[Timeless Career Advice] Intro & Agenda

Over the last decade, I grew from an Individual Contributor Software Engineer to a Senior Director running multiple engineering teams at a Fortune 1 Company.\
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My teams and I built Tech for a business unit with over $35 Billion in annual revenue.\
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Before this, I was an early employee at a Startup, and I built eCommerce, personalization, and growth marketing tech that helped us go from 0 revenue to over a billion in sales in 1 year. Then that startup ([Jet.com](http://Jet.com)) got acquired for $3.3 Billion.

**This is the 1:1 with your Engineering Manager you should've had**.

Connect with Louie:

- SmallBets community: [**https://smallbets.com/?utm_source=taro**](https://smallbets.com/?utm_source=taro)
- Newsletter: [**https://newsletter.memesmotivations.com/**](https://newsletter.memesmotivations.com/)

Working With Your Manager

Your manager is the most important person for your career progression. If they don't support you, you will not get promoted. This means you should allocate sufficient time and attention to this relationship when you first join.

Rahul's suggestion for the bare minimum interaction during the first few months at the company:

- Weekly (or biweekly) recurring 1:1 meeting
- 30+ minutes

Two tips to ensure you get sufficient value out of the manager relationship:

- Let them know you’re eager for feedback
- Add structure to the interaction by writing things down and following a template for each meeting

If your manager frequently cancels 1:1s with you, use the running 1:1 doc with an agenda as a defense mechanism. People will think twice about canceling something if they know it's important to you.

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.

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 3] - Writing Good Code

With the rise of helpful online resources like StackOverflow and especially genAI tools like ChatGPT, learning to write code is now easier to ever. Where engineers earn their stripes (and the right to be paid $100k+ per year) is with their *code quality*. This lesson teaches you:

- The only true way to learn how to write good code
- Why copy-pasting what FAANG engineers do isn't a shortcut to writing good code
- How to objectively measure the quality of your code

To dive deeper into code quality, take our course here: [Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 5] - Focus On The System

Many software engineers simply tell themselves *"I'll do better next time"* when they have an unproductive period - This almost never works. This lesson teaches you:

- Why relying on sheer willpower to be productive is a terrible idea and what you should do instead
- What it means to have a true system around your productivity
- The objectives of a productivity system

You Should Be Vulnerable With Your Manager

You are feeling burnt out at work. Should you share this with your manager?

You feel like you are slower than your other teammates and are afraid that you look bad amongst the team. Should you share this with your manager?

Your dog just died, and you are having a really tough time concentrating at work because of this. Should you share this with your manager?

Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Your manager is responsible for your performance at work. Therefore, it's in their best interest to help you resolve anything that is negatively affecting your work performance, even if it's something non-tactical.
- If you are having a deeper issue (e.g. you have imposter syndrome), this is something you should talk with your manager about. You shouldn't expect them to act as a full psychologist, but they should at least be receptive of your problem and lend an understanding ear.
- Venting and complaining are very natural and can act as a therapeutic exercise. Don't be afraid to do this with your manager once you have a good enough relationship.
- This gets easier over time. Once you start being honest and more transparent in your manager meetings, the trust between you two increases, making it smoother to continue being open in the future.

Related resources:

- [\[Masterclass\] What Software Engineers Should Look For In Their Engineering Manager](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/oeY7ncZhzJ5NO6dij5e7/masterclass-what-software-engineers-should-look-for-in-their-engineering-manager/)
- [\[Course\] Networking Guide: Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/course/networking-guide-build-deep-relationships-quickly-in-tech/)

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 14] - Show, Don't Tell

In order to write a great resume, you need to frame your experience as best as possible, getting maximum juice from the fruit. This lesson teaches you:

- The bar you need to clear in order to show that you have meaningful mastery of a technical area
- How to get metrics to describe the impact of your actions
- What showing looks like vs. telling, broken down through an in-depth example
- The difference between strong verbs and weak verbs
- How the recruiter and hiring manager perception of you drastically shifts depending on whether you used a strong verb or a weak verb

The Biggest Benefit Of Working At Big Tech - Learning Proper Engineering Skills

We all know how powerful Big Tech is when it comes to its top-of-market compensation and resume power. However, there is a much bigger long-term benefit these prestigious companies have when it comes to software engineers.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **Big Tech is stellar at teaching proper engineering** - You simply can't reach 100 million+ users without being great at software engineering. These companies have the experience and history to show software engineers how things should be done.
- **You will be pushed to be better** - Big Tech invests billions in hiring the absolute best tech talent in the world. In order to ship quality products at scale, these engineers push each other constantly to do the right thing. When you work at Big Tech, you become a part of this process and peer pressure.
- Here are just some of the ways this learning manifests:
  - Thorough release process with staged rollout and deep analytics
  - Code review where you get tons of comments on how to improve
  - Great internal tooling showing you what parts of the engineering experience can be made seamless

Related resources:
- ["How do I get better at building Large scale systems without working directly on such projects?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/k9MR0UBCtVXvyZrOdPLw/how-do-i-get-better-at-building-large-scale-systems-without-working-directly-on-such-projects/)
- ["How to Learn/Practice Clean Code, particularly by oneself?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/6DcTkiS9UJhDkQz1HIAL/how-to-learnpractice-clean-code-particularly-by-oneself/)
- ["What are the best resources to learn system design in a structured way?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/SeCsb4IRTijs2hg4XHxo/what-are-the-best-resources-to-learn-system-design-in-a-structured-way/)

Top System Design Interview Mistakes [Part 16] - Outro

Congratulations on making it to the end of the course! If you have any thoughts, we would love to hear them over at [Formation.dev](https://formation.dev/partners/taro):

- Connect with me (Sophie) on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophienovati/>
- Follow [Formation.dev](https://formation.dev/partners/taro) on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/company/formation-dev/>

As a reminder, if you need extra help with your system design interview, Formation can provide you hands-on, personalized support. Join us here: <https://formation.dev/partners/taro>

Now that you've mastered the system design interview, check out our behavioral interview course next: [\[Course\] Master The Behavioral Interview As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/master-the-behavioral-interview-as-a-software-engineer/)

The Crucial First Step To Building Relationships That Everyone Misses

Many people in tech are bad at professional networking, and the reason is simple: They're being too selfish. If you want to build a professional network that is truly useful to you, you must strive to put yourself in the other person's shoes.

Here's the core points from the video:
- **Understand their incentives** - Everyone in the professional world is looking out for something: Nobody works purely for the sake of working. When you're working within a company environment, *this is usually what they're rewarded for in their performance review*. When you're asking for something, it's easy to get caught up in what *you're* looking for and how this other person can help *you*. The key to effective interpersonal communication is to flip that mentality and use your empathy to figure out *how you can help them instead*.
- **Alex's Instagram Misalignment Story**
  - Back in 2018, Instagram cofounders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger parted ways with Instagram and Facebook overall. This left a power vacuum with no clear "wing" of the company to drive the overall direction.
  - During this time, Alex was working on Instagram Ads. After the cofounders left, his team tried to ship a project to make the main action button on ads much bigger. Their A/B test showed that the new variant earned far more revenue.
  - The new CEO of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, shot the idea down, citing that it was too tacky. He then declared a design lockdown across all of Instagram stating that all new Instagram features needed to meet Instagram's user design standards.
  - This changed the incentives between designers and engineers at Instagram. Designers were now more focused on upholding the aesthetic integrity of Instagram and less so on shipping projects. On the other hand, engineers were still laser-focused on shipping.
  - *The engineers who best succeeded during this transitory period were those who worked together with the designers and championed their goals.* These engineers were willing to incorporate design polish and didn't immediately dismiss it as a threat to their timelines.

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/tyaPFMXPoz2pmzB7OVzt/how-to-build-deep-relationships-quickly-in-tech-12172022/) - The full video where this clip was taken from
- [9-Part Effective Communication Master Series](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/hVdLQQzfslaYarLSCmmy/)
- ["How do I ask XFN partner for help to make progress in the project?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/OCUrjUM8axEIOJkSKhZp/how-do-i-ask-xfn-partner-for-help-to-make-progress-in-the-project/)

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 11] - Not Every Meeting Needs You

Meetings are everywhere at tech companies, especially massive ones like FAANG. The unfortunate reality is that so many of these meetings are wasteful, especially for more junior engineers. This lesson teaches you:

- The huge mistake many n00b engineers make with meetings
- The most powerful tactic you can use to take control of your calendar
- How to figure out which meetings you can skip
- Tactics to safely delete meetings from your calendar

Top System Design Interview Mistakes [Part 12] - Don't Ignore New Information

In this segment, we discuss the issue of ignoring new information during system design interviews. This happens when candidates fail to adapt their designs based on additional requirements or edge cases presented by the interviewer. Here’s the core points from the video:

- If the interviewer introduces new requirements or issues, like handling scenarios with no available drivers, we must adapt our design accordingly. Ignoring these hints can lead to incomplete or impractical solutions

- Sometimes, a simpler solution might be more effective. For example, informing customers that no drivers are available and suggesting they try again later might be a better approach than complex tracking systems

- When given new information, reassess and incorporate it into the design. This flexibility is crucial for creating effective and practical solutions

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>

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)

[Case Study] Building An App With 1,000,000+ Users To Get Into Facebook

If you want to hear an in-depth \~30 minute breakdown of Alex's entire journey getting the Facebook offer, watch our video here: [How Alex Got Into Meta With 0 Prior LeetCode Experience](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/ZYiTbN21FsqFxFdpwt5a/how-alex-got-into-meta-with-0-prior-leetcode-experience/)

To learn more about how to build effective side projects, check out these resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Come Up With 100k+ Users App Ideas You Can Build For Free](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/AI4zi759PSGn6RwIFT6f/masterclass-how-to-come-up-with-100k-users-app-ideas-you-can-build-for-free/)
- [[Masterclass] How To Build And Grow Tech Products To 500k+ Users For Free](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/OEuX0KMhcnNSTJ50Voee/masterclass-how-to-build-and-grow-tech-products-to-500k-users-for-free/)
- ["How Long to Crank Out a Decent Side Project?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/QA6lCGdPpwAd3xRrpjZ7/how-long-to-crank-out-a-decent-side-project/)
- [How Alex Made An App That Got 80k+ Users In 1 Month](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/GlSjjLhuUdHt5drq3l5F/how-alex-made-an-app-that-got-80k-users-in-1-month/)
- [Presentation slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MJU_LPnfc_QEu7386eSFvIbopG2VVUE3lTzkA458bYU/edit?usp=sharing)

If you want to dive deeper into the Random Name Picker app:
- [Download it on Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.randomappsinc.studentpicker)
- [GitHub Source Code](https://github.com/Gear61/Random-Name-Picker)

DSA Crash Course [Part 17] - Intersection Walkthrough

In this lesson, Alvin walks through the python implementation for the *intersection* problem.

Code along and test your work in the following editor workspace: <https://structy.net/problems/intersection?language=py>

If you need additional support taking these DSA skills and actually applying them, take [**Alvin's**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/) *complete* data structures and algorithms course on [**Structy**](https://structy.net/?utm_source=taro). You can try out the concepts yourself in their interactive code editor and learn advanced DSA patterns like stack exhaustive recursion.

Use [**this link to get 20% off**](https://structy.net/purchase?promo_code=taro20) the entire Structy DSA learning experience.

Follow Alvin on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/>

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 8] - Touch Grass

Let's be real: Most software engineers are out of shape. While this isn't too bad early on, things quickly get worse. This lesson teaches you:

- How to get into exercising as easily as possible
- The many benefits of regular exercise
- A way to hack your brain to make yourself more likely to exercise

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 3] - It's On You

For later promotions (i.e. senior and beyond) there are many other factors at play besides your personal skill and growth. This isn't the case for junior engineer -&gt; mid-level engineer. This lesson teaches you:

- The fundamental difference between the junior -&gt; mid-level promotion and others when it comes to landing impact
- How to choose teams and projects as a junior engineer aiming to grow fast
- What matters when it comes to the junior -&gt; mid-level promotion

Understand more about project credit for promotion here: <https://www.jointaro.com/course/nail-your-promotion-as-a-software-engineer/its-not-just-about-impact/>

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

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 14] - Referrals

Having a current employee put you into their hiring pipeline via a referral is one of the most powerful ways to level up your job search. However, referrals are often misunderstood by software engineers. This lesson teaches you:

- The 2 different types of referrals and which one is better (spoiler: engineers usually struggle getting the better one)
- The massive difference between *weak referrals* and *strong referrals*
- Why you are more special than you realize and how you can leverage that to get more strong referrals
- How to approach professional networking properly to cultivate huge amounts of strong referrals over time

To help you get strong referrals, check out our networking course: [Networking Guide: Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/course/networking-guide-build-deep-relationships-quickly-in-tech/)

Don't Be Naive When Networking - Understand That You'll Get Burned

One of the main ways to grow your tech career is by building relationships. However, a lot of software engineers struggle immensely with this, dismissing the entire craft as "playing politics". This video explains why that mentality is toxic and how you should set up your mindset instead.

Here are the core points:
- **Every company will have politics** - What separates the good companies from the bad ones is that the good ones have a moderate amount of politics while the bad ones have an overwhelming amount of politics. If you're going to any decently sized company, you will have to do understand how to interact with people and get them to like you. It is near impossible to get to senior levels without being able to do this.
- **Professional networking is just like "real life"** - There isn't a huge difference between building work relationships and making personal friends and dating. The core principles behind establishing relationships and earning trust are the same both inside and outside of work.
- **Not every relationship will work out** - Similar to personal relationships, you will often times invest into people who won't return the favor. *Don't let that turn you off from the idea of networking as a whole.* Growing as a software engineer is a marathon filled with ups and downs. Don't let a few toxic coworkers or poor synergy partnerships tear you down.

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/tyaPFMXPoz2pmzB7OVzt/how-to-build-deep-relationships-quickly-in-tech-12172022/) - The full video where this clip was taken from
- [Effective Communication Guide - Building Relationships](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/488EjOLzU707WhdqMOK4/effective-communication-guide-part-3-building-relationships/)
- ["How do I achieve my goals for this half when XFN is not communicating effectively?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/Z1MwZ4GOA4XxxZd9ff5n/how-do-i-achieve-my-goals-for-this-half-when-xfn-is-not-communicating-effectively/)

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.