which probably stores inputs on the server
- Good login flow (additional components on top of the above)
  - Ability to view the password in plaintext
  - Confirm password
  - Validate email
  - Password strength protections
  - "Forgot your password?" flow
  - Password hashing
  - Login attempt throttling

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Learn Quickly In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/u9ldIvrTvV1wfWExccDR/masterclass-how-to-learn-quickly-in-tech/) - The full video this clip was taken from
- [How The Best Software Engineers Learn - The Lego Model](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/9cVK5zsAQstbTCc1wrWx/how-the-best-software-engineers-learn-the-lego-model/)

What To Do If Your Manager Doesn’t Care About Your Work

This clip explores a common frustration where employees feel ignored by their managers, even when providing regular updates. The root cause is usually a misalignment in perceived project importance.

- **Perceived neglect often stems from misaligned priorities**: If your manager appears disengaged, it's likely because your project isn't among the top priorities they are focused on.
- **Managers typically operate with a clear project hierarchy**: In teams with many contributors, managers mentally stack-rank initiatives. Only a few projects (typically the top 1–2) receive the lion’s share of attention and resources.
- **Impact matters more than effort**: You may be doing good work, but if it’s not on a high-impact initiative, it won’t attract your manager’s attention or advocacy.
- **You have two options**:
  1. **Switch to a higher-priority project** that better aligns with team goals.

  2. **Build a compelling case** for why your current project should be elevated in importance—explain its impact, urgency, and strategic value.
- **Visualizing impact can help**: The graph referenced (a power law curve) illustrates that a small number of projects generate most of the value. Aim to work on—or reframe your work as—one of those high-leverage efforts.

Maximizing a Severance Package 4/9 - Never Accept on the Spot

During a termination, don't sign anything on the spot. **Buy time.** Buy time to do your research, to prepare, and to come back and negotiate.

- Connect with [**Ethan on LinkedIn**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp/)
- Taro members get a discount to join [**Ethan's Level Up community**](https://levelupwithethanevans.substack.com/taro25)

20 Years Of Fighting Procrastination [Part 4] - The Most Important Productivity Tip Nobody Follows

Productivity isn't just about doing things faster - That’s only half the story. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Productivity isn't just about efficiency, it's about working efficiently on *important* tasks that actually move the needle
- Prioritization requires painful trade-offs—you must let go of low-impact activities even if they're easy, fun, or popular
- Define your personal values and consciously deprioritize areas that don’t align with them, like staying updated on politics or reading a book a week
- A simple yet powerful framework for teams is evaluating tasks based on impact and time required, then prioritizing high-impact, low-time work first

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.