Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 11] - Self Ratings

There's tremendous pressure to stand out with your resume as a software engineer, especially as you usually need to beat out 100+ or even 1000+ other engineers to get an interview opportunity. This lesson teaches you:

- Why self ratings don't add any value to a resume
- The dangers behind self ratings on a resume, particularly with more junior engineers

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 10] - Fancy Formats

Creativity is great, and it's a very important skill for software engineers. However, the resume is not a medium for creativity to thrive. This lesson teaches you:

- Why "creative", fancy resume formats are really bad for a tech resume, shown through a very eccentric example
- The principles to follow for a great resume format
- What a resume with an optimal format looks like with a real-life example

If you need inspiration for your resume format, you can use Alex's template as a template. Download it here: [Alexander Chiou Resume.docx](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NnAx2jYkRTMCQwbdDPPqSj1Fwxkahda-/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109380646850979301783&rtpof=true&sd=true)

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 9] - I Know (Suck At) Everything

When it comes tech stacks on your resume as a software engineer, less is usually more. This lesson teaches you:

- What employers are looking for when it comes to an engineer's technical skills on their resume
- Why it's dangerous to put a bunch of technical terms (i.e. keyword stuffing) on your resume
- A simple framework to determine whether or not you should put a technical term (programming language, library, domain) on your resume

Take the code quality course here: [Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 8] - Intro Summaries

It's common practice for engineers (and almost everyone else) to include a paragraph at the very top of their resume summarizing their overall experience and explaining why they're great. This lesson teaches you:

- Why those intro summaries actually hurt you, especially in tech
- What to do instead of having an intro summary

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 7] - It's Too Long

Having a resume that's too long is one of the easiest ways software engineers get their resume (and their job candidacy) immediately thrown out. This lesson teaches you:

- The optimal length for a resume
- Why shorter is better when it comes to resumes (and why very long resumes make 0 sense)
- How to convert your years of experience to a resume length
- Tactics to trim down your resume and make it more concise

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

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 5] - Resume Gaps

Having an employment gap is effectively inevitable as a software engineer, especially in a layoff-economy. This leads to resume gaps, which unfortunately have a lot of stigma. This lesson teaches you:

- Why employers (rightfully) hold resume gaps against you
- How to include your resume gap on your resume
- What to do in common resume gap scenarios if a company probes you about it during an interview

If you have recently been laid-off, you can check these out as well: [\[Taro Top 10\] Navigating Tech Industry Layoffs](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/pE7pP0nXDx4X7mOChzHS/)

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 4] - 1 Resume To Rule Them All

Writing tons of different resumes is one of the easiest ways to waste time and overwhelm yourself on the software engineer job search. This lesson teaches you:

- Why you should only have 1 resume, especially if you're an earlier-in-career engineer
- Why "full-stack" engineer is often a trap for more junior engineers
- How to figure out the 1 resume you should write
- What to do if you really can't write just 1 resume (i.e. how to break the tie)

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 3] - The Key To Writing A Great Resume

In the vast majority of cases, a recruiter is reviewing the resumes of software engineers. This means a lot more than most engineers realize. This lesson teaches you:

- The #1 principle you **need** to remember when writing your resume
- The important attributes of recruiters when it comes to vetting resumes
- How to truly empathize with recruiters and infer their resume screening behaviors based on that
- How recruiters read through engineering resumes

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 2] - Why You NEED A Killer Resume

As a software engineer, there are a million different things you can do. Choosing the right things to work on from engineer to engineer, but the good news is that having a great resume is one of those right things for every engineer. This lesson teaches you:

- Why optimizing your resume is one of the highest return on investments you can possibly do
- Understanding the overall job search funnel and how a good resume fits within it

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 1] - How This Course Works

It doesn't matter if you have mastered 500 LeetCode problems if your resume isn't even good enough to get you the interview to begin with. Writing a stellar resume is one of the absolute highest-leverage things you can do as an engineer yet so many mess it up, making basic mistakes. With this course, you will stop making those mistakes. 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. More importantly, he goes through how he reviewed (and rejected) 1,000+ resumes as he was extensively involved in the hiring loop of all of his prior companies.
- You'll understand why writing a stellar resume is actually quite easy, but the internet makes it hard due to misinformation
- We walk you through the course objectives. By the end of the course, you will understand:
  - 💡 Truly understand the **principles** behind a stellar resume
  - 🗑️ Avoid the common **traps** that make resumes suck
  - 💯 Get **maximum credit** by best framing your experience
  - 📊 Make the right resume based on your **level**
  - 🤔 Know what to do if your resume **isn’t enough**

Paper Reading: Mamba - Revolutionizing Sequence Modeling

Session led by: [Akshika Wijesundara, PhD](https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshika/overlay/about-this-profile/)

*Abstract:*

Explore the Mamba paper's groundbreaking approach to sequence modeling efficiency in this event. Uncover how Mamba addresses computational inefficiencies in transformers, especially for long sequences.

*Overview:*

Discover the motivation behind Mamba, highlighting its improvements over subquadratic-time architectures struggling with language tasks. Learn about Mamba's content-based reasoning and enhancements for superior performance.

*Key Features:*

1\. **Selective Structured State Space Models (SSMs):** Mamba introduces adaptive SSM parameters for content-based reasoning, allowing selective information handling for discrete modalities.

2\. **Hardware-Aware Parallel Algorithm:** Despite forgoing efficient convolutions, Mamba's hardware-aware parallel algorithm maintains fast inference and linear scaling in sequence length.

3\. **Architecture Overview:** Dive into Mamba's streamlined architecture without attention or MLP blocks, achieving efficiency without sacrificing effectiveness.

4\. **Performance Metrics:** Witness Mamba's 5× higher throughput than Transformers, with linear scaling, showcasing its real-world improvements in language, audio, and genomics tasks.

5\. **Comparison with Transformers:** See Mamba outperforms Transformers of the same size and match larger Transformers, especially in language modeling.

Join us in unraveling the secrets of Mamba, poised to redefine sequence modeling standards. Anticipate a paradigm shift in efficiency and performance in deep learning.\
\
paper link: \[[**https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.00752**](https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.00752)\]

Learnings from SWE to Senior SWE at LinkedIn

*If you're not part of Taro Premium, join with Paras's link to receive a discount: [**https://www.jointaro.com/r/parass876/**](https://www.jointaro.com/r/parass876/)*

Jumping into Software Engineering from a non-technical background can be challenging, but it’s far from impossible. Join us for an inspiring session with [**Paras Sidhu**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/paras-sidhu/), who not only transitioned from mathematics into software engineering, but also cracked big tech in just 2 years and earned a promotion to Senior Software Engineer within another 2 years.

### **What to Expect**

1. **Actionable Tips**: Paras will share his experiences and actionable tips on his journey from Software Engineer to Senior Software Engineer, providing practical examples that you can apply to your own career path.
2. **Insightful Learnings**: Gain valuable insights into how to navigate and excel in big tech, even if you come from a non-technical background.
3. **Q&A Session**: Don’t miss the chance to ask your burning questions and get personalized advice from someone who has successfully made the transition and accelerated his career.

Mark your calendars and prepare to be inspired! Don’t miss out on this chance to learn from Paras' unique journey and gather tips that could propel your own career forward.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 24] - Go Deeper: Follow Through

Start a career discussion in Taro: <https://www.jointaro.com/questions/create/>

Join Taro events: <https://www.jointaro.com/events/>

Come to Alex's Group Office Hours: <https://www.jointaro.com/p/alex-chiou/>

Related courses:

- [Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/nail-your-promotion-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [Managing Up: Build Effective Relationships With Your Boss](https://www.jointaro.com/course/managing-up-build-effective-relationships-with-your-boss/)
- [Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [Effective Communication For Engineers](https://www.jointaro.com/course/effective-communication-for-engineers/)
- [Frontend System Design Masterclass - Building Playlists](https://www.jointaro.com/course/frontend-system-design-masterclass-building-playlists/)

Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 23] - Plot Your Growth Journey

The mid-level engineer to senior engineer promotion takes years for a very simple reason: You need to develop a *ton* of new skills to make it. This lesson teaches you:

- How to prevent yourself from becoming overwhelmed on your journey from mid-level to senior
- The standard growth path from L4 (mid-level) to L5 (senior) and what it means to be L4.5
- Why the L4.5 growth path that initially focuses on increasing your engineering excellence is generally the smoothest path to senior engineer

Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 22] - Instagram Ads Survey Cleanup Workstream

See something, say something: You'll be surprised at how much opportunity you can find by championing this mentality, including to senior levels. This lesson goes through:

- The weird organizational dynamic that led to a bunch of senior scope existing "for free" but easy to ignore as a junior or mid-level engineer
- The simple but powerful trick Alex used to turn several smaller issues into a senior-level project
- How Alex continued to deepen the impact of this survey cleanup workstream by digging deeper and doing the right thing
- The learnings from this case study that you can apply to your day-to-day to find senior scope

Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 21] - Instagram Ads Testing Tool

Sometimes being a little selfish can help you tremendously when finding senior scope as it did in this case study. This lesson goes through:

- The problem Alex was solving with Instagram ads internal testing, particularly with mobile engineers
- How Alex came up with a very simple solution to the testing problem (far simpler than senior engineer technical complexity)
- How Alex scaled both himself and his basic Instagram ads testing tool
- The learnings from this case study that you can apply to your own day-to-day at work to find senior scope

Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 20] - Mentorship

Mentorship is one of the most skills to master as a software engineer, especially at senior levels. It is both a way for you to do some good and scale yourself. This lesson teaches you: 

- The difference between passive and active mentorship
- Ways to provide passive mentorship to teammates
- Why you should consider taking on an intern as a mid-level engineer growing to senior
- The jump in quality when it comes to mentorship advice given by a mid-level engineer vs. a senior engineer
- The key thing to remember when being an effective mentor

To learn how Alex was such an effective mentor: [\[Case Study\] Mentoring Junior SWEs \[E3\] to Senior \[E5\] In Just 2.5 Years At Meta](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/EX9563YnxcJb62cCmetg/case-study-mentoring-junior-swes-e3-to-senior-e5-in-just-25-years-at-meta/)

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/)

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.