15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 19] - Work-Life Balance

We work to live, not live to work. Unfortunately, it can be very tricky living that reality, especially in the post-layoffs age of 2023 and onward. This lesson teaches you:

- Why your work-life balance isn't purely dictated by the company you work for
- Which factors you can adjust to facilitate work-life balance
- A healthy way to prevent yourself from sabotaging your own work-life balance

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 18] - Negotiation

You did it - You finally made it through the interview gauntlet and gotten an offer. However, you're not done yet. This lesson teaches you:

- Why you should always negotiate
- Why tech companies are not your friend (even FAANG when they give you an initial offer that has more money than you've ever seen)
- The #1 rule of negotiation that engineers constantly violate
- How tech compensation is more than just salary, especially at top companies

Take Rahul's full negotiation course here: [The Insider's Guide To Negotiating Your Tech Salary And Compensation](https://www.jointaro.com/course/the-insiders-guide-to-negotiating-your-tech-salary-and-compensation/)

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 17] - Promotion

Of course, you can switch jobs to progress your career, [but you will eventually hit a wall](https://www.jointaro.com/course/nail-your-promotion-as-a-software-engineer/you-cant-job-hop-to-success/). At the end of the day, you need to get promoted to have a meaningful long-term, professional trajectory. This lesson teaches you:

- Why working harder isn't enough to get you promoted
- The key to understanding how promotion works, particularly at top companies like FAANG
- How you need to evolve your behavior to reach senior levels and beyond

To dive deeper into getting promoted faster as an engineer, take our course here: [Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/nail-your-promotion-as-a-software-engineer/)

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 16] - Working With Your Manager

The single most important person in your professional life as a software developer is your engineering manager. This lesson teaches you:

- How most engineers perceive the engineer &lt;-&gt; engineering manager relationship incorrectly
- The importance of recurring 1 on 1 meetings between you and your manager
- How to get the most value from your manager 1 on 1s

To dive deeper into building a better relationship with your manager, take our course here: [Managing Up: Build Effective Relationships With Your Boss](https://www.jointaro.com/course/managing-up-build-effective-relationships-with-your-boss/)

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 15] - Onboarding

You have started a fancy new job at a company you really like. How do you hit the ground running and impress people fast? This lesson teaches you:

- Why being new is actually a superpower, not a weakness like many engineers think
- Why you need to be aggressive and extremely deliberate when onboarding, especially at the very beginning
- What you can do to *add value* while onboarding instead of merely absorbing value

To dive deeper into onboarding, take our course here: [The Complete Onboarding Guide For Software Engineers](https://www.jointaro.com/course/the-complete-onboarding-guide-for-software-engineers-succeeding-when-youre-new/)

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 14] - Choosing The Right Company

When you have a good engineer and a bad team, the bad team wins 99.9% of the time. This lesson teaches you:

- The first thing you need to do before even thinking about which company is best for you
- Where earlier-in-career engineers should (probably) go
- The foundational benefits of working at FAANG
- When it makes sense to work at startups

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

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 12] - System Design

System design is a crucial interview round, because it's both technical and actually needed on the job (unlike data structures and algorithms). This lesson teaches you:

- What a system design interview is looking for
- What not to do in a system design round
- How to learn system design organically

To dive deeper into system design interviews, take our course here: [How To Crack System Design Interviews As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/how-to-crack-system-design-interviews-as-a-software-developer/)

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 11] - Behavioral Rounds

Data structures and algorithms (DSA) suck up all the air in the room, but behavioral rounds are actually the most important interview round. This lesson teaches you:

- The signal behavioral interviews give that DSA interviews cannot
- The 3 keys you need to communicate in a behavioral interview
- How to structure your behavioral interview answers effectively

To dive deeper into behavioral interviews, take our course here: [Master The Behavioral Interview As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/master-the-behavioral-interview-as-a-software-engineer/)

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 10] - Data Structures And Algorithms

Because of Google, we all need to live in a LeetCode reality. Data structures and algorithms (DSA) are something we all love to hate, but at the end of the day, you need to master them to land a job at the world's leading tech companies. This lesson teaches you:

- Why grinding DSA is 100% worth it
- How the learning curve for DSA works (and why you shouldn't get discouraged)
- How to learn DSA properly
- The best tool to get for DSA prep
- What to do when you get stuck on a data structures and algorithms problem

To dive deeper into data structures and algorithms, follow our learning path here: [Crack The Data Structures And Algorithms Interview](https://www.jointaro.com/learning-paths/crack-the-data-structures-and-algorithms-interview/)

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 9] - Writing A Good Resume

Every successful job search starts off with a polished, well-written resume. However, there's so much online misinformation about what makes a good one. This lesson teaches you:

- Why it's best to keep your resume simple
- The optimal length for a software engineer resume
- How to think about summary sections on resumes

To dive deeper into writing a better resume, take our course here: [Get More Interviews: Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/get-more-interviews-write-a-stellar-resume-as-a-software-engineer/)

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 8] - Finding A Job

Finding a job as a software engineer sucks, especially when it comes to your first one. This lesson teaches you:

- How to differentiate yourself from the massive pool of other applicants
- Why most engineers have the wrong mentality going into interviews and how you should flip it to be much healthier
- How to structure your job search (and why you shouldn't just start off grinding LeetCode into oblivion)

To dive deeper into the full mechanics behind landing any tech job (FAANG, startups, etc), take our course here: [Ace Your Tech Interview And Get A Job As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/ace-your-tech-interview-and-get-a-job-as-a-software-engineer/)

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 7] - Imposter Syndrome (Building Confidence)

Software engineers are constantly underestimating themselves. This lesson teaches you:

- How to flip your mentality when it comes to everyone in tech being smarter than you
- The best environment to be in to maximize your growth
- How to quickly become stronger and get rid of your imposter syndrome

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 6] - Networking

Your network is your net worth. Too many software engineers neglect their social skills as they solely build up their technical skills. This lesson teaches you:

- Why networking isn't just "politics"
- The key to effective networking
- How altruism can produce massive career benefits, explained with a powerful, real-life example

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 5] - Succeeding In School

Most software engineers start off their journey in tech by getting a university degree. However, most students don't leverage their time in school optimally. This lesson teaches you:

- The most valuable asset you get from school (hint: it's not good grades)
- Why school isn't very effective at teaching you how to do software engineering in the real world
- What you should do instead to enhance your technical skills instead of purely focusing on getting good grades

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 4] - Debugging

No matter how careful you are as a software engineer, your code will always have bugs. On top of that, you will also need to spend time fixing bugs in code written by other people. This lesson teaches you:

- Why debugging is always a valuable skill (while feature development often isn't)
- How debugging forces you to develop a deeper understanding of the system
- The framework and process you need to understand in order to fix any bug

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 3] - Writing Good Code

With the rise of helpful online resources like StackOverflow and especially genAI tools like ChatGPT, learning to write code is now easier to ever. Where engineers earn their stripes (and the right to be paid $100k+ per year) is with their *code quality*. This lesson teaches you:

- The only true way to learn how to write good code
- Why copy-pasting what FAANG engineers do isn't a shortcut to writing good code
- How to objectively measure the quality of your code

To dive deeper into code quality, take our 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/)

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/)

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 1] - Rahul's Story

The best way to grow is to make mistakes, and [Rahul Pandey](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpandey1234/) is proud to say that he's made a lot of them (and learned a ton along the way). That's why this course exists - Rahul is here to teach you everything he's learned throughout his \~15 years of struggle, so you don't make the same mistakes he did.

In this lesson, Rahul covers:

- His prestigious background
- Why patience is key to actually learning and growing as a software engineer
- The core components behind a successful engineering career

Get The Rating You Deserve [Part 19] - Conclusion

**In this course, we’ve explored strategies for increasing our impact and achieving long-term success.**

We covered three key areas:

- **Understanding Impact Dynamics:** We learned how to create value and communicate it effectively to others.
- **Increasing Luck Surface Area:** We explored strategies for getting things done and sharing our work with the world.
- **Building an Empowering State:** We discussed the importance of cultivating a positive mindset, building strong relationships, and prioritizing self-care.

By applying these principles, we can improve our professional and personal lives. If you have any questions or would like to delve deeper into these concepts, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

If you want to get personalized support from Yogi, you can reach out to him at [**coaching@yogisharma.com**](mailto:coaching@yogisharma.com) or schedule an introductory call to dive into your situation at [**https://tinyurl.com/meetyogi**](https://tinyurl.com/meetyogi).

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.