Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer [Part 17] - Share The Context

Software engineers often have this flaw where they assume that everyone somehow automatically knows what they're doing and the nuances of the spare they're operating within. This often extends to their published pull requests. This lesson will teach you:

- The ingredients behind a high-quality context section on a pull request
- A simple tactic to greatly expedite your pull requests, build respect amongst your team, and get better feedback (hint: It's not just your teammates who can review your code)
- Exactly what a stellar context section looks like with an incredibly detailed, broken down example. This is a trademark sign of high-performing mid-level and senior software 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>

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

Figuring Out The Best Company To Join As A Software Engineer

- **Follow The Talent You Know**
  - One of the best things about the tech industry is how full it is of extremely talented people, and you probably know some of them. In particular focus on those who are both talented and have a strong degree of integrity.
  - For the people you truly respect in your network, you should seriously consider the companies they go to as options. After all, if a company met the bar of these great people, it's probably pretty good!
- **Understand A Company's Strengths And Match Against Them**
  - Different companies have different core cultural values, and it's really important for your values and theirs to align. When this alignment isn't there, it's far too easy to go somewhere, work very hard, and not achieve much impact or career growth.
  - Examples: Amazon's leadership principles, Netflix's emphasis on freedom and responsibility
  - To find out what the culture is like at other companies, consult your network and [ask within the Taro Premium community](https://www.jointaro.com/membership/)!

Related resources:

- [\[Masterclass\] How To Choose A Good Company And Team As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/0WEmTNZOMIh8xAdfO3JH/masterclass-how-to-choose-a-good-company-and-team-as-a-software-engineer/)
- ["What's the best way to think about a team switch?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/NwXACx0n3JniBETi3f1E/whats-the-best-way-to-think-about-a-team-switch/)
- ["What questions can I ask a potential new team?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/dLS6KcDwKNdMDlJwYdBw/what-questions-can-i-ask-a-potential-new-team/)

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 5] - Resume Gaps

Having an employment gap is effectively inevitable as a software engineer, especially in a layoff-economy. This leads to resume gaps, which unfortunately have a lot of stigma. This lesson teaches you:

- Why employers (rightfully) hold resume gaps against you
- How to include your resume gap on your resume
- What to do in common resume gap scenarios if a company probes you about it during an interview

If you have recently been laid-off, you can check these out as well: [\[Taro Top 10\] Navigating Tech Industry Layoffs](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/pE7pP0nXDx4X7mOChzHS/)

The #1 Thing To Remember With Meetings

Which is the core principle you have to remember with meetings?

True or false: It is safer to just keep attending a meeting series, even if you are not clear exactly what value you are getting from it.

You have a meeting series where there is always action, but there is usually an awkward portion at the end where people run out of topics. What should you do?

True or false: When in doubt of a meeting's value prop, just delete it. You can always bring it back later.

You have a 1 on 1 meeting series, and by the time of the meeting, you feel like there are a lot of issues that you two are getting to too late. What should you do?

Software engineering is a inherently collaborative exercise, so every tech company is going to have meetings. The tricky part as a engineer is figuring out how to use them effectively: Navigating meetings incorrectly leads to mountains of wasted time.

Here are the key points from the video:
- Meetings are *extremely* expensive as it's the most valuable resource people have: Time.
  - This is why you need to be very aware of how productive meetings are for you. Don't just go to them blindly because you are on the meeting invite - This is a common failure mode for earlier-in-career  engineers.
- If a meeting has value but isn't fully efficient, consider lowering the frequency or length of the meeting.
- Reflect on the value of every meeting, especially team meetings since they suck up the most time.
- *Lean towards deleting meetings or not attending them* - If you're unsure what value you got from a meeting, there's a good chance the meeting isn't actually helping you.
  - You can always run an "experiment" here. Remove the meeting from your calendar for a week and see if anything breaks - If the lack of alignment gets bad, you can put the meeting back.

Here's the [full 1-hour masterclass on having impactful 1:1 meetings](https://link.jointaro.com/qrBzkp1s8Yfscc2p9), which is where this clip was taken from.

Related resources:
- [Effective Communication Course](https://link.jointaro.com/kWQkRyRhLqbTWBty7)
- ["How can I be more active in meetings and earn the respect of senior engineers?"](https://link.jointaro.com/eUdmzZqZUaJLugGV6)
- ["I have anxiety when speaking up in meetings - how do I overcome this?"](https://link.jointaro.com/1hfsgVf8EgmuBYbG7)

Engineer Your Ideal Tech Career [Part 12] - Mitali Gala: Choosing The Engineering Manager Route

Next, [Mitali Gala](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitali-gala) (a Mentor at Formation) discusses her decision to charge forward as an Engineering Manager and what that entails for her day-to-day work.

She reflects on some of the challenges, some of the highlights, why she is passionate about this work, and who it would be a good fit for.

Looking for mentorship from tech’s top engineers like Mitali + 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)

[Case Study] Building XFN Alignment Across Multiple Orgs (w/ Staff Engineer Cat Chen)

[Cat Chen](https://catchen.me/) talked about his success building alignment across multiple orgs. 

Cat was working at Facebook as a Staff Engineer on the growth team. His charter to get the Android apps on app stores beyond the Play Store. (There were 10+ non-Google stores where Android apps get downloaded with some level of traffic.

Getting an app listed on a 3rd-party platform is simple – sign up as a developer on that platform; upload the Android app for review; wait for approval and launch it. Just as simple as publishing to Google Play.

**BUT it's not that simple at a company like Facebook.** Facebook lawyers wouldn’t allow Cat to accept the Terms of Service on behalf of Facebook the company. Cat didn’t have the privilege to bind Facebook into this contract and even if he did, the lawyers would certainly advise against that.

Instead of simply handing this problem to another person or org, Cat met with a director-level lawyer. Given he was on a different time zone, and in a different job function altogether, this took some legwork. The director explained the risk profile (Facebook could have unlimited downside by blindly accepting an agreement). Eventually Cat discovered a workable solution by using a contracting company to sign the legal agreement, which limits the damages that Facebook may face.

Impact of this work: 
- Successful launch of the existing Android apps
- Ability to launch other apps in the future
- Deep and positive relationship with the legal team, and Cat owned that relationship (which made him indispensable)
- **Almost zero lines of code written!**

[Connect with Cat](https://www.linkedin.com/in/catchen/)

For more resources on how to communicate, build alignment, and operate as a Staff Engineer:
- ["How do I sell the vision behind a large, org-level project?"](https://link.jointaro.com/NGCrB2ifkkpDaDe69)
- ["What's the Difference Between A Senior And Staff Engineer?"](https://link.jointaro.com/BEM2RAjPFe8Pv7826)
- [Guide to Effective Communication](https://link.jointaro.com/mP3WEd4zt5ecnupX6)

How To REALLY Say Thank You To Coworkers

Most software engineers struggle with building relationships and professional networking overall. One of the ways to get better at this is improving an often-neglected skill: Giving thanks. This video covers one of the most powerful ways to give thanks in the workplace.

Here are the core points:
- **Reward good work through their manager** - As an authority figure, praise coming from your manager is especially meaningful and it's a great experience when it happens. Spend effort adding weight to your feedback when you tell their manager by writing a heartfelt paragraph or telling them in person (this is really easy when you share the same manager as the peer, which is often the case). Thanking the helper directly yourself first is the first step: This manager reinforcement step is what really makes them realize, *"Wow, this person **really** wants to make sure I get rewarded for my efforts."*
- **Boost your peers' performance reviews** - At a higher level, you really earn your way into coworkers' hearts when they attribute you to a boost in their own performance rating. This is especially true at top companies like FAANG which have such a high-bar for engineer performance and good ratings are connected to very meaningful raises and promotions. If someone is helping you on a recurring basis, you can even explicitly tell their manager that you really hope they get rewarded on their performance review for uplifting you and really multiplying your impact. *Fight for the credit you ardently believe they deserve.*

Related resources:
- [Effective Communication Guide - Building Relationships](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/488EjOLzU707WhdqMOK4/effective-communication-guide-part-3-building-relationships/)
- ["How do you network effectively within a company?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/DwT9GtdYK9nwFV3a7jrU/how-do-you-network-effectively-within-a-company/)

How Big Tech Judges Interview Performance Differently

What is the main extra axis that Big Tech companies will grade interview candidates on?

As long as you get a correct, optimal solution, that is enough to pass a Big Tech interview round.

Why is communication so important in Big Tech companies?

True or false: Big Tech companies don't really care about what specific technologies and programming languages you have worked with.

What's the core high-level asset Big Tech interviewers look for?

- At a lot of companies, you can just get the right solution and pass. This will often not be the case with Big Tech interviews.
- Communication is much more important at Big Tech companies as there's more stakeholders on everything
- Try not to be silent for 5+ minutes at a time during the interview. Regularly be explaining your thought process
- Massive companies like Meta and Microsoft will have very custom technology, so it doesn't really matter what you're currently experienced in
  - Because of this, Big Tech companies generally let you code in whatever language you want
- It's possible to get the sub-optimal solution or a slightly incomplete solution and still pass the interview if your communication is very strong

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview - Data Structures And Algorithms](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/V4sTACzfOh22nMVcUV3w/masterclass-how-to-ace-your-big-tech-interview-data-structures-and-algorithms/) - The video this clip was taken from
- [Alex's Guide To Effective Communication](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/hVdLQQzfslaYarLSCmmy/)
- [[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/)
- [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/)

Master The Behavioral Interview [Part 8] - Timing

Behavioral interviews are intense, containing more questions than every other interview type. This greatly affects how you need to talk to pass these rounds as a software engineer. This lesson teaches you:

- Why behavioral interviews are a marathon
- How long you should take per behavioral interview answer
- Tactics you can use to communicate more efficiently

For more advice on communicating concisely: ["How to make communication succinct and more impactful?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/QDLV5owweJveRLlspOdc/how-to-make-communication-succinct-and-more-impactful/)

DSA Crash Course [Part 23] - Linked List Warm Up Lecture

In this lecture, Alvin goes over how to implement a linked list in python.

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/>

Growth And Promotion 5/6: Prioritization

Key points:

- 💡 Prioritizing important tasks over urgent but less important tasks is key to career success.
- 🔔 Urgency often creates false importance, like notifications that demand attention but don't actually matter.
- 🔥 Focus on tasks that are both urgent and important first, like handling emergencies.
- 🚫 Learn to say 'no' to tasks that are urgent but not important in order to focus on high-impact work.
- 🤔 Many tasks we put off are important but hard, and tackling them first can improve productivity.
- 🏗 Break down large, difficult tasks into smaller pieces to make consistent progress every day.
- 🪨 Think of your day as a jar: put the big rocks (important tasks) in first before filling it with sand (small tasks).
- 👥 Delegation is key to efficiency: give away tasks you’ve mastered to others so you can focus on higher-value work.

Starting at Amazon as a Senior Manager, then Director, then Vice President, Ethan has decades of experience at top tech companies. This career growth course is developed from his own knowledge and input from his extensive network of fellow coaches and executives.

- 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)

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?

Core points:
- 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.

This video is a clip from our masterclass about 1 on 1 meetings, which you can watch here: [[Masterclass] How To Have Impactful 1 on 1 Meetings](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/FEK6JZqW2Jg3rdN9yeGn/masterclass-how-to-have-impactful-1-on-1-meetings/)

Related resources:
- [1 on 1s Are The Time To Be Awkward](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/xjeFRpp5YHxG9TTK8wjn/1-on-1s-are-the-time-to-be-awkward/)
- [[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/)

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 11] - Struggling? Send More Applications

One of the most common reasons for a struggling software engineer job search is that they simply aren't applying enough. The good news is that this can be easily fixed with the proper behavior adjustments. This lesson teaches you:

- How you can conquer the job search with sheer math
- A healthy conversion rate for application -&gt; interview chance
- Why you should almost never spend too much time on any individual application (quantity &gt; quality)
- The framework to follow on whether you should apply a ton or apply more selectively

Here are the Big 2 job searching websites:

- <https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/>
- <https://wellfound.com/>

On top of the Big 2, we've seen engineers have success with:

- <https://otta.com/>
- <https://www.workatastartup.com/> - Jobs at Y Combinator startups specifically, the greatest incubator in the world which is behind Stripe, DoorDash, Airbnb, and many more FAANG-adjacent companies

Make Sure To Do This To Get Full Credit For Your Work

On top of doing the work, what else do you need to do in order to get full credit for what you are doing?

True or false: It is bad to give more public status updates for your project as it will come across as looking for attention.

Why should you not feel icky when you are properly broadcasting the status of your project?

Core points:
- *You don't get credit automatically for doing good work, especially if you work in a large company.*
- It is vital that you bring visibility to your work and claim credit for jobs well done in project updates, meetings, and other more public avenues.
- You may feel "icky" for sharing status updates - Don't! If your work is truly important, than it's worth sharing about and keeping the team in the loop. If you don't feel like your work is important, then you have a separate problem you need to address.
- Use project updates to thank others! Treat it as a mechanism to build social capital.

Related resources on how to write concise, impressive project updates:
- ["How can a painfully introverted person increase their visibility and promote themselves?"](https://link.jointaro.com/3XHsUifABjyN3Tq98) - From a SWE intern at Google
- ["How to get more visibility on work?"](https://link.jointaro.com/aQUHxnsNAJVcRgth6) - From a junior engineer [E3] at Meta

Break Into Tech And Become A Software Engineer [Part 4] - Why Foundation Is Crucial

In this lesson, Brian emphasizes the importance of building a strong technical foundation in order to succeed long-term in the tech industry.

This lesson covers:

- The risks of becoming a "framework developer" without understanding core programming concepts, which can jeopardize career stability
- Brian’s personal experience of having to attend two bootcamps to fill in gaps in foundational knowledge, despite already being in the industry
- The importance of understanding the underlying technologies, not just frameworks, to boost both career growth and confidence

If you need extra help breaking into tech, join Brian's exclusive, cohort-based bootcamp (just 10 students per batch). Use this special link for $800 off: <https://www.parsity.io/taro>

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianjenney/>

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.

Bad Question vs. Good Question Example

Is the following a good question: What are the best open-source projects to work on?

"What are the best open-source projects to work on?" - How can the asker improve this question?

Is the following a good question: Any Java developers here who have worked on ML?

"Any Java developers here who have worked on ML?" - Why is this not a good question?

Is the following a good question: Does anybody know what the front-end engineering interview for Amazon looks like?

"Does anybody know what the front-end engineering interview for Amazon looks like?" - How can the asker improve this question?

Is the following a good question: Can someone recommend me resources for blockchain development?

"Can someone recommend me resources for blockchain development?" - How can the asker improve this question?

Is the following a good question: Is there anybody here who can refer me into FAANG?

"Is there anybody here who can refer me into FAANG?" - Why is this not a good question?

Asking questions is one of the most important skills for an engineer: However, so many engineers struggle with this and ask questions that are bad at getting answers. This is all even more important in the age of AI with tools like ChatGPT.

This video covers an in-depth example of a bad questions vs. a good question:

### Bad Question
*"I'm trying to load an image in my Android app, and it shows up blank. Any ideas on what's going on here?"*

Here's why this question falls short:
- It feels lazy as the asker doesn't share what they have tried already - Did they even do a Google search?
- There's no context on why they're trying to get an image to load - The impact of helping this person is unclear.
- There is 0 relevant code attached: This question forces potential helpers to ask a lot of follow-up questions to give advice.

## Good Question
The upgraded question is too long (check the video to see it), so here are the core points as to why it's better:
- The user attached everything they have tried.
- There's links to additional context if helpers reading the question want to dive deeper - Keep in mind that they're not embedded directly within the question as huge code blocks can be overwhelming.
- In general, it's very obvious that the asker put a lot of effort into the question and is respectful of everyone's time.

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Learn Quickly In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/u9ldIvrTvV1wfWExccDR/masterclass-how-to-learn-quickly-in-tech/) - The full video where this clip was taken from
- ["How do you overcome the fear of asking stupid questions / bothering people when you need help?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/vNE8kgpx2zdI1wACg9jA/how-do-you-overcome-the-fear-of-asking-stupid-questions-bothering-people-when-you-need-help/)
- [[Case Study] How Engineers Unlock Huge Impact With Artificial Intelligence (AI)](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/gTQZbv0lmmypLPytqw5g/case-study-how-engineers-unlock-huge-impact-with-artificial-intelligence-ai/)

Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer [Part 20] - Code Comment Caches

Code comments can be immensely helpful, but they can be incredibly damaging to a codebase if used incorrectly (which this course will cover even more later on down the line). This lesson will teach you:

- Why engineers will try the very weird "code comment cache" anti-pattern
- The important of Git, GitHub, and version control platforms in general
- How to not be lazy and properly deal with code that isn't necessary now but may be useful later

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.