Become A Debugging Master [Part 1] - How This Course Works

Most software engineers groan when they get hit with a random bug task while they're in the middle of feature development. However, this is actually the completely wrong reaction reaction to have - It should be the opposite! This course is here to teach you why bugs are a deeply underrated growth opportunity and how you can become amazing at fixing them fast.

Here are the core parts of the lesson:

- Your instructor [**Rahul Pandey**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpandey1234/) walks you through his extensive 10+ year Silicon Valley background with rapid career advancement, ending up as a high-performing Staff Engineer \[E6\] at Meta. Most importantly, he talks about how becoming a debugging master led to him getting to Meta E6 and boosting his total compensation to $800k+!

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

  - 🧠 Learn how to **properly** **prioritize** debugging

  - 📋 Understand the **necessary prep work** before the fix

  - 💡 Develop a **mental framework** to fix any bug

  - ✅ Understand **the difference** between good and bad fixes

  - 🏆 Be able to **get maximum credit** for debugging

Joel Spolsky's wisdom: <https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/>

Come Up With 500k+ User Project Ideas [Part 2] - What Makes A Project Valuable

Most engineers optimize for the wrong thing when they build personal software projects, which is 99% of engineer portfolio projects don't matter at all. This lesson teaches you:

- The only metric that matters when it comes to the quality and impressiveness of your side project
- Why getting actual users supercharges the learning and growth you get from building a side project, far more than choosing the best "modern" tech stack ever could
- Common traps engineers fall into that make their side project meaningless, especially when it comes to recruiting

Master The DSA Interview [Part 18] - Fishing

Many engineers think that they got rejected due to the interviewer being bad or "out to get them". While low-quality interviewers do exist (and there are a lot of them), it is often the engineer's fault by being a weak candidate. This lesson teaches you:

- Why there is often a discrepancy between what engineers believe is the cause of their data structures and algorithms interview rejection and what reality actually is
- What fishing is and how it forces interviewers into a very awkward situation that makes them seem icy to the candidate
- How to not do fishing during an interview so you can have a real chance of passing (and make the interviewer more likely to help you)
- Why asking the interviewer for a raw hint is a recipe for failure

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 1] - How This Course Works

Congratulations on breaking into tech as an engineer! Let's get you off to a great start. Here are the core parts of the lesson:

- Your instructor [Alex Chiou](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 tech lead making $750k at Robinhood. More importantly, he goes through how he was able to grow his mentees to lightning fast promotions, particularly at Meta where he grew 10+ junior engineers (E3) to mid-level engineers (E4) in just 1 year!

- You'll understand what it means to be a junior vs. a mid-level 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 junior engineer and a mid-level engineer

  - 🛠️ Learn to **code** like a mid-level engineer

  - 💪 Know what it means to be truly **independent**

  - 🧠 Have the right **mindset** to act as a mid-level

  - ✅ Define a clear **roadmap** to mid-level

If you haven't already, we recommend taking the overall promotion course here: [Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/nail-your-promotion-as-a-software-engineer/)

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 6] - Social Pressure > Work Pressure

Too many software engineers focus on finding something cool to work on instead of finding cool people to work with. This lesson teaches you:

- Why a supportive team is far more valuable and effective when it comes to making you productivity compared to working on something shiny like genAI
- Tactics you can use to apply social pressure to yourself and enforce productivity

Learn how to find a good team here: [\[Taro Top 10\] How To Find A Good Engineering Team And Company](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/FWqTGeZYrXFohCOU38sR/)

Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 20] - Mentorship

Mentorship is one of the most skills to master as a software engineer, especially at senior levels. It is both a way for you to do some good and scale yourself. This lesson teaches you: 

- The difference between passive and active mentorship
- Ways to provide passive mentorship to teammates
- Why you should consider taking on an intern as a mid-level engineer growing to senior
- The jump in quality when it comes to mentorship advice given by a mid-level engineer vs. a senior engineer
- The key thing to remember when being an effective mentor

To learn how Alex was such an effective mentor: [\[Case Study\] Mentoring Junior SWEs \[E3\] to Senior \[E5\] In Just 2.5 Years At Meta](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/EX9563YnxcJb62cCmetg/case-study-mentoring-junior-swes-e3-to-senior-e5-in-just-25-years-at-meta/)

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

To find events like mock interview meetups: <https://www.jointaro.com/events/>

Join Alex's Group Office Hours to get additional support: <https://www.jointaro.com/p/alex-chiou/>

Start a discussion in the Taro Forum and get incredible career advice: <https://www.jointaro.com/questions/create/>

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/)

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

Master The Behavioral Interview [Part 24] - Challenge Yourself, Do Great Work

Behavioral interviews are fundamentally an exercise in storytelling. This means that in order to pass these interviews as a software engineer, you need great stories to begin with. This lesson teaches you:

- The 2-step process to become absolutely incredible at behavioral interviews
- The most common mistake software engineers make with their mentality when it comes to growth
- How to get better at coding, even if you're unemployed

For more resources on becoming a better software engineer:

- [\[Course\] Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [\[Course\] Build Side Projects With 500k+ Users: Coming Up With An Idea](https://www.jointaro.com/course/build-side-projects-with-500k-users-coming-up-with-an-idea/)
- [\[Taro Top 10\] How To Create Scope As An Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/EWIo3USNcsgXbCs5PS0h/)
- ["What are the Core skills a SDE should be consistently developing?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/Hs8VJtUb6bfTPjUgbj96/what-are-the-core-skills-a-sde-should-be-consistently-developing/)

Meet The Team

Software Engineering is a team sport, and therefore building strong relationships with your team is a prerequisite for your success. Book 1 on 1s with teammates proactively, and for key people, look into recurring meetings for the first month or two.

One useful thought exercise: think about **who can throw you under the bus?** By doing this pre-mortem (analysis *before* an issue has happened), you can take steps to make them like you and prevent an issue to begin with.

The other key component to building strong relationships with your team is to prioritize in-person interaction. 

- Trust is much, much easier built when you're in person compared to remote
- If you’re hybrid, try to come in as much as you can. Align on days when other people are in the office.

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.

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.**

Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer [Part 15] - Make It A  Little Better Each Time

We all want to make big, fast strides, but this is often hard to actually achieve. When it comes to leveling up your code quality, a lot of the battle is incremental. This lesson will teach you:

- A framework you can apply to your code repeatedly to make it better and strengthen your coding skills
- How small improvements here and there can really add up over time to increase the quality of a codebase and build up your respect among the team
- An organic trick that Alex and all his mentees used at Meta to strongly succeed on the technical axis and get promoted fast

Senior Staff Engineer at Cruise Shares The Most Important Skill - Rama Karve

[Rama Karve](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramakarve/) is a Senior Staff Software Engineer [L7] at the autonomous vehicle company Cruise, working on fleet management.

Previously, Rama spent 9 years at Meta and 9 years at Amazon as a software engineer. At the very senior levels, engineers have an impact in more unique ways, leveraging their strength as a generalist or specialist.

As one of the most senior engineers in the company, Rama says the most important skill at the Senior Staff level is to get disparate teams and systems to work together for the same goal. A further challenge here is to identify which teams or people even need to start working more closely together.

Rama has 2 pieces of advice for other Senior Staff Engineers:

1. **Figure out your superpower.** Understand what you are uniquely good at in the context of what the company is trying to accomplish.
2. **Give yourself time to ramp up.** Your impact is not as simple as writing a bit of code in the first week. The first few months should be dedicated to learning how things work.

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/)

Related:
- [How do I figure out whether I should stay as an IC engineer or explore management as an EM?](https://www.jointaro.com/question/Y6qIop9wpOlCYUL0nGs0/how-do-i-figure-out-whether-i-should-stay-as-an-ic-engineer-or-explore-management-as-an-em/)
- [[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 Journey to Staff Engineer In Big Tech (Panel Discussion)](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/SaYyJGLYvrAy4XGrDhy7/the-journey-to-staff-engineer-in-big-tech-panel-discussion/)
- [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/)
- Taro's top 10 to get promoted from [senior to staff engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/YD8LMCSlE71VUGUbNAWM/)

The Hardest Part Of Peer Feedback: Giving Them Constructive Criticism

- When the feedback prompt asks you for what your peer can improve on, it is *not* asking you what your peer is doing poorly. If you see your peer doing something toxic/negative, you should give them that feedback *immediately*. Don't wait 6-12 months until performance review season to drop this giant ball on them.
- The *real* question behind this prompt is: "How can your peer expand their scope?". This often times involves something they're already doing well that they can do even better and expand to achieve even greater impact.
- This question will be much easier to answer once you have a deep understanding of engineer levels as a lot of this feedback will be around what you think your peers can do to reach the next level.
- Example: Your peer is very passionate about automated testing and always pairs their landed code with robust test coverage. You suggest that they push to spread this behavior across the entire team with an overall testing initiative.

What People Get Wrong About The Manager To Software Engineer Relationship

A common mistake from more senior engineers is that they continue to assume that the manager is an authority figure. 

This is often the case, but doesn't have to be. David talks about a case in his past job where an IC on the team was more senior than him as the manager. And the IC engineer was objectively more important to the team, indicating the value of this senior-level person not only to getting work done, but also setting direction and giving feedback to others.

Senior engineers should view the relationship with the manager as a partnership rather than a person for whom they must *follow orders*. **The tech lead and manager have different but overlapping responsibilities in helping the team succeed**. Realizing this unlocks a more fruitful collaboration. 

Remember, managers will frequently have blind spots that a tech lead can point out. These insights and observations may manifest in actually pushing back on the manager's plans or strategy. This is a role that senior engineers should embrace.

- More from David: [https://www.jointaro.com/topic/david-pan/](https://www.jointaro.com/topic/david-pan/)
- [Onboarding as a Tech Lead at Robinhood in 1 Month](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/X8vpfJooDpsX915ouC00/case-study-becoming-a-tech-lead-again-in-just-1-month-after-joining-robinhood-from-meta/)
- [The EM "Partner In Crime": The Tech Lead](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/uZQZlS6tdXbztajM0tqa/the-em-partner-in-crime-the-tech-lead/)

DSA Interview Step Finale: Analyze Your Solution

You should proactively go over the time requirements, space requirements, and edge cases of your coding solution once you're finished coding.

Related resources:
- [[Taro Top 10] Effective Interview Prep](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/HLBYxJI7D1j8STolrwum/)
- [[Taro Top 10] Finding A Tech Job](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/E6R0wVJ5EyCfVnVrlfno/)

The Amazing Non-Money Benefits Of Working At Big Tech

The Resource You Need For Promotion That Few Understand

Which of the following is the resource needed for promotion that many engineers don't understand or even realize exists, particularly more junior ones?

True or false: When you are onboarding as a software engineer, the one and only thing that matters is your ability to understand the codebase and extend it.

Why is social capital important for senior engineers?

Why Time Is The Most Important Resource In The Tech Industry

Which one of these is a crucial skill working in a top tech company?

True or false: Time is an overpowered, often underappreciated resource.

20 Years Of Fighting Procrastination [Part 1] - Rahul's History With Procrastination

Welcome to our "20 Years Of Fighting Procrastination In 1 Hour" course! Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Your instructor Rahul Pandey goes through his personal experience struggling to get stuff done (and learning how to fix that)
- Focus on building systems that make it easy to do the right thing and hard to do the wrong thing, rather than relying on willpower
- The advice is tailored for people with autonomy over their time, not for those in reactive or manager-style roles

Manager vs. Maker schedule: <https://paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html>

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.