Grow From Senior To Staff Engineer [Part 15] - Why Have Archetypes?

Growing from junior (L3) to senior (L5) is largely foundational. This stops being the case when you get to staff. This lesson teaches you:

- What staff engineer archetypes are and how they help conceptualize the path to staff
- How to quickly and easily understand what each staff engineer archetype does
- A framework you can use to learn from the staff engineers in your team, particularly with what archetype they embody

Learn more about Talk & Observe: 

- Rahul's dedicated YouTube video: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV0nvusnqT4> 
- From the onboarding course: <https://www.jointaro.com/course/the-complete-onboarding-guide-for-software-engineers-succeeding-when-youre-new/the-talk-and-observe-framework/>

Rack Up Small Wins

A promising sign for a new employee is if they can have a quick win, no matter how small. This means you want to avoid ambiguous or complex projects.

Ideas for quick wins:

- Share something your learned
- Update docs and tell people about it (not to brag, but to invite feedback)
- Improve wikis by adding screenshots: e.g. a screenshot or video of the setup flow
- Fix a "papercut," e.g. a misspelling in the code or a minor bug

Notice that many of the ideas above don't even involve committing code!

Talk link: [Don't Walk Away from Complexity, Run! (Venkat Subramaniam)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6CYdTOLW8I)

Become An Engineer Influencer [Part 1] - What Is An Engineer Influencer?

An engineer influencer is an engineer who builds an audience on social media and uses that to kickstart their future startup or business.

Examples include:

- [Rahul Pandey](https://www.youtube.com/c/RahulPandeyrkp) - ex-Meta engineer, who leveraged his 60k followers on YouTube to launch Taro, a career-mentoring app that got into YCombinator

- [Gergely Orosz](https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz) - ex-Uber engineering manager, who used his Twitter following to grow his paid newsletter "The Pragmatic Engineer" to 140k readers in 18 months

- [Daniel Vassallo](https://twitter.com/dvassallo) - ex-Amazon engineer, who grew his following to 130k followers on Twitter and now teaches a highly successful cohort based class called "Portfolio of Small Bets"

Each of these engineer influencers focused on building their social media following first.

This helped them build credibility, expand their network, and guarantee them a distribution channel for their future product.

Connect with Michael:

- LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-lin-tech/>
- Twitter: [https://x.com/\_michaellin](https://x.com/%5C_michaellin)
- Newsletter: <https://www.michaellinwrites.com/>

Asking Questions Is NOT A Sign Of Weakness

Believing that asking questions and requesting help is a sign of weakness is easily one of the biggest misconceptions among onboarding software engineers and just people in general. If you believe this, you are simply holding back your career.

Here are the core points from the video:

- **Nobody knows everything** - And because of this, asking questions is a fundamentally human experience. There will always be some corner of the ecosystem that you don't know, and this is especially true when you work at FAANG / Big Tech, even if you're very tenured there.
- **Liberally pursue support** - This is especially true when you're earlier-in-career or new to a team or company. As long as you're polite, humble, and empathetic when seeking help, you'll be surprised at how much support you can get and how happy your team is to give it to you. Follow the advice here to learn how to ask questions in this way: ["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/)
- **Minimize the time that you're a n00b** - Let's say perception is a problem and people think you're annoying when you're asking for help as a new team member. It's much better to ask a *bunch* of questions in a short period of time and become very independent afterwards instead of asking a few questions here and there and prolonging the period where you're an inefficient newbie for 3-6 months and dragging down the team. The latter would be *much* more annoying.

Related resources:

- ["How do I not bother people when asking for help?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/0Im1Kcgso1fJ8eAX3oOO/how-do-i-not-bother-people-when-asking-for-help/)
- ["How do I balance being more independent and asking questions?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/cLsgiARaD5kVmV1BvdUi/how-do-i-balance-being-more-independent-and-asking-questions/)

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/)

Effective Communication Guide [Part 6] - Communicating In A Remote World

- What is lost in a remote work environment when it comes to communication?
  - **Volume:** A lot of ad-hoc communication ("water cooler chats") can't happen anymore.
  - **Depth of presence:** When you're on a video call, it's mainly just your face that's visible. In an in-person meeting, especially 1 on 1 meetings, your entire body is visible, which lets you express a lot more via your body language.
- **If you're comfortable, have video on during calls** - Use your facial expressions to really show that you're listening and truly hearing what the other person or people have to say.
- **Book 1 on 1s very aggressively** - 1 on 1 meetings are the core building block behind strong relationships. In an in-person environment, you will build relationships naturally through other means like team lunch, but since those are lost in a remote environment, you need to lean on 1 on 1s far more.
- **Get really good at technical writing** - In a remote world, especially with teams distributed across multiple time zones, a lot more communication has to happen asynchronously.
  - Project updates are very important in particular. It's much harder to stay aligned when everyone is apart.
  - If you aren't already, try to write a project update for your work every 2 weeks or more.

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

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/)

DSA Crash Course [Part 15] - Pair Product Walkthrough

In this lesson, Alvin walks through the python implementation for the *pair_product* problem.

Code along and test your work in the following editor workspace: <https://structy.net/problems/pair-product?language=py>

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/>

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.

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.

Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer [Part 17] - Technical Complexity

In order to get promoted, especially to senior levels and beyond, you need to work on technically complex problems. But here's the tricky party: How can you as a software engineer determine if a problem has enough technical complexity? This lesson teaches you:

- A simple framework to determine the technical complexity of a task
- The classic system design principal of *"Dumb client, smart server"* and how it relates to technical complexity
- How product and infra teams differ when it comes to their scope and how it affects promotion

Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer [Part 7] - The #1 Piece: Engineering Manager

In order to have a real shot promotion, you need an engineering manager who's in your corner. Despite this, so many software engineers index entirely on company and product space, ignoring this crucial angle. This lesson teaches you:

- Why your engineering manager is so important for your promotion case
- The #1 concept to remember when evaluating a manager to support your promotion
- The exact differences between an engineering manager who is great for your promotion vs. one who is more risky
- How to get the real information you need to judge an engineering manager

Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 7] - Take Greater Ownership

As a senior engineer, you need to show strong ownership. Many mid-level engineers are told this by their manager but are unsure as to what that means. This lesson teaches you:

- Why the "points" you get for impact aren't just correlated to the impact of the projects you work on
- How to get more credit for each project you work on
- What it means to show stronger, more holistic project ownership with a real-life example from Alex's past at Instagram

Learn more about project credit here: <https://www.jointaro.com/course/nail-your-promotion-as-a-software-engineer/its-not-just-about-impact/>

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.

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/)

Why Great Engineering Managers Are Like Captain America

There is far more to software engineering than shipping code. A truly effective engineering manager needs to step up with these issues to protect the team.

Here are the core points from the video:

- **A good engineering manager is a shield** - In particular, engineering managers should handle non-technical issues like politics and organizational thrash, abstracting that pain away from their engineers so they have the clarity to execute.
- **Alex's Manager Shielding Story** - When Alex joined his team at Robinhood, the product roadmap wasn't very clear. There definitely wasn't enough well scoped out work for the team to work on. To shield the team from this product direction thrash, he created a high-impact infrastructure project for the team to work on, giving them the scope necessary to not get destroyed in performance review from doing nothing.

If you're interested in how Alex led that Robinhood infrastructure project despite being new to the company, watch his case study about it here: [\[Case Study\] Becoming A Tech Lead Again In Just 1 Month After Joining Robinhood From Meta](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/X8vpfJooDpsX915ouC00/case-study-becoming-a-tech-lead-again-in-just-1-month-after-joining-robinhood-from-meta/)

Related resources:

- [How Do Effective Engineering Leaders Help Their Teams Achieve More?](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/xGJDCG7VL4hcZaq5XL92/how-do-effective-engineering-leaders-help-their-teams-achieve-more/)
- ["How possible is it to spot red flags about toxic culture during the interview?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/1JwmhC3Nh9Ku0fkDL1bq/how-possible-is-it-to-spot-red-flags-about-toxic-culture-during-the-interview/)

Thank People (A Lot!)

Properly thanking people is how you build social capital. Social capital is how you advance your career, build influence, and get promoted.

**Noob way of saying thank you**: "Thanks for the pointer" ❌

**Better way of saying thank you**: "That was so helpful, you unblocked a critical milestone of this project" ✅

Some other tips: 

- Thank them  in-person or over a call
- Write a heartfelt thank you note (1 paragraph)
- Let their manager know
- Thank in public forums
- Give them recurring thanks, e.g. in standup, at the team meeting, and when the project finishes

The Power Of Big Tech: Meta Interns Can Get $100k+ Signing Bonuses

Compensation is not talked about enough, leading to huge differences in awareness and feedback for different groups of people. This is a snippet from the full masterclass session about [Understanding And Optimizing Your Pay In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/gk408yBIV2fa5RjVR213/masterclass-understanding-and-optimizing-your-pay-in-tech/).

Some companies offer massive signing bonuses for interns that convert over to full-time. In the early 2010s, Facebook (not Meta) paid return interns a $75,000 signing bonus. For top interns (or those who negotiated), they received a $125,000 signing bonus.

For a new grad engineer who might be 21 or 22 years old, **this is a huge amount of money**. It can be difficult to turn that down. But the more important consideration is the overall total compensation (TC) calculation. Total compensation should be computed over a 4 year window since companies typically give out equity grants over 4 years.

For Rahul's full compensation breakdown of the 5 offers he received as a new grad, watch this video: [5 Offers w/ FAANG Companies As A New Grad: Details + Lessons](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/4MBOiqWEMbCTCcLPjisz/5-offers-w-faang-companies-as-a-new-grad-details-lessons/)

How to Crack System Design Interviews - Part 3: Building The Basic Design

After gathering requirements, we move on to creating a basic design for the system. This allows for flexibility and gives the interviewer insight into our strengths and areas for growth. Here's how we approach this stage:

- **Request-driven design:** We let the flow of requests through the system guide our design choices, identifying necessary components and databases along the way.
- **Leverage existing technologies:** We utilize familiar technologies and design patterns, treating them as black boxes that can be explored further if the interviewer wishes.
- **Maintain a balanced level of detail:** We provide a high-level design without being too vague, mentioning specific technologies and protocols where appropriate.
- **Expose relevant APIs:** We identify the necessary APIs for the system and consider whether multiple services and databases are needed.
- **Offer multiple options:** We demonstrate our understanding of trade-offs by suggesting multiple technologies or protocols and discussing their potential benefits and drawbacks.

[Gaurav Sen](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gkcs/) has conducted 1000s of system design interviews while working at Uber and building his [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@gkcs) to 500K+ subscribers. His platform [InterviewReady](https://interviewready.io/?_aff=JOINTARO) combines video explainers, live Zoom classes, and an automated System Design Judge.

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.