Engineer Your Ideal Tech Career [Part 3] - What Drives You?

In this video, we explore the major areas of motivation for individuals in their career, and give you an opportunity to reflect on which resonates most with you.

Try to lean one way or the other on your worksheet vs. selecting a rating right in the middle!

We cover being driven by:

- Mission
- Technical Work
- Team

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 6] - Networking

Your network is your net worth. Too many software engineers neglect their social skills as they solely build up their technical skills. This lesson teaches you:

- Why networking isn't just "politics"
- The key to effective networking
- How altruism can produce massive career benefits, explained with a powerful, real-life example

Get The Rating You Deserve [Part 13] - Showcase Your Work

**In this section, we discussed the importance of effectively communicating our work and aspirations.**

To maximize our impact, we should:

- **Showcase our work:** Highlight our accomplishments and contributions, tailoring our communication to different audiences.
- **Communicate our desires:** Clearly express our goals and aspirations to our managers and colleagues.
- **Engage in regular check-ins:** Schedule regular meetings with our manager to discuss our progress, challenges, and future plans.
- **Optimize synchronous time:** Make the most of our meetings by focusing on key topics and decision-making.
- **Develop strong storytelling skills:** Use storytelling techniques to make our work more engaging and memorable.

By effectively communicating our work and desires, we can increase our visibility, influence, and career opportunities.

If you want to get personalized support from Yogi, you can reach out to him at [coaching@yogisharma.com](mailto:coaching@yogisharma.com) or schedule an introductory call to dive into your situation at <https://tinyurl.com/meetyogi>.

Get The Rating You Deserve [Part 4] - Learning Objectives

**In this course, we aim to empower you to achieve your career goals by focusing on three key objectives:**

- **Mindset Shift:** We'll help you shift your perspective and adopt a growth mindset, believing in your ability to achieve your desired outcomes.
- **Tactical Strategies:** You'll learn practical strategies and tactics to effectively navigate your career and achieve your goals.
- **Discretionary Application:** We'll guide you on how to apply these strategies judiciously, recognizing the right moments to leverage them for maximum impact.

By focusing on these areas, we'll equip you with the tools and knowledge to succeed in your career.

If you want to get personalized support from Yogi, you can reach out to him at [coaching@yogisharma.com](mailto:coaching@yogisharma.com) or schedule an introductory call to dive into your situation at <https://tinyurl.com/meetyogi>.

Get The Rating You Deserve [Part 3] - About Yogi

**In this section, we learned about the instructor's qualifications and experiences that make them credible to teach about creating value and receiving rewards.**

Yogi has:

- **Academic Background:** A Ph.D. in theoretical computer science and experience in teaching.
- **Industry Experience:** Worked at Facebook for several years, gaining insights into large-scale systems and organizational dynamics.
- **Personal Experience:** Overcame challenges and learned valuable lessons about career progression and negotiation.
- **Coaching Experience:** Helped numerous individuals and organizations improve their performance and achieve their goals.

By sharing their knowledge and experiences, the instructor aims to help learners develop the skills and mindset needed to create value and receive the rewards they deserve.

If you want to get personalized support from Yogi, you can reach out to him at [coaching@yogisharma.com](mailto:coaching@yogisharma.com) or schedule an introductory call to dive into your situation at <https://tinyurl.com/meetyogi>.

Come Up With 500k+ User Project Ideas [Part 16] - Bias Towards Action

Talk is cheap. Action is expensive. Engineers often fall into a habit of thinking about what to do instead of actually doing anything. This lesson teaches you:

- How engineers struggle internally with their side projects, leading to nothing getting built
- Why you should just quickly build a side project idea after you have done some basic validation
- Why running a survey is one of the worst ways to validate a side project idea
- How most engineers struggle with user research (UXR)
- What book you should read if you really, really, really want to do UXR

Here's the UXR book Alex mentioned (it's one of the few books he's actually read): <https://www.momtestbook.com/>

Come Up With 500k+ User Project Ideas [Part 9] - Single Player vs. Multiplayer

The most successful apps are those where users interact with other users - Facebook, Uber, and Airbnb are just a few. However, this model doesn't translate well to side projects. This lesson teaches you:

- The difference between a single-player product and a multi-player product
- Why multi-player products are both insanely hard to get off the ground and a recipe for disaster
- Why your side project really should be a single-player products
- The brutal chicken-and-egg problem multiplayer products must solve initially, shown with a concrete example from Alex's past

DSA Crash Course [Part 72] - Sum Possible Walkthrough

In this lesson, Alvin walks through the python implementation for the *sum_possible* problem.

Code along and test your work in the following editor workspace: <https://structy.net/problems/sum-possible?language=py>

If you need additional support taking these DSA skills and actually applying them, take [**Alvin's**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/) *complete* data structures and algorithms course on [**Structy**](https://structy.net/?utm_source=taro). You can try out the concepts yourself in their interactive code editor and learn advanced DSA patterns like stack exhaustive recursion.

Use [**this link to get 20% off**](https://structy.net/purchase?promo_code=taro20) the entire Structy DSA learning experience.

Follow Alvin on LinkedIn: [**https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/)

DSA Crash Course [Part 51] - Graph Intro Lecture

In this lecture, Alvin explains the basic structure of a graph.

If you need additional support taking these DSA skills and actually applying them, take [**Alvin's**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/) *complete* data structures and algorithms course on [**Structy**](https://structy.net/?utm_source=taro). You can try out the concepts yourself in their interactive code editor and learn advanced DSA patterns like stack exhaustive recursion.

Use [**this link to get 20% off**](https://structy.net/purchase?promo_code=taro20) the entire Structy DSA learning experience.

Follow Alvin on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/>

DSA Crash Course [Part 40] - Depth First Values Walkthrough

In this lesson, Alvin walks through the python implementation for the *depth_first_values* problem.

Code along and test your work in the following editor workspace: <https://structy.net/problems/depth-first-values?language=py>

If you need additional support taking these DSA skills and actually applying them, take [**Alvin's**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/) *complete* data structures and algorithms course on [**Structy**](https://structy.net/?utm_source=taro). You can try out the concepts yourself in their interactive code editor and learn advanced DSA patterns like stack exhaustive recursion.

Use [**this link to get 20% off**](https://structy.net/purchase?promo_code=taro20) the entire Structy DSA learning experience.

Follow Alvin on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/>

DSA Crash Course [Part 33] - Reverse List Walkthrough

In this lesson, Alvin walks through the python implementation for the *reverse_list* problem.

Code along and test your work in the following editor workspace: <https://structy.net/problems/reverse-list?language=py>

If you need additional support taking these DSA skills and actually applying them, take [**Alvin's**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/) *complete* data structures and algorithms course on [**Structy**](https://structy.net/?utm_source=taro). You can try out the concepts yourself in their interactive code editor and learn advanced DSA patterns like stack exhaustive recursion.

Use [**this link to get 20% off**](https://structy.net/purchase?promo_code=taro20) the entire Structy DSA learning experience.

Follow Alvin on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/>

DSA Crash Course [Part 31] - Get Node Value Walkthrough

In this lesson, Alvin walks through the python implementation for the *get_node_value* problem.

Code along and test your work in the following editor workspace: <https://structy.net/problems/get-node-value?language=py>

If you need additional support taking these DSA skills and actually applying them, take [**Alvin's**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/) *complete* data structures and algorithms course on [**Structy**](https://structy.net/?utm_source=taro). You can try out the concepts yourself in their interactive code editor and learn advanced DSA patterns like stack exhaustive recursion.

Use [**this link to get 20% off**](https://structy.net/purchase?promo_code=taro20) the entire Structy DSA learning experience.

Follow Alvin on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/>

DSA Crash Course [Part 30] - Get Node Value Approach

In this lesson, Alvin explores the strategy to solving the following interview problem:

> Write a function, *get_node_value*, that takes in the head of a linked list and an index. The function should return the value of the linked list at the specified index.
>
> If there is no node at the given index, then return *None*.

```
a = Node("a")
b = Node("b")
c = Node("c")
d = Node("d")
a.next = b
b.next = c
c.next = d

# a -> b -> c -> d
get_node_value(a, 2) # 'c'
```

```
a = Node("a")
b = Node("b")
c = Node("c")
d = Node("d")
a.next = b
b.next = c
c.next = d

# a -> b -> c -> d
get_node_value(a, 3) # 'd'
```

```
a = Node("a")
b = Node("b")
c = Node("c")
d = Node("d")
a.next = b
b.next = c
c.next = d

# a -> b -> c -> d
get_node_value(a, 7) # None
```

If you need additional support taking these DSA skills and actually applying them, take [**Alvin's**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/) *complete* data structures and algorithms course on [**Structy**](https://structy.net/?utm_source=taro). You can try out the concepts yourself in their interactive code editor and learn advanced DSA patterns like stack exhaustive recursion.

Use [**this link to get 20% off**](https://structy.net/purchase?promo_code=taro20) the entire Structy DSA learning experience.

Follow Alvin on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/>

DSA Crash Course [Part 28] - Linked List Find Approach

In this lesson, Alvin explores the strategy to solving the following interview problem:

> Write a function, *linked_list_find*, that takes in the head of a linked list and a target value. The function should return a boolean indicating whether or not the linked list contains the target.

```
a = Node("a")
b = Node("b")
c = Node("c")
d = Node("d")
a.next = b
b.next = c
c.next = d

# a -> b -> c -> d
linked_list_find(a, "c") # True
```

```
a = Node("a")
b = Node("b")
c = Node("c")
d = Node("d")
a.next = b
b.next = c
c.next = d

# a -> b -> c -> d
linked_list_find(a, "d") # True
```

```
a = Node("a")
b = Node("b")
c = Node("c")
d = Node("d")
a.next = b
b.next = c
c.next = d

# a -> b -> c -> d
linked_list_find(a, "q") # False
```

If you need additional support taking these DSA skills and actually applying them, take [**Alvin's**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/) *complete* data structures and algorithms course on [**Structy**](https://structy.net/?utm_source=taro). You can try out the concepts yourself in their interactive code editor and learn advanced DSA patterns like stack exhaustive recursion.

Use [**this link to get 20% off**](https://structy.net/purchase?promo_code=taro20) the entire Structy DSA learning experience.

Follow Alvin on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/>

DSA Crash Course [Part 25] - Linked List Values Walkthrough

In this lesson, Alvin walks through the python implementation for the *linked_list_values* problem.

Code along and test your work in the following editor workspace: <https://structy.net/problems/linked-list-values?language=py>

If you need additional support taking these DSA skills and actually applying them, take [**Alvin's**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/) *complete* data structures and algorithms course on [**Structy**](https://structy.net/?utm_source=taro). You can try out the concepts yourself in their interactive code editor and learn advanced DSA patterns like stack exhaustive recursion.

Use [**this link to get 20% off**](https://structy.net/purchase?promo_code=taro20) the entire Structy DSA learning experience.

Follow Alvin on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/>

How to Crack System Design Interviews - Part 7: System Design Scorecard

This video explains how candidates are evaluated and scored in system design interviews at large tech companies. We learn about the scorecard used to assess performance across five key parameters:

- **Problem Scope:** This includes listing and clarifying product requirements, discussing user interactions and expectations, and considering system scale.

- **Technical Design:** This involves making appropriate design choices, leveraging design patterns, and demonstrating knowledge of relevant technologies.

- **Scalability:** This encompasses designing a system that can handle increasing amounts of data and traffic.

- **Reliability:** This involves ensuring the system is fault-tolerant and can handle failures gracefully.

- **Communication:** This includes effectively conveying ideas, actively listening to the interviewer, and incorporating feedback.

Each parameter is scored from 0 to 5, with a total score ranging from 0 to 25. A higher score indicates a stronger candidate, and the acceptable score range varies depending on the target seniority level.

[Gaurav Sen](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gkcs/) has conducted 1000s of system design interviews while working at Uber and building his [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@gkcs) to 500K+ subscribers. His platform [InterviewReady](https://interviewready.io/?_aff=JOINTARO) combines video explainers, live Zoom classes, and an automated System Design Judge.

Master The DSA Interview [Part 11] - Space Analysis

**CORRECTION:** Recursive solutions can also have O(n) space for non-binary search style problems where you don't eliminate half of the problem space with each iteration. The classic example here is using recursion to calculate fibonacci numbers.

Run-time analysis is important, but it isn't everything. When it comes to FAANG, run-time on its own can actually be sorely lacking. This lesson teaches you:

- Why space complexity is also important when it comes to data structures and algorithms
- What a great space complexity analysis looks like, explained with an in-depth example
- A common mistake engineers make with space complexity concerning a very common data structures and algorithms pattern

Break Into Tech And Become A Software Engineer [Part 24] - Wrapping Up

In this final lesson, Brian provides key insights and encouragement as you wrap up your journey into software development.

This lesson covers:

- The importance of recognizing that everyone's timeline for getting hired is unique, and consistent effort on your technical skills will prepare you for success
- Building a supportive community or "tribe" through building in public, which will help you grow and find accountability
- Staying committed to learning and growing even after getting hired, as career development is a long-term game, and keeping your skills sharp will open doors for better opportunities

If you need extra help breaking into tech, join Brian's exclusive, cohort-based bootcamp (just 10 students per batch). Use this special link for $800 off: <https://www.parsity.io/taro>

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianjenney/>

Break Into Tech And Become A Software Engineer [Part 23] - Exercise!

Brian's life before coding: <https://youtu.be/3pqgSaE6Zs4>

In this lesson, Brian shares how adopting an exercise routine can positively impact your journey as a software developer, fostering optimism and habit formation.

This lesson covers:

- How exercise builds optimism, as both working out and coding require patience, consistency, and incremental progress that may not be immediately noticeable
- The parallels between fitness and coding, such as overcoming self-doubt and creating habits that lead to long-term success
- Practical tips on habit creation, like using cues and triggers to make coding and exercise a natural part of your daily routine, emphasizing that it's never too late to start either

If you need extra help breaking into tech, join Brian's exclusive, cohort-based bootcamp (just 10 students per batch). Use this special link for $800 off: <https://www.parsity.io/taro>

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianjenney/>

Break Into Tech And Become A Software Engineer [Part 21] - Developing Optimism

In this lesson, Brian shares the importance of cultivating optimism as a foundation for achieving success and overcoming challenges in your career and life.

This lesson covers:

- How optimism, rooted in effort and persistence, is essential for progress, as demonstrated by Brian's own journey from addiction to engineering manager
- The negative impact of social media on optimism, as it skews reality by focusing on extremes rather than everyday successes
- Practical strategies for maintaining optimism, such as keeping a tech journal to track your progress and reinforce your belief in your ability to improve and succeed

If you need extra help breaking into tech, join Brian's exclusive, cohort-based bootcamp (just 10 students per batch). Use this special link for $800 off: <https://www.parsity.io/taro>

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianjenney/>

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.