Do This To Get Maximum Value From Your Manager 1 on 1s

The manager 1 on 1 meeting is arguably the most sacred and high-leverage time you have in your career. Make sure you don't waste it by stumbling in with 0 preparation.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **Come in with a plan** - In your running meeting notes doc, write down the agenda beforehand with discussion points ordered by priority. Not only does this make your meeting more effective, it improves the perception of you from your manager's eyes as it shows that you're being more respectful of their time and you're more serious about your own growth and productivity.
- **Alert your manager of the plan 24+ hours beforehand** - This allows them to "pre-compute" the best responses to your meeting topics, so they don't get caught like a deer in the headlights with the trickier ones. It also makes it harder for your manager to cancel, especially when you have deeper, more important topics on the agenda.

Related resources:
- [[Taro Top 10] Software Engineer To Engineering Manager (IC -> M Track)](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/oz0mnJvHHgM8NfVF7rgp/)
- [[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/)

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:
- [[Masterclass] How To Navigate Your Performance Review In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/b0B8uqIAUnBLE10jJHJG/masterclass-how-to-navigate-your-performance-review-in-tech/) - This is the full video the clip was taken from
- ["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)

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

An Often Forgotten Part Of Tech Pay - Don’t Mess Up Your Taxes!

How To Build A Strong Manager Relationship (From An Ex-Amazon VP)

The relationship you have with your manager is the most important one in your professional life. So why do so many tech workers **make obvious mistakes** when dealing with their manager?

In this session, Ethan will share strategies and tips to:

1. Build trust with your manager, even if you've had challenges in the past

2. Drive your professional development and earn investment

3. Navigate difficult conversations and manage up effectively.

[**Ethan Evans**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp/) managed teams of 800+ while a Vice President (VP) at Amazon. Across 15 years, he grew from manager to Vice President, providing executive leadership for multiple $500M+ businesses. In that process, he's managed hundreds of people directly across dozens of changes in his own management chain.

Ethan is now a career development expert and teacher. Watch his courses on Taro:

1. [**Managing Up: Build Effective Relationships With Your Boss**](https://www.jointaro.com/course/managing-up-build-effective-relationships-with-your-boss/)

2. [**The Growth And Promotion Recipe - Magic Loop**](https://www.jointaro.com/course/the-growth-and-promotion-recipe-magic-loop/)

3. [**Make The Most Of A Layoff: Maximize Your Severance Package**](https://www.jointaro.com/course/maximizing-a-severance-package/)

Learn more:

- Watch the [**interview series with Ethan about eng management on YouTube**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8McoEVUiYQ&list=PLMrAfqhZjqfIkD-0p0tJ_zqvPnBdYsixT&index=4).
- Ethan's live cohort-based course "Stuck at Senior Manager" is open for enrollment now: [**https://maven.com/ethan-evans/break-through-to-executive**](https://maven.com/ethan-evans/break-through-to-executive)
- Taro members get a discount to join [**Ethan's Level Up community**](https://levelupwithethanevans.substack.com/taro25)

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 2] - Learning How To Code

In order to become a software engineer, you need to learn how to code. This lesson teaches you:

- The optimal way to use tutorials
- Why tutorials can easily start *hurting* your learning progression
- The dubious value of books when it comes to learning how to code
- An incredibly effective and altruistic way to truly learn technical material

Follow the advice here to understand any new codebase fast: ["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/)

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 6] - Code Quality

In order to survive as a junior engineer, you need to learn how to code fast. The next step is to learn how to code *well*. This lesson teaches you:

- The 2 core components behind code quality
- The differences between junior and mid-level engineers when it comes to their pull request quality
- The many ingredients behind a clean pull request and which ones matter the most
- What a clean pull request looks like, one showing strong mid-level engineer behavior
- The differences between junior and mid-level engineers when it comes to their technical decision making
- Why communication is so important when it comes to technical decisions and how mid-level engineers do it better than junior engineers
- How to understand seniority from fresh junior to strong mid-level through the lens of technical decision making
- A simple metric to measure your code quality and see if you're making good progress to mid-level

Take the code quality 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/)

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>

Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 10] - Code Review

Writing code is great, but so is reviewing code. In fact, being great at reviewing code is more impactful than being great at writing code 90%+ of the time! This lesson teaches you:

- How the writing code vs. reviewing code dynamic changes as you get to senior
- Why senior engineers tend to review more code than they write
- How senior engineers expand their code review scope while mid-level engineer code review scope tends to be more constrained with a real-life example
- The difference between a senior engineer code review comment vs. a mid-level engineer code review comment

Get better at code review with our masterclass: [\[Masterclass\] How To Do Amazing Code Review](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/rhRFh49oouaUDhWUvkQb/masterclass-how-to-do-amazing-code-review/)

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

Onboarding Tips For Senior+ Engineers

As a Senior Engineer (or Staff or Principal) coming into a new company, there will be some expectation that you are bringing in domain knowledge. Your opinion can be valuable. A few ways to have immediate impact:

- Contrast how your current company operates compared to past companies
- Ask questions about why certain processes exist or don't exist

As you ramp up, remember to "**respect what came before.**" You don't want to disparage existing systems without realizing that it was best designed at the time of construction with the constraints and knowledge *at the time*.

As a senior engineer, you also need to lay the foundation for team and org-level impact. This means you invest extra time in building relationships and meeting other senior/staff/principal engineers.

Senior Engineer video from krazam: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSqexFg74F8>

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.

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/)

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)

Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer [Part 11] - Case Study: Signup Form Edge Cases

So how exactly do you figure out the edge cases with a piece of software? Well, it's hard work, especially as the volume of edge cases scales up exponentially with the complexity of the underlying feature. This video will teach you:

- A process to think through edge cases step-by-step through the stack with an *incredibly* in-depth example covering one of the most classic features virtual every tech company ever has: The email and password signup flow
- Why Big Tech companies hire so many software engineers to build out seemingly basic CRUD applications (hint: They're not basic, not at all, and the signup form case study will prove that to you)

How Rigid Should You Be With Your Coding / Content Schedule?

As a 17 year veteran of Amazon, Steve understands seasonality. Q4, the holiday season, is crunch time. There’s a huge pressure on Amazon employees to keep up with demand, and engineers will routinely spend long hours to ensure stability and quality.

The key to doing sustained creative work is to lean in and lean out of periods of intense work, at the right times. Amazon employees know that Q4 will end, and therefore, the crunchtime will end within a few months.

Similarly, for content creation or writing code, **it’s important to segment your schedule into chunks where you can create a deadline or “crunch time”.**

Another perspective is to think about quantity vs quality. For your side projects or content creation endeavors, it’s worth being rigid for a bit (“a commit everyday” or “a video every week”), but it’s also worth changing the routine after some time.

Burnout happens when people don’t see an end in sight from a stressful period. 

- [Learn about burnout](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/xsbM1ctL9HYa6d7E9ejh/the-silent-killer-of-too-many-software-engineer-careers-burnout/)
- [Avoid burnout](https://www.jointaro.com/question/CfPvvtIW02MxVwR1fnP4/how-can-i-avoid-burning-myself-out/)
- [3 Mistakes Engineers To Avoid (from an Eng Director)](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/lhj2batcsdMiEOSKOGLo/3-mistakes-too-many-software-engineers-make-from-a-director-at-airbnb/)

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

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).

"Why is Taro named Taro?" - 9/13/2022

- Here are the 3 main constraints we had on a name:
  - It should be short (4-8 characters).
  - There should be a good domain for it, ideally a ".com" website URL.
  - It should have positive associations.
- The reason it took 3 months to find a name for our product and company after we quit our jobs is because we spend the first 3 months thinking about what idea we wanted to do.
- "Tech Career Growth" is a wonderful name for our free community, but it's not a great product name as it's too long and too literal.
- We took ~3 weeks to decide on a name. Here was our process:
  - Come up with guiding principles for the name (covered above)
  - Brainstorm a bunch of names (100+)
  - Narrow it down to ~8 based on the above principles
  - Make a deck with the final candidates, weighing pros and cons
  - Have a couple rounds of discussion/debate to pick 1 name
- You can think of "Taro" as a similar play to "Apple". Doesn't really describe what the product is, but it's a food with positive associations and a short name.
- The logo is a "T" and has additional symbolism by looking like roads. Our goal with Taro is to help you **navigate** your career!

[Part 1] Meta Intern Success Series - Internship Program Overview

- The Meta software engineer internship program is very legit. It resembles the experience of working as a full-time Meta engineer as closely as possible, complete with calibrations and a formal manager.
- The program is also hard. The pass rates that got mentioned around the company were 50 to 75%. It's one of the harder software engineer internships to get a return offer from as the goal is to perform at E3 MA. If this is your first software engineer internship or you have only interned at companies weaker than Meta prior, the high bar can be overwhelming.
- However, the reward is tremendous. Meta is an incredible company to work at and amazing as a career starter. Meta is also one of the highest paying companies for the entry-level band (E3), and the signing bonus for return offer interns is sky-high (60k to 100k).
- 4 outcomes for Meta software engineer interns:
  - No offer: As mentioned before, many interns will unfortunately be here. The numbers after this correspond to the percentage of the "surviving" pool.
  - MA (70%): "Meets All Expectations", which is a regular return offer. The vast majority of successful software engineer interns get this. 
  - EE (25%): "Exceeds Expectations", which is given to very strong interns.
  - Rockstar (5%): For interns that completely crush it and are very close to functioning as a mid-level engineer (E4).
- Internship schedule (assuming standard 12 week length):
  - Weeks 1-3: Onboarding
  - Weeks 5-6: Mid-cycle review
  - Weeks 10-11: Final calibrations (return offer is decided here)
  - Weeks 11-12: Relax and have fun. Only your performance from Weeks 1 - 10 is counted towards your final review
- As a software engineer intern, you formally report to an intern manager (IM), which is shown on the org chart. On top of the IM, you will have 1-3 other peers who will review your diffs and help you. During calibrations, feedback from your IM and these peers will determine your final rating.

For more expert internship advice: [Full SWE Intern Advice Playlist](https://www.jointaro.com/topic/software-engineering-intern/)

The Best Gift You Can Give Yourself When It Comes To Productivity

Which of these is the best gift you can give yourself when it comes to productivity?

True or false: Phones are great productivity tools as they allow us to accomplish almost anything in a really convenient way. This is why we should make sure that we always have our phones close by as we are working.

Where should you have your phone when you are trying to do deep work?

Between flow state and context switching, which is the safer option to invest into to make yourself more productive?

One of the best ways to improve your productivity is to block off chunks of time where you can focus without having to context switch.

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.