[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 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

Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 19] - Onboarding

Onboarding is one of the most important processes for any healthy engineering team. Helping the newbies is both critical and rewarding. This lesson teaches you:

- How a senior engineer levels up the team more when helping with onboarding compared to a mid-level engineer
- Different ways to achieve multiplicative impact with onboarding instead of singular, even when you are the one onboarding!

Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 18] - Build A Strong Internal Network

If you have a meaningful bench of people who are willing to fight for your success, you will succeed as a software engineer. One of the simplest ways to understand seniority is that this bench grows larger and larger over time. This lesson teaches you:

- How an engineer's internal network at a company evolves as they grow from mid-level to senior, both in terms of breadth and depth
- How to expand your internal network
- The difference in peer feedback that mid-level engineers get compared to senior engineers, especially with XFN (cross-functional) partners

To dive deeper into earning trust quickly and building relationships: [\[Masterclass\] How To Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/tyaPFMXPoz2pmzB7OVzt/masterclass-how-to-build-deep-relationships-quickly-in-tech/)

Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 16] - Project Management

Planning a project is just the first step: Execution is when things really matter. The problem is that every software engineer leading a project should expect the unexpected, especially at a top tech company. This lesson teaches you:

- How senior engineers set themselves apart when leading projects
- The core ingredients for successfully managing a project, both during and after execution

Related resources:

- ["What are some thoughts on maintaining good meeting hygiene?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/CModSkZ4LWzw9bdaiakt/what-are-some-thoughts-on-maintaining-good-meeting-hygiene/)
- ["How to get more visibility on work?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/XA0X51AypDLCeVeleJv4/how-to-get-more-visibility-on-work/)

Managing Up: Professional Development

Managing Up: Problem Solving and Decision Making

- **Avoid surprises**. Be ahead of surprises, not behind.
- **Ask to be involved**. Bring value! Data, insights, proposals.

Manage your emotions and remember what style your boss prefers.

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

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: Why Negotiation Is Extremely High Leverage

Negotiation may take a few hours of time (and a bit of uncertainty/discomfort), but the result could be life-changing for you. In a place like Silicon Valley, where engineers are highly paid, successful negotiation could easily net you 5 or 6 figures of additional income.

In addition, an increase in salary will “anchor” your compensation and the benefit will compound since raises are based on this. e.g. a 5% raise is a larger dollar value compared on a $120K salary ($6K) compared to a $100K salary ($5K).

The Steve Ballmer story when he joined Microsoft is an example of one of the largest wealth increases ever due to negotiation: his net worth today is $120B (that's $120 billion!). Even though he joined Microsoft as employee #30 in 1980, he ended up negotiating 8% equity ownership of Microsoft, a deal that made him a billionaire many times over. (Read more about [Steve Ballmer's deal here](https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2014/09/30/long-ago-twist-yielded-ballmer-a-fortune-in-microsoft-stock/?sh=16d42b7736a5).)

The famous article from Patrick McKenzie ([patio11](https://twitter.com/patio11)) about negotiation: [Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valued](https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/)

Onboarding Strategies For Engineers [Lightning Lesson]

As a new hire, onboarding is your responsibility, not your manager's.

The first few months in your job are crucial for creating first impressions and relationships that can either accelerate your success or limit your potential.

This is one of the concepts we cover in the Senior to Staff cohort-based course in June: <https://maven.com/taro/senior-to-staff>

30% of tech workers leave their jobs within 90 days -- don't be one of them! What you'll learn:

### **My Talk & Observe framework**

Build respect with your new manager and team.

### **4 key questions to ask your colleagues**

Learn crucial context and history from colleagues on your team or adjacent teams.

### **How to prevent failure modes**

Too many engineers are surprised with negative feedback in their first performance review -- we'll discuss why.

Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer [Part 31] - Promotion Is A Journey: Follow Through

Promotions take years, especially the more senior ones. You won't automatically become a promotion wizard by finishing this 1 course. You need to follow through, and the Taro community is here to help you along the journey.

If you have any questions about the course material, ask them in the instructor AMA: [Ask The Instructor: \[Course\] Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/question/73wFgYQ35WEowrDKZGKU/ask-the-instructor-course-nail-your-promotion-as-a-software-engineer/)

If you can make it, come to Group Office Hours and attend communal events: <https://www.jointaro.com/events/>

If you have a deeper issue, start a discussion in the Taro forum: <https://www.jointaro.com/questions/create/>

Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer [Part 26] - Peer Feedback Squad

In order to get promoted as a software engineer, you need several important people to have your back. This is especially important for senior level and above promotions where you might need 10+ pieces of glowing feedback. This lesson teaches you:

- How to identify the critical peers you need to vouch for you in performance review
- What "feel good" and ultimately near useless feedback looks like, which is what a lot of stagnant engineers are stuck with
- What powerful, meaningful feedback that actually makes a difference in promotion cases looks like
- How your peer feedback should look based on the seniority of the peer giving it to you

Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer [Part 20] - Quality Of Delivery

Anything worth doing is worth doing right, and this applies to software engineers as well. This lesson teaches you:

- Why quality of delivery is such an important project axis when it comes to promotion, especially to senior levels and beyond
- The immense value of smooth delivery when it comes to your perception among engineering leadership
- Concrete angles to consider when maximizing your quality of delivery

Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer [Part 18] - Organizational Complexity

In order to get promoted to senior engineering levels and beyond, you can't just be good with code, you need to be good with people too. This lesson teaches you:

- A basic, straightforward framework to understand what the organizational complexity of your project is
- How to calculate the quantity of your organizational complexity
- How to calculate the quality of your organizational complexityIn rode

Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer [Part 10] - You Need More Junior Teammates

Every software engineer pushing for promotion understands that they need more senior teammates to emulate as role models and seek mentorship. However, many software engineers don't realize they need more junior teammates too. This lesson teaches you:

- Why you need more junior teammates
- How scope dynamics work on an engineering team
- The classic "pyramid scheme" of growth that a healthy engineering team runs
- What healthy and unhealthy teams look like when it comes to more junior engineer presence

To learn how to scale yourself through more junior engineers, check out this incredibly in-depth explainer here: ["How can I help juniors?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/OzbQJCzLPbOKTEqpeSxF/how-can-i-help-juniors/)

Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer [Part 8] - Avoid Level Overload

Not all teams are created equal when it comes to promotion opportunity, far from it in fact. Don't sleep on this crucial angle when it comes to planning out your promotion plan as a software engineer. This lesson teaches you:

- The 2 types of level overload to avoid and which one is worse
- How to a team that has a healthy mix of levels vs. one that doesn't
- Why level overload is bad, particularly when there's a lot of engineers at the same level you are

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.

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 12] - Job “Requirements”

We've all seen the insane "entry-level" job postings that require 3-5 years of experience. This lesson teaches you:

- Why job postings are so ridiculous (hint: it's how capitalism works)
- How treating job requirements as a wish list feeds into the overall strategy of quantity &gt; quality
- The amount of requirements met that you need to justify applying for a job

How To Avoid PIPs: The Ultimate Guide To Navigating A PIP

**Prevention is the best cure**, so let’s talk about what steps you should take to avoid a PIP. The #1 thing you can do is get high-quality feedback from the people you work with. The issue is that most tech workers are horrible at asking for feedback in a way that actually gets them something substantive.

Your guiding principle should be to **make it easy to receive feedback, especially constructive feedback.**

Here’s a system you should employ to get high-quality feedback: 

- Schedule dedicated “feedback 1:1s” with key people: manager, XFN partners
- Write down what they say
- Follow up: short-term and long-term

A PIP should **never** be a surprise, and yet it often Is. This system will prevent you from being negatively surprised. With a manager, you ask how you’re trending and discuss a hypothetical rating, broken down by the axes of evaluation at your company.

We also cover two examples of proactively addressing concerns with your manager.

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.