Become A Debugging Master [Part 11] - The 2 Styles Of Bug Searching

When you’re stuck on a tough bug, how you approach it can make a huge difference in how quickly you find the root cause. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Top-down debugging starts from the full application and removes pieces to isolate the bug, while bottom-up starts with a clean slate and adds code until the bug appears
- Bottom-up debugging can dramatically speed up iteration and discovery in large, complex codebases, even if it requires more upfront effort
- A key mindset is to “move the ball forward” by adding logs, setting alerts, or gathering information that will help your future self debug faster
- Forming clear written updates or questions based on your debugging history allows you to get much higher-quality help from others

Asking Great Questions [Part 22] - Learn To Fish

Getting the answer to your question isn't enough: If you want to respect the person who helped you, make sure to follow through on the end-to-end learning. This lesson teaches you:

- A common mistake engineers make when getting an answer that's too shallow
- What engineers should do to follow-up on an answer and get full value
- Why it's better to potentially annoy your helper with more questions now instead of later
- The difference between knowledge and mastery, why the latter is so critical for your career, and how asking great questions is intrinsically tied to mastery-building

Tech Lead Blueprint 16/17 - Chaos And Tech Debt

Connect with Lalit on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/lalitkundu/>

Engineer Your Ideal Tech Career [Part 17] - Closing Thoughts

Wrapping up the course, [Sophie](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophienovati/) shares her motivations behind helping people achieve their most ideal and ambitious career outcomes and some ways to connect further.

We hope you leave this course with a crystal clear vision of what brings you excitement as an engineer and how to take that next step to get there.

Thanks for watching!

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)

Come Up With 500k+ User Project Ideas [Part 13] - Look For Gaps

You have found some competitors that you want to beat with your side project. Now how do you do that? This lesson teaches you:

- How adding efficiency and reducing clicks can be extremely compelling
- General basic UI/UX (user interface/user experience) improvements you can make for a product
- A simple way you can level up an application without doing anything (everybody hates ads)

Become An Open Source Master [Part 23] - Be Like Water

It's hard to play well with others when we're very stubborn. Instead, "*be like water*":

- Adapt our contributions to fit the project's philosophy and guidelines.
- Observe and learn from other successful pull requests in the project.
- Be patient and work with the maintainers to get our changes approved.

The viral bad pull request mentioned: <https://github.com/A11yance/axobject-query/pull/354> 

The full process of making a contribution in a big, scary project: [Fixing a Bug in Google Chrome as a First-Time Contributor](https://cprimozic.net/blog/fixing-a-bug-in-google-chrome/)

Connect with James:

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

Tech Lead Blueprint 15/17 - Low Performers

What Do Managers Do?

Part Two of the *Essence of Management* course invites us to deeply reflect on the core question: **What do managers actually do?**

- We are encouraged to pause and **write a one-line summary** of the manager’s role—not our personal job, but the purpose of the managerial function itself.
- This section emphasizes **active engagement**, urging us to think, reflect, and put ideas into our own words rather than passively consuming content.
- The reflection exercise sets the foundation for the next module, where we’ll compare our answers to a more structured definition of management.

If you want to learn more from Gilad, he shares free leadership advice daily on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/giladnaor/?utm_source=taro&utm_medium=course&utm_campaign=cta) and weekly on the[ δeltas newsletter](https://posts.managementdeltas.com/?utm_source=taro&utm_medium=course&utm_campaign=cta)

Break Into Tech And Become A Software Engineer [Part 12] - Pick A Platform

In this lesson, Brian emphasizes the value of choosing the right platform for writing online, with a strong recommendation for LinkedIn.

This lesson covers:

- Why LinkedIn is a great platform for building a professional presence, with less anonymity and trolling compared to platforms like X or TikTok
- The advantage of standing out on LinkedIn, where recruiters and employers are more active, making it easier to connect with professionals
- How while platforms like X and TikTok offer cutting-edge tech content, LinkedIn provides a safer environment to network with verified professionals and receive genuine feedback

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/>

How To Prepare To Leave Big Tech For A Startup

If you’re like [Rahul](https://www.jointaro.com/profile/tTjEXHcTZEYDGh8oUFU2Dy5VFVG2/), you were intent on leaving the bubble of Big Tech to pursue the startup life for a long time. If you have 6 months or 1 year left working in an established company, what can you do in anticipation of your startup journey?

One of the best things you can do is validate the idea of your startup with a side hustle. **Be careful that you’re not using company time or resources or you may later get sued.**

Generally, there are 3 types of projects an engineer can work on: 
1. A project purely for learning, to try out some technology or framework that may have come out recently. 
2. A small business. Also known as an indie business, a micro-Saas, or even something as simple as selling a digital product like an eBook. 
3. A VC scale startup. **This should be reserved for very few companies.** When you take venture capital money, they are looking for a massive return on investment, something like 50x or 100x. That means you’ll be accountable for strenuous growth targets.

Whichever path you choose, go in with your eyes wide open about what your motivations are and whether you’d be happy signing up for the likely outcome. 

An input into the decision about *when* to leave the Big Tech life is to look for some indication of commitment for the customers you’re serving. Are your customers offering you their time, money, or reputation for your product? That’s a promising sign. 

Another reason to leave is that you feel that there’s a narrow period of time when your idea could succeed, e.g. new regulation or a groundbreaking technology.

------

Connect with [Eric on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbahn/)

Clear Communication For SWEs [Part 9] - Problem-Solution-Benefit

In this video, I explain the Problem-Solution-Benefit framework, focusing on identifying a problem, proposing a solution, and highlighting the benefits. This framework is crucial for gaining stakeholder buy-in. I provide examples and steps on how to apply it effectively.

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

DSA Crash Course [Part 82] - Summing Squares Walkthrough

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

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

Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech [Part 20] - Everyday Is Networking Day

Networking doesn't need to be hard. In fact, it should be easy. This lesson teaches you:

- What networking should feel like when you're doing it properly
- Why networking shouldn't feel like a hard, conscious, extra effort
- Ways to make networking seem more natural
- One of the most common mistakes engineers (and introverts in general) make when it comes to networking and maintaining relationships

Building A Metrics Map

In this lesson, we explore **practical techniques** for identifying the input metrics that matter most. Through methods like **metrics mapping** and **customer experience mapping**, we gain a clearer, more quantitative view of what drives our business forward—especially from the customer’s perspective.

### Key Takeaways:

- **We prioritize input metrics and customer interactions**: Too often, businesses rely heavily on output metrics. We recommend looking deeper into input metrics—particularly those tied to customer behavior and experience.
- **Metrics Mapping helps us discover drivers of key metrics**: We start with a business goal or known metric, then recursively ask what drives it and how we can measure those drivers. This technique reveals a broad and useful set of input metrics.
- **The process is recursive and comprehensive**: We drill down from each metric or goal until we can’t go any further, building an extensive network of quantifiable drivers. Repeating metrics across branches is fine—what matters is completeness.
- **The end goal is a flat, exhaustive list of metrics**: While the mapping exercise may begin as a hierarchy, we ultimately compile all the discovered metrics into a single, non-hierarchical list for practical use and monitoring.
- **Finding input metrics is an ongoing process**: This isn’t a one-time task. We continuously revisit and expand our metric set as our business, goals, and customer needs evolve.

To dive deeper into Input Metrics Mastery and learn more from Bill and Colin, follow these links:

- Take the full course at their website: <https://workingbackwards.com/>
- Buy the book: <https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595>
- Bill's LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-carr/>
- Colin's LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinbryar/>

SWE Internship Survival Guide [Part 5] - Act With Urgency

Top interns succeed by treating every week as high-leverage and avoiding the common traps that waste time. Here are the core points from this lesson:

- Adopt a mindset of urgency—internships are short, so prioritize work that drives progress on your main project and skip distractions like excessive social events or irrelevant tasks
- Use a structured timeline: ramp up quickly in the first 3 weeks, execute intensely for 6, and aim to wrap and demo your project by week 10
- Aggressively seek help when blocked and bias toward action—don’t wait for replies when a quick conversation can resolve things faster
- Avoid rabbit holes into infrastructure or tooling curiosity; stay focused on work that directly impacts your deliverables and evaluation

Maximize Your Equity And Benefits In Tech [Part 3] - Foundational Tax Concepts

Understanding how taxes work is key to making smart decisions about equity compensation—here are the core points from the lesson:

- Gross income is reduced by payroll taxes and deductions to determine adjusted gross income (AGI) and taxable income, which drives your federal tax liability
- Long-term capital gains (assets held over a year) receive lower federal tax rates than ordinary income, often saving high earners significant amounts
- State tax treatment varies—most states don’t offer preferential rates for long-term gains, and some, like Massachusetts, penalize short-term gains more heavily
- Investment losses can offset gains and up to $3,000 of ordinary income per year, but “wash sale” rules can disallow losses if you repurchase too soon
- The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) may kick in if you're using lots of deductions or exercising incentive stock options, so it’s important to model this in advance

Next steps with Andy:

- [Connect with Andy on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/andymoranio)
- [Leave feedback and/or sign up for Andy’s newsletter](https://subscribepage.io/taroequitycourse)
- [Schedule a consultation](http://adastrafp.com/contact-us/)

Asking Great Questions [Part 19] - Give Them An Out

Most engineering favors don't get fulfilled. If you're cognizant of that and incorporate it into your question, you can counterintuitively *increase* your chances of getting the favor. This lesson teaches you:

- Why making it easy for your favor to be turned down increases your standing with the person you're asking for a favor from
- What it means to give the helper an out with your question, explained with an in-depth example

The Most EVIL Way To End An Interview (And How Not To Do It)

Here are the core points from the video:
- It is **never** okay to end an interview early because the candidate wasn't good enough. This is immensely disrespectful, especially for an onsite interview where the candidate carved out an entire day to do it (likely taking PTO if they are currently working).
- As an interviewer, you are also representing your company. If you do this, you are hurting your company's reputation as people talk - That candidate is very likely to tell others that your company is a horrible place to interview at.
- When this scenario happens, *the proper thing to do is to switch gears and go entirely into maximizing candidate experience* (as your goal isn't collecting signal anymore). This involves:
  - Giving them hints aggressively to help them complete the problem
  - Pair programming with them and trying to teach them - Use your interview to make the candidate a better software engineer!
  - Allocating more time for them to ask questions about the company - Try to get them excited! If you do this properly, they'll want to interview with your company again at a later time. People change - They may come back in a few years and be an absolutely incredible engineer you 100% want to hire.

Related resources:
- [Full session on being an amazing interviewer](https://link.jointaro.com/NhjenQ5vERKwRPdb9) - This is where this clip was cut out from.
- [Full 1 hour+ Masterclass On Acing Your Big Tech DSA Interview](https://link.jointaro.com/VfSeuUFiXNtKa5if7)
- [Full 1.3 hour Masterclass On Acing Your Big Tech System Design Interview](https://link.jointaro.com/Tmqs62Lw7WV4qDw59)
- [How Alex Got Into Meta With 0 Prior Leetcode Experience](https://link.jointaro.com/vaNH1hjRUhmF8ibSA)

Improve

In the Improve phase, we focus on **deploying resources and initiatives** that shift our input metrics in the right direction, knowing that this in turn drives our desired output results. Improvement at Amazon has always been a cycle of innovation, experimentation, and rigorous measurement.

### Key Takeaways:

- **We prioritize inputs to drive results**: We align our teams, projects, and resources around improving leading indicators—our input metrics—which ultimately influence lagging outputs like sales and customer retention.
- **Click to Deliver Time became a key input metric**: We tracked every step of the fulfillment process and launched targeted initiatives to speed up delivery, knowing it directly impacted customer satisfaction and engagement.
- **We scaled operations through iterative improvements**: Over two decades, we grew our global delivery infrastructure—fulfillment centers, delivery stations, air cargo, and driver networks—through thousands of iterative changes, many of which were experiments that included both successes and failures.
- **We formalized improvement with the Working Backwards PR/FAQ process**: This mechanism ensures we innovate from customer needs, forcing teams to start with a press release and FAQ to define how a proposed improvement solves real problems.
- **Improvement and analysis form a feedback loop**: Every improvement is followed by measurement and analysis. This iterative cycle lets us reinforce what works and eliminate what doesn’t, ensuring continuous refinement of our systems.

To dive deeper into Input Metrics Mastery and learn more from Bill and Colin, follow these links:

- Take the full course at their website: <https://workingbackwards.com/>
- Buy the book: <https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595>
- Bill's LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-carr/>
- Colin's LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinbryar/>

SWE Internship Survival Guide [Part 11] - Code Velocity

Your success as a software engineering intern hinges on one key metric: your ability to ship code consistently. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Code velocity is the primary way interns are evaluated, so focus your time on writing and shipping impactful code
- Every company has a different pace, but you should ask your manager for benchmarks and observe full-time engineers to calibrate your own output
- Structure your day around long blocks of uninterrupted coding time, and avoid distractions like intern socials or long-term architecture meetings
- Make small, frequent code changes instead of large ones to make code review easier, allow quicker course correction, and prevent painful merge conflicts
- Communicate your approach with your team so they understand your intent to seek faster feedback through smaller pull requests

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.