Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 36] - Getting Interview Feedback

The best way to get better at software engineer interviews is to fail a bunch of software engineer interviews. But how exactly do we do that? This lesson teaches you: 

- Why you're probably not getting feedback from the company after you have failed their interview
- What you should do instead after an interview to maximize the learning that you get from the experience

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 23] - Data Structures And Algorithms (DSA)

Data structures and algorithms (otherwise known as DSA) - We've all heard of them before. For many software engineers on the job hunt, it is the bane of their existence (and for good reason). This lesson teaches you:

- When to expect DSA problems during the interview loop
- How DSA problems came to take over the software engineer interview
- Why FAANG and Big Tech companies overall use DSA interviews so aggressively (hint: it's not because they're stupid)

To master the data structures and algorithms interview, check out these resources:

- [\[Course\] Master The Data Structures And Algorithms Interview](https://www.jointaro.com/course/master-the-data-structures-and-algorithms-interview/)
- [\[Taro Top 10\] Effective Interview Prep](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/HLBYxJI7D1j8STolrwum/)

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 16] - FAANG Or Bust (And Why It’s Dumb)

Software engineers have a deep obsession with "FAANG" often treating it as the Holy Grail of career goals. Unfortunately, this often leads to job searching failure. This lesson teaches you:

- How software engineers greatly underestimate the difficulty of getting into Big Tech and how they should believe and act instead
- Why FAANG companies are generally averse to hiring non-senior candidates
- The many reasons why going to Big Tech later in your career is good for you
- The path most engineers have to take in order to break into FAANG (and why that's perfectly fine!)

If you want to learn more about FAANG and Big Tech:

- [\[Taro Top 10\] Breaking Into FAANG](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/roKqDHgxu4C5CioEFpJY/)
- ["What's the difference between Big Tech and startups in terms of learning and growth?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/KWXIrFIR1EIJsvdOdo7u/whats-the-difference-between-big-tech-and-startups-in-terms-of-learning-and-growth/)

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/)

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?

How Alex Made An App That Got 80k+ Users In 1 Month

### The Story
- In summer 2016, Pokemon GO took over the world. Alex saw a need for an app to figure out where certain Pokemon were, so he and a friend quickly created a Yelp-style crowd-sourced app tying Pokemon to locations (pulled from the Yelp API). Alex worked on the Android app, and the friend owned by back-end.
- The app immediately saw immense traction, going from a few dozen to a few hundred to a few thousand (3,000+) new installs *per day* within just a week. **After less than a month, the app had been used by 80,000+ people.**
- Alex ran into copyright issues publishing the app as it used Pokemon images. Despite the app being free, ad-free, and not even asking for donations, it kept getting rejected. To hack around this, a server-side flag was created to turn off the images as the app was in review and turn them back on when the app got approved.
- Google Play eventually found out about the trick and took down the app for copyright infringement. However, the app was impressive enough at this point that Alex could include it on his resume, and it helped a lot getting interviews and giving him something to talk about during them.

### Learnings
- *Building a marketplace is extremely difficult* - A marketplace product is one that's a platform and requires a certain amount of some valuable resource in order to be useful: It's not useful on its own in a vacuum. For example, Uber needs a supply of readily available drivers to be useful. In this app's case, it needed data on Pokemon locations, which had to be provided by users.
- *Don't expect users to use the product properly* - In fact, don't expect your users to not be jerks. The app suffered a lot initially as users were uploading blatantly fake data of legendary Pokemon showing up in the wild - Legendary Pokemon hadn't even been released yet during the app's lifespan!
- *Be proactive and think through edge cases* - Zooming out from the prior point, it's just good to do this in general no matter what kind of software you're building, whether it's an entire app or a small feature on some already existing product owned by a FAANG company. Understand how things can get weird and address those scenarios accordingly.

If you want to learn how to build your own side projects, check these out:
- [[Masterclass] How To Come Up With 100k+ Users App Ideas You Can Build For Free](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/AI4zi759PSGn6RwIFT6f/masterclass-how-to-come-up-with-100k-users-app-ideas-you-can-build-for-free/)
- [[Masterclass] How To Build And Grow Tech Products To 500k+ Users For Free](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/OEuX0KMhcnNSTJ50Voee/masterclass-how-to-build-and-grow-tech-products-to-500k-users-for-free/)

If you're interested in the code of the Android app, Alex took the time to save it here: [https://github.com/Gear61/GO-Database](https://github.com/Gear61/GO-Database).

This Is Why FAANG Engineers Make So Much Money - Tech Compensation Breakdown

Learn about the 4 components of compensation:

1. Base salary
2. Sign-on bonus
3. Performance bonus
4. Equity

The latter two are less understood, and they are key to understanding why compensation at tier 1 tech companies is so high.

And we also talk about how Mark Zuckerberg actually had a pretty big impact on increasing tech compensation as a whole!

[The Insider's Guide To Negotiating Your Tech Salary And Compensation](https://www.jointaro.com/course/the-insiders-guide-to-negotiating-your-tech-salary-and-compensation/)

What To Do If You Don’t Mesh Well With Your Manager

This clip discusses the **importance of manager-report alignment**, especially around communication preferences and expectations. A common failure mode arises when managers assume their team members operate and think the same way they do, without checking for alignment.

- **Reciprocity can backfire without context**: Managers often expect others to operate as they did when they were individual contributors—such as sending frequent updates—without recognizing that not everyone shares the same style or comfort level.
- **Avoiding mislabeling of behavior**: What feels like diligence to one person (e.g., weekly updates) might feel like micromanagement to another. This mismatch can create tension or disengagement if not addressed.
- **Meta conversations build alignment**: Discussing communication styles, feedback preferences, career goals, and working habits helps avoid misunderstandings. These conversations create a shared context for more effective collaboration.
- **Feedback delivery should be customized**: Some individuals prefer written feedback over verbal critiques. Adapting delivery style to the recipient’s comfort increases the chance that the feedback is received productively.
- **Mutual respect strengthens manager-report relationships**: Respecting differences in working style and proactively aligning on expectations can prevent unnecessary friction and improve team dynamics.

Can A Company Demand High Performance AND Allow Learning?

What To Do If Your Manager Keeps Canceling Your 1 on 1s

Your manager keeps canceling your 1 on 1s due to a perceived lack of discussion topics, even though you always have a lot to talk about. What do you do?

Your manager cancels your upcoming 1 on 1 meeting due to an unexpected, new fire that they have to deal with. However, you have a lot of important issues to talk about. What do you do?

Proactively managing recurring one-on-ones is crucial, especially given the inherent power and time imbalance between managers and their direct reports.

- **Acknowledge the power dynamic**: Managers are often busier and have more reports, which can lead to frequent cancellations. Recognizing this helps frame a constructive response.
- **Use a shared running doc**: If a meeting is about to be canceled due to “nothing to talk about,” reference specific bullet points in a shared one-on-one document to demonstrate the agenda and keep the meeting on the calendar.
- **Reschedule thoughtfully**: When a cancellation is due to emergencies or time constraints, acknowledge the situation but follow up by proposing specific alternative time slots based on their availability.
- **Reduce their friction**: Make it easy for the manager to say yes by combining two key tactics—propose a concrete reschedule and provide the meeting agenda in advance.
- **Leverage career growth principles**: Just like with asking for support or promotions, simplifying the decision-making for your manager increases the chances of success and strengthens your working relationship.

Common Scenarios For Setting Up 1 on 1s

What is the main condition to look out for that could prompt you to set up new 1 on 1 meetings?

Which of the following scenarios is something you probably should set up some new 1 on 1 meetings for?

1 on 1s are meetings for the 2 people involved to connect and build a longer-term relationship. Here are 3 common scenarios where it makes a ton of sense to set up a 1 on 1:

1. **Incoming new hires**: Help the new person on the team feel welcome and get them onboarded
2. **You being the new hire**: When you're new, 1:1s help you build up valuable context and relationships from talking to existing teammates. Use your "new"-ness to setup meetings with anyone who might be relevant to your job [as described here](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/xwldhYelyOFLjogs7RVA/onboarding-gives-you-special-powers-make-sure-to-use-them/)
3. **Working with a new team**: If you have a long-term relationship with a partner from another team, it could be worthwhile to setup a recurring one on one with them

Taking Amazing Meeting Notes

For any meeting, what should you make sure for it?

True or false: As long as you write down most of what was said in a meeting, you have taken a good set of meeting notes.

What can you do when someone else in a meeting says something really insightful?

Your meeting is winding down, and you have a good set of notes of what was said during the meeting. What should you do next?

Meetings can easily become unproductive unless there is a clear sense of ownership and structure. This segment emphasizes taking initiative and being proactive with note-taking and follow-up.

- **Take initiative to capture takeaways**: Especially when meeting with a manager, take responsibility for writing down notes and summarizing key points. Don’t assume they’ll do it—they likely have too much on their plate.
- **Communicate your intent**: Let the other person know that you’re taking notes because their input is valuable. This builds mutual respect and sets the tone for accountability.
- **Clarify ownership of action items**: Don’t leave to-dos ambiguous. Specify who will do what—whether it’s you, your manager, or another teammate.
- **Create space for note-taking**: Pause briefly during the conversation when something important is said. Say things like “Let me write that down” to signal that you’re capturing key information.
- **Follow up consistently**: Revisit the notes in future meetings and check progress. This keeps everyone aligned and ensures that good ideas don’t get lost.
- **Adapt for walking meetings**: For more casual one-on-ones (like walking meetings), carve out 10 minutes afterward to document and share what was discussed. This keeps the informal meeting just as productive as a formal one.

Become A Debugging Master [Part 19] - Go Deeper: Follow Through

Related courses:

- [Ask Great Questions That Get Great Answers Quickly](https://www.jointaro.com/course/ask-great-questions-that-get-great-answers-quickly/)
- [Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)

Ship & Grow 500k+ User Side Projects [Part 21] - Go Deeper: Follow Through

A Taro member made a summary of the course: [Side Projects Shipping & Growing - Summary Doc](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/tech-career-growth.appspot.com/o/courses%2Fgeneral_resources%2F%5BSUMMARY%5D%20Side%20Projects%20-%20Shipping%20%26%20Growing.pdf?alt=media&token=6d336c8b-26d6-45f2-a206-8682e64d21c5)

Related courses:

- [Build Side Projects With 500k+ Users: Coming Up With An Idea](https://www.jointaro.com/course/build-side-projects-with-500k-users-coming-up-with-an-idea/)
- [Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)

Ship & Grow 500k+ User Side Projects [Part 1] - How This Course Works

Like most engineers, do you have a slate of personal projects on your resume but recruiters and hiring managers simply don't seem to care? Well, that's almost certainly because [your projects don't have any users](https://www.jointaro.com/course/build-side-projects-with-500k-users-coming-up-with-an-idea/what-makes-a-project-valuable/).

This course is here to fix that issue for you. 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. Most importantly, he goes through how he's built 30+ side project apps with 3 of them getting 500k+ users, getting him interviews at top companies like OpenAI, Google, Uber, Instacart, and more

- We walk you through the course objectives. By the end of the course, you will:

  - 1️⃣ Understand what makes a great first version

  - 😯 Learn easy, low-effort ways to improve a product

  - 🗣️ Set up the right mindset for processing user feedback

  - 💻 Know how to build a smooth user interface

  - 📈 Get tactics to acquire users organically

You can find the first side project course here: [Build Side Projects With 500k+ Users: Coming Up With An Idea](https://www.jointaro.com/course/build-side-projects-with-500k-users-coming-up-with-an-idea/)

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 15] - Onboarding

You have started a fancy new job at a company you really like. How do you hit the ground running and impress people fast? This lesson teaches you:

- Why being new is actually a superpower, not a weakness like many engineers think
- Why you need to be aggressive and extremely deliberate when onboarding, especially at the very beginning
- What you can do to *add value* while onboarding instead of merely absorbing value

To dive deeper into onboarding, take our course here: [The Complete Onboarding Guide For Software Engineers](https://www.jointaro.com/course/the-complete-onboarding-guide-for-software-engineers-succeeding-when-youre-new/)

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.