Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 4] - Stay The Course

It's incredibly easy to get distracted with random incoming tasks, especially at a fast-paced company like FAANG. This lesson teaches you:

- The importance of staying the course and sticking to your high-impact, ruthlessly prioritized tasks
- How to diplomatically push back and say "No" (saying "Yes" to everything is one of the easiest ways to destroy your productivity as a software engineer)

Master The Behavioral Interview [Part 6] - STAR

Behavioral interviews are ultimately an exercise in story-telling, something that many software engineers unfortunately struggle with. This lesson teaches you:

- The STAR format, how it works, and why it's important
- What to include with S(ituation)
- What to include with T(ask)
- What to include with A(ction)
- What to include with R(esult)
- What a stellar behavioral interview answer following the STAR format looks like

Uplevel Your 1:1s

1:1s are the bedrock for the budding corporate relationships you are entering into:

Three principles for effective 1:1s (see [Rahul's YouTube video on the topic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADWkkJtZna4)):

- Pursue awkward 1:1s
- Go beyond status updates
- Write down takeaways

For important people, you should **never** run out of things to talk about. Here's a starting point for what to discuss: 

- Reflect on what’s going well and not going well for you
- Reflect on what’s going well and not going well for the team (and team priorities)
- Ask for opportunities or resources
- Give feedback or ask for feedback
- Brainstorm
- Career/performance review planning

Failure Mode: Fake Learning

*Fake learning* is when an engineer wants feels good by consuming an endless barrage of:

- Tutorials
- Books
- Blogs

These resources (crutches) are addicting because it's easy to monitor progress (40% done with the book!), but they turn out to be terrible for you to retain anything.

Software engineering is about action, not theory. Your goal is to reduce the amount of time from reading about a concept to putting it into practice in front of the computer. This is usually best done within the company, not on a greenfield project or external book you found. Get your hands on the keyboard, and realize that growth comes from discomfort.

Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer [Part 10] - Sweat The Details, Call Out Edge Cases

Building software that "works" is easy. Building software that truly works in all viable scenarios is hard and what separates the great engineers from the mediocre ones, especially at Big Tech. This lesson will teach you: 

- Why mistakes are extremely punishing in software
- The relationship between the happy flow and edge cases
- Why being detail-oriented is an extremely valuable asset in tech, especially for your code quality
- The mental framework to have as a software engineer to proactively call out edge cases in a systematic way

Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer [Part 12] - Break It Down

Software is scary, especially when you get big projects that require thousands of lines of code to implement. This lesson will teach you:

- The steps to turn any tough technical problem into something that's quite manageable (and even easy)
- Why decomposition is one of the important skills for a software engineer to have at all levels
- A framework to plan out your commits and create a crystal clear roadmap for your code
- How to decompose coding projects in a systematic way, demonstrated through an in-depth example covering a classic software flow: User login

From Layoff To Liftoff As An Immigrant - By Rashmi Kishore (Senior Intuit/Netflix SWE)

In August 2022, Silicon Valley engineer [Rashmi Kishore](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rashmi-kishore-software-engineer/) was hit with something too many of us are unfortunately familiar with: Layoffs. She lost her job at Netflix and was immediately put under time pressure to find new employment as she was on a visa.

Rashmi was able to overcome the odds, and she's now at Intuit. In this session, she talked about:

- Quickly picking up the interview game again to land an offer
- Managing the stress of the layoff atmosphere and immigration issues
- Handling the logistics of being on a visa in the US

For more help navigating layoffs, check out our curated playlist: [\[Taro Top 10\] Navigating Tech Industry Layoffs](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/pE7pP0nXDx4X7mOChzHS/)

Distinguished Engineer (L9) Describes Most Important Skill - Andrew Zhai

Andrew became a Distinguished Engineer at Pinterest through his 9+ year tenure at the company. He was one of 4 Distinguished Engineers in the whole company (1200 engineers).

- **Most important skill**: a deep understanding of people, business, and tech. That understanding is required to build trust from your team and the entire company to lead large-scale initiatives.
- **Advice**: Aggressively pursue impact. Being a Distinguished Engineer means that the company trusts you to tackle some of the hardest and most existential problems. Defining what those problems and getting the right functions involved is critical.

Here's the full playlist asking engineers what the most important skill is for their level: [Asking 7 Levels Of Engineers The Most Important Skill](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/J9Io5lDGaYUpI8vGrUyI/)

Helpful links:

- [Senior Director shares his perspective on role evolution at the executive level](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/Tr3bHl6mIVsmZZ6BAQLc/case-study-how-to-become-a-data-guru-as-an-engineer-w-senior-director-of-ds-mo-shahangian/)
- [How to write better code faster](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/iYpRj8XfyzCSaTYnce3y/masterclass-how-to-write-better-code-faster-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [The story of SWE2 --&gt; Principal Eng in 4 years](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/Lvf1TDKt1R4ZJSCr9BVv/rockstar-software-engineer-story-sw2-greater-principal-in-just-4-years/)
- Taro's top 10 to get promoted from [senior to staff engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/YD8LMCSlE71VUGUbNAWM/)
- [David Pan on what makes a great tech lead](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/uHqZZ15SK19MatEvLSO6/what-makes-a-truly-great-tech-lead-a-vp-of-engineerings-perspective/)
- [Andrew Zhai on Twitter (X)](https://x.com/ZhaiAndrew)

Why It Doesn’t Make Sense To Have a 5 Year Career Plan

Most productivity advice is about getting as much done as possible in the short term: *how do you optimize this week or this particular project*? How does productivity and time management fit into longer term career plans? How much time should be spent around planning your career years from now?

The answer is, **not very much**. Too much will change in 5 years to build your life around that: your experiences and attitudes may change, and the world will certainly change. 

Instead of working backward from the perfect job or career in the long term, it’s better to start with your desired lifestyle. 
- Where do you want to live? 
How much money do you need to make? 
- How busy will you be? 

It’s worth reflecting on what your desired lifestyle is, and check-in periodically to evalute if your goals have changed.

However, this is very different from setting goals. **A good goal is SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound**. If you have a goal which is more than a year away, it’s worth breaking it down into something which can be relevant and time-bound.

When you have established a goal of the proper time duration, you should spend 5-10% of the time in planning how you’ll execute on the project. For example, if you’re planning a project which will likely take 100 hours of work, spend 5-10 hours (a few days of work) in doing the planning behind it. 

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

CRUCIAL Ingredient For Senior Engineer Performance: Assembling A Feedback Team

Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Be deliberate about who you request performance review feedback from: Don't just go through your half or year without a plan here and just request feedback from those you happened to work closely with at the end.
- Work backwards from how you want to be perceived at the end of the performance review cycle. Figure out the picture of your performance you want to paint and come up with the bench of peers who can paint that picture for you. From there, strive to build deep relationships with those peers (for advice on how to do that, here's [our course on Effective Communication](https://www.jointaro.com/course/effective-communication-for-engineers/)).
- Make sure that feedback isn't duplicated: You don't want to waste your peers' time by having them write effectively the same thing about you.

Good Engineering Managers Simply Care

- A good manager understands that if your personal life isn't going well, your work performance will almost certainly be negatively affected.
- This is why good EMs genuinely care about how you're doing as a person.
  - In 1:1s, they will always listen intently.
  - If you're not doing well, they will allocate extra time to help you figure things out and just to be there to support you.

Related resources:
- ["What's the boundary between what's okay to share with your manager vs. what's not? Are some things simply too deep?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/3L4B8iqM7D5GYsYy6xWx/whats-the-boundary-between-whats-okay-to-share-with-your-manager-vs-whats-not-are-some-things-simply-too-deep/)
- [1 on 1s Are The Time To Be Awkward](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/xjeFRpp5YHxG9TTK8wjn/1-on-1s-are-the-time-to-be-awkward/?revalidate=true)

Don't Waste Your 1 on 1s. Build The Relationship

Why should you build the relationship in 1 on 1 meetings?

True or false: Small talk is okay in 1 on 1 meetings to break the ice and learn more about the other person's life outside of work.

Why are deep relationships needed in tech, especially at senior levels?

One-on-one meetings are a foundational tool for building trust and social capital within a company. Especially in medium to large organizations, relationships drive execution—and one-on-ones provide a structured, intentional space to cultivate those relationships.

- **Build social capital early**: Scheduling one-on-ones with key teammates—engineers, designers, PMs, and adjacent team managers—early on helps lay the groundwork for future collaboration. This “trust bank” can be drawn on when challenges inevitably arise.
- **Treat relationships as human endeavors**: There's no formula for connection. These conversations are opportunities to build real understanding, not just to exchange project updates.
- **Welcome small talk, especially at first**: In early one-on-ones, light conversation about emotions, hobbies, and general well-being helps establish rapport. This human connection builds the trust needed for deeper collaboration later.
- **Shift toward deeper conversations over time**: Once a working relationship is more established, focus should evolve toward more meaningful topics—emotions, motivations, and work challenges—while still leaving space for the personal.
- **Listen with genuine care**: The most effective relationships are built on authentic interest. It’s not enough to ask personal questions—true connection comes from caring about and following up on what others share.

By using one-on-ones intentionally and empathetically, it's possible to create strong, lasting connections that enhance both individual performance and team effectiveness.

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 24] - Go Deeper: Follow Through

As mentioned earlier in the course, being a productive is a never-ending battle. You need to keep fighting, growing, and retrospecting to keep yourself in check and maintain your productivity. 

Take the related courses:

- [\[Course\] Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [\[Course\] Effective Communication For Engineers](https://www.jointaro.com/course/effective-communication-for-engineers/)

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

Why Great Engineering Managers Are Like Captain America

There is far more to software engineering than shipping code. A truly effective engineering manager needs to step up with these issues to protect the team.

Here are the core points from the video:

- **A good engineering manager is a shield** - In particular, engineering managers should handle non-technical issues like politics and organizational thrash, abstracting that pain away from their engineers so they have the clarity to execute.
- **Alex's Manager Shielding Story** - When Alex joined his team at Robinhood, the product roadmap wasn't very clear. There definitely wasn't enough well scoped out work for the team to work on. To shield the team from this product direction thrash, he created a high-impact infrastructure project for the team to work on, giving them the scope necessary to not get destroyed in performance review from doing nothing.

If you're interested in how Alex led that Robinhood infrastructure project despite being new to the company, watch his case study about it here: [\[Case Study\] Becoming A Tech Lead Again In Just 1 Month After Joining Robinhood From Meta](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/X8vpfJooDpsX915ouC00/case-study-becoming-a-tech-lead-again-in-just-1-month-after-joining-robinhood-from-meta/)

Related resources:

- [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/)
- ["How possible is it to spot red flags about toxic culture during the interview?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/1JwmhC3Nh9Ku0fkDL1bq/how-possible-is-it-to-spot-red-flags-about-toxic-culture-during-the-interview/)

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

Master The DSA Interview [Part 30] - Go Deeper: Follow Through

Take these courses as well:

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

Top System Design Interview Mistakes [Part 4] - Don't Introduce Tools You Don't Know

In system design interviews, it's important to avoid introducing tools you’re not familiar with, as this can lead to unnecessary challenges. This video highlights the pitfalls and best practices:

- Introducing tools you don’t fully understand can backfire, especially when follow-up questions arise
- Candidates may nervously drop buzzwords or advanced concepts to prove seniority, leading to mistakes
- We gave a demonstration of how panicking during follow-up questions can derail the interview
- Emphasizing the importance of admitting when you don’t know something, allowing the interview to move forward
- Clear communication about your knowledge level helps focus the interview on areas where you can truly showcase your expertise

If you need extra help with your system design interview, [Formation.dev](https://formation.dev/partners/taro) can provide you hands-on, personalized support. Join us here: <https://formation.dev/partners/taro>

Asking Great Questions [Part 3] - The Key Behind Questions That Don't Suck

There are good questions, and there are bad questions. One of the main ways to thrive as a software engineer is quite simple: *Ask **good** questions*. So how do we do that? This lesson teaches you:

- The key concept behind asking a truly good question
- Why empathy is an engineering superpower in general
- The concrete way to identify a bad question
- The concrete way to identify a good question

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 7] - Get Good Sleep

Sleep is one of the first things to go when software engineers are faced with daunting workloads. Unfortunately, this is a tradeoff with disastrous consequences which doesn't even solve the problem. This lesson teaches you:

- Why most software engineers get sleep completely wrong in every possible way
- The correct perspective to have with sleep
- The many benefits of getting 8+ hours of consistent sleep every day
- How sacrificing sleep actually makes you less productive, not more

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.