Junior Engineers, Avoid This Fake Growth Trap

What's the main change in expectations when growing into senior engineering levels?

True or false: Hustling (i.e. working extremely hard) is a common, healthy way to get promoted.

Why is it bad if you are able to get promoted to senior levels through sheer ultra-hard work and very high raw productivity?

- A lot of earlier-in-career engineers believe that being a better software engineer is all about coding: If you can write more good code faster, then you are growing.
- This is generally mostly true in the beginning, but then it quickly becomes a toxic way of perceiving growth.
- You will hit walls. There are only so many hours in a day, and you can only type so many lines of code per hour.
- As a senior engineer, you need to focus on multiplicative and deeper behaviors.
- If you are able to have the impact of a senior engineer but are working extremely long hours, you are essentially "faking" the appearance of a senior engineer. This working model is not sustainable, and once you burn out, it's a terrible situation for everyone.

How To Earn Respect Fast - Senior Engineer Onboarding Story

Even if you're onboarding, you can earn respect amongst your team. In fact, you should feel empowered to earn this respect despite being new, especially if you're a senior software engineer.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **Help junior engineers** - This is one of the most effective ways to earn respect on a team as a more experienced engineer. The junior engineers may be more fluent in the code than you are, but if you're a senior+ engineer, there is a reason you have this level: You have certain fundamentals and instincts that are applicable everywhere that junior engineers don't really have.
- **Show your depth** - You won't win with velocity and output when you're new. However, you can win with depth and quality as that's largely a function of your effort and time. If you're a more experienced engineer, think about how you can go deeper into something than everyone else on the team.
- **Alex's senior engineer onboarding story** - Here's how a senior Android engineer quickly made a splash after joining Alex's team back at Instagram.
  - They saw a junior engineer struggling with a very complex text layout bug with the Instagram Android app.
  - They volunteered to help with this bug, even though they didn't have to.
  - After many failed debugging attempts, *they slowly extracted the relevant code line by line into an entirely separate Android app to identify the breaking line*. This was a brilliant tactic that nobody else on the team even remotely considered.
  - This combination of goodwill and extreme software engineering depth earned them a mountain of respect pretty much immediately.

This clip is from our masterclass on how to succeed at a new team or company as a software engineer. [Click here to watch the full thing.](https://link.jointaro.com/9sJzfDeH3JdWzZRg9)

Related resources:
- ["How can I quickly gain respect among my team as a senior engineer?"](https://link.jointaro.com/i9j4dtohx2bXc2Sq8)
- ["How do you network effectively within a company?"](https://link.jointaro.com/Hr1nr53D7sfQAEv3A)

How To Get FAANG Interviews

Getting into FAANG is the dream of most software engineers in the world. However, it's much easier said than done, and there's a lot of misinformation about what Big Tech companies look for in interview candidates.

Here are the main points from the video:
- **It's near impossible to break in as a junior dev** - The demand (i.e. the number of junior engineers looking to break into FAANG) far outstrips the supply (the number of L3 and SDE 1 level FAANG openings). If you don't have a warm lead like a strong referral, a DEI program you qualified for, a Big Tech internship to covert, or a career fair at your prestigious university, you can easily spend hours applying into a black hole. *If you've already tried many times and you can't get in, just stop.* 
- **You don't need to get into FAANG right now** - Your career is a marathon, not a sprint. You can get into FAANG later in your career; don't compare yourself to others who made it in early and become obsessed with Big Tech. Focus on growing yourself as a software engineer, and you will eventually make it in.
- **Get past 2 YOE** - If you live in a relevant geography (e.g. SF Bay Area, London) and have more than 2 years of experience, Big Tech companies will generally start reaching out to you. This is because hiring junior engineers is very risky, and Big Tech generally likes to rely on converting interns to fill out that pool. Once you cross 2 YOE, you are considered mid-level and a more worthwhile hire.
- **Build massive side projects** - There is one "nuclear" level you can pull if you really want to get into FAANG ASAP, and that's making a side project with 10k+ users. Alex was able to do this, and he knew a few college dropouts who got into FAANG early doing the same. [Here's our masterclass on how Alex built side projects with 500k+ users](https://link.jointaro.com/fGuprKS4HT7VpVBL9).
- **Make major open-source contributions** - Big Tech has very strong open-source culture, so they have a lot of public libraries you can contribute to on GitHub. They monitor the pull requests into these libraries for potential talent, and many engineers get in that way. However, this is much easier said than done, and side projects are generally more approachable for junior software engineers.

Related resources:
- [The Pros And Cons Of Working At FAANG And Big Tech](https://link.jointaro.com/bw1bEKRxmZPXKiQP9)
- ["What technologies or stacks should I create a project to add in my resume for entry level software jobs?"](https://link.jointaro.com/A9Vugp1jcNQEsvaMA)
- [How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview [Data Structures & Algorithms]](https://link.jointaro.com/iTNxPCvkdGite4wT9)

DSA Prep Is One Of The Highest ROI Activities On Earth

If you do a good job studying for your data structures and algorithms interview, you can set yourself up financially for the next few years.

Related resources:
- [[Taro Top 10] Effective Interview Prep](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/HLBYxJI7D1j8STolrwum/)
- [[Taro Top 10] Finding A Tech Job](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/E6R0wVJ5EyCfVnVrlfno/)

[Masterclass] How To Have Impactful 1 on 1 Meetings

Related resources:
- [[Taro Top 10] Communicating Effectively As An Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/yJ6oybePeu93sDSZ1GiQ/)
- [How To Effectively Leverage Skip Level 1:1s](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/TToehFEc738PBhJcALwL/how-to-effectively-leverage-skip-level-11s/)
- ["Coffee Chat Questions With a Tech Lead - What to ask?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/jGNZthqhvzYPiMckPEl1/coffee-chat-questions-with-a-tech-lead-what-to-ask/)
- [Presentation Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1O1bUrK1NgyfYoMkIqCFJ0SvXv-IQlPhP1gYzBp95abU/edit?usp=sharing)

[Masterclass] How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview - System Design

System design is a crucial software engineer interview skill, especially for FAANG and Big Tech in general. It is effectively a requirement to be leveled at a senior software engineer or higher and will show up in mid-level engineer interviews as well (with the occasional appearance in even junior engineer interviews). The cool thing about system design (unlike data structures and algorithms) is that it's something you actually need to do on the job.

Here are our Top 5 points from the session (in no particular order):
- **Leverage engineering blogs of top companies** - And if you're applying to one of these companies, definitely read their blog. This will help you understand their high-level design and gives you a real-world example to anchor off of, as opposed to something more abstract and high-level that you would get from a traditional book.
- **Do NOT write code** - System design is a *high-level* exercise meant to gauge seniority. Writing raw code is the mark of a more junior software engineer, which is why you should never be writing code in a system design interview. Instead, draw boxes with arrows where the boxes represent components and the arrows represent how they interact.
- **There is no right answer** - One of the main reasons software is hard is because of how open it is. For any complex technical problem, there will be several good solutions, each with varying tradeoffs. System design is not like school or DSA where there is a singular right answer.
- **Understand the problem requirements** - System design problems are, by design, very open-ended. For example, if you get "Build the Twitter feed", there are so many features that make it up: There is no way you can design the entire thing in 1 interview round. Work with your interviewer to understand the scope of the problem and which parts should be prioritized.
- **Follow mature software principles** - The 5 covered in this presentation are robustness, scalability, performance, extensibility, and resiliency. Don't just get the happy flow working - Think about how your system will react when edge cases are hit and things go wrong.

Related resources:
- [How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview [Data Structures & Algorithms]](https://link.jointaro.com/iTNxPCvkdGite4wT9)
- [System Design Series: Taro Playlists [Part 1] - What REAL System Design Looks Like](https://link.jointaro.com/4obaFizTZAdAcStY6)
- [Presentation slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1z4yX5LiiSxbHiNrBOTPIiDfhBL5qmwRUrDojT71OROY/edit)

Acing Tech Interviews In A Bad Job Market

Here are the core points from the session:

- **Organize and track your job search** - Every successful job search is split up into the 2 overall steps of *"Get interviews"* and *"Pass interviews"*. It's crucial to figure out which step you're struggling with as the solutions for each phase are wildly different. If your conversion rate from application -&gt; interview opportunity is less than 5%, that's a sign that you need to improve at the *"Get interviews"* step. Use a spreadsheet to keep track of how all your opportunities go, so you can construct a funnel and figure out which stage of the offer journey needs shoring up.
- **Have the right mentality** - *Do not view interviews as a "make or break" opportunity, even if they are!* When you put that much pressure on yourself during an interview, you become extremely high-strung and your performance tanks, particularly when you get a problem that you have never seen before (which is guaranteed to happen for any good tech company). Instead, go into every interview relaxed and view it as a fun learning opportunity where you get to hang out with very talented engineers. Having the wrong mentality is one of the most common reasons engineers fail FAANG interviews: Alex interviewed tons of candidates back at Meta where they had the skills and knowledge but they completely fell apart during the interview.
- **Learn how to cold message** - Too many engineers send generic cold messages to Big Tech recruiters, which is a complete waste of time. Cold messages really only work when you're doing it with a smaller company (&lt;250 employees) and putting actual effort into the message. Spend 10-15 minutes actually trying out that company's product and show that you've done that homework in your cold message.

Check out the full 4.5+ hour course diving even deeper into this session's concepts: [\[Course\] Ace Your Tech Interview And Get A Job As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/ace-your-tech-interview-and-get-a-job-as-a-software-engineer/)

Get Taro Premium at a discount with our special link here: <https://www.jointaro.com/r/achiou15/>

For more job searching resources:

- ["How to get referrals?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/FQIi8us9uoTDIYdzMhvg/how-to-get-referrals/?playlistId=roKqDHgxu4C5CioEFpJY)
- ["How to get interview calls?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/MWJfUBnnUr8CKYFCO8bp/i-want-to-land-a-job-in-a-big-tech-as-a-swe-how-to-do-it/?playlistId=roKqDHgxu4C5CioEFpJY)
- ["What are the best websites for applying for tech jobs?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/VkuG4W88SZ83Ek7AfLP6/what-are-the-best-websites-for-applying-for-tech-jobs/)
- ["How to figure out why I'm not passing onsite interviews?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/CdmrIsMFPFbsRqRUvueu/how-to-figure-out-why-im-not-passing-onsite-interviews/?playlistId=IPFmEPUhAmizNe9ZUWV5)
- ["I want to land a job in a big tech as a SWE - How to do it?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/MWJfUBnnUr8CKYFCO8bp/i-want-to-land-a-job-in-a-big-tech-as-a-swe-how-to-do-it/?playlistId=roKqDHgxu4C5CioEFpJY)

Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer [Part 1] - How This Course Works

It is so easy to get completely overwhelmed as a software engineer with so many possible skills to learn. This video (and broader course) will solve that dilemma for you by explaining why *code quality* is the #1 skill for software engineers. Here are the core parts of the lesson:

- Code quality is the technical foundation that helps you learn every other necessary skill as a software engineer, both the technical and non-technical ones
- Your instructor [Alex Chiou](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-chiou/) walks you through his extensive 10+ year Silicon Valley background across top companies like PayPal, Course Hero, Meta, and Robinhood, explaining how code quality was an integral part of his success (he was a Top 5% code committer + lander at Meta).
- We go through the objectives of the course. By the end of the course, you will:
  - **🔎** Understand what **good code looks like** (and *doesn’t look like*)
  - 🌱 Set up the right **growth mentality** around code quality
  - 💻 Learn how to submit a **quality pull request**
  - 🍝 Avoid common **messy code patterns** (and how to fix them)

If you want to learn how Alex built so many successful side projects with top reviews and 100,000+ users, check this out: [\[Case Study\] Building An App With 1,000,000+ Users To Get Into Facebook](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/jly45Gx6qR1kqQwBmJEy/case-study-building-an-app-with-1000000-users-to-get-into-facebook/)

A Powerful Tool For Software Engineer Productivity - Focus Blocks

So many junior software engineers don't manage their calendar well, and this especially hurts their ability to write code and finish tickets efficiently. Don't blindly go into every meeting, especially as a junior software engineer who is often not relevant to the meeting. Be deliberate with your calendar and establish focus blocks.

Here are the core points from the video:

- **So what is a focus block?** - It's a long, uninterrupted period of time for you to focus on a singular track of work. A true focus block should be 4+ hours, ideally an entire work day.
- **Why are focus blocks important for coding?** - Humans are naturally bad at context switching, so focus blocks are just important for productivity in general. Having a focus block allows you to enter a "flow state" where you rate of work ramps up over time and you get more and more into the groove. When it comes to coding in particular, the focus time is crucial as context switching with code is especially painful. It takes a while to deep back into a codebase when you return to a coding task, and there's also practical reasons like rebasing your local and setting up your build environment again.
- **How can I set up a focus block?** - The main "culprit" behind hurting your focus blocks is meetings. Be aggressive about shaving meetings off your calendar where you aren't a core player, especially if you're earlier-in-career. Group the remaining meetings you have onto certain days with the goal of freeing up 1-2 days entirely for coding. 1 on 1 meetings will be the easiest to move. For the meetings you do end up going to, [follow this advice to really participate and get maximum value out of them](https://www.jointaro.com/question/3E3SBCa59z5oDb7AEciw/i-struggle-to-come-up-with-things-that-add-value-to-a-meeting-what-do-i-say/).

Related resources:

- [\[Masterclass\] How To Manage Your Time Optimally In Tech And Achieve More Results](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/rnX9EKpzc43TgGW9MozG/masterclass-how-to-manage-your-time-optimally-in-tech-and-achieve-more-results/)
- ["How do I optimize my sacred hour at work?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/l8dzUVTu99CahofQsYAi/how-do-i-optimize-my-sacred-hour-at-work/)

[Masterclass] How To Choose A Good Company And Team As A Software Engineer

Choosing the right company (or team) is one of the highest leverage decisions you'll make in your career, so it's worth doing some reflection!

It’s all about your priorities

- Figure out what’s important to you and what’s not. Create a stack-ranked list of all of these and work backwards from the top 2-3 to figure out the best opportunities for you
- People don’t realize how many angles there are to this. Here’s all the ones from the presentation: *Compensation, work-life balance, company prestige, supportiveness of team, growth opportunities, stability, maximum outcome (risk), remote work, product space, company ethics, technical space, level/title, benefits, location*

Supportiveness and overall quality of the team are often underrated

- It’s really hard to grow and have a healthy work life without this
- If you like your manager/teammates and you feel like you’re regularly learning/being challenged by them, deeply cherish that. People underestimate how hard it is to find an environment like this. Even in a prestigious company like Big Tech, this is difficult to find.

Big Tech vs. Startups

- At the end of the day, it’s all about your risk tolerance - Startups can have insane monetary/promotion outcomes, but they also might collapse the next year.
- In a vacuum: Start off at a Big Tech company to build a good foundation and then switch into smaller companies to have more scope/ownership

Some things you should NOT spend time on:

❌ Don't focus on how much you liked (or did not like) the people in the interview process. The recruiter/interviewer is NOT representative of your life at the company. Instead, focus on trends of the people joining the company, rather than individual data points.

❌ Don't spend time looking at the financials of the company. Even if you do decide to dig into the numbers, there's a good chance you'll screw up the interpretation -- humans have a really hard time with exponential growth.

Learning the quality of a team

- Talk to engineers/ICs if you can - The manager will inherently be biased towards their own team as they are often goaled on hiring
- Make sure that the team has a healthy oncall process and fast code review iteration

Related resources:

- [\[Masterclass\] What Software Engineers Should Look For In Their Engineering Manager](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/oeY7ncZhzJ5NO6dij5e7/masterclass-what-software-engineers-should-look-for-in-their-engineering-manager/)
- [“How can you tell if a large public company is going in the right direction?”](https://www.jointaro.com/question/TrlweQQ7DveTnYBP9VUH/how-can-you-tell-if-a-large-public-company-is-going-in-the-right-direction/)
- [“What does it mean to not have enough scope to be promoted?”](https://www.jointaro.com/question/bJuagPwOEEy5vkcXKkqh/what-does-it-mean-to-not-have-enough-scope-to-be-promoted/)
- [“What should I look for in a new team in terms of growth?”](https://www.jointaro.com/question/i2bOMPrqaRc0NUZ7918F/what-should-i-look-for-in-a-new-team-in-terms-of-growth/)
- [Presentation Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1S_kULq5zzVLkcoKy0bKJ2IHSrjL3s2VbOLe8p1TQJ7s/edit?usp=sharing)

How Do Effective Engineering Leaders Help Their Teams Achieve More?

3 questions engineering leaders ask to increase the impact of their team without burning the midnight oil: 

1. What parts of this project are most critical? Who is most important for success? 
2. Can I optimize/shortcut some part of this project? 
3. Can I propose scope reductions for this project? 

Rachel also talks about the iron triangle often used for project management (time, scope, cost).

For more resources on engineering leadership:
- [This Is Why Most Engineering Managers Are Terrible](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/4NJbAn0uTDUPfYfa859V/this-is-why-most-engineering-managers-are-terrible/)
- [[Masterclass] What Software Engineers Should Look For In Their Engineering Manager](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/oeY7ncZhzJ5NO6dij5e7/masterclass-what-software-engineers-should-look-for-in-their-engineering-manager/)
- [[Case Study] Becoming A Tech Lead Again In Just 1 Month After Joining Robinhood From Meta](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/X8vpfJooDpsX915ouC00/case-study-becoming-a-tech-lead-again-in-just-1-month-after-joining-robinhood-from-meta/)

[Case Study] Mentoring Junior SWEs [E3] to Senior [E5] In Just 2.5 Years At Meta

For the key points, you can find them in the slides (linked below), so the summary will be framed more as action items.

**If You're Pushing For Senior/Are Senior+ Already**
- Mentorship is a core part of healthy senior engineer behavior, so invest in it if you aren't already.
- Now you need to find good mentees. *The main thing to look for is their coachability, which largely depends on how smoothly they process feedback*.
- How can you tell if someone is coachable?
  - They go the extra mile making sure their code is clean.
  - They respond to code review comments (particularly yours) with enthusiasm and speed. They're hungry to learn more and go deeper into feedback on their code.
  - They go out of their way to help others as opposed to many people who just help reactively (or not at all).
  - They have a good cadence with you when you spend time with them (e.g. it's easy to have a fun conversation with them over lunch).

**If You're Mentoring Other Engineers**
- *If the extent of your mentorship is that you answer a lot of your mentee's question, you're not truly a mentor.*
  - True mentorship is being proactive and having a clear vision for what your mentee will become. Create a growth plan for them to get to the next level and outline deltas to make it clear.
- If you haven't already make sure that your manager and the manager of your mentee (if they're on a separate team) are aware of your involvement. This is vital for getting proper credit and not growing them incorrectly.
- Your mentality should be that you serve your mentee, not the other way around.
- To build a ton of trust quickly, tell your mentee this: *"No matter what happens, I'll do whatever extra work is necessary to make sure that you're okay."* You are majorly responsible for your mentee's well-being.
- Always call out when your mentee does good work, even if it's something small like a well-written commit. Do it in your 1:1 where it has more gravity. Showing appreciation as a trust/morale building technique is *severely* underutilized.

**If You're A Mentee Looking For A Mentor**
- Show strong gratitude for code review comments on your commits. Don't just give them a thumbs up or worse, silently make the change. For deeper feedback (often times coming from senior engineers who you want to mentor you), go the extra mile giving thanks.
- Put yourself out there: Don't be a hermit. Go to team lunch, offsites, coworking - Become known as a friendly face within your team. Strike up conversations with engineers more senior than you just to get to know them.
- Strive to write good code. It can scary as a junior engineer in particular and default to churning out tickets as fast as possible with bare minimum quality; avoid that instinct and try to spend an extra 30 minutes to 1 hour trying to build things out properly (and then talk about your thought process on your pull requests). You want to show senior+ engineers that your hunger to be an actually good software engineer instead of a commodity coder is there.

Related Resources:
- [Presentation Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12OelIHF08oBZwe-TzVlz8fqp4WiOTem_e9KsGe7X8XA/edit?usp=sharing)
- [Meta E4 To E5 Growth Plan (Pretty Applicable To Any Large Company)](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/tech-career-growth.appspot.com/o/articles%2Fmeta_e4_to_e5_growth_plan.pdf?alt=media&token=e13d88fd-9356-4c20-a229-cf0cad78a9af)
- [How To Get The Most Out Of Mentorship](https://link.jointaro.com/sobZVTxh3nvUFTnb9)

Truly Mastering A Data Structures And Algorithms Problem  - 2 Sum Example

Why is the following not a good way to remember the solution to 2 Sum?
        
def twoSum(self, nums, target):
    required = {}
    for i in range(len(nums)):
        if target - nums[i] in required:
            return [required[target - nums[i]],i]
        else:
            required[nums[i]] = i

Why is [Look for the difference and use a HashSet] a great way to remember the solution to 2 Sum?

What more general higher-level learning principle is also exercised alongside the proper mastery of data structures and algorithms problems?

Data structures and algorithms are a core part of FAANG software engineer interviews, and they're seemingly the bane of every software engineer's existence. However, so many software engineers don't learn these concepts properly.

Here are the core points from the video:
- In this example, we cover 2 sum, a classic data structures and algorithms problem that many companies use on phone screens. Here's how to learn it properly:
  - **Bad:** Memorizing all the code behind the optimal implementation.
  - **Good:** "Look for the difference and use a HashSet."
- All DSA problems will have this core insight that "unravels" the entire thing. Once you find and truly understand this insight, the implementation should flow naturally.
- This is also a sign of higher learning via "thinking in terms of abstractions". Your brain is a lot more powerful if it is able to take something more singular and high-level and convert it into the nitty gritty. Memorizing everything at the lowest level simply isn't scalable.

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview - Data Structures & Algorithms](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/V4sTACzfOh22nMVcUV3w/how-to-ace-your-big-tech-interview-data-structures-and-algorithms-7172021/) - This is the full video this clip is taken from
- [[Masterclass] How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview - System Design](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/J3I9fTW9ulr6T9KjxpqY/how-to-ace-your-big-tech-interview-system-design-1162021/)
- [How Alex Got Into Meta With 0 Prior Leetcode Experience](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/ZYiTbN21FsqFxFdpwt5a/how-alex-got-into-meta-with-0-prior-leetcode-experience/)

This Is How You Get Feedback - Making The Process Smooth

The best way to improve as a software engineer is to get feedback, especially when you're new to a team or company. However, this is much easier said than done - Simply having the mentality of being open to feedback isn't enough.

Here's the core points from the video:

- **Don't just ask "Do you have any feedback for me?"** - The cognitive load for the person you're seeking feedback from is simply too high: They need to mentally comb through everything you're doing and then think through every aspect of it to find feedback to give you. Instead of doing this, they'll often default to the "lazy" response of "Nope, you're doing great!". Lazy inputs result in lazy outputs, and you definitely shouldn't be lazy when asking for feedback.
- **Reduce feedback requests to yes/no questions** - Regularly retrospect on your own and use that to craft more pointed questions when asking for feedback. Let's say you're not happy with how clean your code is, evidenced by a lot of pushback when you submit it for review. Using this, you can ask something like, *"I feel like I could do a better job polishing my code; my PRs get a lot of thrash. Do you think I can improve here?"* If they say "Yes", you can then ask for tactics you can apply to get better here.
- **Core areas for onboarding feedback**
  - Overall velocity and output
  - Code quality
  - How good your questions are

Related resources:

- [Suppress Your Instincts And Treat All Feedback As A Gift](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/dpTu1KBbXJdnHdrQLxsG/suppress-your-instincts-and-treat-all-feedback-as-a-gift/)
- [How To Get Real Feedback So You Can Actually Improve](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/srTbalkn0HMwEH7HoOpY/how-to-get-real-feedback-so-you-can-actually-improve/)
- ["How can I find more opportunities to grow when I'm getting very little real feedback?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/7nrslKZuiFdYeutpeX5k/how-can-i-find-more-opportunities-to-grow-when-im-getting-very-little-real-feedback/)

[Masterclass] How To Write A Stellar Tech Resume That Gets You More Job Opportunities

Writing an effective resume is crucial for succeeding within the tech industry, especially for software engineers. It's the primary step you need to clear before getting a chance with an interview opportunity. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation around how to write a good resume: For 80%+ of junior software engineers struggling to break into tech, a poorly written resume is one of the main causes.

All that being said, here are our Top 5 points from the sessions (in no particular order):
1. *Remember that a recruiter is reading your resume and will, on average, only spend ~10 seconds on it*
    - They are almost certainly non-technical. Make things very accessible and easy to understand: Avoid jargon!
    - Be ruthlessly concise. For the vast majority of cases, your resume should only be 1 page.
2. Having a spelling or grammar mistake is the easiest way to get your resume thrown out
    - You have an effectively infinite amount of time to polish your resume. If you can't even catch basic mistakes like these, it shows that you have poor attention to detail or bad prioritization.
3. Show, don't tell
    - Don't just say that you're great, prove it
    - Example: Talking about the Android apps you've built with 100k+ users is much more effective than just saying you're a great Android engineer
4. Traps to avoid:
    - Having a summary section at the top
    - Self-rating yourself across skills
5. In the end, your resume needs to be approved by a human, not just an ATS
    - Making your resume very weird to "optimize" for the ATS is the epitome of winning a battle to lose the war. It's pointless

For an effective example + template you can use, [check out Alex's latest resume here.](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/tech-career-growth.appspot.com/o/articles%2FAlex%20Chiou%20Resume%20-%20FINAL%20FOR%20SHARING.docx?alt=media&token=3a75b8b2-09e8-4b68-b80d-22761055c3b2) You can import it into Microsoft Word online and swap out all of his content with yours.

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview - Data Structures And Algorithms](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/V4sTACzfOh22nMVcUV3w/masterclass-how-to-ace-your-big-tech-interview-data-structures-and-algorithms/)
- [[Masterclass] How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview - System Design](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/J3I9fTW9ulr6T9KjxpqY/masterclass-how-to-ace-your-big-tech-interview-system-design/)
- [Presentation Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15eLqE_WmePLA--lYTG0ZJVcHhpEld2qNTck_w0t_E9k/edit?usp=sharing)

What Gets Communicated Gets Done: Why Slack Sucks

3 Ways To Write Deeper, More Impactful Code Review Comments

Here are the core points from the video:
- Humans make bad IDEs: Don't focus on leaving code review feedback on syntax issues.
- **The main question to ask yourself when doing a code review**: *"How would I write this pull request if I were in the author's shoes?"*
  - From here, find the delta between your approach and theirs. That is a bountiful area for you to leave salient code review feedback for.
- Observe how the more senior engineers on your team do code review, particularly why they reject revisions
  - Senior engineers will be finding deeper issues, which is part of the reason why they're senior. If you incorporate that behavior into your code review repertoire, you are well on your own way towards becoming a senior engineer.

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Do Amazing Code Review](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/rhRFh49oouaUDhWUvkQb/how-to-do-amazing-code-review-3262022/) - This is the full video where this clip was taken from
- ["How can I write great code faster?"](https://link.jointaro.com/7dMeqXwrGceNM3kr6)
- [Avoid These Junior Engineer Mistakes With Code Review](https://link.jointaro.com/agkYrLH8uuCv4UcPA)
- [Good vs. Bad Code Review Feedback Example](https://link.jointaro.com/AUi8rHdSRLHKEW1z9)

[Masterclass] How To Learn Quickly In Tech

Related resources:
- ["How do I identify the core things to learn when picking up a new tech stack?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/0VfjTWl2gxCKS0PRHpRT/how-do-i-identify-the-core-things-to-learn-when-picking-up-a-new-tech-stack/)
- ["What’s the most effective way to switch domains in tech?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/eFr9vsyTSiYLCbtsj7RR/whats-the-most-effective-way-to-switch-domains-in-tech/)
- [Presentation Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1C0RYphpovijVp8s3JVjG9iYFT6hgPJNHabIeP8WF7V4/edit?usp=sharing)

You Should Be Vulnerable With Your Manager

You are feeling burnt out at work. Should you share this with your manager?

You feel like you are slower than your other teammates and are afraid that you look bad amongst the team. Should you share this with your manager?

Your dog just died, and you are having a really tough time concentrating at work because of this. Should you share this with your manager?

Core points:
- Your manager is responsible for your performance at work. Therefore, it's in their best interest to help you resolve anything that is negatively affecting your work performance, even if it's something non-tactical.
- If you are having a deeper issue (e.g. you have imposter syndrome), this is something you should talk with your manager about. You shouldn't expect them to act as a full psychologist, but they should at least be receptive of your problem and lend an understanding ear.
- Venting and complaining are very natural and can act as a therapeutic exercise. Don't be afraid to do this with your manager once you have a good enough relationship.
- This gets easier over time. Once you start being honest and more transparent in your manager meetings, the trust between you two increases, making it smoother to continue being open in the future.

This video is a clip from our masterclass about 1 on 1 meetings, which you can watch here: [[Masterclass] How To Have Impactful 1 on 1 Meetings](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/FEK6JZqW2Jg3rdN9yeGn/masterclass-how-to-have-impactful-1-on-1-meetings/)

Related resources:
- [1 on 1s Are The Time To Be Awkward](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/xjeFRpp5YHxG9TTK8wjn/1-on-1s-are-the-time-to-be-awkward/)
- [[Masterclass] What Software Engineers Should Look For In Their Engineering Manager](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/oeY7ncZhzJ5NO6dij5e7/masterclass-what-software-engineers-should-look-for-in-their-engineering-manager/)

Growing To Meta Tech Lead And Then Entrepreneurship - By Jocelin Ho

If you use WhatsApp web, level up your experience with the Cooby (the company Jocelin is cofounder and CTO of) plug-in: [Cooby: Best WhatsApp Extension for Work](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cooby-best-whatsapp-exten/hcikfoejbgdmajlbhadhfchoekcoablm)

To level up your software engineering knowledge, follow Jocelin on LinkedIn: [Jocelin Ho - LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jocelinho/)

Jocelin's presentation is **filled** with gems (including a fun video by Mark Zuckerberg), so we're just going to share her core learnings here:
1. **You need to be versatile to survive** - One of the biggest misconceptions about software engineering is that it's mostly about writing code: This couldn't be further from the truth. In order to be a genuinely stellar engineer, you need to have a vast array of skills on top of coding like communication, the ability to smoothly process feedback, multi-tasking, and much more. Jocelin excelled at developing these skills, which is why she was able to get promoted from E3 -> E4 at Meta (junior -> mid-level) in just 6 months, faster than 95% of FAANG engineers.
2. **Don't get emotionally attached to what you built** - Tech is always fast-moving and chaotic, and this is accentuated when you work at a top company like Meta. Organizational priorities change all the time, and this can mean that your hard work gets thrown out. Don't take it personally and continue striving to deliver impact and grow.
3. **Don't be afraid to take the leap** - You will literally never be ready for that big career or life change, whether it's taking your first FAANG interview, switching to management, or starting your own company. Once you have conviction in knowing what you want to do, make that jump and focus on growing and adapting as fast as possible. It's not about where you are now but rather where you can go in the future.
4. **Live up to your own expectations instead of others'** - While we should always try to add value to other people's lives and help one another, this doesn't mean we should derive our happiness from what they believe we should be. You own your own happiness - Set goals that are both feasible and exciting for you and ignore all the noise. This is especially relevant in tech where there's so many brilliant people, and it's tempting to compare yourself to others.

Related resources:
- ["What's the core insight behind quick growth?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/nJ762p255cGyuth36H6w/whats-the-core-insight-behind-quick-growth/)
- [[Taro Top 10] Junior Engineer To Mid-Level Engineer (L3 To L4)](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/iBKHYpkjd0BRWWLKQG2j/)
- [Presentation slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1BkaaiKQXXx6eUi5heaNiNmPgBriK9rr5UdTfHfd2K5k/edit?usp=sharing)

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.