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

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/)

Top System Design Interview Mistakes [Part 16] - Outro

Congratulations on making it to the end of the course! If you have any thoughts, we would love to hear them over at [Formation.dev](https://formation.dev/partners/taro):

- Connect with me (Sophie) on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophienovati/>
- Follow [Formation.dev](https://formation.dev/partners/taro) on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/company/formation-dev/>

As a reminder, if you need extra help with your system design interview, Formation can provide you hands-on, personalized support. Join us here: <https://formation.dev/partners/taro>

Now that you've mastered the system design interview, check out our behavioral interview course next: [\[Course\] Master The Behavioral Interview As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/master-the-behavioral-interview-as-a-software-engineer/)

Top System Design Interview Mistakes [Part 15] - Don't Ask For Too Much Permission

In this lessons, we address a common mistake, especially among junior engineers - Asking for too much permission. This often stems from a lack of confidence and a desire to avoid making decisions. Here are the core points:

- We often encounter candidates who, after discussing various options for solving a problem, defer decision-making to the interviewer

- Instead, we should make decisions ourselves. We can evaluate the options based on their trade-offs and choose the best one

- By taking ownership and driving the design, we demonstrate strong decision-making skills

- While it’s important to ask clarifying questions, we should avoid relying too heavily on the interviewer for directional guidance. Instead, we should proactively drive the conversation and make decisions that address the key issues.

If you need extra help with your system design interview, [Formation.dev](https://formation.dev/partners/taro) can provide you hands-on, personalized support. Join us here: <https://formation.dev/partners/taro>

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.