Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 22] - Go Deeper: Follow Through

Download Alex's resume here: [Alexander Chiou Resume.docx](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NnAx2jYkRTMCQwbdDPPqSj1Fwxkahda-/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109380646850979301783&rtpof=true&sd=true)

If you have any questions about the content of this course or about your career overall, start a discussion in the Taro forum here: <https://www.jointaro.com/questions/create/>

Come to Taro events and join a resume review meetup: <https://www.jointaro.com/events/>

Join Alex for his Group Office Hours: <https://www.jointaro.com/p/alex-chiou/>

**UPDATE:** We have shut down Taro Networking as a feature. Sorry for the inconvenience 🙏

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 10] - Order Matters

We all want to speed run our way into FAANG. The bad news is that this is almost never pans out for software engineers, and aggressively pursuing this strategy can easily lead to your downfall. This lesson teaches you:

- The true way to actually get better at interviewing and why it can't be avoided (no matter how painful it is)
- How to properly structure your job search when Big Tech is one of your goals
- The general approach you should take when it comes to applying to jobs and sequencing your interviews

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/)

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

Even though junior engineer to mid-level engineer is the 1st and easiest promotion, it's still a meaningful evolution with many parts. This lesson teaches you:

- The 3 core areas of improvement to grow from junior -&gt; mid-level
- The most important area to improve to make the junior -&gt; mid-level promotion
- How you should process the advice from this course

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

Get Maximum Value Per Answer

You should "Learn how to fish" instead of "receiving fish" — your goal in onboarding is to become a self-sufficient, productive engineer as quickly as possible. 

The way you do that is to ask follow-up questions when you get help and understand how you would have arrived at the solution on your own.

Bias toward asking for help earlier when you're new to a company, since you don't know what you don't know. It's better to be more annoying for the first month on the job rather than somewhat annoying for 6 months.

The Key To Avoiding The Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)

Getting hit with a performance improvement plan (otherwise known as a "PIP") is one of the worst things that can happen to you as a software engineer. This makes avoiding a performance improvement plan one of the most important things for you to do, especially in the currently layoff-rich economy.

Here's the core points from the video.

- Your performance review rating should never be a surprise: Regularly check in with your manager to figure out how you're trending to avoid the dreaded PIP.
- On top of asking for constructive feedback regularly, you shouldn't be afraid to ask every 2-3 months if you're on track to get the rating you want once the formal performance review happens. The clearest way this manifests is a hypothetical rating: *"Would you give me at least a \[Meets Expectations\] for my performance so far?"* This is the most powerful way you can stay in sync with your manager.
- Make it clear with your manager that you'll take any hypothetical rating with a grain of salt, so they're more comfortable giving it to you. If you're brave enough, you can even ask them to err towards the lower-end so you don't overset expectations.
- Keep your eye on the ball: Keep referencing the expectations plan you made at the beginning of the cycle and evolving it as necessary.
- Turn it up at the later end of the cycle. Humans have bad memory: It's unfair, but recency bias is huge. Try to land your bigger wins just a few weeks or months before the formal performance review process starts.

Related resources:

- ["What's the difference between a low performer software engineer and a high performer?"](https://link.jointaro.com/QHkWNXoJV5Y9VYvH9)
- ["How do I help my manager (who is also my mentor) be a better manager and mentor?"](https://link.jointaro.com/eG5c6usaJNY9wopP8)

Making Every Single Meeting You Have Effective

What do you absolutely need to do with every single meeting in order to make it effective?

What is the most important question you should be asking yourself constantly during a meeting?

Setting clear goals for every meeting ensures focus, alignment, and efficiency. Rather than drifting through discussions, this mindset helps make the most of everyone's time.

- **Define the meeting goal upfront**: Whether the goal is to build a relationship, align on a decision, or explore a specific topic, clarify it before stepping into the meeting.
- **Hold the goal in mind throughout**: Actively track whether the conversation is moving toward the intended objective—even as you engage in real-time dialogue.
- **Course-correct if needed**: If the meeting strays off-topic or stalls, use the goal as a guidepost to refocus the discussion or adjust expectations.
- **Reflect afterwards**: Evaluate whether the meeting achieved its intended outcome. If not, determine what adjustments can improve the effectiveness of future meetings.
- **Build the habit**: With consistent practice, goal-oriented thinking during meetings becomes second nature, enhancing both productivity and influence.

[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)

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 13] - The Secret To Growing Fast

Getting better isn't about which AI tool you use or what books you read or even which company you work for. How fast you improve comes down to one fundamental skill that most people struggle with. This lesson teaches you:

- Why feedback is the fuel for rapid engineer growth
- How many engineers respond incorrectly when it comes to getting feedback
- The right mentality to have when it comes to feedback overall
- Why an incorrect piece of feedback can actually be a good thing

Maximizing a Severance Package 5/9 - Preparing Your Case

Let's talk about how to prepare your case to maximize your severance package.

- 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)

DSA Crash Course [Part 36] - Want To Learn More DSA With Alvin?

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/>

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 21] - The REAL Secret For A Top Tier Resume

Unfortunately, it's possible to optimize your resume to the teeth and still not get results. This will be incredibly common for more junior engineers. This lesson teaches you:

- A simple 2-step process to understand how to make an incredible resume
- What to do if you have perfected your resume and you still aren't getting enough interview calls
- Why you are far more powerful than you realize the second you learn how to code and deploy software to production
- How to build impressive side projects that are meaningful on a resume and get you interviews
- How to make impressive open-source contributions that are meaningful on a resume and get you interviews

To dive deeper into building impressive side projects: [\[Taro Top 10\] Building Impressive Side Projects](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/vKUWMgmmaEvzcYUXZs4B/)

To dive deeper into making impressive open-source contributions: [\[Course\] Become An Open Source Master](https://www.jointaro.com/course/become-an-open-source-master/)

Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer [Part 26] - Side Projects & Open-Source

You don't need to work at some fancy FAANG company to learn how to write truly good, high-quality code. Code quality is something that can be improved upon outside of your job and even if you don't have a job! This lesson will teach you:

- The power of **side projects** and **open-source contributions** when it comes to leveling up your technical skills
- How to build side projects that get a ton of users so you can maximize your learning (and your resume strength 💪)
- How to make meaningful open-source contributions that can even get the attention of Big Tech companies

To dig deeper into this topic, go through this thread: ["How to Learn/Practice Clean Code, particularly by oneself?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/6DcTkiS9UJhDkQz1HIAL/how-to-learnpractice-clean-code-particularly-by-oneself/)

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 13] - Decomposition

When you get a huge project as a software engineer, it's easy to get overwhelmed and just sort of... do nothing (or close to it). This lesson teaches you:

- What a well-decomposed project looks like with a concrete example
- How decomposing projects hacks your brain to make it more motivated and productive

To dive deep into tactics on decomposing projects, check out our in-depth explainer: ["How do I make software less overwhelming?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/YseMPDw538jhyS1MWlTs/how-do-i-make-software-less-overwhelming/)

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

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

Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer [Part 14] - How To Handle Migrations

There is term called "promotion-driven development" where software engineers propose big refactors and migrations to look good but don't fully follow through. This is especially common in Big Tech. This lesson will teach you:

- How to do code migrations properly
- How to judge the quality of a codebase based off of its consistency and how "good, modern code" can actually be harmful to the health of the codebase overall
- The mental and operating model behind how new engineers code, which is especially important if you're a tech lead (never forget this!)

System Design Series: Taro Playlists [Part 5] - Data Model

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:

- Always define the data model if applicable. It is the "core operating unit" of your system - Everything revolves around it. That's pretty much what CRUD is: You have some data model and the entire ecosystem revolves around manipulating it properly.
- Define the table/collection(s):
  - What is its name?
  - What does it represent? If you can include a visual aide on how it's actually rendered for the user, that makes things a lot clearer.
- Define the fields on your model:
  - What is its name/key?
  - What is its type?
  - Is it required?
  - What does it represent? This should include information on what kind of key it is (e.g. primary key) if applicable.
- Illustrate the model to make it really clear. JSON is really good at doing this as it's very readable. There are many free incredible JSON formatters online (Alex used them all the time to make project specs).

Course Introduction: The Ultimate Guide To Navigating A Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)

You’ve probably heard about a PIP, a Performance Improvement Plan. You might be in danger of one, you’re going through one right now, or you’re about to join a company with a widespread PIP culture.

There’s no getting around it: **PIPs are scary.** Receiving a PIP means that there is a perceived deficiency in your performance, and something needs to change. It’s obvious why you might feel tremendous anxiety or fear around a PIP: your job is at stake.

Simply put, **a PIP is one of the most stressful things you can go through as a tech employee**. 

A quick online search reveals tons of discussion in forums about PIPs. It’s easy to get the impression that a PIP is a hopeless situation, and anyone who is unfortunate enough to receive one should simply give up. This is simply not true: whether you’re on a PIP or not, there is a path forward.

The objective for this course is to provide a structured way for you to identify what you can (and should) do to get the best outcome for yourself.

I’m Rahul, the course instructor. I’ve been an engineer at various-sized companies for a decade before I left to start Taro. I was an Engineering Manager and Staff Engineer at Meta (Facebook for the OGs), and before that I worked on Android at Pinterest. I graduated from Stanford with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Computer Science, and my first job after graduation was founding engineer at a failed startup. 

In researching this course, I talked to dozens of engineers who have received PIPs, along with several managers who have delivered PIPs to their reports. You’ll hear some of their stories in the section dedicated to case studies (from companies like Amazon, Meta, Pinterest, MassMutual, and MongoDB). What became clear from chatting with so many employees is (1) there’s far too much stigma around a PIP and (2) there’s not enough support for people who have received one. This course aims to change that.

In addition, we’ve combined our own personal experience with dozens of hours of online research (we mostly ignored anonymous trolls in forums…).

I’ll occasionally refer to engineers throughout this course, but pretty much all the content is applicable to any type of tech worker (Product Manager, Data Scientist, Designer, etc). Software Engineers are not the only job function that must deal with a PIP!

Final note: my goal with this course it to be hyper-practical; this should be useful to you. I’ll be sharing best practices that have worked for many tech workers, but we can’t cover exact details across all companies in all geographies. I’m not an employment lawyer and I have never worked in Human Resources. You may want to get consultative help if your situation is unique. 

Connect with Rahul: 

- [Taro](https://www.jointaro.com/p/rahul-pandey/)
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpandey1234/)
- [YouTube](https://youtube.com/rpandey1234)

Read more about PIPs: 

- <https://jointaro.com/topic/performance-improvement-plan>
- <https://www.jointaro.com/blog/breaking-down-the-tech-company-mark-of-death-the-pip/>

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 24] - System Design

System design is another common interview type, particularly among Big Tech companies. Unlike the notorious data structures and algorithms, system design is something you actually do on the job. This lesson teaches you:

- When to expect system design rounds during the interview loop
- What kinds of engineers get system design questions
- What you should be doing when getting a system design question
- What a proper system design diagram looks like

To master the system design interview, check out these resources:

- [\[Masterclass\] How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview - System Design](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/J3I9fTW9ulr6T9KjxpqY/masterclass-how-to-ace-your-big-tech-interview-system-design/)
- [\[Course\] Frontend System Design Masterclass - Building Playlists](https://www.jointaro.com/course/frontend-system-design-masterclass-building-playlists/)
- [\[Taro Top 10\] System Design](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/MFc9JT0tZSmOwbuKC2C7/)

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.