Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 13] - ATS Obsession

With so many resumes being sent in to any decent engineer job opening, automation is often deployed to filter out resumes. The big piece behind this is the ATS. This lesson teaches you:

- What an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is
- How the ATS fits into the tech recruiting pipeline and how engineers commonly misunderstand that process
- What engineers usually do to incorrectly optimize for the ATS while sabotaging their overall changes
- What you need to do to properly get past the ATS

Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer [Part 6] - An Easy Way To Understand The Next Level

What does it actually take to get promoted? A lot of software engineers are overwhelmed with all the possible ways to grow, which ultimately leads to inaction. This lesson teaches you:

- A straightforward mental framework to understand why you aren't at the next level yet
- Questions you can ask yourself to identify gaps in your behavior to level up

The #1 Principle To Remember When Authoring A Code Review

In this video, we discuss the most important mindset shift for code authors: **writing code with empathy for reviewers**. Code review is a collaborative act, and how we prepare and present our diffs directly impacts team productivity, trust, and code quality.

### Key Takeaways:

- **We write diffs with empathy**: The most valuable thing we can do as authors is consider how to make the review experience smoother for others. Clear, concise diffs help teammates help us faster and more effectively.
- **We respect reviewers’ time**: Reviewers choose to help us—they’re not obligated. Reviewing interrupts their own deep work and requires mental context-switching, so we express appreciation by submitting clean, readable diffs.
- **We build trust and social capital through quality**: Writing thoughtful diffs with summaries and test plans helps us gain faster approvals and earns the trust of teammates and tech leads.
- **We know we’ll be reviewers too**: As we grow in our careers, we’ll spend more time reviewing others’ code. We want our teammates to be just as thoughtful when submitting their diffs to us.
- **We lead by example**: High-quality, empathetic diffs set the cultural tone for our team. We improve the entire engineering environment by holding ourselves to the same standards we hope to receive.

[Case Study] Maximizing SWE Growth: Ownership and Specialization At Startups

**Huge** thanks to [Henry Prior](https://www.linkedin.com/in/henryprior/) for joining us and sharing his perspective and insights!

This was a *massive* session, so here are just some of the highlights:
- **Henry's core learning**: Bias towards action. You aren't really going to truly understand what is and what isn't fruitful to you until you just start trying things.
- **Story #1** - At his first startup job, Henry found a project to upgrade from Tensorflow 1 to 2. This ended up moving the metric he cared about, but he found out later that the business impact wasn't great. The company's clients were non-technical and didn't really care about the company's model being ultra-accurate.
- **Story #2** - Found a reinforcement learning project at his next company where he did all the modeling on his own and worked closely with an infra engineer to ship. The work was very complex and had huge impact, saving ~25 hours per week in Data Scientist cycles. He got massive recognition from the company, and this project was a big part of his move to senior.
- You have a lot of autonomy in early stage startups. Take advantage of this and actively look for large problems to solve, doing so as early as the interview process. It's not like Big Tech where you are generally given a good amount of direction on what to do (at least until you get to staff).
- *It's in your best interest to be completely authentic when interviewing with a startup.* It's not like Big Tech where you're putting on a facade to meet their interview requirements. A startup might not be the right for you due to a lack of work in your interest area: Big Tech in contrast has a little bit of everything.
- *If you're going to get into machine learning, you should understand the underlying math first.* This puts you in a much better position to work on the modeling part of ML vs. the more tertiary tasks like data wrangling. The math is a combination of probability/statistics, linear algebra, and calculus.
- **You can't study your way to being good at system design.** Resources like books and blog posts help, but system design is something you very much have to get good at by doing. Instead of just leaping into the code, start planning out your tasks and doing technical writing. From there, share your material with your team and get feedback.

Related resources:
- ["What's the difference between Big Tech and startups in terms of learning and growth?"](https://link.jointaro.com/yzWgzTF4WFzfXjS29)
- ["Does it make sense for me to choose a specialization like ML? If so, what's the impact?"](https://link.jointaro.com/jV34Jz7cJqQv2MpD8)

Onboarding With A Probation Period

Because labor laws outside the US can make it difficult to fire someone, many companies will add more barriers before you are a full-time employee at the company with benefits. They will make employees work during a probation period before deciding to offer full-time employment. Contract-to-hire is another common way that this manifests ("try before you buy").

Here are some tips if you're working on this model:

- Chat with your manager early (ideally even before you join) so you can hit the ground running and make a good first impression.
- Information access may be limited, so call out when this happens. You don't want something outside your control to reflect poorly on you.
- Understand the criteria you’re being judged on, e.g. code commits, code reviews, design docs, etc. Track these metrics diligently, and you can even report on them regularly.

Relevant discussion: [I’m starting at Apple with a 3 month probation as a new grad. How should I think about the probation period?](https://www.jointaro.com/question/JtFLSdc1ShdaqiIyFcqe/im-starting-at-apple-with-a-3-month-probation-as-a-new-grad-how-should-i-think-about-the-probation-period/)

Ace The ML System Design Interview [Part 3] - Big Picture Design

A strong big-picture system design is crucial for success in machine learning system design interviews. It's not about drawing a perfect diagram immediately, but about demonstrating an understanding of the system's components and their interactions. Here are the core points from this lesson:

- Identify the inputs and outputs of the system during the alignment phase to establish a foundation for building the diagram
- Start with the user and the service, then progressively add components, especially those involving machine learning, to illustrate the flow of data and processes
- Break down machine learning components beyond a single "ML system" box to show the different stages and types of models involved
- Include essential infrastructure elements, such as feature stores, to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the system
- Iterate on the diagram, adding or modifying components as a deeper understanding of the problem and its requirements develops

If you like what Ilya has to say, subscribe to his YouTube for more high-quality ML/AI career guidance: [MLEpath - YouTube](https://go.mlepath.com/taro-youtube-mlepath)

If you want hands-on support from Ilya to crack the FAANG ML interview, join his coaching program: [MLEpath - Coaching Program](https://go.mlepath.com/taro-march-25)

Break Into Tech And Become A Software Engineer [Part 8] - It's All About Time Management

In this lesson, Brian addresses the challenge of finding time to code amidst a busy life, offering practical strategies for better time management.

This lesson covers:

- Identifying time-wasting activities and making sacrifices, like cutting back on social media or entertainment, to create more time for learning
- Planning the most important task of the day the night before and waking up 30-45 minutes earlier to focus on it without distractions
- Working in short, productive sprints to maximize efficiency and avoid burnout

If you need extra help breaking into tech, join Brian's exclusive, cohort-based bootcamp (just 10 students per batch). Use this special link for $800 off: <https://www.parsity.io/taro>

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianjenney/>

[Become A Go-To Person 2/18] What Industry Experts Say

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/)

[Timeless Career Advice] Startup vs Big Tech

One of the fundamental questions you face as an engineer is where to work. Should you join a startup, medium-sized company, or Big Tech? What are the pros or cons of working at a tech or non-tech company?

Connect with Louie:

- SmallBets community: [**https://smallbets.com/?utm_source=taro**](https://smallbets.com/?utm_source=taro)
- Twitter: [**https://twitter.com/LBacaj**](https://twitter.com/LBacaj)
- Newsletter: [**https://newsletter.memesmotivations.com/**](https://newsletter.memesmotivations.com/)

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 16] - Leveling

For the vast majority of engineers, they want to get the highest level they possibly can from an interview opportunity. How you write your resume is a substantial part of achieving this goal. This lesson teaches you:

- How to format your resume based on what level you were at different points in time
- How including your exact promotions can actually hurt you
- When to include your level on a resume vs. not

Onboarding Tips For Junior Engineers

Your goal as an entry-level engineer is to show autonomy after you've completed onboarding. If you're an intern or new grad, you are not expected to know everything (or much of anything!).

- The most important trait for early career folks is to seek feedback and act on it! **Coachability** is an important criteria for you (this is, in fact, how many interns are judged).
- Don’t “solo carry” a project. Instead, create milestones to measure and show progress. 
- Pair programming is especially valuable for learning from coworkers and building relationships.

Master The Behavioral Interview [Part 15] - Mid-Level Engineer

Mid-Level engineers are engineers who have a good amount of experience but aren't exactly senior yet. Most software engineers fall into this bucket. This lesson teaches you:

- The expectations from a mid-level engineer overall and how that reflects in behavioral interviews
- The kinds of stories mid-level engineers tell in behavioral interviews

Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 11] - Debugging

Debugging is one of the most important skills every software engineer needs to develop. Despite this, many software engineers see bugs as a source of frustration instead of opportunity. This lesson teaches you:

- The mindset shift that has to happen when a mid-level engineer grows to senior engineer when it comes to bugs, particularly large production outages
- How senior engineers solve different types of bugs of a broader scope compared to mid-level engineers

To get better at debugging, check out: [\[Masterclass\] 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/)

Engineer Your Ideal Tech Career [Part 13] - Daniel Tomko: Choosing The Tech Lead Route

Lastly, we have [Daniel Tomko](https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieltomko) (ex-Meta, ex-Microsoft, Head of Instruction at Formation) reflect on his experience as a Tech Lead.

He points out some common misconceptions, how the role may vary company to company, and then shares a real-life example of the great magnitude and scale of impact that being a tech lead can drive.

Looking for mentorship from tech’s top engineers (like Daniel!) + 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)

Managing Up: Conflict Resolution

Taro members get a discount to join [Ethan's Level Up community](https://levelupwithethanevans.substack.com/taro25)

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 Senior To Staff Engineer [Part 11] - Define The Roadmap

All the way to senior, engineers are almost entirely given projects to work on. This dynamic flips as you grow from senior to staff. This lesson teaches you:

- The differences between senior and staff engineers when they participate in the team roadmapping process
- The skills you need to become a leading, staff-level influence in roadmapping

Break Into Tech And Become A Software Engineer [Part 5] - Know Your Fundamentals & Frameworks

In this lesson, Brian highlights the balance between knowing your technical fundamentals and understanding modern frameworks to build effective software applications.

This lesson covers:

- The importance of having both foundational knowledge and framework expertise to speak the same technical language as co-workers, especially those with computer science degrees
- How understanding design patterns, software development lifecycles, and common best practices prevents you from reinventing the wheel and helps you navigate technical discussions
- Key resources like *Clean Code*, *You Don’t Know JavaScript*, and *The Phoenix Project* that deepen your knowledge of coding fundamentals and software development processes

If you need extra help breaking into tech, join Brian's exclusive, cohort-based bootcamp (just 10 students per batch). Use this special link for $800 off: <https://www.parsity.io/taro>

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianjenney/>

Your Tech Resume Should Look Boring

True or false: As long as you have basic proficiency with everything on a job posting, you will get an interview for that job.

How much time does a recruiter spend reading a resume, on average?

True or false: Your resume should be boring and straightforward, especially with its format.

What's the main reason you should avoid the paid flashy resume formats you find online?

True or false: In order to stand out from other applicants, you can use a very unique format to make your resume more memorable to the recruiter, thus increasing your chances.

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/)

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.