Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 14] - Work Towards The Team Goal

Software engineers aren't paid to write code; they're paid to solve problems. However, this mindset often takes years for engineers to truly internalize, often at the senior level. This lesson teaches you:

- How mid-level engineers and senior engineers react different when given a project
- The questions every senior engineer needs to ask when given a project
- What needs to be done in order to understand the true impact of a project

Master The Behavioral Interview [Part 22] - Do Mock Interviews

Software engineers love working and studying solo, but this is extremely difficult with behavioral interviews. This lesson teaches you:

- Why behavioral interviews are inherently collaborative and effectively require mock interviews to master
- How to get the most value from your mock behavioral interview sessions

Master The Behavioral Interview [Part 20] - Write Stuff Down

Writing English is far more important than writing code, and this applies to mastering the behavioral interview as a software engineer as well. This lesson teaches you:

- How to create a powerful Q&A database to master the behavioral interview
- What you should be remembering from your written preparation vs. not

Master The Behavioral Interview [Part 18] - How To Get The Level You Want

If you don't play your cards right, it is easy to get down-leveled, which means getting a level lower than what you were at before. This is very common in bad markets and for engineers breaking into FAANG. It's also common if you don't give an amazing behavioral interview performance. This lesson teaches you:

- The overall strategy to not get down-leveled
- Tips you should follow to maximize your level

To better understand the expectations at each level, go through this: [\[Taro Top 10\] Understanding Engineering Levels](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/e9rjATPbSyvRPsukXiHn/)

For resources on becoming a better engineer:

- [\[Course\] Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/nail-your-promotion-as-a-software-engineer/)
- ["What are software engineering fundamentals?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/3VNPK7wol76s89EkgFeW/what-are-software-engineering-fundamentals/)

Negotiation Course: Life After Joining

Our careers are long and the real hard work begins once we join a company. Beyond negotiation and compensation, there are many other factors that go into a fulfilling career, such as technology, network, and company culture. Compensation is one part of the job, but there are intangibles that are hard to measure. Don’t feel like you need to go for the highest number.

Once you join a company, learn how performance is evaluated and what makes up compensation. Prioritize people, learning, and culture for long-term career success.

Negotiation Course: Get Other Offers

Researching data points is helpful when constructing a negotiation argument, but the **best** argument you have is an offer in hand from a comparable company. 

The big mistake most tech workers make is to be reactive with recruiters. If you decide to interview with a company, figure out comparable companies and apply to them as well. (Google and a seed-stage startup are not comparable.)

Talking to many recruiters and companies at once is painful, but it's better to concentrate the pain in a short window, rather than spreading it across several months. You can also negotiate interview dates, though this is admittedly harder in a bad economy.

As soon as you have a verbal offer, push all your other loops to skip you to onsite using that as leverage ("Don't let the awesome candidate of me get away!").

Negotiation Course: Don't Give A Number First

The most important rule of negotiation is "Don't give a number first." Don’t talk about what compensation you’re expecting, and definitely don't share what you were making at your last job. 

It’s actually illegal in 22 states for recruiters to ask about your prior compensation (CA, NY, IL): <https://www.hrdive.com/news/salary-history-ban-states-list/516662/> 

Because of the info asymmetry we talked about before, there’s no benefit to you sharing a number, but a lot to lose. Henry Ford (the automaker in Detroit in the early 20th century) illustrated this well. He employed a tactic called "highball negotiation" where he would match the offer given by a landowner, even if it was inflated. Read more about this in "[The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century](https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-Tycoon-Henry-American-Century/dp/0375707255)" by Steven Watts

Example dialog from the recruiter:

> We really need a number before proceeeding”

Sample candidate reply:

> At this time, I’m more focused on determining if the role is a good fit. I’m confident we can figure out an agreeable number once we mutually agree that we could work together.

Negotiation Course: Misconceptions Around Negotiating

Given how taboo money + compensation is, there are unsurprisingly many misconceptions about negotiation. Here are 3 common lies you may have heard about negotiation:

**Myth #1**: *"Your offer will get rescinded if you negotiate."* Companies will never rescind your offer for simply negotiating if you do it in good faith and you're not lying about it. Once you’ve gotten to the offer stage, the company has invested many hours of time evaluating you, so it'd be irrational for them to withdraw the offer simply because you're curious about the compensation package.

**Myth #2**: *"Negotiation makes you look cheap."* In fact, quite the opposite. Negotiating effectively shows that you're a high-value candidate, and that you understand the value you're bringing to the company. 

**Myth #3**: *"Someone will get less if you get more."* This is not how tech job offers work. The technology industry (at least the VC-backed companies that employ the majority of people) is focused on rapid growth. These companies are generally more concerned about growth rather than trying to save money through small compensation adjustments.

File all this under fake news!

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

From Multiple Rejections to Landing Six Offers and Negotiating A $100K Raise

*Unlock all events and courses with Taro Premium. Join at a discount with Yogi's link: [**https://www.jointaro.com/r/yogi-sharma/**](https://www.jointaro.com/r/yogi-sharma/)*

In 2017, amidst the bustling innovation and relentless pace of Facebook, I encountered a pivotal moment in my career. The sting of receiving not one, not two, but three job rejections in as many weeks (and *first round rejections* at that) set the stage for a profound professional transformation. This period, marked by deep introspection and resilience, was not just about coping with disappointment; it became a launchpad for unprecedented growth and success.

But all that came after an initial period of dejection.

The journey from those initial rejections to eventually landing six coveted job offers, with negotiations exceeding $100k, is a testament to the power of strategic habit shifts and mindset realignment. The experience, while daunting, unfolded the essential principles of leveraging one’s time and energy efficiently, ensuring readiness for job transitions *without compromising current job performance*.

In this talk, I aim to demystify the path from setback to success. I will unveil the practical strategies and mental adjustments that not only helped me navigate the turbulent waters of job searching but also equipped me with the tools to excel beyond expectation, which I have used in my work with over 400 professionals in my coaching practice. This narrative is more than a personal victory; it's a blueprint for anyone facing the disheartenment of rejection, providing actionable insights to transform challenges into opportunities for substantial growth and achievement.

Join me as I dissect the critical principles, mindset shifts, and habit changes that can empower us all to turn job search woes into wins, illustrating that with the right approach, navigating the job market can be a journey of triumph even though tribulation are inevitable at times.

Negotiation content on Taro:

- [**\[Taro Top 10\] Pay Negotiation**](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/uyWSc5q79zFw2Ei7w59d/)
- [**\[Masterclass\] Understanding And Optimizing Your Pay In Tech**](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/gk408yBIV2fa5RjVR213/masterclass-understanding-and-optimizing-your-pay-in-tech/)

Yogi's next event about going from the PIP danger zone to a top performer: [**https://www.jointaro.com/event/behind-the-scene-from-meets-most-greatly-exceeds-in-3-months-at-facebook/**](https://www.jointaro.com/event/behind-the-scene-from-meets-most-greatly-exceeds-in-3-months-at-facebook/)

Yogi on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/yogi1/>

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 35] - Temper Your Expectations

You just went through an interview as a software engineer and are eagerly awaiting the result. Is it time to get your hopes up? This lesson teaches you:

- The dangers of having the wrong mentality after an interview
- Why having tempered expectations is crucial for long-term success on the software engineer job hunt
- Why software engineers often overestimate how they performed on an interview, especially with top tech companies like FAANG
- The exact calculation and framework you should follow to set expectations appropriately after you have gone through an interview, particularly an onsite (final round)

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 31] - Scout Online

It's the classic question: What can I expect for the interview for X company? Well, chances are that you aren't doing enough to find information online. This lesson teaches you:

- Why your Big Tech interview should never be a complete surprise
- The various big online sources of interview information, organized by quality
- How you should organize online interview information to extract the best insights and optimize your interview preparation

To build up your network to get insider interview advice, follow our masterclass: [\[Masterclass\] How To Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/nvsMxZ9ZGIjlyaZbWqYS/)

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 11] - Struggling? Send More Applications

One of the most common reasons for a struggling software engineer job search is that they simply aren't applying enough. The good news is that this can be easily fixed with the proper behavior adjustments. This lesson teaches you:

- How you can conquer the job search with sheer math
- A healthy conversion rate for application -&gt; interview chance
- Why you should almost never spend too much time on any individual application (quantity &gt; quality)
- The framework to follow on whether you should apply a ton or apply more selectively

Here are the Big 2 job searching websites:

- <https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/>
- <https://wellfound.com/>

On top of the Big 2, we've seen engineers have success with:

- <https://otta.com/>
- <https://www.workatastartup.com/> - Jobs at Y Combinator startups specifically, the greatest incubator in the world which is behind Stripe, DoorDash, Airbnb, and many more FAANG-adjacent companies

Amazon Case Study: The Ultimate Guide To Navigating A PIP

Case studies are valuable to (1) realize that you are not alone and (2) learn from the experiences of others and see what you can apply.

We’ll start with a new grad Amazon engineer who joined during the pandemic.

- **Before**: First job out of college, was on Focus after 6 months
- **During**: Shocked when they found out (URA quota suspected). Manager became more “HR-like”, less candid
- **After**: Went through the PIP and failed, even though they showed improvement

How To Approach "Doing Your Own Thing" -- Startup Discussion And Feedback

This session is for *wantrepreneurs* (someone who wants to leave their full-time job and do a company) and early entrepreneurs. In the last two decades, more money and attention have gone to early-stage startups. It's easier and cheaper than ever to start a startup, especially if you're an engineer!

There are 3 paths to scratching the entreprenurial itch: 

1. Build something on the side
2. Lifestyle or indie business
3. VC-backed business (raising millions of dollars in venture capital)

### Build something on the side

This is where you should start -- build something on nights and weekends while maintaining your full-time position. You need to prove to yourself that you have enough skill and autonomy to create something of value **entirely on your own**. No professor, no manager, no tech lead. The 3 most common paths to building something on the side are to (1) publish an app, (2) do freelance/consulting work, or (3) teach your skills. As documented in [this blog post](https://www.jointaro.com/blog/the-best-engineering-side-hustle-teaching/), teaching is the best side hustle if you have in-demand engineering skills.

### Lifestyle or indie business

The goal with an indie business is to make a livable income with a small team selling a high-margin software product. I'd call the number as a project where you can make $100K+ annually. Founders in this bucket are working full-time on their business, but they likely have not taken any outside funding. One way to achieve this is to niche down enough and serve a neglected demographic, "*courses for left-handed pickleball players"* or "*a mobile app for senior citizens in the Bay Area to find activities"*.

### Businesses built with Venture Capital

Very few businesses fit this category, but you may not think that, since these few companies command the lion's share of time, attention, and money. These are companies that have a charter to take over the world, or at least to take over a market. In exchange for money, VCs will take equity in your company, and also likely have some governance power. The minimum benchmark to raise VC is usually a $1B opportunity with $100M in annual revenue, and there will be pressure to grow at 2x or 3x year over year for many years. 

If you'd like to build a VC-backed company, I recommend going through a credible accelerator like [**Y Combinator**](https://www.ycombinator.com/apply) like [**PearX.**](https://pear.vc/pearx-application/) 

A good pitch is used to get a potential investor excited about your company, yourself, and the vision you're presenting. It should contain a simple explanation of how your company creates value (skip the buzzwords), and explain who you serve. You should expect rapid-fire questions and skepticism. A good pitch has the following ingredients: 

- Use clear, simple words
- Get to the point
- Teach something
- Show why **you** are uniquely-equipped to solve this problem

Relevant resources:

- [**\[Taro Top 10\] Entrepreneurship And Tech Startups**](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/ArtlSzF17v7cad1K6TJG/)
- Alex answering [**"How did you decide to quit your job and make a startup?"**](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/beZzIkLUP28WinNQctlP/how-did-you-decide-to-quit-your-job-and-make-a-startup-9132022/)
- [**How can H1B (visa) holders do a startup?**](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/N0TKzFWve7K7riyGx9rQ/how-can-h1b-visa-holders-do-a-startup/)
- [**How To Prepare To Leave Big Tech For A Startup**](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/muNQH8uZSviN8P60RaKS/how-to-prepare-to-leave-big-tech-for-a-startup/)
- [**Taro at YC's Demo Day (Summer 2022)**](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/81ACDLKEO9SVX964S1Yx/taro-at-ycs-demo-day-summer-2022/)

The Correct Reason To Become A Manager

[**Ethan Evans**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp/) is a retired Amazon VP who now coaches managers to break into executive levels. 

Ethan believes the "correct" answer for someone's motivation to becoming a manager should be based on a genuine desire to help and grow other people, rather than on external factors like money or power. People who are motivated by these external factors tend to make poor managers.

The management job is very different from the individual contributor (IC) role. You may be used to learning different technology stacks, but management is about learning an orthogonal "stack" altogether, focused on soft skills and people.

Reflect on your own experiences with good and bad managers -- it's important for managers to have a cohesive style that has a clear set of opinions. This style will not be suitable for everyone, but that's ok. Ethan made the analogy of ice cream flavors. There's no correct ice cream, people will have different preferences in the same way that people will prefer different types of managers. 

Ask yourself (and ideally, test drive) the activities you would do as a manager, things like organizing people's work and holding them accountable.

More to explore:

- [**\[Taro Top 10\] Software Engineer To Engineering Manager (IC -&gt; M Track)**](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/oz0mnJvHHgM8NfVF7rgp/)
- [**How do I figure out whether I should stay as an IC engineer or explore management as an EM?**](https://www.jointaro.com/question/Y6qIop9wpOlCYUL0nGs0/how-do-i-figure-out-whether-i-should-stay-as-an-ic-engineer-or-explore-management-as-an-em/?playlistId=oz0mnJvHHgM8NfVF7rgp)
- [Asking For A Promotion: The Wrong Way vs. The Right Way](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/GvT4NBqaBULFlizarSCf/asking-for-a-promotion-the-wrong-way-vs-the-right-way/)

Paper Reading Group: Attention Is All You Need

Generative AI, specifically large language models, have taken the world by storm. But they wouldn't exist today without a key paper published by Google Brain: "[Attention Is All You Need](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1706.03762.pdf)." The 10-page paper, published in 2017, introduced the Transformer - a critical innovation in neural networks.

**What's in store?**

- A deep dive and interactive discussion of the paper. We recommend reading (or at least skimming) it first: <https://arxiv.org/pdf/1706.03762.pdf>
- A look at what came before the paper (neural networks, embeddings), and what came after (BERT, GPT-2, and ChatGPT).
- **All software engineers welcome** - no AI/ML background necessary!

**Did you know?**

- The paper's authors have all gone on to found multiple billion-dollar AI companies including Cohere and [Character.ai](http://Character.ai).
- Since 2017, the paper has been cited over 86,000 times.
- The Transformer architecture is the **T** in "GPT".

**Your host:**

[Charlie Guo](https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlierguo/) is a seasoned founder and author with over 15 years of software experience and more than a decade in Silicon Valley. He is an alum of both Stanford and YCombinator, and currently publishes [Artificial Ignorance](https://www.ignorance.ai/about), an AI-focused newsletter for engineers and founders.

**The agenda:**

- Charlie will give a brief background, and then explain the key insights and context from the paper.
- We will open the group to some Q&A and a broader discussion.
- And we'll end with some discussion on which paper to read and review next.

The next paper reading group is on October 15 about [deep reinforcement learning](https://www.jointaro.com/event/paper-reading-group-human-level-control-through-deep-reinforcement-learning-deep-q-network/), led by Sai Bhavanasi.

Meta Case Study - Debugging A Massive Production Issue

Here we go through an example bug at Meta. Given the information, we need to figure out what kind of root cause is behind the issue. This case study shows:
- Why it's important to understand the blast radius of a bug
- How knowing the context behind a bug can help you locate the problem area
- The value of having robust analytics

This video is a clip from our debugging masterclass. You can watch it here: [[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/)

Related resources:
- [[Case Study] Solving A Multi-Million $$ Instagram Bug](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/WYk4J05iBqOuPtD0CYKX/case-study-solving-a-multi-million-dollardollar-instagram-bug/)
- ["How can I become more independent and better at unblocking myself with tricky technical issues?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/QhqQQGrDgFjZbqohpKe0/how-can-i-become-more-independent-and-better-at-unblocking-myself-with-tricky-technical-issues/)
- ["What is the effective way to understand new repository in order to make the required changes in that repo?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/KoxB3UU2zWC9pdYU6Rx0/what-is-the-effective-way-to-understand-new-repository-in-order-to-make-the-required-changes-in-that-repo/)

How to Negotiate a Big Tech Offer as a Software Engineer - Pragmatic Engineer and Rahul

How does a compensation package look like for a software engineer at tech companies? How do base salary, annual bonus, equity (options, RSUs), sign-on bonuses and perks usually add up? What parts of the package can you negotiate? How can you line up multiple offers at the same time? We talk about these and more in the video. You can -- and should! -- negotiate any offer you receive from a Big Tech company. 

There are 4 primary parts to compensation in Big Tech: 
- Base salary
- Annual bonus
- Sign-on bonus
- Equity

Perks could also be considered part of the compensation package, but these are generally standardized across all employees for a company, so they're not considered for the purposes of negotiation. (Think of things like 401(k) match, free food, game rooms, etc.)

It's important to understand the different parts of compensation because you can start to shift the conversation with companies to be more cooperative rather than zero-sum. For example, some companies have strict bands for their base salary, but are more willing to negotiate on their equity. Knowing this, along with your own utility for different types of comp, can lead to a final decision where both sides are happy.

Throughout any negotiation, it's important to be respectful in your communication, and also consider factors beyond financial compensation, such as team dynamics and the hiring manager's perception. Don't rush into signing a contract without careful consideration -- negotiate terms over email to allow for proper reflection.

More resources on negotiations:
- [The #1 Rule Of Negotiation - How To Avoid Giving A Number](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/4T3wTorG47wPzSqVmAOx/the-1-rule-of-negotiation-how-to-avoid-giving-a-number/)
- [[Case Study] How To Land 18 FAANG+ Offers With Steven Zhang (Airtable, USDR, Tableau)](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/gGkO4pLeFq1ctRM9tSBF/case-study-how-to-land-18-faang-offers-with-steven-zhang-airtable-usdr-tableau/)
- [3 Quick, Powerful Negotiation Tips](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/8VeEnbxdbPKsZbTcCFm5/3-quick-powerful-negotiation-tips/)


This is a video from [Gergely's YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@mrgergelyorosz). 
- Original source: [https://youtu.be/cbngWLr7BC4](https://youtu.be/cbngWLr7BC4)
- Gergely writes the popular [Pragmatic Engineer newsletter](https://www.pragmaticengineer.com/).
- [Follow Gergely on Twitter](https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz)

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?

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.