Laid Off. What’s Next? The Case For Optimism

NOTE: This video was published in January 2023.

If you lost your job, right now is actually a great time to get laid off. It's obviously not fun to wake up and discover that your work access has been cutoff, but all things considered, you're going to be ok.

Many laid-off tech workers are getting generous severance packages which can be used for a well-earned vacation, taking time between jobs, or starting your own project. Historically, tons of companies were started in the midst of a recession, including Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Uber, and Instagram.

- [\[Masterclass\] How To Survive Tech Industry Layoffs](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/axnVXYox5QeOneqcoyuH/masterclass-how-to-survive-tech-industry-layoffs/)
- [Inside The Layoff Era of Big Tech (Meta, Google, Amazon Layoffs)](https://www.jointaro.com/blog/inside-the-new-layoff-era-of-big-tech/)
- [Checkout all the layoff resources + discussions on Taro](https://www.jointaro.com/topic/layoffs/)

Other resources:

- [PG's essay about startups in a recession](http://www.paulgraham.com/badeconomy.html)
- [Laid Off Tech Workers Quickly Find New Jobs](https://www.wsj.com/articles/laid-off-tech-workers-quickly-find-new-jobs-11672097730)
- [Taro's LinkedIn community](https://linkedin.com/company/jointaro)

A Framework For Integrating AI Into Your Workflow

> **AI will not replace you. A person using AI will.**

This [tweet](https://twitter.com/svpino/status/1610984481342771200) was seen 5M times because it captures a transformation that will happen in the workplace over the next 5 years.

This video covers a practical framework to apply AI tools like ChatGPT, Bard, or Github Copilot to become more productive in your job.

The goal for many of us is to become the mythical **10x engineer** – they have 10x as much impact as their peers. These engineers do exist, but they don’t write 10x more code or fix 10x more bugs. Instead, they understand the concept of leverage, which manifests in two ways.

- Take a challenging problem, and solve it in a 10x or 100x better way
- Make 10 or 100 people around you more productive

Shreyas Doshi has a [framework called LNO](https://www.aakashg.com/2022/02/01/lno-framework-for-product-managers/) to identify where you should spend your effort:

- *Leverage (L)* tasks are tasks that have huge consequences and you should do a great job.
- *Neutral (N)* tasks are tasks that are important, but don't have a big payoff. You should do a good job.
- *Overhead (O)* tasks are tasks that are a tax on your time. You should just get it done.

Let's go through an example in each bucket:

In the **leverage** bucket is creating the design or architecture for the project. This is high leverage not only because architecture is inherently difficult to change, but it’s also an important trust-building exercise.

- Ask AI to identify what could go wrong with your general approach and then add that as a discussion.
- Ask AI to summarize documents related to what you’re trying to build
- Ask AI to solve the problem and then sanity-check. The results here won’t always be good, but at least you should be able to explain why you’re choosing one path over the other.

Some coding tasks are in the **neutral** bucket. AI gives us the opportunity to dramatically speed up how long some coding tasks take.

- Use tools like Copilot to write boilerplate code much faster
- Instead of having to go to StackOverflow, you can get answers inline
- Ask for things like regexes or how to do something in idiomatic Kotlin

Finally, there are tasks in the **overhead** category that AI can help minimize

- The classic example is writing your performance review – you’re not actually having any business impact.
- I recommend every engineer has a [brag document](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/QVqPkuCvplbHSqBWtKJX/make-your-promotion-case-easy-keep-a-brag-journal/) of what they did throughout the half or year. Then you need to massage all your work into whatever template your company uses.

With the rise of AI, asking good questions is more important than ever. Artificial Intelligence cannot read your mind (at least not yet 😅), so the quality of your question dictates the quality of your response. Learn more about asking good questions with our course: [\[Course\] Ask Great Questions That Get Great Answers Quickly](https://www.jointaro.com/course/ask-great-questions-that-get-great-answers-quickly/)

How can H1B (visa) holders do a startup?

As an H1B holder, it can be hard to imagine starting a company. However, many H1B holders (and other visa holders) are able to navigate the startup landscape, maximize opportunities, and turn their entrepreneurial dreams into reality. This talk covered practical insights for people on visas.

Our speaker is Harsh Goel, a software engineer turned entrepreneur who has started two startups on an O1 visa. He will share his experience and also the visa experiences of other founders he has interacted with.

Harsh provided advice based on 5 levels of involvement: 
1. Doing side projects that don't make money
2. Doing side projects that make money
3. Doing a startup while working -- what you can and can't do
4. Going full-time into a startup without funding
5. Going full-time into a startup with funding (>$200K)

Harsh also covered insights on how to quickly qualify and apply for an O-1 visa, a **nonimmigrant employment-based visa classification for individuals of extraordinary ability in sciences, education, business, arts or athletics**; or individuals of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture and televisions industries.

To qualify for an O-1 visa, you need to show evidence of being recognized in your academic field. You must show credentials both in achievements and in your place of employment.

- There are 3 categories of achievements, and this turns out to be very easy to manufacture. Things like judging a hackathon or speaking at a conference (no matter the size) are common ways to demonstrate this. With some hard work and time, **most people can meet this criteria for an O-1**.
- You also need "evidence that the employment requires the skills of someone with 'extraordinary ability'". This requires letters of recommendations from peers or managers at work. If you lead a team within a Big Tech company, **you probably have enough to meet this criteria as well.**

Learn more:
- More events on Taro: [https://www.jointaro.com/events/](https://www.jointaro.com/events/)
- Harsh on LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/harsh-fyi/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/harsh-fyi/)

[Case Study] Building An App With 1,000,000+ Users To Get Into Facebook

If you want to hear an in-depth \~30 minute breakdown of Alex's entire journey getting the Facebook offer, watch our video here: [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/)

To learn more about how to build effective side projects, check out these resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Come Up With 100k+ Users App Ideas You Can Build For Free](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/AI4zi759PSGn6RwIFT6f/masterclass-how-to-come-up-with-100k-users-app-ideas-you-can-build-for-free/)
- [[Masterclass] How To Build And Grow Tech Products To 500k+ Users For Free](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/OEuX0KMhcnNSTJ50Voee/masterclass-how-to-build-and-grow-tech-products-to-500k-users-for-free/)
- ["How Long to Crank Out a Decent Side Project?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/QA6lCGdPpwAd3xRrpjZ7/how-long-to-crank-out-a-decent-side-project/)
- [How Alex Made An App That Got 80k+ Users In 1 Month](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/GlSjjLhuUdHt5drq3l5F/how-alex-made-an-app-that-got-80k-users-in-1-month/)
- [Presentation slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MJU_LPnfc_QEu7386eSFvIbopG2VVUE3lTzkA458bYU/edit?usp=sharing)

If you want to dive deeper into the Random Name Picker app:
- [Download it on Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.randomappsinc.studentpicker)
- [GitHub Source Code](https://github.com/Gear61/Random-Name-Picker)

How To Build A Fulfilling Career Path For Your Engineers

We’ve all been there – you want to be there for your team, but you end up pushing back 1:1 meetings because there’s a lot on your plate. Or your team member wants to practice a particular framework but you don’t have any upcoming work that would let them do that. Or you’re heading into a career development conversation and trying to figure out how to share some tough feedback.

At the same time, a regular piece of feedback from individual contributors is that they’d like their managers to provide more support for their career development..

So what’s an engineering manager to do? How can we help our teams build fulfilling careers while juggling their asks with all the other work on our plate? And how do we balance their development areas with completing the work that needs to be done? Doing this well will not only help our team’s satisfaction and morale, but also support our own progress in our organization – but it’s easier said than done.

This talk provides concrete tips to help you do better in supporting your team on their career development journey. We’ll talk about strategies to:

- The bedrock for a fulfilling career (awareness)
- Make time for 1:1s – even when things get busy!
- Focus 1:1’s on growth & development (not work)
- Balance between improving weaknesses versus cultivating strengths

This is a talk Rahul gave at the [Tech Leaders Chat](https://www.meetup.com/tech-leader-chats/events/293719388/) hosted by [Multitudes](https://www.multitudes.co/).

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)

[Masterclass] How To Stop Writing Messy Code As A Software Engineer

It's 10x easier to write messy code instead of good, clean code. The hard part is that unless you have good role models, it's extremely difficult to learn how to write quality code. If you're a software engineer going through this struggle, this masterclass is for you.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **There's no such thing as objectively "clean" code** - A lot of engineers treat code quality as something to "solve" where after they learn the best tech stack/database/framework, they can just plug that in everywhere and win. That's simply not how software works. The reason why writing truly great code is hard is because it's all about the context and nuance. Code that's good in one codebase can be horrible in another.
- **It's all about the user experience (UX)** - At the end of the day, the end-user doesn't care about your code quality. Most end-users have never read a single line of code in their life. The end-user simply wants a good UX, which means that if you need to write code that's a little messy to uphold good UX, you should do that.
- **Feel the pain of your bad code** - True learning comes from struggle, and if you really want to stop writing messy code, you need to see your own code break and struggle. Go outside of the happy flow and dogfood your own products and features aggressively. Read your old code every once in a while and see how horrible it was - If you groan then, that's a good sign of growth.
- **Break down your tasks** - A marquee trait of bad software engineers is that they jump straight into the coding, write a gigantic messy commit, and get demolished in code review. To prevent that, proactively decompose your tasks into smaller ones where each one is ideally 1-3 commits or a few days of work. This lets you come up with an actual plan for the task and invite your teammates' feedback at an earlier stage in development (i.e. before you write much or any code). For an in-depth guide on software decomposition, check out the discussion here: ["How do I make software less overwhelming?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/YseMPDw538jhyS1MWlTs/how-do-i-make-software-less-overwhelming/)
- **Write clean pull requests (PRs)** - It doesn't matter if the code in your PR is bad as long as it's "dressed" well and optimized for your teammates to leave good feedback (which will make your code good!). Write atomic commits, have a real PR title, attach a thorough context section + test plan, and proactively call out tricky areas. Learn how to do all that with the following video and its related resources: [One Diff, One Thesis - What Every Code Review Should Be Like](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/3NAbmgiaY3IpvayNIoVl/one-diff-one-thesis-what-every-code-review-should-be-like/)

Related resources:
- ["How to Learn/Practice Clean Code, particularly by oneself?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/6DcTkiS9UJhDkQz1HIAL/how-to-learnpractice-clean-code-particularly-by-oneself/)
- ["How to upskill effectively, especially with the software design aspect?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/JALOyWIOCo7UXIMLlUz3/how-to-upskill-effectively-especially-with-the-software-design-aspect/)
- [[Masterclass] How To Write Better Code Faster As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/iYpRj8XfyzCSaTYnce3y/masterclass-how-to-write-better-code-faster-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [[Masterclass] How To Do Amazing Code Review](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/rhRFh49oouaUDhWUvkQb/masterclass-how-to-do-amazing-code-review/)
- [Presentation slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/106NsN9Z9QNvZR_-LMaiVu2rT8Kro_4YwXS44j-rNLXk/edit?usp=sharing)

Master The Art of Successful Negotiations: Unlock Your Full Potential

A practical negotiation workshop led by Nadav Klein, professor at INSEAD and instructor at Minerva Project. 

Nadav discussed the importance of negotiation skills in both professional and personal life, emphasizing the need to understand human behavior and the mechanics of negotiations. He highlighted the significance of practice -- the more you do it, the better you become!

It's important to identify zero-sum issues vs cooperative issues in negotiations. You should **strive to find ways to cooperate and create win-win situations by understanding and prioritizing the differences in what each party wants**. Critical to this is to bridge the information gaps and understand how we evaluate ourselves vs how others evaluate us.

- [Connect with Nadav on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadavklein/)

More resources on negotiations:
- [The #1 Rule Of Negotiation - How To Avoid Giving A Number](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/4T3wTorG47wPzSqVmAOx/the-1-rule-of-negotiation-how-to-avoid-giving-a-number/)
- [[Case Study] How To Land 18 FAANG+ Offers With Steven Zhang (Airtable, USDR, Tableau)](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/gGkO4pLeFq1ctRM9tSBF/case-study-how-to-land-18-faang-offers-with-steven-zhang-airtable-usdr-tableau/)
- [3 Quick, Powerful Negotiation Tips](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/8VeEnbxdbPKsZbTcCFm5/3-quick-powerful-negotiation-tips/)

Software Engineering Vs School -- What's the Difference?

A core confusion for many new Computer Science graduates who land a role as an engineer is that **their job is only partially about coding**. Edsger Dijkstra once said:

> Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.

A software engineer is much more than a computer programmer. You're a point of contact for your team, and you better get used to working with tons of other... humans.

And humans are often harder than computers to deal with :)

1️⃣ Learn to push back on requests or features
2️⃣ Communicate the value of your work
3️⃣ Understand how career growth works at your company

This video covers the main areas in which being a software engineer diverges from being a computer science student. The earlier in your career that you are able to fully recognize and account for these differences, the sooner you can go from a simple low-level engineer “who just writes code” to a more senior actor that is able to push the direction of both your team and other teams in your organization.

- Read the [blog post version](https://www.jointaro.com/blog/school-vs-swe-a-lot-of-nos/) of this
- Follow Jordan on YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/@jordanhasnolife5163](https://www.youtube.com/@jordanhasnolife5163)

Related resources: 
- [Working with your manager for promotion](https://www.jointaro.com/question/iH4HPSNkRpGGCGSlNhNm/resurfacing-a-discussion-about-a-promotion-with-my-manager/)
- [Masterclass on choosing a good team and company](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/0WEmTNZOMIh8xAdfO3JH/masterclass-how-to-choose-a-good-company-and-team-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [Masterclass about learning quickly in tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/u9ldIvrTvV1wfWExccDR/masterclass-how-to-learn-quickly-in-tech/)

Autism Allyship and Identity in Tech - By Lee McKeeman & Jaswir Raghoe

[Lee McKeeman](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lmckeeman/) and [Jaswir Raghoe](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaswir-raghoe/) give an insightful talk on Autism Allyship in the tech industry, and how one can discover the power of creating inclusive workplaces for autistic individuals while gaining valuable tips on how to be an effective ally to autistic colleagues.

Lee and Jaswir talk about how autism is a spectrum with individuals having a wide range of abilities and needs. They give a deeper understanding of general biases and assumptions about autism, and learn why it's crucial to challenge them. They expound on the importance of asking autistic individuals about their preferences and needs, while understanding the significance of respecting their boundaries. Jaswir and Lee uncover the value of patience and understanding, as well as the importance of not expecting autistic individuals to always conform to social norms.

Join us in celebrating the diversity of autistic individuals and learn how you can become an advocate for their inclusion in the workplace.

Don't miss this enlightening talk that will empower you to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for all.

Incase you missed it, also check out Lee McKeeman's previous talk about his career journey: [An Autistic Journey To Google Staff Engineer [L6] From Software Analyst](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/nujUVma6boGJxGAQzoiX/an-autistic-journey-to-google-staff-engineer-l6-from-software-analyst-by-lee-mckeeman/)

How to Negotiate a Big Tech Offer as a Software Engineer - Pragmatic Engineer and Rahul

How does a compensation package look like for a software engineer at tech companies? How do base salary, annual bonus, equity (options, RSUs), sign-on bonuses and perks usually add up? What parts of the package can you negotiate? How can you line up multiple offers at the same time? We talk about these and more in the video. You can -- and should! -- negotiate any offer you receive from a Big Tech company. 

There are 4 primary parts to compensation in Big Tech: 
- Base salary
- Annual bonus
- Sign-on bonus
- Equity

Perks could also be considered part of the compensation package, but these are generally standardized across all employees for a company, so they're not considered for the purposes of negotiation. (Think of things like 401(k) match, free food, game rooms, etc.)

It's important to understand the different parts of compensation because you can start to shift the conversation with companies to be more cooperative rather than zero-sum. For example, some companies have strict bands for their base salary, but are more willing to negotiate on their equity. Knowing this, along with your own utility for different types of comp, can lead to a final decision where both sides are happy.

Throughout any negotiation, it's important to be respectful in your communication, and also consider factors beyond financial compensation, such as team dynamics and the hiring manager's perception. Don't rush into signing a contract without careful consideration -- negotiate terms over email to allow for proper reflection.

More resources on negotiations:
- [The #1 Rule Of Negotiation - How To Avoid Giving A Number](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/4T3wTorG47wPzSqVmAOx/the-1-rule-of-negotiation-how-to-avoid-giving-a-number/)
- [[Case Study] How To Land 18 FAANG+ Offers With Steven Zhang (Airtable, USDR, Tableau)](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/gGkO4pLeFq1ctRM9tSBF/case-study-how-to-land-18-faang-offers-with-steven-zhang-airtable-usdr-tableau/)
- [3 Quick, Powerful Negotiation Tips](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/8VeEnbxdbPKsZbTcCFm5/3-quick-powerful-negotiation-tips/)


This is a video from [Gergely's YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@mrgergelyorosz). 
- Original source: [https://youtu.be/cbngWLr7BC4](https://youtu.be/cbngWLr7BC4)
- Gergely writes the popular [Pragmatic Engineer newsletter](https://www.pragmaticengineer.com/).
- [Follow Gergely on Twitter](https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz)

How To Navigate Pivotal Points In Your Tech Career - By Casey Dai

[Casey Dai](https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseydai/) is a Head of Engineering at Capgemini, leading Data Engineerings and ML Ops. On top of that, he has a rich history of tech leadership across Manulife and Accenture.

To learn more from Casey, connect with him on LinkedIn: [Casey's LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseydai/)

Here's some of the incredible career wisdom Casey has shared on Taro:
- ["How do I choose whether to become a people manager or continue to be an individual contributor?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/aMvbV6SUjdDaU8RftQk5/how-do-i-choose-whether-to-become-a-people-manager-or-continue-to-be-an-individual-contributor/)
- ["How to make communication succinct and more impactful?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/QDLV5owweJveRLlspOdc/how-to-make-communication-succinct-and-more-impactful/)
- ["Why would a senior make themselves replaceable?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/b5eUTVq4m9ANQ5QCUc3q/why-would-a-senior-make-themselves-replaceable/)
- ["How to get into networking as a fresher?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/2Ld9u7f4pVcm36cj1P36/how-to-get-into-networking-as-a-fresher/)
- ["How to get interview calls?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/MOCBUYFhyn7Yv5ZF7qBU/how-to-get-interview-calls/)

I Sucked At This For 25 Years As An Engineer – 8 Tips For Communication

Communication is the skill that separates the best engineers from the mediocre ones. 

**Nothing great is built alone**, so even if you’re the best coder in the world, at some point in your career you will have to work with others. When you get to that point, communication is how you get things done. 

Here are 6 tactical communication tips for engineers (and there are two more in the video!)

**1. Learn how to say no. If your PM or manager comes to you with a request, don't just say no.**

Instead, say "not right now" and explain why you're choosing to do other high-priority work. This approach lets you acknowledge the request or the idea, but you’re able to firmly/politely say no by explaining why you want to stay the course. 

**2. Use tentative language**

Especially for critical feedback, leave room for discussion. One way this manifests is during code review: some of the best engineers at Meta actually ended their feedback with a question mark:

"Crash with negative input" ➡️ "Crash with negative input?" One character makes a big difference!

**3. Make people feel heard**

In 1:1s, I’ll literally say "Let me say that back to you" and repeat back what they said to me. This works magically well.

Even if you disagree, this strategy lets you start from a place of agreement -- the person was heard.

**4. Say thank you**

*Proper* thank yous are about more than sending a one-line message. A proper thank you involved thanking them in your launch post or sending them a thank you when you hit a milestone. That's how you build deep relationships.

**5. Advance the conversation**

This is a personal pet peeve for Rahul. If we're talking about where to get lunch, and I propose Indian food, don't just say "I don't like Indian." You need to propose some alternatives in that response. Also, google the ["no hello"](https://nohello.net/) philosophy.

**6. Know your audience**

Many engineers either provide too much or too little context. Communication is an exercise in empathy. You have to figure out what your audience cares about and deliver value to them.

Related links:
- [Taro's communication guide](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/hVdLQQzfslaYarLSCmmy/)
- ["When should you offer to help a colleague?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/u4GMlmLOuaU4Olhh2XAy/when-should-you-offer-to-help-a-colleague/)

How To Recover After You've Been Laid Off In The Tech Industry

Steven Zhang and Chris Talley are 2 incredible software engineers who have worked at Airtable, Airbnb, Meta, and more between them. They have advised hundreds of engineers who have been laid off about how to recover, and this session shares that wisdom.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **Don't blame yourself** - Getting laid off is very different from being fired. Layoffs are purposely random and made with very limited information - It is not your fault that you got cut. Being part of a layoff has no indication towards your ability as an engineer or your quality as a person. *As long as you did your best at the company and treated others well, you should be proud.*
- **Figure out your severance** - Make sure the amount and time period you're kept on payroll are correct; the latter is especially important if you're on a visa. If you have the resources, you can get a lawyer to look over it. After you figure out the package timeline, file for unemployment benefits accordingly - California in particular is pretty generous with unemployment pay. These packages can be negotiated as well: [Laid Off? Here's How to Negotiate Your Severance Package](https://www.teamrora.com/post/how-to-negotiate-severance-package-when-laid-off)
- **Organize** - If you were laid off from a Big Tech company in particular, there's a very good chance that it has an alumni community: Join it! If your company doesn't have an alumni community, make one. Communities are great for sharing resources and boosting your mental state by interacting with others in a high-solidarity environment. You can find a list of company alumni communities here: [WARNTracker - Tech Company Alumni Communities](https://www.warntracker.com/blog/company-alumni-communities)

Here's the case study Steven did about his legendary interview run in 2019: [[Case Study] How To Land 18 FAANG+ Offers With Steven Zhang (Airtable, USDR, Tableau)](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/gGkO4pLeFq1ctRM9tSBF/case-study-how-to-land-18-faang-offers-with-steven-zhang-airtable-usdr-tableau/)

Connect with Steven and Chris on LinkedIn:
- [Steven Zhang](https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenqzhang/)
- [Chris Talley](https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophertalley/)

Steven's and Chris's businesses + side projects:
- [WARNTracker.com](https://www.warntracker.com/) - Learn more layoff trends and find helpful resources
- [ClimateTechList.com](https://www.climatetechlist.com/)- Find jobs at companies that are meaningfully tackling climate change
- [RationalRiches.com](https://rationalriches.com/) - Free tools for real estate investors

For more resources on layoffs:
- [[Masterclass] How To Survive Tech Industry Layoffs](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/axnVXYox5QeOneqcoyuH/masterclass-how-to-survive-tech-industry-layoffs/)
- ["What are the signs of an impending layoff in an organisation that can help an employee prepare themselves better?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/tNOO9FtALQIRrUXSqzV1/what-are-the-signs-of-an-impending-layoff-in-an-organisation-that-can-help-an-employee-prepare-themselves-better/)
- ["How to survive potential layoffs?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/ydZFpJz0x8wKUIfd8E1r/how-to-survive-potential-layoffs/)

This Is Why You Should NOT Work For Big Tech

Working at FAANG is great for many reasons, but the Big Tech life isn't for everybody. For many engineers, it doesn't really make complete sense to go there.

Here are the core scenarios where Big Tech might not be the best for you:
- **You have strong WLB needs** - Work-life balance generally becomes more important as you get older, and Big Tech is generally pretty bad at giving you that.
- **You don't like stress** - There's nothing wrong with wanting to chill and avoiding pressure. However, Big Tech is usually not a good place to do this.
- **You want to hyper-maximize your career growth** - Big Tech is often a consistent path that takes your career to a very good place. However, if you want to go to an astounding place (e.g. become a VP of Engineering by the time you're 30), startups are far superior. Startups have much higher risk but also much higher rewards.
- **You just want to code** - Engineers at Big Tech almost always need to become incredibly well-rounded, especially at senior and staff. If you don't want to play politics and spend mountains of time running meetings and writing planning docs, Big Tech is likely not the place for you.

Related resources:
- ["How to have FAANG level of career growth in startup?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/VQgUHZPwbzqxjutaDU3W/how-to-have-faang-level-of-career-growth-in-startup/)
- ["When does it make sense to leave big tech?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/v6GBLlfXb1ugNobkEm7w/when-does-it-make-sense-to-leave-big-tech/)

This Is Why You Should Work For Big Tech

So many engineers want to work for FAANG and for good reason: There are lot of career benefits that Big Tech is exceptionally good at providing.

Here are the core scenarios where Big Tech is a slam dunk career choice for you:
- **You are earlier in career** - Big Tech will give you a rock solid foundation across all levels: Learning, compensation, job prospects - You name it. When you're younger, you will generally be more flexible with work-life balance (i.e. you're more physically able to work longer hours), so you will be better equipped to deal with the stress of Big Tech.
- **You need money** - More money is almost always useful, and if you live in a very high cost-of-living area (e.g. SF Bay Area), it becomes necessary. Big Tech gives a consistent, incredibly high income.
- **You value stability and are risk-averse** - Even with the layoffs, these companies are some of the safest places to be. Compared to peer companies, they have done far fewer layoffs across their lifespan and they have rock solid, wildly profitable business models.

Related resources:
- ["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/)
- ["What's the difference between Big Tech and startups in terms of learning and growth?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/KWXIrFIR1EIJsvdOdo7u/whats-the-difference-between-big-tech-and-startups-in-terms-of-learning-and-growth/)

[Masterclass] How To Become A Debugging Master And Fix Issues Faster

There will always be bugs, and this only becomes more and more true as your product gets bigger. In this video, we go deep into the often underrated software engineer skill of debugging.

Here are the core points:
- **Bugs are a source of growth** - So many engineers see having to fix issues as merely frustration, an obstacle getting in the way of their feature work. This is a toxic mentality to have that holds back your growth. Feature work isn't the only way to move a product forward, and at the end of the day, your team has to come together to uphold the integrity of its systems. Being a champion in that process is a powerful way to get to senior+ levels.
- **Do your research** - When you get a bug, don't just dive in and start mucking around in the code. Figure out the exact repro steps and go through the flow multiple times to really get it. Detail the blast radius by understanding attributes like when the issue popped up, how many users it affected, and what versions of your software experience the problem. Spend at least 15-30 minutes expanding the context behind the bug.
- **Understand the end-to-end flow** - Every outcome in software is a series of steps: When there's a legitimate bug, it simply means that one (maybe several) of those steps are now broken. Before you start seriously debugging, build up this mental model of the overall ecosystem behind the bug - Ask your teammates if you need help with this. This mental model will serve as the foundation of your debug process.
- **Maintain a debug diary** - Document every step of your journey as you're debugging. This will prevent you from trying the same hypothesis twice and makes it much easier for you to hand off the bug if necessary. This context will allow the new person to easily "download" everything you did and pick up where you left off. This writing will also help you a lot come performance review time when you want to claim credit for the fix.
- **Retrospect** - An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. After every bug resolution, do some amount of thinking around how you can prevent similar issues from cropping up in the future. This is especially important with massive bugs that inflicted a lot of damage. In those scenarios, write-up a post-mortem and discuss it with your team.

Related resources:
- [[Case Study] Solving A Multi-Million $$ Instagram Bug](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/WYk4J05iBqOuPtD0CYKX/case-study-solving-a-multi-million-dollardollar-instagram-bug/)
- ["How can I root cause bugs faster?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/PSv7aYI70VwaDsoRgMyW/how-can-i-root-cause-bugs-faster/)
- ["I'm trying to fix a P1 bug, but some relevant code is owned by another team. Unsure about ownership and how to proceed."](https://www.jointaro.com/question/ZRneLgwmrM2JLCrGn5Rz/im-trying-to-fix-a-p1-bug-but-some-relevant-code-is-owned-by-another-team-unsure-about-ownership-and-how-to-proceed/)

If you want to become a better coder in general, check out our masterclass here: [[Masterclass] How To Write Better Code Faster As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/iYpRj8XfyzCSaTYnce3y/masterclass-how-to-write-better-code-faster-as-a-software-engineer/)

FAANG: Great For Compensation, Less So For Promotion

Getting into FAANG is the dominant thing on so many software engineers' minds, but most of them are making the mistake of not thinking about what happens after they get in. When it comes to that, hitting a growth wall is a very common (and painful) career trap Big Tech engineers run into.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **Most big problems have been solved** - Many teams at FAANG are maintaining flagship products at this point. While these products are great for consumers by being universally known and very useful, they are usually not great for engineers looking to grow. Since they are so hyper-optimized, it's very common for a software engineer to run 10 experiments on a product like Facebook home feed only to have every single one of them fail.
- **Getting to senior/staff is very hard** - Because scope gets so hard to find, these promotions in particular can be *extremely* difficult. SDE 2 -> SDE 3 at Amazon is notoriously impossible, and L4 -> L5 at Google is known to be very tricky as well.
- **You're competing against teammates** - While scope can be created and expanded, there is often a finite amount of it. This means that Big Tech engineers are often jockeying against their very talented peers to own this limited resource. In the worst case scenario, this leads to very dirty politics.

Related resources:
- ["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/)

At Big Tech, You're Just A Cog In The Machine

Many people idolize FAANG companies, because they own these amazing products that everyone uses. However, working on these products is rarely as glamorous as people think: The experience is often worse the more successful the product is.

Here are the core points from the video:

- **Your ownership will probably be super tiny** - This is especially true at non-senior levels (junior and mid-level). Big Tech companies have thousands of amazing, ultra-productive engineers, and there's only so much ownership to go around. It's not uncommon for a Big Tech engineer to make $200k+ per year mainly working on a single button.
- **The work is very incremental** - Since Big Tech's product suite is so mature, it's very hard to find 0 to 1 work there, which people generally find to be more exciting. Almost all "shipped" code is wrapped in an experiment at Big Tech, and a lot of these experiments will fail.
- **It can be hard to feel fulfilled** - It's not the most exciting to own a single widget within a feature within a broader service within the overall product, and it's definitely not something that's cool to share when people ask you what you do.

Related resources:

- ["What's the difference between Big Tech and startups in terms of learning and growth?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/KWXIrFIR1EIJsvdOdo7u/whats-the-difference-between-big-tech-and-startups-in-terms-of-learning-and-growth/)
- ["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/)

An Autistic Journey To Google Staff Engineer [L6] From Software Analyst - By Lee McKeeman

[Lee McKeeman](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lmckeeman/) is an autistic software engineer with quite an incredible journey: Across a whopping ~20 years of experience, Lee has worked at Amazon (where he was an engineering manager and bar raiser), Meta, and now Google.

Lee's career story is super long (watch the video to get the full picture), so instead, we're sharing some of the great learnings from Lee here:
- **School doesn't actually teach you software** - University is generally rooted in theory and overly abstract exercises, leaving you with a very basic raw coding foundation. While that certainly has value, it's not enough to make you capable of doing actual software engineering, especially in a team environment.
- **Debugging is a critical skill** - Lee started off as a software analyst, which was a role that was much more focused on diving deep and fixing issues as opposed to churning out new features. The experience Lee got here was extremely valuable and continued paying dividends across his career, even after he transitioned to SWE.
- **Help others and keep an open mind** - Everyone works in different ways and will be comfortable/uncomfortable in situations that don't match that of others. This includes the neurodivergent population like autistic people, those with ADHD, and more. Be a true teammate by being understanding and accepting of these differences. Assume good intent, and if you aren't sure how you can best support a teammate, just ask them!

To learn more from Lee, you should 100% connect with him on LinkedIn where he writes some of the best posts (and comments) on the entire platform: [Lee's LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lmckeeman/)

Here's some of the incredible wisdom Lee has shared on Taro:
- ["What does it mean to not require handholding anymore?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/5vEWajcZlSi7nlohTGtJ/what-does-it-mean-to-not-require-handholding-anymore/)
- ["How to Balance Responsibilities: Prioritizing Personal Work vs. 'Glue Work' in a New Team Environment."](https://www.jointaro.com/question/9NL4LP40xHy5sgGMvsmB/how-to-balance-responsibilities-prioritizing-personal-work-vs-glue-work-in-a-new-team-environment/)
- ["Can someone elaborate on "always treating feedback as a gift"?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/4DoEnMIq2ISadfAJuwp9/can-someone-elaborate-on-always-treating-feedback-as-a-gift/)
- ["What do career levels structure in big tech company look like? What are the responsibilities for each level?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/qV5oikdcgs4GWmGeousX/what-do-career-levels-structure-in-big-tech-company-look-like-what-are-the-responsibilities-for-each-level/)

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.