Become An Open Source Master [Part 22] - Good Practices When Making Commits

Pay attention to the naming conventions of commits and pull requests in open source projects. We also need to make sure our commits are atomic, solving one problem at a time. Always provide a clear test plan for our changes.

References:

- [One Diff, One Thesis](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/one-diff-one-thesis/)
- [Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)

Connect with James:

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

Become An Open Source Master [Part 21] - Start With Something Small

- Start with small contributions to get familiar with the workflow and build our confidence. Maintainers probably won't give you the adequate time of day if you have a large code change while being unkonwn.
- Fork the project to our own account, make changes, and commit them there.
- Answer the questions in the pull request template to help the maintainers understand our changes.

Github guide to forking a repository: <https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/working-with-forks/fork-a-repo>

Connect with James:

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

Become An Open Source Master [Part 18] - What Are The Most Important Modules?

We need to identify the important modules in an open source project. We should understand the configuration items, hot functions, and utility classes. Additionally, we should figure out how the data flows through the project, including its structure, storage, and APIs.

Connect with James:

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

Become An Open Source Master [Part 11] - Go With The Flow

We can contribute to open source projects by either creating something new or picking up existing work. It's important to communicate with the community owner or maintainer and earn their trust. We can do this by opening discussions, being open to feedback, and starting with small, well-defined tasks.

Example strong pull request (PR) from TinyBase: <https://github.com/tinyplex/tinybase/issues/130>

Connect with James:

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

How Managers Hire Great Engineers [Part 1] - How This Course Works

With this lesson, you’ll begin your learning journey of how to effectively manage the recruiting process to build a strong team. [John](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwegan/) shares personal experiences and actionable insights for hiring success. We go through the course objectives, and after this course, you will:

- Understand the importance of prioritizing recruitment and building a robust candidate pipeline
- Learn how to evaluate and troubleshoot the recruiting funnel to ensure a steady flow of qualified candidates
- Discover strategies for sourcing top talent, especially when resources are limited
- Gain techniques for closing candidates who have multiple job offers, including specific tactics and phrases

Connect with John Egan on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwegan/>

Clear Communication For SWEs [Part 13] - Effective Communication In Meetings

In this video, I discuss strategies for clear communication in team meetings, focusing on different types of meetings like stand-ups, sprint planning, technical design, and client meetings. I emphasize the importance of preparation, concise communication, and active listening during Q&A sessions.

**Action requested:** Implement these strategies in your next team meeting for better communication and collaboration.

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

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/>

Clear Communication For SWEs [Part 3] - Core Elements Of Communication

In this video, I delve into the core elements of effective communication - empathy, purpose, and responsibility. Understanding and mastering these elements are crucial for successful team interactions and project outcomes. I emphasize the importance of tailoring messages to the audience, defining clear purposes, and ensuring mutual understanding. Viewers are encouraged to adopt a mindset shift towards intentional and thoughtful communication.

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

Grow From Senior To Staff Engineer [Part 16] - Specialist

When you grow your junior to senior, it's best to [pick something, focus on it, and go deep](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/wUl3hc2wr1ms493bd23b/this-is-how-software-engineers-should-initially-learn/?playlistId=iBKHYpkjd0BRWWLKQG2j). You can actually continue this trajectory all the way to staff. This lesson teaches you:

- What the specialist staff engineer archetype is
- What it takes for a technical domain to be worthy of staff scope
- Examples of staff-level specialist domains

Grow From Senior To Staff Engineer [Part 15] - Why Have Archetypes?

Growing from junior (L3) to senior (L5) is largely foundational. This stops being the case when you get to staff. This lesson teaches you:

- What staff engineer archetypes are and how they help conceptualize the path to staff
- How to quickly and easily understand what each staff engineer archetype does
- A framework you can use to learn from the staff engineers in your team, particularly with what archetype they embody

Learn more about Talk & Observe: 

- Rahul's dedicated YouTube video: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV0nvusnqT4> 
- From the onboarding course: <https://www.jointaro.com/course/the-complete-onboarding-guide-for-software-engineers-succeeding-when-youre-new/the-talk-and-observe-framework/>

Grow From Senior To Staff Engineer [Part 14] - Raise Leaders

As a senior engineer, you are expected to make the engineers around you better. As a staff engineer, this expectation is amplified by another degree. This lesson teaches you:

- The difference in the levels of engineers that senior and staff engineers mentor
- The difference in mentorship depth between senior and staff engineers
- How to raise senior engineers
- What it looks like to give staff engineer level mentorship compared to senior engineer mentorship, explained with an in-depth example

Dive deeper into mentorship with this case study: [\[Case Study\] 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 Senior To Staff Engineer [Part 12] - Become The PM Right Hand

As a staff engineer, you need to have far more influence on the direction of the product, especially if you work on a product-facing team. This lesson teaches you:

- The difference in the depth of collaboration with the product manager between a senior engineer and a staff engineer
- Why staff engineers often need to partner closely with their product manager
- Which teams place more value on the engineer &lt;-&gt; product manager relationship
- What you should do to deepen your relationship between you and your product manager

Grow From Senior To Staff Engineer [Part 11] - Define The Roadmap

All the way to senior, engineers are almost entirely given projects to work on. This dynamic flips as you grow from senior to staff. This lesson teaches you:

- The differences between senior and staff engineers when they participate in the team roadmapping process
- The skills you need to become a leading, staff-level influence in roadmapping

Grow From Senior To Staff Engineer [Part 7] - Own The Goal

As a senior engineer, you are used to getting large, impactful projects and delivering them well, even if the initial project is incredibly ambiguous. However, this isn't nearly enough to get to staff. This lesson teaches you:

- The difference between senior and staff engineers between what they own on their teams and how staff engineers have a fundamentally higher altitude with their perspective
- What it means to own impact at a staff level instead of a senior, explained with an in-depth example
- The core, high-level behavior shift you need to make from an ownership perspective to grow from senior to staff

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

Asking Great Questions [Part 17] - Target Domain Experts

A big part of getting great answers quickly is to ask the right people, especially with technical questions as different engineers specialize in different things. This lesson teaches you:

- Why targeting makes it more likely for your question to be answered
- What it looks like when you target domain experts in your question, explained with an in-depth example
- How to find domain experts to tag in your questions

Asking Great Questions [Part 13] - Please Don't Do This: Leading Hello

A lot of what we're taught growing up doesn't translate very well into the software engineering world, and how we greet people is one of those things. This lesson teaches you:

- Why a standard solitary "Hello" or "Hi" is a terrible way to get help digitally
- What being polite actually means in the engineering world
- What you should do instead of leading hello

If you want to join the cause of "No Hello": [https://nohello.net/](https://nohello.net/en/)

Asking Great Questions [Part 12] - Length Balancing

One of the most important attributes of a question is its length, and the reason why is simple: The length of a question is directly connected to how much time a helper needs to spend answering it. This lesson teaches you:

- Why questions that are too short are bad
- Why questions that are too long are bad
- What to do if your question seems too short
- What to do if your question seems too long
- What a healthy question length is, demonstrated with a real-world example
- A tactic you can use to keep the length of your question in-check while still including a lot of important context

[Become A Go-To Person 17/18] Go Deeper: Follow Through

["Become an expert" template](https://jordancutler.notion.site/Become-an-expert-template-80b8a2dc2c7148bea01d2180adf1c9bb)

- A course by [Jordan Cutler](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordancutler1/), Senior Software Engineer at Pinterest and Author of the [High Growth Engineer Newsletter](https://read.highgrowthengineer.com/)
- Get a discount on Jordan's newsletter here: <https://read.highgrowthengineer.com/taro>

[Become A Go-To Person 16/18] Recap

A course by [Jordan Cutler](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordancutler1/), Senior Software Engineer at Pinterest and Author of the [High Growth Engineer Newsletter](https://read.highgrowthengineer.com/)

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.