The 3 Core Performance Review System Archetypes

- 3 archetypes:
  - Ad-hoc spaghetti (small companies): No ratings, no recurring timeline, no formal process to get feedback
  - Manager determines all (traditional companies): Manager determines 90%+ of your rating. Used by most companies.
  - **360 feedback** (modern, mature companies): Get feedback from all directions.
- 360 feedback is the best system, and it's used by pretty much all the top companies like Meta and Google.

Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer [Part 13] - Create An Expectations Plan

Don't leave your promotion to chance - Getting promoted as a software engineer should be as close to a contract as possible. This lesson teaches you:

- Why you need an expectations plan to get promoted efficiently
- The right mentality to have when it comes to crafting an expectations plan
- How to organize your expectations plan, particularly at bigger tech companies
- What a top-tier expectations plan looks like with a real, in-depth example from Meta

If you're interested in the growth plan mentioned in the video, here it is: [Meta E4 -&gt; E5 Growth Plan](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/tech-career-growth.appspot.com/o/articles%2Fmeta_e4_to_e5_growth_plan.pdf?alt=media&token=e13d88fd-9356-4c20-a229-cf0cad78a9af)

[Become A Go-To Person 5/18] Become The Technical Expert

A course by [Jordan Cutler](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordancutler1/), Senior Software Engineer at Pinterest and Author of the [High Growth Engineer Newsletter](https://read.highgrowthengineer.com/)

[Distributed Systems Deep Dive] Design a KV such as Dynamo DB

This is a session on DynamoDB if you're looking to understand how to design a distributed key-value stores. We'll start with what DynamoDB is and why people are using it. Expect a run-through of its architecture and a straightforward explanation of how data gets sliced for efficiency. We'll also cover what happens when things go south and how DynamoDB keeps data consistent and up-to-date as well as the pros and cons.

If you write code and care about making it scale, this will be worth your time.\
\
**Dynamo Basics:** Understand what DynamoDB is built for and when to use it over other databases.

1. **Architecture:** Get to grips with DynamoDB's architecture - how it's built to scale effortlessly and provide consistent performance.

2. **Data Handling:** Learn about partitioning strategies that spread data across nodes effectively and replication techniques that prevent data loss.

3. **Resolving Conflicts:** Master vector clocks for resolving data conflicts in a system designed for eventual consistency.

4. **Operational Workflow:** Gain insight into the lifecycle of 'put' and 'get' operations and how DynamoDB handles data under the hood.

5. **Merkle Trees:** Understand how DynamoDB uses Merkle trees to synchronize data across distributed systems efficiently.

6. **Gossip Protocol:** Learn the workings of the gossip protocol for node communication and how it contributes to DynamoDB's robustness.

Thanks to [Alex Poon](https://www.linkedin.com/in/thealexpoon/) for leading this session!

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 16] - Mentor And Delegate

Many software engineers are naturally lone wolves due to their introverted nature. While this can work out as a junior or mid-level engineer, it quickly becomes unsustainable as you reach senior/staff levels and beyond due to the immense workload. This lesson teaches you:

- Why being a lone wolf is terrible for your productivity
- The importance of uplifting others around you when it comes to getting stuff done
- One of the core virtues the best engineers have, which is particularly needed for mentorship

Here's Alex's Meta mentorship case study: [\[Case Study\] 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/?playlistId=oLssVMdTJ9NtX5SX1fek)

DSA Crash Course [Part 32] - Reverse List Approach

In this lesson, Alvin explores the strategy to solving the following interview problem:

> Write a function, *reverse_list*, that takes in the head of a linked list as an argument. The function should reverse the order of the nodes in the linked list **in-place** and return the new head of the reversed linked list.

```
a = Node("a")
b = Node("b")
c = Node("c")
d = Node("d")
e = Node("e")
f = Node("f")
a.next = b
b.next = c
c.next = d
d.next = e
e.next = f

# a -> b -> c -> d -> e -> f
reverse_list(a) # f -> e -> d -> c -> b -> a
```

```
x = Node("x")
y = Node("y")
x.next = y

# x -> y
reverse_list(x) # y -> x
```

```
p = Node("p")

# p
reverse_list(p) # p
```

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/>

Master The DSA Interview [Part 8] - Clarify The Problem

Don't just start coding when you get a data structures and algorithms problem in an interview. This lesson teaches you:

- The first thing you should do when getting a data structures and algorithm problem, which is critical for setting you up for success
- Why dealing with ambiguity is so important as an engineer
- The overall question categories you should pull from when clarifying a problem
- How exactly to clarify a data structures and algorithms problem, shown with an in-depth example

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 33] - Understanding Big Tech Interviews

For many software engineers on the interview grind, FAANG is **the** pinnacle, the dream destination. However, Big Tech interviews are so frustrating and notorious for their difficulty. Why is that? This lesson teaches you:

- The general perspective of Big Tech when it comes to hiring software engineers
- What centralized hiring is, why it's unique, and how it affects the interview process (particularly for 2 certain FAANG companies)
- Which interview types are more common for Big Tech and why
- Which interview types are less common for Big Tech and why

To dive deeper into cracking the FAANG interview: [\[Taro Top 10\] Breaking Into FAANG](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/roKqDHgxu4C5CioEFpJY/)

Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer [Part 21] - Non-Descriptive Names

Naming: It's important for your children but quite important for your code as well. When it comes to your variables, methods, and classes, you should put in the effort to name them properly. This lesson will teach you:

- Why descriptive, high-effort names can add up to add a huge amount of quality to a codebase
- How to identify a poor name in code and the common patterns leading to it
- How much time you should spend on each type of name and how to prioritize accordingly, particularly in code review feedback
- The mentality to convert bad names to good names in code with an in-depth example walking through a classic utility method

[Case Study] How Engineers Unlock Huge Impact With Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This was a joint presentation from engineers who have been using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to become significantly more productive. The result is fewer repetitive tasks, fewer bugs, and more impact. The AI transformation is not some future technology that we are anticipating -- **it's happening now**. ChatGPT is the fastest application ever to reach 100M monthly active users.

We can broadly categorize AI tools into 2 buckets (generative vs analysis). Think about what is most helpful for your job and dig into other tools in that domain.

We focus primarily on productivity benefits from conversational agents like ChatGPT, Bard, and Anthropic. **The first response is usually generic and unhelpful, but simple tricks can make the output significantly more valuable**. Sample prompts: *"How can I send a text message in a Rails app with Twilio?"* and *"How can I show a div in the screen after 15 seconds of inactivity on a webpage?"*

Top 5 prompt engineering tips for Software Engineers: 
1. Ask ChatGPT to list its steps, work, or sources
2. Split your prompt into clear sections
3. Use “unique”, “unconventional”, and “creative” to get better responses
4. Make ChatGPT roleplay
5. Give ChatGPT examples of correct inputs and outputs

Some sample prompts from Jordan's [summary doc](https://www.notion.so/jordancutler/GPT-prompts-90179f5fc49440c6bffaeb94e5cfcb4c?pvs=4): 
- **[Feedback]** "Tell me 5 reasons this feature won’t work as intended"
- **[Engineering]** "Given the following code, write a comprehensive test suite in X testing library"
- **[Learning]** "Explain { topic } as if I am a principal software engineer with 10+ years of experience. Go into deep technical detail and explain how it works under the hood"
- **[Meetings]** "I’m a junior software engineer at a Series A tech company. Can you come up with 10 topics for me to talk with my manager about in our 1-1?"

Here are the top paid tools that the speakers use: 
- [Github Copilot](https://github.com/features/copilot) - $10/month
- [ChatGPT Plus](https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-plus) - $20/month
- [Notion AI](https://www.notion.so/product/ai) - $10/month

Speakers:
- [Donn Felker](https://twitter.com/donnfelker)
- [Jordan Cutler](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordancutler1/)
- [Mike Alnakhaleh](https://www.linkedin.com/in/malik-mike-a-32b63818b/)

Related resources on Taro:
- ["How to AI proof your career?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/3xg5SvXnyTQ0mhNLfbK1/how-to-ai-proof-your-career/)
- ["Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in side projects?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/20UiCYH3QwkWkvGTrFsY/using-artificial-intelligence-ai-in-side-projects/)
- ["ChatGPT plugins to your IDE - How to prepare?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/ZqQiiaPjpzYQ8XKPOQZK/chatgpt-plugins-to-your-ide-how-to-prepare/)
- [The slides for this presentation](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1lfMP8qlSix6IDNAUbyraamLgtIHwkxbbQgbpgcBqr2c/edit?usp=sharing)

DSA Crash Course [Part 25] - Linked List Values Walkthrough

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

Code along and test your work in the following editor workspace: <https://structy.net/problems/linked-list-values?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/>

How to Crack System Design Interviews - Part 7: System Design Scorecard

This video explains how candidates are evaluated and scored in system design interviews at large tech companies. We learn about the scorecard used to assess performance across five key parameters:

- **Problem Scope:** This includes listing and clarifying product requirements, discussing user interactions and expectations, and considering system scale.

- **Technical Design:** This involves making appropriate design choices, leveraging design patterns, and demonstrating knowledge of relevant technologies.

- **Scalability:** This encompasses designing a system that can handle increasing amounts of data and traffic.

- **Reliability:** This involves ensuring the system is fault-tolerant and can handle failures gracefully.

- **Communication:** This includes effectively conveying ideas, actively listening to the interviewer, and incorporating feedback.

Each parameter is scored from 0 to 5, with a total score ranging from 0 to 25. A higher score indicates a stronger candidate, and the acceptable score range varies depending on the target seniority level.

[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.

Amazing Pull Request Example - Showing The Context

In this video segment, we highlight a real-world example of a **high-quality code review** that demonstrates how providing strong context can dramatically improve the review process. This example reinforces the idea that well-documented pull requests reduce friction and foster better collaboration.

### Key Takeaways:

- **We showcase an exemplary pull request**: Submitted by a community member to the Tech Career Growth app, this PR included everything a reviewer needs—clear references, detailed explanations, and strong rationale.
- **We value clear linkage to issue tracking**: By referencing the related GitHub issue, the diff immediately communicates *why* it exists and what it’s solving—eliminating ambiguity.
- **We appreciate front-loaded context**: The PR offered an in-depth explanation of the author’s approach and alternatives considered, allowing us to understand the logic behind each code decision before even reading the code.
- **We reduce review overhead with context**: This kind of thoughtful diff saves time, prevents unnecessary back-and-forth, and lets reviewers dive straight into meaningful feedback.
- **We encourage others to learn from good examples**: We’re sharing this PR and slide deck so our community can use it as a model for writing better pull requests and improving team productivity.

**Here's why this pull request is great:**

- Has the relevant context behind why this PR exists and what it does
- Goes through the considered approaches to the problem and why the current one was chosen
- Links relevant resources that helped write the code

You can find the pull request that is shared in the video here: <https://github.com/Gear61/tcg-android-archive-and-feedback/pull/19>

Engineer Your Ideal Tech Career [Part 3] - What Drives You?

In this video, we explore the major areas of motivation for individuals in their career, and give you an opportunity to reflect on which resonates most with you.

Try to lean one way or the other on your worksheet vs. selecting a rating right in the middle!

We cover being driven by:

- Mission
- Technical Work
- Team

Looking for mentorship from tech’s top engineers + 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] Hypercharging Your Growth At Early Startups (w/ Staff Engineer Seed Zeng)

[Click here for the presentation slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZocNUZJL-feWAKoucVLUcaVxix2Xa1udEL4KpgQRBTo/edit?usp=sharing).

There are a *ton* of great points covered in this session, so we'll only share our Top 5:
- **Startups have massive scope** - In an early-stage startup, there is always an infinite supply of hard, technically deep problems. This allows you to have a lot of freedom choosing an opportunity that works well for you and build up a wide breadth of important skills. This is almost always *not* the case in Big Tech - [Check out this expert career advice on the difference between Big Tech and startups when it comes to learning](https://link.jointaro.com/n57gbTWERveGTQuM9).
- **Don't say "I'm not qualified to work on this"** - The best software engineers are able to adapt to any situation their team faces and add value regardless of what framework or tech stack is needed. In order to do that, you must first flip this fearful mentality. [Here's our masterclass on how to learn quickly in tech](https://link.jointaro.com/S2h95sJvRU8Utjj6A).
- **Don't be afraid to make mistakes** - Recovering from a mistake is one of the most powerful ways to learn, and startups will generally have more tolerance for mistakes as stakes are lower compared to a more mature, massive public company where product issues can make the news. [Here's our advice on how to maximize your growth from mistakes](https://link.jointaro.com/THof1u97Z5t1ovCr9).
- **80% of the journey is just showing up** - Seek out important, complex situations and run towards them instead of away from them, especially with production issues. If you're earlier-in-career, you can learn a lot simply by being a participant in fixing these fires; from there, you can make yourself a core driver more and more. [Here's our advice on how you can be more independent debugging tricky technical problems](https://link.jointaro.com/xE8oMpCaDYjuMhCg7).
- **It's all about the people** - Your career growth is largely a product of the people you surround yourself with, and this is especially true in a startup where the team is small, bonds are deep, and everybody knows each other. [Here's our advice on how to network effectively within a company](https://link.jointaro.com/Hr1nr53D7sfQAEv3A).

To see (and hear) more from Seed:
- [Connect with him on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/seedzeng/)
- [Check out his podcast "Superposition"](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL3N1cGVycG9zaXRpb25zaG93L2ZlZWQueG1s?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwjot6up4Zf7AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ&hl=en)

Related resources:
- [Session #6 - Maximizing SWE Growth: Ownership and Specialization At Startups](https://link.jointaro.com/2ZevbN54MPZPTocH8)
- ["What's the difference between Big Tech and startups in terms of learning and growth?"](https://link.jointaro.com/n57gbTWERveGTQuM9)

What Happens After Onboarding Success?

Congratulations, you made it to the end of the course, [The Complete Onboarding Guide For Software Engineers](https://www.jointaro.com/course/the-complete-onboarding-guide-for-software-engineers-succeeding-when-youre-new/)!

Here are the major takeaways we covered:

- Attack your onboarding with a plan
- Figure out your support channels
- Make it easy to receive help
- Get your hands on the keyboard

Send me feedback at [team+onboarding@jointaro.com](mailto:team+onboarding@jointaro.com)

From Layoff To Liftoff As An Immigrant - By Rashmi Kishore (Senior Intuit/Netflix SWE)

In August 2022, Silicon Valley engineer [Rashmi Kishore](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rashmi-kishore-software-engineer/) was hit with something too many of us are unfortunately familiar with: Layoffs. She lost her job at Netflix and was immediately put under time pressure to find new employment as she was on a visa.

Rashmi was able to overcome the odds, and she's now at Intuit. In this session, she talked about:

- Quickly picking up the interview game again to land an offer
- Managing the stress of the layoff atmosphere and immigration issues
- Handling the logistics of being on a visa in the US

For more help navigating layoffs, check out our curated playlist: [\[Taro Top 10\] Navigating Tech Industry Layoffs](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/pE7pP0nXDx4X7mOChzHS/)

System Design Series: Taro Playlists [Part 9] - Thinking Into The Future

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 are doing a system design at your job!

The system design tactics are covered in the doc linked above, so this summary will focus on the "meta" context behind this part and additional commentary:

- Products are rarely shipped in isolation: You will almost always iterate on them in the future, extending them and adding new features.
- You should always take some time to think into the future for your project. The amount of time you take will vary a lot based on situation, but it generally plays out like this across company types:
  - **Smaller companies and startups**: Spend less time as goal is to ship, and it's unclear if the company will survive to even iterate.
  - **Big Tech/FAANG**: Spend a lot of time as these companies need to think long-term to maintain their massive market presence.
- When coming up with future iterations during your system design, order them by likelihood of doing and level of priority.
  - Spend more time thinking through the scenarios at the upper end of the list and incorporate them into your system design if they are very likely to be done in the next couple months.
  - Your goal is avoid a scenario where you need to extend your system shortly after it's launched, but it's so brittle and fragile that you would need to rewrite huge swaths of it to accommodate the new use-cases.
- However, this is a failure mode on the opposite extreme and that is being unreasonably forward thinking and over-engineering your system as a result. Making a protocol more generic and scalable almost always takes more time.
- When building systems or services, seriously think about the assumptions you are making.
  - Will the input this API takes in always be in this format and have certain fields?
  - Will this hard-coded if-statement start blocking valid control flows in the future?

This Is What Most Companies Get WRONG About Promotion

- 2 types of promotion:
  - **Strong companies:** Already functioning at the next level
  - **Weak companies:** Mastery of current level + long tenure
- In the best tech companies, each level is fundamentally different from the previous one. This is why promotion is lagging there: You need to be functioning at the next level consistently for 3-6 months before getting promotion.
- The goal is to avoid the Peter Principle: Getting promoted to higher and higher levels until you are completely incompetent. When levels are truly meaningful, it's really easy to be doing great at your current level and then be struggling to survive at the next one.

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 21] - Recruiter Screen

Having a recruiter talk to you is one of the most common ways tech companies start the interview process for software engineers. Here's the thing: These recruiter screen ones can be surprisingly tricky for many software engineers. This lesson teaches you:

- When recruiter screens happen
- How difficult recruiter screens can be, how often software engineers fail them, and why many software engineers are terrible at them (when they really shouldn't be)
- What to expect in a recruiter screen so you can pass it with ease

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.