Clear Communication For SWEs [Part 6] - The Pyramid Principle

In this video, I explain the Pyramid Principle, a powerful communication framework that structures information hierarchically for clear and logical communication. I discuss how to apply it in presentations and communications, emphasizing starting with the main idea, supporting it with arguments, and providing detailed evidence.

**Action requested:** Understand and apply the Pyramid Principle for efficient and effective communication.

Connect with me on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-wiens/>

Asking Great Questions [Part 18] - Put Them On A Pedestal

If you are asking someone for a favor, they are almost certainly special in some way. This means that they're probably getting asked for favors from many, many people besides you. So how can you stand out? This lesson teaches you:

- An easy and free way to make your favor request stand out
- Why putting someone on a pedestal is so powerful
- What it means to put someone on a pedestal in your question, explained with an in-depth example

[Timeless Career Advice] One on Ones

Become A Debugging Master [Part 14] - Debugging Case Study: Meta

Let's make things concrete with a clear debugging case study from Meta. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Mastering the deployment process (web continuous deploys vs mobile gated releases) and internal tools like “Where Is My Diff” at Meta can make it faster to rule out likely causes
- Being deeply familiar with experiments, gatekeepers, and other release tooling can help you spot issues like sudden error spikes or QA/test build failures without needing to dig into the code immediately
- Effective debuggers can quickly answer questions like when a code change deployed, what experiments launched, and what version a user was on during a bug report
- Going deep into tooling and metrics, not just code, lets you identify root causes faster, communicate precisely with teams, and resolve issues much more efficiently

How Facebook does continuous deployment: <https://engineering.fb.com/2017/08/31/web/rapid-release-at-massive-scale/>

DSA Crash Course [Part 65] - Minimum Island Approach

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

> Write a function, *minimum_island*, that takes in a grid containing Ws and Ls. W represents water and L represents land. The function should return the size of the smallest island. An island is a vertically or horizontally connected region of land.
>
> You may assume that the grid contains at least one island.

```
grid = [
['W', 'L', 'W', 'W', 'W'],
['W', 'L', 'W', 'W', 'W'],
['W', 'W', 'W', 'L', 'W'],
['W', 'W', 'L', 'L', 'W'],
['L', 'W', 'W', 'L', 'L'],
['L', 'L', 'W', 'W', 'W'],
]

minimum_island(grid) # -> 2
```

```
grid = [
['L', 'W', 'W', 'L', 'W'],
['L', 'W', 'W', 'L', 'L'],
['W', 'L', 'W', 'L', 'W'],
['W', 'W', 'W', 'W', 'W'],
['W', 'W', 'L', 'L', 'L'],
]

minimum_island(grid) # -> 1
```

```
grid = [
['L', 'L', 'L'],
['L', 'L', 'L'],
['L', 'L', 'L'],
]

minimum_island(grid) # -> 9
```

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/)

Become An Open Source Master [Part 13] - Dipping Your Toes Into A Project

We can contribute to open source projects in many ways, even without writing code. We can triage issues, work on documentation, improve the website design, or provide translations. We can also become an advocate for the project by promoting it on social media, writing articles, or creating training courses. By contributing to the broader ecosystem, we can help the project succeed and build our own reputation in the community.

Connect with James:

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

Real Stock Options Example - Kosei (Acquired By Pinterest)

This final segment offers a real-world walkthrough of a startup stock option offer and breaks down the critical information employees need to assess the *true* value of such equity. It highlights how confusing option grants can be without proper context and the financial implications of exercising options.

- **Real Offer Letter Example:** The speaker received an offer of 62,000 options at a $0.14 strike price, totaling $8,750 to exercise. However, the true value of this offer depends entirely on factors not included in the letter, like company valuation and total shares outstanding.
- **Vesting and Exercising Mechanics:** Vesting followed the standard schedule—1-year cliff with monthly vesting afterward. Post-termination, many startups only give a 90-day window to exercise, which can be financially burdensome.
- **Liquidity and Risk Considerations:** Employees may lose out if they can't afford to exercise before leaving a startup. As a response, some companies began extending the exercise window up to 10 years, reducing financial pressure on departing employees.
- **Tax Strategy Tip:** Exercising early (if financially feasible) starts the clock on long-term capital gains, which can save 10–12% in taxes versus short-term treatment if exercised and sold after a liquidity event.
- **Most Common Mistake:** Employees often overvalue large share numbers without understanding what fraction of the company those shares represent. To assess an offer, it’s essential to ask:
  - *What percentage of the company do these shares represent?*

  - *What is the current fair market value versus the strike price?*

Without those answers, it's impossible to accurately evaluate the worth of a stock option grant.

Break Into Tech And Become A Software Engineer [Part 9] - Working In Sprints

In this lesson, Brian explains the value of working in sprints to manage large projects and goals, breaking them down into manageable tasks to maintain focus and track progress.

This lesson covers:

- The concept of sprints in software development, how to decompose large goals into smaller tasks, and making incremental progress toward them
- Using tools like Trello or notebooks to organize tasks, set deadlines, and track success with clear deliverables and realistic time estimates
- The importance of having a clear goal for each task and recalibrating your approach when necessary to stay on track

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/>

Grow From Senior To Staff Engineer [Part 21] - Plot Your Growth Journey

It can be overwhelming looking at all the skills you need to build to grow from senior to staff as both the breadth and depth of the skill development you need to do are massive. This lesson teaches you:

- How to tactically grow 1 step at a time from senior to staff and long-term
- What skills you should develop first to start (or continue) going down your senior to staff journey

What To Do If You Don’t Mesh Well With Your Manager

This clip discusses the **importance of manager-report alignment**, especially around communication preferences and expectations. A common failure mode arises when managers assume their team members operate and think the same way they do, without checking for alignment.

- **Reciprocity can backfire without context**: Managers often expect others to operate as they did when they were individual contributors—such as sending frequent updates—without recognizing that not everyone shares the same style or comfort level.
- **Avoiding mislabeling of behavior**: What feels like diligence to one person (e.g., weekly updates) might feel like micromanagement to another. This mismatch can create tension or disengagement if not addressed.
- **Meta conversations build alignment**: Discussing communication styles, feedback preferences, career goals, and working habits helps avoid misunderstandings. These conversations create a shared context for more effective collaboration.
- **Feedback delivery should be customized**: Some individuals prefer written feedback over verbal critiques. Adapting delivery style to the recipient’s comfort increases the chance that the feedback is received productively.
- **Mutual respect strengthens manager-report relationships**: Respecting differences in working style and proactively aligning on expectations can prevent unnecessary friction and improve team dynamics.

Engineer Your Ideal Tech Career [Part 16] - Specialization

Now, depending on which specialization you’ve landed on, your near-term next steps and interview expectations also vary.

In your current role, the advice may be to start shipping easter eggs, optimizing for teams with grand scale, or rapidly learning new technologies.

Should you be thinking about a change soon, there are also actionable interview prep tips, particularly around system design, (and mistakes to avoid!) in this section.

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)

Asking Great Questions [Part 14] - What Have You Tried?

If you don't do it right, asking questions can seriously damage your reputation among the team and mark you as a low-performer. This lesson teaches you:

- Why engineers in particular are extremely allergic to low-quality questions
- How low-quality questions can put you in the target of a PIP (performance improvement plan)
- A simple way to identify if a question is low-quality or high-quality based on its overall vibe
- 3 core tactics you should try if possible before asking a question
- What it means to masterfully incorporate what you've tried into a question, explained with an incredibly in-depth example

Come Up With 500k+ User Project Ideas [Part 12] - Do A Search

The key towards building any successful product is to make something people want. Turns out that this actually isn't too difficult when it comes to side projects. This lesson teaches you:

- How to do a basic search to find relevant competitors and inspiration
- How to find core keywords that people use to find products in your space
- A simple, free way to understand the traffic of a website and see if it's worth building a similar webapp

You can download the Similarweb extension here: <https://www.similarweb.com/corp/extension/>

Why IN PERSON Meetings Are Important for Building Culture


  How can you build relationships and team culture in a hybrid or remote team? 

Unfortunately, the physical connection you get from being in an office is much harder to emulate online. If you are in a remote environment, having some sort of in-person meetup can create a substantially healthier and bonded team.

Philip also talks about how to best evaluate a company culture: talking to senior individual contributors (ICs). Managers may provide less value since they have something to sell.

More to explore: 
- Our masterclass on [How To Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech](https://link.jointaro.com/MvHfGDSzxwboGqBB8)
- [Why Slack Sucks for Team Communication](https://link.jointaro.com/JmHCagUPAFPSCtt99)
- Connect with [Philip Su](https://www.linkedin.com/in/suphilip/) 

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/)

Grow From Senior To Staff Engineer [Part 20] - Generalist

An easy way to understand what a great staff engineer looks like is that they're a "Jack of all trades, master of all". This lesson teaches you:

- What the generalist staff "archetype" is
- The different types of skills staff generalists need to be good at
- When it makes sense to become a generalist
- How generalist staff engineers grow long-term

Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech [Part 5] - Understand Their Incentives

At the end of the day, everyone is out to get something, especially in the professional world. This lesson teaches you:

- Why understanding other people's incentives is so important
- How to figure out other people's incentives
- The playbook to build an amazing relationship once you truly get someone's incentives
- What it looks like to truly align incentives, explained with an in-depth example

What Rockstar Engineers Realize About Managers That Others Don't

- Don't view your manager as just a boss. It's true that they have authority over you, but they are *also a resource for you*.
- This means that there's also a burden on you to find out how your manager can best support and empower you.
  - What skills do you want to grow?
  - Which projects are on their top of mind and therefore have the great impact?
- This working model is best for everyone. You are essentially finding out how you can be the most effective and impactful report for your manager as possible. Your manager gets a more empowered and efficient team, and you get career growth.

DSA Crash Course [Part 60] - Largest Component Walkthrough

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

Code along and test your work in the following editor workspace: <https://structy.net/problems/largest-component?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/)

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 11] - Set The Direction

One of the crowning growth moments for software engineers is when they become less focused on *how* to get where they need to be and more focused on *where* they should be going to begin with. That direction component is a huge part of a tech lead's responsibilities. This lesson teaches you:

- What it means to define good direction for a project
- The components behind effective direction-setting for a project
- How to decompose a goal into actionable items
- The ingredients behind empowering your team to work cohesively

To dive deeper into project management: [\[Taro Top 10\] Project Management](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/4CtqCnUYwqedd0my2EEw/)

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.