How Managers Hire Great Engineers [Part 1] - How This Course Works

With this lesson, you’ll begin your learning journey of how to effectively manage the recruiting process to build a strong team. [John](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwegan/) shares personal experiences and actionable insights for hiring success. We go through the course objectives, and after this course, you will:

- Understand the importance of prioritizing recruitment and building a robust candidate pipeline
- Learn how to evaluate and troubleshoot the recruiting funnel to ensure a steady flow of qualified candidates
- Discover strategies for sourcing top talent, especially when resources are limited
- Gain techniques for closing candidates who have multiple job offers, including specific tactics and phrases

Connect with John Egan on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwegan/>

Become An Open Source Master [Part 1] - Course + James Intro

This course is a methodical guide to get you involved in open source. The course is led by James Pearce, a former engineering director at Meta. While mastery might be a lifelong journey, we'll cover the basics to get started.

- Gain insights from James's experience running one of the world's largest open source programs.
- The course will focus on individual involvement in open source (not running a program).
- Meta/Facebook has a strong open-source culture, using and creating software like React, Cassandra, and PyTorch. Here's the talk James gave at OSCON 2015: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBbDAk5WYEo>
- James has built his own open-source project called [tinybase](https://github.com/tinyplex/tinybase), a data store for local-first apps. Watch this course so you can contribute!

Connect with James: 

- GitHub: <https://github.com/jamesgpearce>
- Twitter (X): <https://twitter.com/jamespearce>

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 19] - Go Deeper: Follow Through

Ask questions in the Taro forum: <https://www.jointaro.com/questions/create/>

Take the related courses:

- [Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [Ask Great Questions That Get Great Answers Quickly](https://www.jointaro.com/course/ask-great-questions-that-get-great-answers-quickly/)
- [Become The Go-To Expert As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/become-the-go-to-expert-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/nail-your-promotion-as-a-software-engineer/)

Come to Alex's office hours (check the right-hand side): <https://www.jointaro.com/p/alex-chiou/>

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 18] - Done Is Better Than Perfect

We all make mistakes. In fact, we'll all make a lot of mistakes as software engineers, especially when we're junior. This lesson teaches you:

- The many types of dumb things you will inevitably do as a junior engineer (and continue doing as a mid-level/senior/staff/principal engineer)
- The simple growth mentality and formula you should follow to speed run the junior to mid-level engineer
- Why it's awesome to be the dumbest person in the room
- A simple mathematical way to understand the difference between a fast-growing junior engineer and a slow-growing junior engineer

Learn how to learn from your mistakes here: ["How to turn a string of silly mistakes into a mature positive outcome?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/JybGyc935lsYbM8dAo7Y/how-to-turn-a-string-of-silly-mistakes-into-a-mature-positive-outcome/)

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 17] - High-Level Roadmap

There's a bunch of different skills you need to develop as a junior engineer to grow to a mid-level engineer. To make things trickier, the order in which you develop them matters *a lot*. This lesson teaches you:

- The 4-phases high-level roadmap to grow from junior engineer to mid-level
- How long it takes to go from phase to phase on the mid-level engineer growth trajectory
- The necessary components you need to have to establish a strong presence on your team, strong enough to merit a mid-level engineer promotion

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 16] - Show Your Work

It's not enough to do the work - You also need to do the work to get full credit for it. This lesson teaches you:

- The 2 big components behind showing your work properly
- The differences between junior engineers and mid-level engineers when it comes to showing their work
- How mid-level engineers give far more effective status updates compared to junior engineers, explained with an in-depth example

Learn how to write an excellent project update post here: ["How to get more visibility on work?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/XA0X51AypDLCeVeleJv4/how-to-get-more-visibility-on-work/)

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 15] - Participating In Bigger Meetings

Big meetings can be daunting for engineers, especially junior ones - What if you say something dumb? This lesson teaches you:

- The difference between junior and mid-level engineers when it comes to meeting participation, explained with very simple pictures
- Tactics you can use to come up with more to say in meetings, even if you're the most junior person there
- A clever tactic you can use to participate in a meeting and add value to the discussion, even if you aren't entirely sure of what's going on

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 14] - 1 on 1 Meetings

1 on 1 meetings are some of the most important and powerful uses of time... when leveraged properly (which junior engineers often don't). This lesson teaches you:

- The difference between junior and mid-level engineers when it comes to 1 on 1 meetings
- The simple, proactive tactic you should use for every single 1 on 1 meeting you have to make them far more useful

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 13] - Be A Feedback Sponge

We all have blind spots, and you need feedback to see them. Getting feedback is especially important as an engineer given how information-dense the software field is. This lesson teaches you:

- Why a surprising amount of junior engineers are terrible with feedback
- Why you should almost never push back against feedback you disagree with
- How not being good with feedback can severely damage your career, explained with an in-depth example
- The differences between junior and mid-level engineers when it comes to handling feedback

For additional inspiration on truly becoming a feedback sponge, check out the words of wisdom from OpenAI ChatGPT engineer [Philip Su](https://www.linkedin.com/in/suphilip/) here: ["What's the core insight behind quick growth?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/nJ762p255cGyuth36H6w/whats-the-core-insight-behind-quick-growth/)

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 12] - Disambiguation

Engineers will constantly get tasks that aren't fully defined, especially if they work at a top tech company like FAANG. This lesson teaches you:

- The differences between junior and mid-level engineers when it comes to disambiguation
- How mid-level engineers are much more effective at disambiguation compared to junior engineers, explained with an in-depth example

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 11] - Ask Great Questions

In order to grow fast as an engineer, you need to ask a lot of questions. This lesson teaches you:

- The differences between junior and mid-level engineers when it comes to asking question, particularly question quality
- What a junior engineer question looks like vs. a mid-level engineer question
- How to demonstrate technical mastery in your questions to make yourself look even better when asking for help

Master the art of question asking with our course: [Ask Great Questions That Get Great Answers Quickly](https://www.jointaro.com/course/ask-great-questions-that-get-great-answers-quickly/)

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 10] - Be Vulnerable

As a junior engineer, you will have a lot of weaknesses. How you deal with them will greatly determine how fast you grow. This lesson teaches you:

- The definition of true strength and how it relates to being vulnerable
- A simple strategy to become very independent very quickly
- The difference in mindset when it comes to independence for junior engineers vs. mid-level engineers
- Why you can't solo-study your way towards becoming a great engineer

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 9] - Become A Go-To Person

One of the most obvious signs of engineer seniority is that everybody on their team goes to them for help with certain areas. More senior = more areas. This lesson teaches you:

- The easy way to understand the difference in mentality between junior and mid-level engineers when it comes to ownership
- How to become a go-to person for your area
- The one mantra you need to follow to organically deduce all the proper action items to become a go-to person

Speed run your way to becoming a go-to person with [Jordan's](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordancutler1/) course: [Become The Go-To Expert As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/become-the-go-to-expert-as-a-software-engineer/)

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 8] - Debugging

When it comes to software, there will always be bugs. What many realizes don't realize is that your attitude towards bugs is a huge marker of your seniority. This lesson teaches you:

- Why junior engineers usually don't get assigned bugs
- The differences between junior engineers and mid-level engineers when it comes to bugs
- How to evaluate bug complexity overall
- What a mid-level engineer bug looks like vs. a junior engineer bug

Improve your debugging ability with our masterclass: [\[Masterclass\] How To Become A Debugging Master And Fix Issues Faster](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/ioR6WzamAIUTpySLAr7o/masterclass-how-to-become-a-debugging-master-and-fix-issues-faster/)

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 7] - Code Review

As a mid-level engineer, it's not enough to write good code yourself - You need to help others write good code as well. This lesson teaches you:

- How junior and mid-level engineers differ when it comes to code review quantity, shown with concrete Meta numbers
- The difference between a junior engineer code review comment vs. a mid-level engineer code review comment, explained with an in-depth example

Get better at code review with our masterclass: [\[Masterclass\] How To Do Amazing Code Review](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/rhRFh49oouaUDhWUvkQb/masterclass-how-to-do-amazing-code-review/)

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 6] - Code Quality

In order to survive as a junior engineer, you need to learn how to code fast. The next step is to learn how to code *well*. This lesson teaches you:

- The 2 core components behind code quality
- The differences between junior and mid-level engineers when it comes to their pull request quality
- The many ingredients behind a clean pull request and which ones matter the most
- What a clean pull request looks like, one showing strong mid-level engineer behavior
- The differences between junior and mid-level engineers when it comes to their technical decision making
- Why communication is so important when it comes to technical decisions and how mid-level engineers do it better than junior engineers
- How to understand seniority from fresh junior to strong mid-level through the lens of technical decision making
- A simple metric to measure your code quality and see if you're making good progress to mid-level

Take the code quality 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/)

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 5] - Decomposition

As a junior engineer, you will inevitably get a problem that's super scary which you have 0 idea how to solve. This will probably happen sooner rather than later. This lesson teaches you:

- The core tactic you need to master to solve large, incredibly complex problems
- Why decomposition is critical to being a good engineer
- The differences between junior and mid-level engineers when it comes to decomposition
- What it means to effectively decompose a problem, shown with an in-depth example

Take the code quality 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/)

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 4] - Structuring Your Growth

Even though junior engineer to mid-level engineer is the 1st and easiest promotion, it's still a meaningful evolution with many parts. This lesson teaches you:

- The 3 core areas of improvement to grow from junior -&gt; mid-level
- The most important area to improve to make the junior -&gt; mid-level promotion
- How you should process the advice from this course

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 3] - It's On You

For later promotions (i.e. senior and beyond) there are many other factors at play besides your personal skill and growth. This isn't the case for junior engineer -&gt; mid-level engineer. This lesson teaches you:

- The fundamental difference between the junior -&gt; mid-level promotion and others when it comes to landing impact
- How to choose teams and projects as a junior engineer aiming to grow fast
- What matters when it comes to the junior -&gt; mid-level promotion

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

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 2] - At A Glance: Junior Vs. Mid-Level

What exactly does it mean to be a junior engineer vs. a mid-level engineer? What's the gap? This lesson teaches you:

- What it means at a high-level to be a junior vs. a mid-level engineer
- The difference in execution between a junior engineer and a mid-level engineer
- The types of tasks junior engineers work on vs. a mid-level engineer
- The ownership and scope difference between a junior vs. a mid-level engineer
- The difference in organizational complexity between junior engineers and mid-level engineers

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.