How One Of FAANG's Biggest Upsides Becomes A Terrible Downside - Peer Pressure

A big reason engineers go to FAANG is to learn from the brilliant talent there. However, this benefit is very much a double-edged sword.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **Big Tech is very competitive** - You will be compared to your peers, many of whom will be better and more productive than you are. Most Big Tech companies make this competition explicit by having stack ranking where the bottom 5-15% of engineers are fired or PIPed every performance cycle. This means that if you're not superior to enough of your peers, your job is in danger.
- There are many side effects to this environment:
  - **Imposter syndrome** - Imposter syndrome is rampant at Big Tech where everyone is so insanely smart and hard-working.
  - **Anxiety and fear** - Being a low performer at Big Tech sucks and is almost always extremely stressful. A lot of engineers here spend a ton of time worrying about being at the bottom.
  - **Poor work-life balance** - You will be pushed by your peers to excel. Many of them will also be overachievers who work late, pushing you to do the same.

Related resources:
- ["How does Stack Ranking work (at FAANG) and how can I be proactive at a base level?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/lScy3l2NPIrWvRuHOjcF/how-does-stack-ranking-work-at-faang-and-how-can-i-be-proactive-at-a-base-level/)
- ["How do you deal with zero-sum situations where one's success comes at the expense of another?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/wDZ2LC0AzujhbOOBs43m/how-do-you-deal-with-zero-sum-situations-where-ones-success-comes-at-the-expense-of-another/)
- ["How do you push back against a PIP when it doesn't feel fully justified?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/4fLz0VmshEouTzQl2Iuc/how-do-you-push-back-against-a-pip-when-it-doesnt-feel-fully-justified/)

[Case Study] How Engineers Unlock Huge Impact With Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This was a joint presentation from engineers who have been using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to become significantly more productive. The result is fewer repetitive tasks, fewer bugs, and more impact. The AI transformation is not some future technology that we are anticipating -- **it's happening now**. ChatGPT is the fastest application ever to reach 100M monthly active users.

We can broadly categorize AI tools into 2 buckets (generative vs analysis). Think about what is most helpful for your job and dig into other tools in that domain.

We focus primarily on productivity benefits from conversational agents like ChatGPT, Bard, and Anthropic. **The first response is usually generic and unhelpful, but simple tricks can make the output significantly more valuable**. Sample prompts: *"How can I send a text message in a Rails app with Twilio?"* and *"How can I show a div in the screen after 15 seconds of inactivity on a webpage?"*

Top 5 prompt engineering tips for Software Engineers: 
1. Ask ChatGPT to list its steps, work, or sources
2. Split your prompt into clear sections
3. Use “unique”, “unconventional”, and “creative” to get better responses
4. Make ChatGPT roleplay
5. Give ChatGPT examples of correct inputs and outputs

Some sample prompts from Jordan's [summary doc](https://www.notion.so/jordancutler/GPT-prompts-90179f5fc49440c6bffaeb94e5cfcb4c?pvs=4): 
- **[Feedback]** "Tell me 5 reasons this feature won’t work as intended"
- **[Engineering]** "Given the following code, write a comprehensive test suite in X testing library"
- **[Learning]** "Explain { topic } as if I am a principal software engineer with 10+ years of experience. Go into deep technical detail and explain how it works under the hood"
- **[Meetings]** "I’m a junior software engineer at a Series A tech company. Can you come up with 10 topics for me to talk with my manager about in our 1-1?"

Here are the top paid tools that the speakers use: 
- [Github Copilot](https://github.com/features/copilot) - $10/month
- [ChatGPT Plus](https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-plus) - $20/month
- [Notion AI](https://www.notion.so/product/ai) - $10/month

Speakers:
- [Donn Felker](https://twitter.com/donnfelker)
- [Jordan Cutler](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordancutler1/)
- [Mike Alnakhaleh](https://www.linkedin.com/in/malik-mike-a-32b63818b/)

Related resources on Taro:
- ["How to AI proof your career?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/3xg5SvXnyTQ0mhNLfbK1/how-to-ai-proof-your-career/)
- ["Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in side projects?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/20UiCYH3QwkWkvGTrFsY/using-artificial-intelligence-ai-in-side-projects/)
- ["ChatGPT plugins to your IDE - How to prepare?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/ZqQiiaPjpzYQ8XKPOQZK/chatgpt-plugins-to-your-ide-how-to-prepare/)
- [The slides for this presentation](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1lfMP8qlSix6IDNAUbyraamLgtIHwkxbbQgbpgcBqr2c/edit?usp=sharing)

The Most Dangerous Thing People Don't Realize About FAANG

So many engineers focus on just the interview when it comes to breaking into Big Tech. However, cracking the FAANG interview isn't the main thing you should worry about: *Surviving at Big Tech is what's truly hard.*

Here are the core point from the video:
- **Big Tech expectations are very high** - In exchange for world-class pay, you are expected to have world-class productivity. For most engineers coming from non-Big Tech backgrounds, they're going to have to put out more work that's also higher quality compared to what they've normally done.
- **It can be hard to adjust** - This is especially relevant if you spent a very long time (10+ years) working at companies that weren't as cutting edge as Big Tech prior to going there. It is very difficult to do things in a completely different way to what you're very used to.
- **Performance review is stressful** - Since these companies are so big and have so much process, performance reviews are incredibly thorough and take a long time. It often takes months to write and collect all the feedback necessary to compute the final rating. Couple this with fear of PIP and stack ranking and you have an environment that really puts engineers on edge.

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Navigate Your Performance Review In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/b0B8uqIAUnBLE10jJHJG/masterclass-how-to-navigate-your-performance-review-in-tech/)
- ["What's the difference between a low performer software engineer and a high performer?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/nMxx2EMVIlJbl1oK4SGu/whats-the-difference-between-a-low-performer-software-engineer-and-a-high-performer/)

The Biggest Benefit Of Working At Big Tech - Learning Proper Engineering Skills

We all know how powerful Big Tech is when it comes to its top-of-market compensation and resume power. However, there is a much bigger long-term benefit these prestigious companies have when it comes to software engineers.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **Big Tech is stellar at teaching proper engineering** - You simply can't reach 100 million+ users without being great at software engineering. These companies have the experience and history to show software engineers how things should be done.
- **You will be pushed to be better** - Big Tech invests billions in hiring the absolute best tech talent in the world. In order to ship quality products at scale, these engineers push each other constantly to do the right thing. When you work at Big Tech, you become a part of this process and peer pressure.
- Here are just some of the ways this learning manifests:
  - Thorough release process with staged rollout and deep analytics
  - Code review where you get tons of comments on how to improve
  - Great internal tooling showing you what parts of the engineering experience can be made seamless

Related resources:
- ["How do I get better at building Large scale systems without working directly on such projects?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/k9MR0UBCtVXvyZrOdPLw/how-do-i-get-better-at-building-large-scale-systems-without-working-directly-on-such-projects/)
- ["How to Learn/Practice Clean Code, particularly by oneself?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/6DcTkiS9UJhDkQz1HIAL/how-to-learnpractice-clean-code-particularly-by-oneself/)
- ["What are the best resources to learn system design in a structured way?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/SeCsb4IRTijs2hg4XHxo/what-are-the-best-resources-to-learn-system-design-in-a-structured-way/)

So Many Software Engineers Get This Wrong About FAANG - Big Tech Isn't A Monolith

Many software engineers who aspire to get into Big Tech have this consistent, utopian vision of what working there is like. This couldn't be further from the truth and thinking in this way severely holds back your career direction.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **Big Tech companies aren't all the same** - Even though there are commonalities working at companies with such massive scale, each company has its own culture and unique way of doing things. For example, the life of the average engineer at Amazon is going to be *very* different from that of the average engineer at Microsoft.
- **Big Tech can vary within themselves** - Once you reach 5,000+ employees, it is impossible to maintain a completely homogenous culture throughout the entire company. Organizations and teams will develop unique sub-cultures, so even 2 engineers within the same company can have very different experiences, even if they're the same level and working on the same tech stack.
  - Meta is an extreme example by giving its major acquisitions (WhatsApp, Instagram, Oculus) a lot of autonomy in how they run. Meta is almost like 4 different companies in 1.

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] Should You Work At FAANG? - What Big Tech Is Like For Software Engineers](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/JnEnRphdi5TaPZl1Zrl8/masterclass-should-you-work-at-faang-what-big-tech-is-like-for-software-engineers/) - The full video where this clip was taken from
- ["Typical Day of Average FAANG Software Engineer?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/sOoGZwl8fsQ3hq8yv10v/typical-day-of-average-faang-software-engineer/)
- ["How much is the tech culture within a company a predictor of its overall growth?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/o7CVNROK0yiRa7YEeFNH/how-much-is-the-tech-culture-within-a-company-a-predictor-of-its-overall-growth/)
- [promotions.fyi](https://www.promotions.fyi/) - This is the website Rahul mentions at the end of the video

How Neetcode Got Promoted From L3 to L4 (Mid-Level) Engineer At Google - Tips + Insights

Neetcode struggled with unemployment as a fresh college graduate in 2020. To prepare for interviews, he started the (now massive) [Neetcode YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/neetcode) and landed a job a year later at [Google](https://www.jointaro.com/topic/google/) as an entry-level (L3) software engineer. 

As his first full-time job, Neetcode was unsure if he'd succeed within Big Tech, but he was able to get promoted to mid-level engineer (L4) quickly.

Neetcode attributes his success within Google to 3 elements: 
- **Working independently**: Don't be afraid to try things on your own. You should take advantage of the smart people around you, but you need an attitude of self-sufficiency. That means you should be willing to dive into the code, try out experiments, and read documentation as needed.
- **Soft skills**: Break down the work you're doing to discuss the parts that people care about and be proactive with giving status updates. If you feel like a project may get delayed, be very honest about that with your manager -- communicate what happened and what you're doing to fix it. 
- **Some luck**: Neetcode had a great manager and his starter project turned out to have a larger scope than initially planned. This set him up for the L4 promotion.

Neetcode's (self-assessed) coding skills were average, but he performed better than most L3s due to his ability to work independently and superior soft skills.

**If you'd like a discount on Neetcode Pro, checkout the [Taro Perks](https://www.jointaro.com/perks/) page.**

Related resources: 
- [Learn how Google does performance review](https://www.promotions.fyi/company/google/performance-review)
- [How to work more independently? from an Amazon engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/question/vyIAC3hCmRpiWzzL6SjP/how-to-work-more-independently/)
- [Why You Should Start Your Career At A Big Tech Company](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/OcWRqQcx31VwIEV6tfWK/why-you-should-start-your-career-at-a-big-tech-company/)

[Case Study] How To Land 18 FAANG+ Offers With Steven Zhang (Airtable, USDR, Tableau)

While on the job hunt in 2019, Steven Zhang received 18 offers (out of 22 onsites), including from companies such as Airbnb, Apple, Facebook, Palantir Technologies, Pinterest, Stripe, Uber.

In the process, he became an expert in software engineering interviews and job searching. Steven shared his thought process and methodology:

- When you have many interviews, **operationalize it, and treat it like a multi-week/month project**. Some days will feel like a slog, but that's ok and part of the process. (Steven used Airtable to coordinate all his conversations.)
- **Doing an interview prep course is completely worth it for DSA**. It may cost a few thousand dollars, but being able to land the ideal job is definitely worth it (and likely worth tens of thousands of $$). Steven used InterviewKickstart (his referral: https://bit.ly/swe-tips-ik).
- **For behavioral interviews**, Steven recommends:
  - Writing all questions you received in a Google doc
  - Recording yourself doing mock interviews with a friend and then listening to it.
- **Steven received offers at various levels through the bands**, from L3 (junior) to L5 (senior). Your level has huge implications for your compensation.
- Negotiation tips:
  - Negotiation should not be adversarial- think of it as doing price discovery
  - If you ask nicely, no one will rescind your offer for asking for more money.
  - Negotiation/post team matching is a way to get signal on the company itself

Relevant resources:

- [\[Masterclass\] How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview - Data Structures And Algorithms](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/V4sTACzfOh22nMVcUV3w/masterclass-how-to-ace-your-big-tech-interview-data-structures-and-algorithms/)
- [\[Masterclass\] How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview - System Design](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/J3I9fTW9ulr6T9KjxpqY/masterclass-how-to-ace-your-big-tech-interview-system-design/)
- [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/)
- Steven's [viral Medium article about this experience](https://medium.com/@stevenzhang/how-i-landed-18-faang-software-engineer-offers-after-not-interviewing-for-5-years-fc0dfc957a5d).
- Connect with [Steven on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenqzhang/)

Supercharging Relationships - Building Bridges With Bosses, Teammates, Mentors, And Tech Leads

Discover the secrets to thriving in complex work environments by mastering the art of navigating workplace politics and dealing with difficult people! Jai explains the pioneering concepts in "Connect" by Dr. Carole Robin and Dr. David Bradford, as well as their acclaimed work at Stanford's Graduate School of Business on Interpersonal Dynamics.

Tailored specifically for engineers targeting senior levels, this masterclass will equip you with the skills and strategies to expertly handle challenging situations and personalities in the workplace. By attending, you will learn how to:
- Recognize and navigate the subtle complexities of workplace politics
- Understand and manage difficult people by identifying their motivations and triggers
- Build trust and create psychological safety with colleagues and superiors
- Effectively giving and receiving feedback
- Managing conflicts and promoting cooperation

Our expert-led session will provide actionable insights and practical tools that you can apply immediately to your professional life. Unlock your full potential by overcoming common obstacles and building strong, effective relationships with your colleagues.

Don't let workplace politics or challenging personalities hold you back. This session will let you take control of your professional success by mastering interpersonal dynamics!

This session was by HashiCorp full-stack engineer Jai Bhagat: [Connect With Jai On LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaybhagat/)

To go deeper on the subject, here's more great resources around relationship building:
- ["How do you network effectively within a company?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/DwT9GtdYK9nwFV3a7jrU/how-do-you-network-effectively-within-a-company/)
- ["Working with a micromanager"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/50HJtR05yMOB97LrkiCX/working-with-a-micromanager/)
- [[Masterclass] How To Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/tyaPFMXPoz2pmzB7OVzt/masterclass-how-to-build-deep-relationships-quickly-in-tech/)

[Case Study] Building An Engineering Brand - Why And How (LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Substack)

Most of Taro's success has come from the social presence of Rahul and Alex. For Rahul, his follower counts as of April 2023 are **75K on YouTube, 61K on LinkedIn, and 13K on Twitter**. Followers are an imperfect measurement of influence, but they are generally correlated. 

### Why invest in brand building?

- Be helpful for others
- Helps you learn more
- Increase your luck surface area
  - Inbound instead of outbound
  - Connect with other creators
  - Compounding value over time

Brand building is definitely *NOT* required to be a good engineer, but it will become more valuable over time.

### Which platform should I invest in?

The options I recommend are **LinkedIn** and **YouTube**. You should pick a platform with built-in distribution. That means a blog is almost always a bad idea (Substack is a bit different since it does have some distribution methods). 

Another dimension to think about is the competition on that platform -- how hard is it to get noticed? 
- Which audience are you trying to reach? (B2B vs B2C, students or professionals)
- How much effort is required to produce content? Videos are much more work than essays, which are much more work than tweets.

You can also take a bet here on a growing platform like TikTok, but there are risks around what kind of content is valued, and the longevity of the platform.

### Getting started as a creator

- Keep in mind the **spotlight effect**: "The psychological phenomenon by which people tend to believe they are being noticed more than they really are"
- Since no one really cares about you when you start out, you should focus on quantity over quality. Just make a lot of content, get feedback, and keep improving. 
- Focus on having your content actually add value. Just reposting articles, or making a list of 20 news articles is not that interesting. (It may get engagement, but you're not actually building a brand.)

### Aim for virality

A significant amount of my growth on LinkedIn came from 3 viral posts: [1](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rpandey1234_learntocode-softwareengineer-activity-7052287566544306177-sn9R/), [2](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rpandey1234_softwareengineering-compensation-licreatoraccelerator-activity-6989278004149465088-V-IF/), [3](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6917123048710000640/) 

Some of your content will be "conversion" content, designed to get people to take action such as signing up for an email newsletter. These posts won't do as well, but you should also focus on having "distribution" content, which is the type of thing that can go viral. 

Once you have a viral hit, you can also repurpose the content on other platforms in order to maximize the value from it. That's what Rahul did with the "Learn To Code" video that he initially published on YouTube: 
- [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awB99NJ2G38)
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rpandey1234_learntocode-softwareengineer-activity-7052287566544306177-sn9R/)
- [Twitter](https://twitter.com/rpandey1234/status/1646060396082790400)

### Practical tips
- Post content deliberately about one domain, e.g. engineering growth. Don't jump between topics. 
   - This is how you build a brand. 
   - Make it clear what value you provide, “e.g. the Car Dealership Guy” or “The No-Code Lady”
- Use content scheduling features to be consistent with posting
- Look up resources on copywriting
   - Start with a number
   - Nail the hook, e.g. *"Let me be clear."*
   - Tell a story: Instead of "A happened and then B happened", say "A happened, but X, so then B happened"

-------------

This is a recording of a Taro Premium session from April 20, 2023. See other discussions about [content creation on Taro.](https://www.jointaro.com/topic/content-creation/)

[What to be careful about when starting a blog or LinkedIn audience.](https://www.jointaro.com/question/O5qwwCqT6SAsWSNqlD2V/making-content-as-a-software-engineer-what-to-look-out-for/)

Getting To The Top 1% Of Amazon Engineers - Productivity Tips From A Life Engineered

Steve Huynh, from the popular channel A Life Engineered, talks about the 3 parts of his productivity system. After spending more than 17 years at Amazon and obtaining the coveted Principal Engineer title, Steve spends a lot of time thinking about peak productivity. 

Timestamps:
- 0:00 - Intro to Steve
- 0:40 - Why invest in a system for time management?
- 2:30 - Have a healthy relationship with notifications
- 6:02 - Optimize your schedule
- 9:00 - Optimize for impact (not comfort)
- 11:25 - How Steve organizes his time

Related questions:
- [When to check email to maximize productivity?
](https://www.jointaro.com/question/aBmMAXWqsQ8gYxyAJcpq/when-to-check-email-to-maximize-productivity/)
- [Is typing speed important as an engineer?](https://www.jointaro.com/question/JeBsvDeGQf01ritm98W0/is-typing-speed-important-and-what-speed-is-acceptable-for-a-dev-looking-to-work-at-faang/)
- [How do I estimate my sprint tasks better?](https://www.jointaro.com/question/3R6yRStSzDMmvLRCiMVV/how-do-i-estimate-my-sprint-tasks-better/)

Connect with Steve: 
- [Taro](https://www.jointaro.com/profile/aZJL3ucq9dQnscO09F4JDRkgPo72/)
- [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@ALifeEngineered)

[Masterclass] Should You Work At FAANG? - What Big Tech Is Like For Software Engineers

Working at FAANG isn't all sunshine and roses, which most software engineers don't realize. This masterclass extensively covers both the pros *and* cons of working at Big Tech, with the cons being angles that are rarely talked about online.

### Pros of Big Tech
- Compensation (obviously)
- Boosts your resume 10x, often automatically getting you phone screens
- Higher-quality and more well-rounded learning from being surrounded by talent
- In general, provides a solid foundation for your career across most crucial aspects

### Cons of Big Tech
- It's stressful - Between the sky-high expectations, PIP culture, and much more, most engineers find it difficult just to survive at Big Tech. The vast majority of SWEs at these companies have poor work-life balance
- Politics - There's so many cooks in the kitchen that it can be glacially slow to get anything done
- Growth wall at senior/staff - The senior promotion is notoriously difficult at FAANG, especially at Amazon and Google. You are often competing for scope against your teammates
- Unfulfilling work - Big Tech projects are usually very incremental, and you will own a tiny piece of a tiny piece of a tiny piece, especially if you're L3/L4 (junior/mid-level).

### Is Big Tech right for you?
- It depends! Work backwards from your career goals and use the information from this presentation to make an informed decision
- Big Tech generally pays higher dividends when you're earlier-in-career
- If you're a very experienced engineer who hasn't worked for Big Tech before, it can be dangerous. Work-life balances needs generally scale up with age, and it will be harder for you to adapt to the Big Tech style

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/)
- [How To Get FAANG Interviews](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/pIMdopWoJFfbANnzo7U5/how-to-get-faang-interviews/)
- [[Masterclass] How To Choose A Good Company And Team As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/0WEmTNZOMIh8xAdfO3JH/masterclass-how-to-choose-a-good-company-and-team-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [Presentation Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1T5prt4AsEUxS1Yx5BvAIO4OYNFFGD5mCyv8g9UFzrTA/edit?usp=sharing)

Market Expansion: The Similarity Between Startups And Content Creators

Steve supports several hundred engineers at Amazon as a Principal Engineer. After finding himself giving out the same advice repeatedly, he decided to package up his insights into a YouTube channel. However, similar to Rahul's content, the applicability of his advice turns out to be much broader than just software engineers.

Steve is focused on having the maximum impact on as many people as possible, which means that he welcomes the “pivot” into the broader audience of knowledge workers.

This is a common pattern within content creation and startups: you start by focusing on a specific niche and being hyper-focused on serving them. But you realize that the product or content you created is actually applicable to a much broader set of people. 

- [How to evaluate a startup?](https://www.jointaro.com/question/UCG4XxyEOTjjyg4pEuwY/how-to-evaluate-a-startup/) 
- [“How much am I hurting my career with this startup?”](https://www.jointaro.com/question/dqCvmYhI9WE0k33orZEP/how-much-am-i-hurting-my-career-by-staying-at-a-startup-pressure-to-work-for-big-tech/)

Connect with Steve: 
- [Taro](https://www.jointaro.com/profile/aZJL3ucq9dQnscO09F4JDRkgPo72/)
- [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@ALifeEngineered)

[Case Study] Revamping Oncall For 20 Instagram Engineers - Senior to Staff Project

Oncall is a critical process for any good engineering team, especially larger ones. However, a lot of software engineers aren't truly exposed to oncall until several years into their career. This detailed case study covers what a healthy oncall looks like and how ex-Instagram tech lead Alex led his organization towards that.

This session covered a *lot* of ground, so we'll focus more on the learnings instead of the historical story:
- **Good oncall ingredients**
  - Very strong sense of ownership expected from the current oncall - The buck should stop with them
  - A detailed runbook and thorough documentation in general around SLAs, SEV criteria, and ownership
  - 7 to 12 engineers on the rotation so you're only oncall <15% of the time
  - A retrospective process that brings together the team to share knowledge and figure out how to improve their systems as a whole
- **Pain = Opportunity** - Never say *"That's just the way it is"*: Every problem is solvable. If you want to level up fast, strive to alleviate pain at scale for your team instead of running away from it. Here's a great discussion covering this concept in more detail: ["Ways to add value when asked “What do you think would be biggest challenges for next quarter?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/zYbkS5Bn00H9RGKiiL4F/ways-to-add-value-when-asked-what-do-you-think-would-be-biggest-challenges-for-next-quarter/)
- **It's All About Relationships** - This is especially important at senior and staff engineering levels. In order to change process and push big projects, you need to get many people to agree with you. Understand that these relationships take time to grow and you need to start as early as possible. Check out this masterclass to deep-dive into this: [[Masterclass] How To Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/tyaPFMXPoz2pmzB7OVzt/masterclass-how-to-build-deep-relationships-quickly-in-tech/)
- **Understand Everyone's Incentives** - They will be very different for people who aren't on your team or aren't engineers. As a tech lead, you are expected to work across XFN boundaries regularly, and succeeding at this requires understanding what drives everyone and finding mutual interests.
- **Lead By Example** - Put yourself on the line and practice what you preach. A disconnect between what you're recommending and your own actions is one of the easiest ways to sabotage your own influence.
- **Stand On The Shoulders Of Giants** - At Big Tech companies in particular, there will always be hundreds of other engineers in the company who have already solved the problem you are currently working on. There is no need to reinvent the wheel - Seek out those people and learn from them.

Related resources:
- ["How to form a healthy on-call rotation?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/8OuTidxuVaeuQCV28IhD/how-to-form-a-healthy-on-call-rotation/)
- ["How can I improve the unstructured, chaotic oncall rotation I'm on?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/ScxFpybXXC90qmnLEU7A/how-can-i-improve-the-unstructured-chaotic-oncall-rotation-im-on/)
- ["How can I maintain work-life balance with a hectic oncall?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/WLqDVZQa8rAEmFEl15oA/how-can-i-maintain-work-life-balance-with-a-hectic-oncall/)
- [Presentation slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19PpKY5VoRAP8OMhu2shwhLthKiodw5cUruk6Lycelho/edit?usp=sharing)

Why It Doesn’t Make Sense To Have a 5 Year Career Plan

Most productivity advice is about getting as much done as possible in the short term: *how do you optimize this week or this particular project*? How does productivity and time management fit into longer term career plans? How much time should be spent around planning your career years from now?

The answer is, **not very much**. Too much will change in 5 years to build your life around that: your experiences and attitudes may change, and the world will certainly change. 

Instead of working backward from the perfect job or career in the long term, it’s better to start with your desired lifestyle. 
- Where do you want to live? 
How much money do you need to make? 
- How busy will you be? 

It’s worth reflecting on what your desired lifestyle is, and check-in periodically to evalute if your goals have changed.

However, this is very different from setting goals. **A good goal is SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound**. If you have a goal which is more than a year away, it’s worth breaking it down into something which can be relevant and time-bound.

When you have established a goal of the proper time duration, you should spend 5-10% of the time in planning how you’ll execute on the project. For example, if you’re planning a project which will likely take 100 hours of work, spend 5-10 hours (a few days of work) in doing the planning behind it. 

Connect with Steve: 
- [Taro](https://www.jointaro.com/profile/aZJL3ucq9dQnscO09F4JDRkgPo72/)
- [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@ALifeEngineered)

How Rigid Should You Be With Your Coding / Content Schedule?

As a 17 year veteran of Amazon, Steve understands seasonality. Q4, the holiday season, is crunch time. There’s a huge pressure on Amazon employees to keep up with demand, and engineers will routinely spend long hours to ensure stability and quality.

The key to doing sustained creative work is to lean in and lean out of periods of intense work, at the right times. Amazon employees know that Q4 will end, and therefore, the crunchtime will end within a few months.

Similarly, for content creation or writing code, **it’s important to segment your schedule into chunks where you can create a deadline or “crunch time”.**

Another perspective is to think about quantity vs quality. For your side projects or content creation endeavors, it’s worth being rigid for a bit (“a commit everyday” or “a video every week”), but it’s also worth changing the routine after some time.

Burnout happens when people don’t see an end in sight from a stressful period. 

- [Learn about burnout](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/xsbM1ctL9HYa6d7E9ejh/the-silent-killer-of-too-many-software-engineer-careers-burnout/)
- [Avoid burnout](https://www.jointaro.com/question/CfPvvtIW02MxVwR1fnP4/how-can-i-avoid-burning-myself-out/)
- [3 Mistakes Engineers To Avoid (from an Eng Director)](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/lhj2batcsdMiEOSKOGLo/3-mistakes-too-many-software-engineers-make-from-a-director-at-airbnb/)

Connect with Steve: 
- [Taro](https://www.jointaro.com/profile/aZJL3ucq9dQnscO09F4JDRkgPo72/)
- [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@ALifeEngineered)

The Framework Through Which To Evaluate Engineering Productivity

When you reflect on your day or week, two spectrums through which to evaluate how your time was spent: 

1. How much of your time was spent **reactively vs proactively**?
2. How much of your time was spent **consuming vs creating**? 

The most productive engineers (and the most senior engineers) are very proactive, and they also lean heavily on the creating end of the spectrum. That means you should spend less time passively attending meetings, and more time breaking down projects, writing code, and setting direction for your team.

It’s much harder to create content compared to consuming content. But the majority of impact as an individual or business comes from creation. As a result, the world rewards the people who are able to create high quality video/code/writing over a long period of time.

- [Reactive vs proactive as a manager](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/VCSrWjEBu3WCaSWCn2ak/signs-of-a-bad-engineering-manager-reactive-vs-proactive/)
- [A hack to supercharge your learning when you create - the Lego Model](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/9cVK5zsAQstbTCc1wrWx/how-the-best-software-engineers-learn-the-lego-model/)

Connect with Steve: 
- [Taro](https://www.jointaro.com/profile/aZJL3ucq9dQnscO09F4JDRkgPo72/)
- [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@ALifeEngineered)

The Most Important Thing To Do After You Get Laid Off

As a software engineer, you naturally have a lot of leverage as a highly sought after, highly-skilled worker. If you end up getting laid off, take the opportunity to use that leverage and seriously think about bettering your future.

Here are the core points:
- **Take the time to introspect about career direction** - When you're working, it's way too easy to get lost in the hustle and just trudge from project to project. After you're laid off, you now have the mental freedom to really think about where you want to go with your career. This will take at least several days, maybe even weeks. Try to envision what the perfect job looks like to you and make that your goal. Ask yourself where you want to be 5 or 10 years from now.
- **Think about what makes you happy** - This sounds cliched, but it's 100% true. There's no point min-maxing your compensation and level if you're fundamentally unhappy while doing it. The tech industry is such a broad space: There is a right opportunity for everybody where they can grow their career and be happy while doing it. But in order to get that opportunity, you need to discover what genuine passions you have.

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Choose A Good Company And Team As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/0WEmTNZOMIh8xAdfO3JH/masterclass-how-to-choose-a-good-company-and-team-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [Figuring Out The Best Company To Join As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/Nqs0U6rt2qFyXKSZurTh/figuring-out-the-best-company-to-join-as-a-software-engineer/)
- ["How do I know what I'm great at?](https://www.jointaro.com/question/hksE5OSxktWdbnQQFdaT/how-do-i-know-what-im-great-at/)

Did You Just Get Laid Off? This Is How You Should Think About It

Getting laid off is rough and a huge blow to your mental state. This video covers how to have the proper mentality if you are laid off, so you can bounce back.

Here are the core points:
- **Being laid off is not a reflection of who you are** - Who gets cuts in a mass layoff is effectively random, and incredible software engineers will get hit by them all the time. *There is absolutely nothing wrong with you if you get laid off.* Don't let some out-of-touch tech executive's bad decision determine your self-worth.
- **You *will* recover** - This is especially true in the tech industry where severance packages tend to be quite competitive, even generous. Use the time to really process what happened, find peace, and figure out your next move. The silver lining of being laid off is that the door has started opening to your next opportunity: You just need to walk through it.

Related resources:
- ["Aftermath of layoffs?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/7Gav09HFuLlGDlM749UY/aftermath-of-layoffs/)
- ["How open should we be to recruiters about employment status?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/Lo8W7fMRFbcwUQ9WyTVF/how-open-should-we-be-to-recruiters-about-employment-status/)

This Is How You Become A Layoff-Proof Software Engineer

Some software engineers are better equipped against layoffs than others. They are less likely to get laid off, and if they do get laid off, they bounce back faster than everyone else. This video covers how those engineers do that.

Here are the core points:

- **Focus on building up fundamental skills** - Divorce yourself from specific technologies and product spaces. Always be thinking: *"Can I take my abilities to a completely different team/company and succeed?*"
- **Soft skills are very underrated** - Communication, leadership, and project management are skills that are useful anywhere. They are also skills that are almost always required to reach senior engineering levels, especially at Big Tech companies like FAANG.
- **Learn how to do real system design** - This is how you ascend to the higher level, away from the direct code, allowing you to add more value to engineering organizations. To learn how to do real system design (not the trivia you need to know for interviews), watch our course here: [\[Course\] System Design Masterclass: Shipping Real Features To Production](https://www.jointaro.com/course/frontend-system-design-masterclass-building-playlists/)

Related resources:

- ["What are software engineering fundamentals?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/3VNPK7wol76s89EkgFeW/what-are-software-engineering-fundamentals/)
- ["How to develop soft skills like leadership, stakeholder management, etc.?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/Ivo1RsizAMGoGKXmqg6N/how-to-develop-soft-skills-like-leadership-stakeholder-management-etc/)

How To Find A Tech Company That's Less Likely To Do Layoffs

In a bull market like the one from 2014 - 2021, everyone's a genius. While you could work more or less anywhere before and get a couple solid years of career growth, that's not the case anymore. This video covers how you can choose a company that's less likely to do a mass layoff.

Here are the core points:
- **Prioritize profitable companies** - If the company is publicly traded, this is shared in every earnings reports and is easily Googled (i.e. "Is company X profitable?"). A good business needs more money coming in than going out, and companies with fundamentals like these will always be rewarded.
- **Make sure the company is hiring carefully** - The easiest way for a tech company to take on too many costs is by hiring people it doesn't need. If the interview process is too easy or the company is trying to 10x its headcount every year, that's generally a bad sign.
- **Leverage your network** - We all have people who are much smarter than we are within our network, and this is very prevalent in the tech industry. If the best and brightest in your network (i.e. those who really do their homework before accepting an offer) are going to specific companies, there's a good chance those companies have real legs.

Related resources:
- ["Insensitive to talk about applying to a company which has suffered from layoffs?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/LH6CCgWMUAVEAHKDDUWc/insensitive-to-talk-about-applying-to-a-company-which-has-suffered-from-layoffs/)
- ["Staying motivated among lay-offs?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/EEMkoCSNPzdRToTHjuSb/staying-motivated-among-lay-offs/)

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.