Engineer Your Ideal Tech Career [Part 6] - What's Your Ideal Role Type?

In this video, we begin by debunking common career misconceptions that often plague individuals progressing through their career. We then cover the major role types you can aim for as a software engineer. These are only three options, and there are more nuanced ones to explore.

Specifically, we cover becoming a:

- High-Level Independent Contributor (IC)
- Tech Lead
- Engineering Manager

We'll also cover what it looks like to be at the pinnacle of your career in each of those roles.

Looking for mentorship from tech’s top engineers + 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)

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 14] - Choosing The Right Company

When you have a good engineer and a bad team, the bad team wins 99.9% of the time. This lesson teaches you:

- The first thing you need to do before even thinking about which company is best for you
- Where earlier-in-career engineers should (probably) go
- The foundational benefits of working at FAANG
- When it makes sense to work at startups

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 10] - Data Structures And Algorithms

Because of Google, we all need to live in a LeetCode reality. Data structures and algorithms (DSA) are something we all love to hate, but at the end of the day, you need to master them to land a job at the world's leading tech companies. This lesson teaches you:

- Why grinding DSA is 100% worth it
- How the learning curve for DSA works (and why you shouldn't get discouraged)
- How to learn DSA properly
- The best tool to get for DSA prep
- What to do when you get stuck on a data structures and algorithms problem

To dive deeper into data structures and algorithms, follow our learning path here: [Crack The Data Structures And Algorithms Interview](https://www.jointaro.com/learning-paths/crack-the-data-structures-and-algorithms-interview/)

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 5] - Succeeding In School

Most software engineers start off their journey in tech by getting a university degree. However, most students don't leverage their time in school optimally. This lesson teaches you:

- The most valuable asset you get from school (hint: it's not good grades)
- Why school isn't very effective at teaching you how to do software engineering in the real world
- What you should do instead to enhance your technical skills instead of purely focusing on getting good grades

Come Up With 500k+ User Project Ideas [Part 15] - Putting It All Together: Idea Scorecard

You now have a side project idea. How can you tell if it's good? This lesson teaches you:

- A systematic scorecard you can use to grade the quality of a side project idea
- What a bad side project idea looks like, demonstrated with concrete scorecard examples
- What a good side project idea looks like, demonstrated with concrete scorecard examples

Become An Open Source Master [Part 7] - Improve Something You Use

The video advises that we should start by finding a project that we're passionate about, rather than aiming for the biggest or most well-known ones.

- **Choose projects that you already use or are familiar with**, as this gives you a head start in understanding the project's goals and potential areas for improvement.
- **The dependency graph on GitHub can help you identify potential projects** by showing the dependencies of projects you're already working on.
- **Consider contributing to smaller or medium-sized projects by companies**, as these can offer valuable learning experiences and opportunities to build relationships with professional developers.
- **Contributing to open source can lead to career opportunities**, as demonstrated by the example of Sophie Alpert and her work on the React project.

Article shown by Sophie Alpert: [Using React to speed up the Khan Academy question editor](https://sophiebits.com/2013/06/09/using-react-to-speed-up-khan-academy)

Connect with James:

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

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 Senior To Staff Engineer [Part 4] - Structuring Your Growth

When going from senior to staff, you need to develop a *ton* of new skills across several difference categories. This lesson teaches you:

- A framework for organizing the improvements you need to make to grow to staff, based off of Meta's engineering performance axes
- The most important axis engineers need to grow in order to get to staff
- A healthy way to understand this course and your overall progression to staff in general

Take Jordan's course here: [\[Course\] Become The Go-To Expert As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/become-the-go-to-expert-as-a-software-engineer/)

The How of the Engineering Career Ladder: Five Essential Foundations for Advancement

Session led by [Shine Garg](https://www.linkedin.com/in/shinegarg/)

Engineering career ladders lay out the “what” of the software engineering career path—what competencies and behaviors are needed at each milestone. However, they often lack guidance on the “how.”

Understanding how—and how quickly—you can acquire and exhibit these competencies significantly impacts your career trajectory, financial future, and sense of fulfillment in life.

This talk demystifies the process of climbing the engineering career ladder. Join us to learn the five essential foundations for advancing your career and achieving your goals.

Asking Great Questions [Part 6] - Be Clueless In Public

The best software engineers are those who embrace their lack of knowledge. This lesson teaches you:

- Why it's better to ask your question in a broader audience
- The difference levels of visibility when asking a question with higher being better
- A huge, often unknown benefit that comes with asking questions in public which allows even junior engineers to become leaders
- Why you should always try to create a record of your question and its answer(s)

[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

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

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 6] - Poor Spelling And Grammar

The vast majority of software engineers don't have English as their first language, and this leads to many basic spelling and grammar mistakes on resumes. Unfortunately, this hurts engineers far more than they realize. This lesson teaches you:

- Why there is 0 tolerance for spelling and grammar errors on a resume (i.e. 1 mistake is enough to get your resume tossed out entirely)
- How spelling and grammar mistakes speak volumes about a software engineer's overall skill
- Basic ways to perfect the spelling and grammar of your resume, even if English isn't your first language

Negotiation Course: Recruiter Case Study: Insights From An Ex-Amazon Recruiter

This was a conversation with a recruiter who spent several years as a recruiter at Amazon and Uber.

She believed everyone should negotiate, but only when the company wants to give you an offer. 

- Most recruiters won’t prevent you from shooting yourself in the foot if you share too much information in the phone screen.
- Amazon would let go of unreachable candidates, e.g. Meta, if they sensed the candidate was already lost.

She also shared the dangers of getting starstruck with a company, e.g. Uber hiring in LATAM hired many people who didn't negotiate at all.

Negotiation Course: View The Recruiter As Ally, Not Antagonist

Recruiters get a bad reputation, but they can actually help you a lot! The recruiter's job is to get qualified people to work for the company, so there is incentive alignment between both parties.

Instead of viewing the recruiter as an obstacle you must overcome, view them as an ally and a valuable source of information. 

- **Before the interview**,  ask them what will be on the interview and what advice they'd have to prepare.
- **After the interview**, ask them what parts of the comp are likely to change, and build the relationship with them so they can advocate for you.

How do you build a relationship with the recruiter? 

- Say thank you whenever the recruiter shares an update with you: *"Thank you for sharing, I appreciate your clear communication throughout this process!"*
- Show an interest in the job and what makes it unique. Don't ask generic questions. 

Keep in mind that most recruiters are not technical and may not understand the value you bring as an engineer. (Unlike the hiring manager, who will know intimately what role they're hiring for.)

Understand 2 different types of recruiters:

- **Contract (agency) recruiters** are compensated for landing a butt in the seat: they’ll be much more transactional and focused on getting you to accept an offer (any offer).
- **In-house recruiters** will usually NOT see a direct financial gain if you accept the offer. They are evaluated based on goals around recruiting conversion metrics.

Negotiation Course: Closing The Deal

If you’re willing to sign the offer, **you have manufactured leverage you can use to squeeze out additional compensation with high probability**. Tell the recruiter you’re willing to sign the offer immediately if they can give you X, where X is a bit higher than the current offer.

A good choice is to ask for an extra $10K-$20K in sign-on bonus. Companies are willing to do this since it’s a one-time cost but they can guarantee you sign. But $10K is be life-changing for many people.

Making the final request focused on salary or equity is a bit more difficult since it often requires more people’s approval. Your goal in this final round of negotiation is to propose something quick and a no-brainer for the company.

Phrasing:

> I'm eager to use my experience to have impact quickly at \[COMPANY\]. I'm willing to sign the offer today if you can add a signing bonus of $15,000. This would make the offer compelling for me so I can commit to \[COMPANY\] for the next phase of my career.

Ideally you want things in writing. Some recruiters will tell you they can’t put it in the formal offer until you’ve verbally agreed, which is fine, but in that case, you can still ask them for a quick email recap with the numbers included.

Negotiation Course: Determine Levers You Can Pull

The typical 4 highest-order bits for a compensation package in tech are salary, equity, signing bonus, and annual bonus. 

Ask an open-ended question to understand what the recruiter is dealing with: 

> What parts of the offer are you able to adjust the most?

In some companies, you’re just given a salary, a single dimension to negotiate on. In this case, your job is to **invent other parameters on which you can negotiate**. e.g. talk about benefits, title, and other things that you’re willing to give up in order to optimize the thing you really care about.

You can share other offers here, but be prepared to show proof (Rahul had to do this in 2013 when he had to show the Google recruiter the numbers from the Twitter offer)

Negotiation Course: What If I HAVE To Give A Number?

A common complaint is that despite their best efforts, some tech workers are forced to give an expected compensation number to do a full interview at a company.

**Rebuttal #1**: You can just put a placeholder. e.g. put $1 for your salary expectation.

**Rebuttal #2**: Collect data from your network and provide a wide range. Ambiguity is your friend here, just talk about how compensation is one factor for you.

**Rebuttal #3**: Finally, even if you give a number you're unhappy with with, the interview is still good practice for you.

By the time you provide numbers, you ideally have done the legwork to know what to expect.

If you have to give a number, say the minimum number that is feasible for you. e.g. you need $250k TC to pay mortgage but the job's upper band is $180k)

Negotiation Course: Understand What You’re Negotiating For

The most common (and important) parts of a compensation package in tech are: base salary, sign-on bonus, equity, annual bonus. There are other high-value benefits such as a 401k match, paid time off (PTO), and healthcare, but these are typically not negotiable terms. 

It's important to figure out what are the negotiable terms and what are not. e.g. start date is be negotiable: if you don't care about this, you can mention to the recruiter that you're willing to start as needed if the company can offer flexibility on a term that you care about, e.g. salary.

Another important takeaway is that "negotiating a job offer" and "negotiating a salary" are NOT the same thing. You should negotiate the terms of an offer in parallel, not serially. Talk about the whole package rather than talking about individual components.

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.