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

Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 4] - Structuring Your Growth

There are a **lot** of new skills you need to develop to go from mid-level engineer to senior engineer, far more than most people realize. So how does one process of all this? This lesson teaches you:

- The 4 Meta engineering axes and what they mean (we'll be using these to organize the teachings from the course).
- How to view the overall learning from this course
- Why the senior promotion is different when it comes to these 4 engineering axes
- The strategy you should follow to structure your growth journey, using this course's material as the basis

Master The Behavioral Interview [Part 17] - Staff Engineer

Staff engineer is a level that most engineers never reach (when using the expectations and compensation that FAANG/FAANG-adjacent companies have of Staff). This lesson teaches you:

- The expectations from a staff engineer overall and how that reflects in behavioral interviews
- The kinds of stories staff engineers tell in behavioral interviews

You can learn about Staff Engineer archetypes in our senior -&gt; staff course here: <https://www.jointaro.com/course/grow-from-senior-to-staff-engineer-l5-to-l6/why-have-archetypes/>

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 38] - Go Deeper, Follow Through

You made it! By completing this course, you have attained the necessary wisdom to avoid the many, many failure modes software engineers so often fall into when searching for a job. This video teaches you:

- Why completing this course is actually just the beginning of your job search success
- The Top 5 overall learnings from this course
- The exact difference between struggling job seekers and successful ones
- How you can follow through with the knowledge gained from this course and actually apply it to your job search

Senior Staff Engineer (L7) Describes Most Important Skill - Kaushik Gopal

[Kaushik](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gopalkaushik/) is a Senior Staff Engineer at Instacart.

- **Most important skill**: identify, deliver, and measure the impact. At the Senior Staff level, it's not enough to execute on a technical vision, you also need to spend time identifying and measuring impact.
- **Advice**: talk to stakeholders across the company to identify problems and areas of impact. This includes non-eng functions like PM, design, customer support.

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:

- [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/)
- [Kaushik on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gopalkaushik/)

Avoid This Performance Review Death Trap - Creating An Expectations Plan

- Work with your manager at the beginning of your performance review cycle to create a plan. Do this no matter what: Even if your goal isn't too ambitious and you just want to get an average rating.
- The plan should outline expectations for you very clearly, ideally as a checklist:
  - What does it mean to hit your baseline expectation and not be in danger of a performance improvement plan (PIP)?
  - What does it mean to knock it out of the park?
- Things will change, especially in high-performance tech companies. This document will change over time, and you and your manager should be 100% aware of this and adapt.

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.

Make Your Promotion Case Easy - Keep A Brag Journal

Engineer Your Ideal Tech Career [Part 2] - How Do You Spend Your Time?

In this video, we explore key areas that software engineers spend their time throughout their day, and we talk through the differences between each.

Depending on which areas you want to optimize to spend your most time, your long-term career path can vary. Try to assign a different rating to each to give yourself a clearer picture!

We cover what it really means to:

- Be making product/business decisions
- Be architecting solutions
- Be hiring
- Be mentoring

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)

Grow From Senior To Staff Engineer [Part 1] - How This Course Works

If you work hard enough and play your cards right, you will eventually become a senior engineer. However, the same isn't true for staff, and this is why most engineers will never make it to the equivalent of a Staff Engineer at a top tech company like FAANG. Here are the core parts of the lesson:

- Your instructor [Rahul Pandey](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 Staff Engineer making +$800k at Meta.
- You'll understand what it means to be a senior engineer vs. a staff engineer in the market, including the interview space.
- We walk you through the course objectives. By the end of the course, you will understand:
  - 💡 Truly understand the **difference** between a senior engineer and a staff engineer (more than a career matrix)

  - 🧠 Create **clear mental models** to develop L6 behavior

  - 📃 Identify your **fundamental gaps** to staff

  - 🗺️ **Chart a path** to Staff Engineer

  - 🧐 Go through Staff Engineer **archetypes** to find your fit

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 1] - How This Course Works

As a software engineer, you need to eventually grow into a tech lead to pursue more senior levels. However, it's much easier being a bad tech lead instead of a good tech lead - This course is here to help you be the latter. Here are the core parts of the lesson:

- Your instructor [Jocelin Ho](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jocelinho/) walks you through her extensive 10+ year tech background as a Meta tech lead and the CTO/Cofounder of Cooby (Sequoia-backed startup), where she built engineering teams from scratch and mentored other tech leads

- You'll understand if this course is a good fit for you

- We walk you through the course objectives. By the end of the course, you will know:

  - 💡 The full definition of an effective tech lead

  - 💻 What technological skills tech leads must possess

  - 🙌 How tech leads demonstrate true leadership

  - ✅ Practical tips to start acting as a tech lead

Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 8] - Fill In The Gaps

Senior engineers solve fundamentally different problems compared to mid-level engineers. This lesson teaches you:

- The expectation for senior engineer mindset and behavior when problems arise in a project they're working on
- The types of problems that mid-level engineers tend to avoid
- The types of problems that senior engineers uniquely solve compared to more junior engineers

Master The Behavioral Interview [Part 25] - Go Deeper: Follow Through

Go through case studies by level to understand the expectations at each one: [\[Taro Top 10\] Understanding Engineering Levels](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/e9rjATPbSyvRPsukXiHn/)

Take these courses as well:

- [\[Course\] Effective Communication For Engineers](https://www.jointaro.com/course/effective-communication-for-engineers/)
- [\[Course\] Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/nail-your-promotion-as-a-software-engineer/)

Master The Behavioral Interview [Part 5] - It’s A Conversation

If you're doing it right, behavioral interviews shouldn't even feel like interviews. This lesson teaches you:

- Why behavioral interviews should feel like a conversation
- How the flow of behavior interviews are fundamentally different from all other interview types
- Why behavioral interviews are actually about far more than just the words you say
- The importance of honesty in interviews, not just in reality but with perception as well

Here is the communication course: [\[Course\] Effective Communication For Engineers](https://www.jointaro.com/course/effective-communication-for-engineers/)

Negotiation Course: Rahul's History And Success With Negotiation

Rahul's compensation went from $110K at the beginning of his career to $830K in his peak earning year, 2021, as a Tech Lead and Manager at Meta (Facebook). That's more than 7x! A lot of his Total Compensation (TC) growth can be attributed to his ability to negotiate. There were 2 main segments of negotiation in Rahul's career: 

- 2013: 5 offers at Facebook, Google, Twitter, Microsoft, and Square
- 2017: 6 offers at Facebook, Google, Snapchat, Stripe, Uber, and Airbnb

This gave Rahul the leverage he needed to see dramatic increases in compensation. Some examples: 

- The Snapchat stock grant went from $600K --&gt; $1.0MM and the signing bonus went from $10K --&gt; $100K
- The Facebook stock grant went from $325K --&gt; $600K and the signing bonus went from $30K --&gt; $45K

The numbers here are due primarily to timing, information, and options, all things you can learn. The results can be life-changing, and you don't need to be a genius programmer to discover your own version of this.

These data points show how negotiation is extremely high leverage. A few hours of extra work can lead to a change of 6 figures or more in compensation.

- Rahul's YouTube video about 5 offers he received as a new grad: <https://youtu.be/rceUVaiXQgU> 
- Rahul's YouTube video about how compensation in tech works: <https://youtu.be/wqdpzu4Oa2I>

Ask For Specific Feedback

Key to learning quickly is getting effective feedback. This is especially important while onboarding, so you are able to course correct rapidly. Instead of asking the lazy question "Do you have any feedback for me?" add structure around the question: 

- **Task-specific** - what’s one thing that would have made this stronger?
- **Behavioral** - what’s something I do well that I should do more of?
- **Meta-level** - what’s the best way for us to share feedback with one another

Once you've been working with someone for a few weeks, schedule a dedicated 1:1 for feedback and let them know you'd love their honest opinion.

Your Onboarding Buddy

An onboarding buddy is someone who can help you adjust to cultural norms and direct your questions as a "catch-all." In addition to answering basic technical questions around workflow or code, the onboarding buddy is effectively lending their social capital to you to get you started. They are the safety net when you don't know who else to turn to. 

Rahul recommends that the onboarding buddy and manager be two different people. Your manager relationship contains a power dynamic in that you're interacting your boss, so you may not be fully vulnerable with them. The onboarding buddy is closer to a peer, which means you can get the help you need.

One of the most important roles for the onboarding buddy is to help you **figure out your support channels.**

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 22] - Behavioral Interviews

Behavioral interviews are omnipresent across software engineer interviews. They are also excellent at filtering out problem candidates. This lesson teaches you:

- When you can see behavioral interviews
- What the purpose of behavioral interviews is
- Why software engineers often underappreciate and underrate behavioral interviews, leading to their failure
- Why behavioral interviews are the *most important interview round in any hiring loop*
- The 3 core principles you should always have in mind when answering a behavioral interview question

To master the behavioral interview, follow the resources here: [\[Taro Top 10\] Behavioral Interviews](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/IPFmEPUhAmizNe9ZUWV5/)

Alex's blog post about behavioral interviews: [Software Engineer Interview Guide - Behavioral Questions](https://www.jointaro.com/blog/software-engineer-interview-guide-part-2-behavioral-questions/)

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 5] - Dynamic State vs. Prepared State

The overwhelming majority of software engineers went to college and grew up in a very academically-inclined environment. Bringing the mentality cultivated from that experience to the job search often unfortunately has bad consequences. This lesson teaches you:

- Why traditional learning methods don't translate well to software engineering
- The difference between *prepared state* (how you grew up learning) and *dynamic state* (how you should actually learn)
- A defining trait of the most successful interviewers, which most candidates don't have
- How to train yourself properly when it comes to your interview preparation and overall learning

How The Top 1% Of Engineers Are Judged

As a former VP of Engineering at Amazon, Ethan has the unique ability to share how the senior-most engineers were evaluated within Big Tech. These are the top few percent of engineers in the company (Staff Engineers, Principal Engineers, Distinguished Engineers, etc), and the expectations are incredibly high.

**Key insights:**

- **At very senior levels, technical excellence is table stakes.** The top-performing engineers use their technical expertise to help the business. 
- **The dynamic with company leadership is important**: these engineers must be proactive in helping the business, and not simply the "guru on the hill" who provides answers when asked.
- **There are different modalities to get to a very senior level**, e.g. CTO model, technical expert, product engineer, and others. It's ok if you don't want daily meetings with company leadership, but you must be working on a valuable enough problem that can merit an engineer of that seniority.
- **Finding a good manager is critical for both ICs and managers**. Two ways to evaluate this are (1) find a leader who has grown many people and (2) find a leader who is advancing rapidly in their career.

[**Ethan Evans**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp/) is a retired Amazon VP who now teaches managers how to break into executive levels. He was at Amazon for 15 years, and he became a VP in 2013 until he left in 2020. Ethan shares valuable insights for anyone interested in management or career development.

**Helpful links:**

- [**\[Masterclass\] How To Work Better With Your Engineering Manager**](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/2PbJb2fuqF3iMHy57eEg/masterclass-how-to-work-better-with-your-engineering-manager/)
- Rahul's Senior to Staff course: <https://maven.com/taro/senior-to-staff>
- More from Ethan: <https://www.jointaro.com/topic/ethan-evans/>
- [Rahul's $800K TC journey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inydj1VZ0y0)

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.