Mid-Level Engineer (L4) Describes Most Important Skill - Dipika Tiwari

Dipika is a mid-level engineer at Qualcomm.

- **Most important skill**: efficient log analysis. Being able to quickly make sense of the bug report and provide actionable next steps is critical for productivity and trust. 
- **Advice**: keep notes as you ramp up, since that information will likely be useful later on.

Here's the full playlist asking engineers what the most important skill is for their level: [Asking 7 Levels Of Engineers The Most Important Skill](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/J9Io5lDGaYUpI8vGrUyI/)

Helpful links:
- [How Neetcode Got Promoted From L3 to L4 (Mid-Level) Engineer At Google - Tips + Insights](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/mP1jyI09NsCHDsi5yTEX/how-neetcode-got-promoted-from-l3-to-l4-mid-level-engineer-at-google-tips-insights/)
- Taro's top 10 to get promoted from [entry-level to mid-level engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/iBKHYpkjd0BRWWLKQG2j/)
- Taro's top 10 to get promoted from [mid-level to senior engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/AUMiBTvYUv0gcOzuu26V/)
- [Dipika on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dipika-tiwari/)

Entry-Level Engineer (L3) Describes Most Important Skill - Uriel Sejas

Uriel is a new grad engineer at Slack.

- Most important skill: understand and follow patterns in the codebase. There's likely a well-defined template or approach you can follow to complete your work. 
- Advice: take time to connect with other engineers. An engineer on a different team (build system or UI framework) can share something that otherwise would have taken hours/days to figure out.

Here's the full playlist asking engineers what the most important skill is for their level: [Asking 7 Levels Of Engineers The Most Important Skill](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/J9Io5lDGaYUpI8vGrUyI/)

Helpful links:
- [[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/)
- [How Neetcode Got Promoted From L3 to L4 (Mid-Level) Engineer At Google - Tips + Insights](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/mP1jyI09NsCHDsi5yTEX/how-neetcode-got-promoted-from-l3-to-l4-mid-level-engineer-at-google-tips-insights/)
- Taro's top 10 to get promoted from [entry-level to mid-level engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/iBKHYpkjd0BRWWLKQG2j/)
- Taro's top 10 to get promoted from [mid-level to senior engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/AUMiBTvYUv0gcOzuu26V/)
- [Uriel on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/uriel-sejas/)

This Is What A Good Promotion Plan Looks Like

One of the most crucial ingredients for a successful promotion is a clear plan. However, the engineering career matrix that most big companies have isn't nearly enough. This video covers what a quality promotion plan looks like.

Here are the core points from the video:

- **Show the delta** - Just giving someone a concept isn't enough. Growth comes when you progress from a lower state to a higher one. To best facilitate that, you must outline exactly what that lower state and higher state are so people can understand the difference and work towards bridging the gap.
- Here's an example showing what it means to outline the delta when growing a mid-level engineer on their code review axis:
  - **Bad promotion plan:** *"Have a bigger influence in code review"*
  - **Good promotion plan:**
    - E4 (mid-level): *"You are extremely thorough catching issues within your own domain, finding architectural issues (sometimes challenging the entire diff/diff stack), performance problems, and several edge case misses."*
    - E5 (senior): *"Instead of mainly reviewing stack-specific diffs within product domains you have worked on, you review diffs across the entire stack for your org (M2+ scope). You are able to review diffs for areas that you have never worked with before, quickly absorbing the context of the diff and its surrounding ecosystem to leave genuinely insightful feedback in a relatively short period of time.”*

Related resources:

- [\[Taro Top 10\] Software Engineer To Engineering Manager (IC -&gt; M Track)](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/oz0mnJvHHgM8NfVF7rgp/)
- [\[Masterclass\] What Software Engineers Should Look For In Their Engineering Manager](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/oeY7ncZhzJ5NO6dij5e7/masterclass-what-software-engineers-should-look-for-in-their-engineering-manager/)
- [\[Taro Top 10\] Getting Promoted Faster In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/eZOEUatYEe7BBAZByuha/)

Asking For A Promotion: The Wrong Way vs. The Right Way

We all want more money and a higher title. However, it's important to remember that it's not your engineering manager's primary goal to give you those things. When it comes to the promotion discussion, it's crucial to frame it in a mutually beneficial way.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **Do not**: Frame promotion as something that you inherently deserve from being on the team for a while, making the entire conversation seem like an exercise purely for *your* benefit.
- **Do**: Show your loyalty to the team and make it clear that investing into your growth and promotion is mutually beneficial. Your goal is to have more impact and empower the team - The money and title are more of a secondary benefit you'll happen to achieve along the way.

Related resources:
- [[Taro Top 10] Software Engineer To Engineering Manager (IC -> M Track)](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/oz0mnJvHHgM8NfVF7rgp/)
- [[Masterclass] What Software Engineers Should Look For In Their Engineering Manager](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/oeY7ncZhzJ5NO6dij5e7/masterclass-what-software-engineers-should-look-for-in-their-engineering-manager/)
- [[Taro Top 10] Getting Promoted Faster In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/eZOEUatYEe7BBAZByuha/)

How To Work With Your Manager To Get The Performance Review Rating You Want

Too many engineers are afraid of awkward conversations, so their plan is to just do good work and hope for the best. This rarely works.

Here are the points from the video:
- **Getting the rating you want is a team sport** - You need to be in-sync with others (particularly with your manager) on your desired outcome. You have to be transparent about what you want. Use your 1 on 1 to have those hard conversations with your manager on the delta between where you are now and where you want to be. It's painful to hear that you're falling behind, but it's much better to hear it 3 months before the performance review instead of 3 days before.
- **Don't assume that you're doing well** - Just because you're not receiving negative feedback doesn't mean that you're doing okay; the reality is that you could be doing as bad as trending towards PIP. Remember that managers are busy, and they can easily forget to give you critical feedback in a timely manner (or just not fully realize you're not doing well until they see peer feedback).

Related resources:
- [[Taro Top 10] Software Engineer To Engineering Manager (IC -> M Track)](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/oz0mnJvHHgM8NfVF7rgp/)
- [[Masterclass] What Software Engineers Should Look For In Their Engineering Manager](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/oeY7ncZhzJ5NO6dij5e7/masterclass-what-software-engineers-should-look-for-in-their-engineering-manager/)

Do This To Get Maximum Value From Your Manager 1 on 1s

The manager 1 on 1 meeting is arguably the most sacred and high-leverage time you have in your career. Make sure you don't waste it by stumbling in with 0 preparation.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **Come in with a plan** - In your running meeting notes doc, write down the agenda beforehand with discussion points ordered by priority. Not only does this make your meeting more effective, it improves the perception of you from your manager's eyes as it shows that you're being more respectful of their time and you're more serious about your own growth and productivity.
- **Alert your manager of the plan 24+ hours beforehand** - This allows them to "pre-compute" the best responses to your meeting topics, so they don't get caught like a deer in the headlights with the trickier ones. It also makes it harder for your manager to cancel, especially when you have deeper, more important topics on the agenda.

Related resources:
- [[Taro Top 10] Software Engineer To Engineering Manager (IC -> M Track)](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/oz0mnJvHHgM8NfVF7rgp/)
- [[Masterclass] What Software Engineers Should Look For In Their Engineering Manager](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/oeY7ncZhzJ5NO6dij5e7/masterclass-what-software-engineers-should-look-for-in-their-engineering-manager/)

One Of The Biggest Tech Career Killers: Not Being Truly Great With Feedback

Feedback is the primary fuel for you to improve. Despite this, most engineers (and most people in general) are far worse at taking feedback than they think they are.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **Be very appreciative of your manager's feedback** - Your manager is the main source of feedback for you (it's literally their job). Your goal is to create a virtuous cycle where your manager wants to keep giving you feedback as you make the experience smooth.
- **Be accepting of non-perfect feedback** - It is very rare for feedback to be 100% accurate. Search hard for a kernel of truth in the feedback, and if you can find it, you should cherish that overall feedback.
- **Be extremely careful being defensive** - This is a 1-way door. Sharing feedback is awkward. If your response to getting feedback is to make the situation weird and be the slightest bit defensive, that person will likely never give you feedback ever again.
- **Ingesting feedback has a high skill ceiling** - It's way, way, way higher than almost everybody thinks. The most talented engineer Alex ever worked with got promoted from E3 new-grad to E6 (Staff) at Meta in less than 3 years. One of the main reasons behind that stellar growth trajectory is that they were able to process feedback extremely efficiently, almost always implementing it the week after they got it.

Related resources:
- ["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/)
- [[Taro Top 10] Software Engineer To Engineering Manager (IC -> M Track)](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/oz0mnJvHHgM8NfVF7rgp/)
- [[Masterclass] What Software Engineers Should Look For In Their Engineering Manager](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/oeY7ncZhzJ5NO6dij5e7/masterclass-what-software-engineers-should-look-for-in-their-engineering-manager/)

How To Make Sure Your Engineering Manager Gives You The Proper Credit

So many software engineers are frustrated with the amount of credit their manager gives them, especially during performance review. Watch this video to ensure that this never happens again.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **Assume that your manager doesn't know what you're doing** - Engineering managers are *extremely* busy, and they are unfortunately more busy the higher quality they are (i.e. more people will want to book meetings with them if they are good). A lot of the time, they simply won't have the time to proactively scan what you're doing - They aren't unaware of your impact/problems due to bad intent.
- **Alert your manager of important events**
  - cc them on communications (Slack/Teams message, emails) and documents
  - Put them as optional on meetings (they may even want to join if it's an important meeting)
  - Share in 1:1 meetings (this is the most powerful medium)

Related resources:
- [[Taro Top 10] Software Engineer To Engineering Manager (IC -> M Track)](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/oz0mnJvHHgM8NfVF7rgp/)
- [[Masterclass] What Software Engineers Should Look For In Their Engineering Manager](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/oeY7ncZhzJ5NO6dij5e7/masterclass-what-software-engineers-should-look-for-in-their-engineering-manager/)

What Does An Engineering Manager Actually Do?

In order to work together optimally with your engineering manager (EMs), you should have a great understanding of their perspective and incentives.

Here are the core points from the video:
- **Engineering managers shouldn't do technical work** - They need to influence the code of the team without writing it, reviewing it, or designing it. This is an extremely hard job.
- **So what specifically do EMs do?** - Ultimately the EM's goal is to make the team land impact, and this can manifest in many different ways (some of which engineers don't want to hear about). If you are a good performer, it's in the manager's best interest to foster your talent and grow you. If you aren't (i.e. you're dragging the team down), it's possible the manager believes firing you to be the best choice for the team. Outside of managing performance, there are tasks like removing non-technical blockers and making people work better together that EMs do to keep the impact engine going.

Related resources:
- [[Taro Top 10] Software Engineer To Engineering Manager (IC -> M Track)](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/oz0mnJvHHgM8NfVF7rgp/)
- [[Masterclass] What Software Engineers Should Look For In Their Engineering Manager](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/oeY7ncZhzJ5NO6dij5e7/masterclass-what-software-engineers-should-look-for-in-their-engineering-manager/)

[Masterclass] How To Work Better With Your Engineering Manager

Your engineering manager (EM) is easily the most important figure in your professional life, and how you manage your engineer &lt;-&gt; EM relationships across your various teams and companies will largely dictate how much career growth you have. The tricky part is that all of this is very hard, and if you don't do it properly, you can end up working against your manager instead of with them.

As always, the masterclass covers a *ton* of ground, so here's the Top 5 points:

- **Engineering management is a very hard job** - EMs are completely slammed with meetings and are constantly making hard decisions (e.g. *"Who do I hire and fire?"*). The first step towards fostering a healthy relationship here is having empathy for the natural difficulty behind their role.
- **It's up to YOU to leverage your manager** - Don't expect your manager to solo-carry you by proactively identifying all your issues and handing you the perfect growth plan on a silver platter. Nobody can read minds, and nobody cares about your personal growth more than you. Treat your manager as a resource, similar to how a front-end application treats an API. The API will never come to you - It's up to you to call it with the proper parameters to achieve the result you want.
- **Be extremely visible** - Be default, assume that your EM has 0 clue what you're doing, not out of malice but because they're swamped most of the time. cc your manager on important communications to keep them up-to-date with your biggest accomplishments and blockers. Add them as optional on meetings. Use your 1 on 1 to share crucial wins and status updates.
- **Maintain an ongoing dialog about performance** - Your performance review rating should never be a (negative) surprise. Ask every couple months for your manager to give you a hypothetical rating (make it clear that you will take it with a massive grain of salt). Don't let your fear of these awkward, transparent conversations lead to you getting put on an unexpected PIP.
- **Frame promotion as a mutual benefit** - It is not the manager's job to grow their engineers and get them all promoted; this is actually literally impossible in the current economy. It's the manager's job to make sure that their engineers are consistently shipping impact. This means that you must be extremely careful framing your promotion in a way where it's clear that your goal is to expand your impact and further empower the team, not to get more money and a higher title (it's totally fine to want these, they just have to be very far away from front and center).

Related resources:

- [Having The Proper Mentality For Manager 1 on 1s](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/sIm7s54ILdBQmpCtKFtb/having-the-proper-mentality-for-manager-1-on-1s/)
- [1 on 1s Are The Time To Be Awkward](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/xjeFRpp5YHxG9TTK8wjn/1-on-1s-are-the-time-to-be-awkward/)
- ["How do I create a growth plan with my manager/mentor and what should it include?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/BG4rWlnWQamBFI9ujCni/how-do-i-create-a-growth-plan-with-my-managermentor-and-what-should-it-include/)
- ["How do I give critical feedback to my manager?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/VeGFF3JbpstS3Av5jpHB/how-do-i-give-critical-feedback-to-my-manager/)
- [\[Masterclass\] What Software Engineers Should Look For In Their Engineering Manager](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/oeY7ncZhzJ5NO6dij5e7/masterclass-what-software-engineers-should-look-for-in-their-engineering-manager/)
- [Presentation Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zS7GJQmpZRS-fo-ZiiV5cHjdat9gHStPFVnA0awlFM0/edit?usp=sharing)

How To Land 18 FAANG+ Offers With Steven Zhang (Airtable, USDR, Tableau) [October 2023 Version]

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. If you're interested in learning from Steven as part of a cohort-based course about job searching, sign up here: [https://bit.ly/18offers-course](https://bit.ly/18offers-course)

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 original talk on Taro about receiving 18 offers](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/gGkO4pLeFq1ctRM9tSBF/case-study-how-to-land-18-faang-offers-with-steven-zhang-airtable-usdr-tableau/)
- 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/)

Stop Bugs From Happening Again - The Importance Of Retrospectives

Bugs are often times like ants: They don't come alone and are often representative of many more of their own kind. After you fix any bug, retrospect on why it occurred to begin with and what the team could have done to prevent it. If the bug was very serious (e.g. a production outage), bring the team together with a formal post-mortem report and meeting.

This video is a clip from our debugging masterclass. You can watch it here: [[Masterclass] How To Become A Debugging Master And Fix Issues Faster](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/ioR6WzamAIUTpySLAr7o/masterclass-how-to-become-a-debugging-master-and-fix-issues-faster/)

Related resources:
- ["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/)
- [[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 become more independent and better at unblocking myself with tricky technical issues?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/QhqQQGrDgFjZbqohpKe0/how-can-i-become-more-independent-and-better-at-unblocking-myself-with-tricky-technical-issues/)
- ["How to turn a string of silly mistakes into a mature positive outcome?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/JybGyc935lsYbM8dAo7Y/how-to-turn-a-string-of-silly-mistakes-into-a-mature-positive-outcome/)

Why YOU Suck At Coding Interviews - From a Senior Engineer at Uber

[Edbert Chan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/edbert-chan-18a96950/) is a senior Android engineer at Uber. He wrote the popular guide “Welcome To The Coding Interview - You Suck” freely [available here](https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1eKirumpmwDWTtKCJKn2HuoQ2NavEfR41whmTyaQcio4/mobilebasic) (and [here are the slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vce04LepxDbu7K1ZyhtjVaSXC6Z0YYS9cAjNNztbEr4/edit#slide=id.p) presented).

If you want advice from Edbert, check out his AMA here: ["I'm Edbert, Ex-Apple current Uber Infra Android Engineer. AMA!"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/ftzODE689WYHw0FHGcl1/im-edbert-ex-apple-current-uber-infra-android-engineer-ama/)

This is a presentation about the common mistakes he has observed, and what you should do instead. Edbert believes that software engineers focus too much on the code and information during interview prep, and not enough on the engineering part of software **engineering**. Engineering is more than just coding, and a good interview process will be able to judge that.

The extensive guide is filled with practical tips for job seekers to pass the modern interview process at tech companies. Edbert covers the 9 mistakes that hold people back from passing technical interviews:

- Mistake 1: Not Putting Enough Time
- Mistake 2: Interview Approach Is Inconsistent
- Mistake 3: Your Interview Practicing Is Inconsistent
- Mistake 4: Not Fixing Your Own Mistakes
- Mistake 5: Not seeing how one decision or mistake leads to another
- Mistake 6: Not Understanding Your Own Solution Before Coding
- Mistake 7: Magic Bullets
- Mistake 8: Not Being Fast Enough
- Mistake 9: Being Full of Shit

Additional resources:

- [Ace Your Tech Interview And Get A Job As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/ace-your-tech-interview-and-get-a-job-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [\[Taro Top 10\] Effective Interview Prep](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/HLBYxJI7D1j8STolrwum/)
- [\[Masterclass\] 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/)

Rahul's Compensation Journey To $800K (and behind-the-scenes)

In 2021, the last full year Rahul worked at Meta, he made $823K. When he joined Facebook (Meta) in 2017, his total compensation was $390K. See the full details [in the YouTube video](https://youtu.be/inydj1VZ0y0).

In this session, Rahul documents how his yearly compensation more than doubled over the 4.5 years he was employed at the company. This talk will cover details that didn't fit into the YouTube video while exploring angles of it more in-depth.

Topics:

- What components of compensation matter the most in a typical tech company
- Parts of a company's compensation philosophy which have large consquences, but are not often understood or discussed
- How to think about level and negotiation when job hopping
- The psychology around pay changes, and how people change their spending when hitting certain compensation milestones

Related content:

- [How To Earn Respect Fast - Senior Engineer Onboarding Story](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/FaD8tVGXP6SiRQfee4SD/how-to-earn-respect-fast-senior-engineer-onboarding-story/)
- ["How can I think like a staff engineer?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/RU3Mof8NeEYQP30l6giW/how-can-i-think-like-a-staff-engineer/)
- [This Is Why FAANG Engineers Make So Much Money - Tech Compensation Breakdown](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/1aKjiSKcHDttnyTAYXy4/this-is-why-faang-engineers-make-so-much-money-tech-compensation-breakdown/)
- [\[Masterclass\] Understanding And Optimizing Your Pay In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/gk408yBIV2fa5RjVR213/masterclass-understanding-and-optimizing-your-pay-in-tech/)

Paper Reading Group: Attention Is All You Need

Generative AI, specifically large language models, have taken the world by storm. But they wouldn't exist today without a key paper published by Google Brain: "[Attention Is All You Need](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1706.03762.pdf)." The 10-page paper, published in 2017, introduced the Transformer - a critical innovation in neural networks.

**What's in store?**

- A deep dive and interactive discussion of the paper. We recommend reading (or at least skimming) it first: <https://arxiv.org/pdf/1706.03762.pdf>
- A look at what came before the paper (neural networks, embeddings), and what came after (BERT, GPT-2, and ChatGPT).
- **All software engineers welcome** - no AI/ML background necessary!

**Did you know?**

- The paper's authors have all gone on to found multiple billion-dollar AI companies including Cohere and [Character.ai](http://Character.ai).
- Since 2017, the paper has been cited over 86,000 times.
- The Transformer architecture is the **T** in "GPT".

**Your host:**

[Charlie Guo](https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlierguo/) is a seasoned founder and author with over 15 years of software experience and more than a decade in Silicon Valley. He is an alum of both Stanford and YCombinator, and currently publishes [Artificial Ignorance](https://www.ignorance.ai/about), an AI-focused newsletter for engineers and founders.

**The agenda:**

- Charlie will give a brief background, and then explain the key insights and context from the paper.
- We will open the group to some Q&A and a broader discussion.
- And we'll end with some discussion on which paper to read and review next.

The next paper reading group is on October 15 about [deep reinforcement learning](https://www.jointaro.com/event/paper-reading-group-human-level-control-through-deep-reinforcement-learning-deep-q-network/), led by Sai Bhavanasi.

Managing ADHD as an Engineer

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is marked by an ongoing pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with functioning or development.

Handling ADHD as an engineer is hard. Juggling job demands, with everyday ADHD struggles, can feel overwhelming. But, you're not alone.

This collaboration between Shimmer and Taro explores the intersection of ADHD and Engineering. You'll see a live conversation between a Shimmer ADHD coach and their engineer client. Alex (coach) and Ashley (student) share how ADHD shows up in the engineering field, along with science-backed strategies to overcome common challenges. 

Some of the common presentations of ADHD: 
- Emotional regulation
- Procrastination
- Establishing routines

Ways to find and keep motivation: 
- Find your drive
- Break it down
- Create accountability
- Utilize external motivation

Energy and time management: 
- Know when your energy fluctuates
- Determine the level of cognitive effort for a task
- Use the minimum amount of cognitive effort necessary

Understand the front-end and back-end of procrastination: 
- **Front-end**: conditions must be perfect to get started, lack of direction/motivation, underestimating time needed
- **Back-end**: perfectionism, loss of novelty, fear of feedback, waiting for the final push

Get Shimmer through Taro Perks for a discount: [joinTaro.com/perks](https://www.jointaro.com/perks/)

[Case Study] How I Get 500,000+ LinkedIn Post Views Per Week

[Alex Chiou](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-chiou/) is one of the cofounders behind Taro, and he owes a lot of his success building up Taro to his LinkedIn profile. As of September 2023, he:

- Has 66,000+ followers
- Gets 500k - 1M post views per week
- Spends just 10-15 minutes writing each post

Alex covers a lot of ground in this presentation, so here are just the Top 5 core points:

- **LinkedIn is extremely underrated** - When it comes to return on investment for your time, LinkedIn is easily one of the most effective content creation platforms if not *the* most effective. Unlike TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube which are media-based and require lots more effort, you can regularly go viral on LinkedIn with relatively short snippets of text.
- **Consistency is key** - LinkedIn is pretty generous at allowing you to post many times a week without your posts cannibalizing each other. Try to post at least 3-4 times a week with the upper bound being 2 times a day. If you post too frequently, you are leaving views on the table. Also, you are naturally going to have some posts that do terribly and some that do well: By taking more shots on goal, you are evening out your returns. *Variance can be conquered with volume.*
- **Keep it short, don't be too smart** - This is *by far* the most common mistake Alex has seen aspiring LinkedIn creators make. Engineers tend to be very smart people who love to cover all the nuance, which leads to overly long posts that are neither concise nor dense. This type of content does horribly on social media. Alex's style is to have 5-9 sections (each separated by a line break) with each section being just 1-3 lines for a 30-75 second read. Keep it snappy.
- **Write first sentences, not posts** - The entire purpose of the 1st sentence is to convince the reader to read the 2nd. LinkedIn by default hides the vast majority of your post's text behind the "See more..." button. Purely focus on writing a compelling first sentence, and the rest of the post should flow from there.
- **Never forget: It's just social media** - LinkedIn, like every social media platform with 100M+ users, is full of dumb stuff. *Don't let that get to you*. Don't be afraid to disengage from the platform and not read notifications and comments. And never ever couple your emotional state to how well your social media posts are doing.

Related resources:

- ["Why should I bother building a brand or becoming famous on LinkedIn?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/s1NVrO0VlvIufReDKCSl/why-should-i-bother-building-a-brand-or-becoming-famous-on-linkedin/)
- ["How to be brave and post publicly on LinkedIn?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/xUJSnOXQOmJyisZCB0Qa/how-to-be-brave-and-post-publicly-on-linkedin/)
- [\[Case Study\] Building An Engineering Brand - Why And How (LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Substack)](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/t06NajpS2kSCk98IEmQm/case-study-building-an-engineering-brand-why-and-how-linkedin-youtube-twitter-substack/)
- [How Rigid Should You Be With Your Coding / Content Schedule?](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/GaOB5qFLoTbGilp7UokF/how-rigid-should-you-be-with-your-coding-content-schedule/)
- [Presentation slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-_it2buJQ764fQAf5MgXtIKRrYJPI_ayUv5WdU5cslw/edit?usp=sharing)

The Journey to Staff Engineer In Big Tech - Q&A

This is the Q&A portion of the Staff Engineer Panel discussion. Watch the [main content here](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/SaYyJGLYvrAy4XGrDhy7/the-journey-to-staff-engineer-in-big-tech-panel-discussion/).

The journey to Staff Engineer is unique for everybody. In this session, we talk about all the ways we got there! Senior Engineer is a terminal level at most tech companies. 

Staff Engineer is the next level up. This is referred to as Staff at Meta/Google, or Principal Engineer at Amazon/Microsoft. 

Questions answered in the video: 
- I'm making a career change into Software Engineering -- what advice would you have? I want to get into Augmented/Virtual Reality.
- I'm already a Staff Engineer, but I'm struggling with performance management. What advice would you have to exceed expectations?
- What resources would you recommend to improve at communication? What is an effective way to find a mentor?
- I'd like to first become a Tech Lead (TL) and then transition into a Staff Engineer role. What advice would you have for me?
- I'm a Data Engineer (DE) and big fan of Zach! How do I show the impact of my work to a manager who may be unfamiliar, especially since I don't do frontend?

See discussions about Staff Engineers on Taro: [https://www.jointaro.com/topic/staff-engineer/](https://www.jointaro.com/topic/staff-engineer/)

Publicly available promotion stories:
- [Ryan's Instagram video processing improvements](https://engineering.fb.com/2022/11/04/video-engineering/instagram-video-processing-encoding-reduction/)
- [Rahul's internal tool for debugging](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/qvp2quodqAEWSkN7sayt/case-study-building-a-meta-internal-tool-to-empower-an-entire-org-staff-promotion-story/)

Panelists:
- [Zach Wilson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/eczachly/)
- [Rahul Pandey](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpandey1234/)
- [Carly Taylor](https://www.linkedin.com/in/carly-taylor-data/)
- [Lee McKeeman](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lmckeeman/)
- [Ryan Peterman](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/)

The Defining Trait Of Mediocre Software Engineers With Debugging

One of the main differences between a low-performing software engineer and a high-performing software engineer is that the high-performer looks for true solutions to bugs instead of hacky ones like the low-performer does. Don't suppress the symptoms when fixing bugs - Treat the root cause as well.

This video is a clip from our debugging masterclass. You can watch it here: [[Masterclass] How To Become A Debugging Master And Fix Issues Faster](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/ioR6WzamAIUTpySLAr7o/masterclass-how-to-become-a-debugging-master-and-fix-issues-faster/)

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 become more independent and better at unblocking myself with tricky technical issues?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/QhqQQGrDgFjZbqohpKe0/how-can-i-become-more-independent-and-better-at-unblocking-myself-with-tricky-technical-issues/)
- ["What would you do, if you get a better solution purpose after PR?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/PqxeNMxwHKsWYyWVyEbZ/what-would-you-do-if-you-get-a-better-solution-purpose-after-pr/)

Once You Get This, You Will Be Able To Fix Any Software Bug

The foundation for debugging and just getting software as a whole is understanding the end-to-end flow. This is a mental framework that can be applied to any language and any stack, even if you have never worked on it before.

For most of you, you're working with something like this:

1. The client sends an API call to the back-end
2. The server receives the request and parses out the model
3. The server queries the database for the appropriate data
4. The server returns the data in a formatted JSON response
5. The client receives the response and parses it
6. The client translates the models into UI and renders it

Once you figure out what steps are necessary for the flow you're debugging, you can systematically go through them one-by-one until you identify which one is breaking.

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 become more independent and better at unblocking myself with tricky technical issues?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/QhqQQGrDgFjZbqohpKe0/how-can-i-become-more-independent-and-better-at-unblocking-myself-with-tricky-technical-issues/)
- ["How can I root cause bugs faster?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/PSv7aYI70VwaDsoRgMyW/how-can-i-root-cause-bugs-faster/)

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.