The Resource You Need For Promotion That Few Understand

Which of the following is the resource needed for promotion that many engineers don't understand or even realize exists, particularly more junior ones?

True or false: When you are onboarding as a software engineer, the one and only thing that matters is your ability to understand the codebase and extend it.

Why is social capital important for senior engineers?

From Multiple Rejections to Landing Six Offers and Negotiating A $100K Raise

*Unlock all events and courses with Taro Premium. Join at a discount with Yogi's link: [**https://www.jointaro.com/r/yogi-sharma/**](https://www.jointaro.com/r/yogi-sharma/)*

In 2017, amidst the bustling innovation and relentless pace of Facebook, I encountered a pivotal moment in my career. The sting of receiving not one, not two, but three job rejections in as many weeks (and *first round rejections* at that) set the stage for a profound professional transformation. This period, marked by deep introspection and resilience, was not just about coping with disappointment; it became a launchpad for unprecedented growth and success.

But all that came after an initial period of dejection.

The journey from those initial rejections to eventually landing six coveted job offers, with negotiations exceeding $100k, is a testament to the power of strategic habit shifts and mindset realignment. The experience, while daunting, unfolded the essential principles of leveraging one’s time and energy efficiently, ensuring readiness for job transitions *without compromising current job performance*.

In this talk, I aim to demystify the path from setback to success. I will unveil the practical strategies and mental adjustments that not only helped me navigate the turbulent waters of job searching but also equipped me with the tools to excel beyond expectation, which I have used in my work with over 400 professionals in my coaching practice. This narrative is more than a personal victory; it's a blueprint for anyone facing the disheartenment of rejection, providing actionable insights to transform challenges into opportunities for substantial growth and achievement.

Join me as I dissect the critical principles, mindset shifts, and habit changes that can empower us all to turn job search woes into wins, illustrating that with the right approach, navigating the job market can be a journey of triumph even though tribulation are inevitable at times.

Negotiation content on Taro:

- [**\[Taro Top 10\] Pay Negotiation**](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/uyWSc5q79zFw2Ei7w59d/)
- [**\[Masterclass\] Understanding And Optimizing Your Pay In Tech**](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/gk408yBIV2fa5RjVR213/masterclass-understanding-and-optimizing-your-pay-in-tech/)

Yogi's next event about going from the PIP danger zone to a top performer: [**https://www.jointaro.com/event/behind-the-scene-from-meets-most-greatly-exceeds-in-3-months-at-facebook/**](https://www.jointaro.com/event/behind-the-scene-from-meets-most-greatly-exceeds-in-3-months-at-facebook/)

Yogi on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/yogi1/>

Mine Customer Support Data

We expand beyond metrics mapping and customer experience mapping by introducing **additional, nuanced techniques** to help us continuously refine our input metrics. These customer- and defect-driven approaches give us real-world signals that are often overlooked—but are rich with opportunities for improvement.

### Key Takeaways:

- **We believe customer and shareholder interests are aligned**: At Amazon, we were driven by the conviction that obsessing over customers naturally serves the long-term interests of shareholders. This philosophy shaped our approach to metrics and improvement.
- **We treat every customer interaction as a source of insight**: Whether the "customer" is a buyer on Amazon or an internal team we support, we use their feedback to uncover meaningful input metrics that help us improve service and outcomes.
- **We mine customer support data as a diagnostic tool**: We tracked the top reasons customers contacted support—questions like “Where’s my stuff?” or complaints like “You sent the wrong item”—and used these to create new metrics such as “the switcheroo,” which measured item mix-ups.
- **We made problem frequency visible and actionable**: These contact reasons and metrics were reviewed weekly in our WBR, ensuring we remained focused on resolving the most impactful customer issues.
- **We talked directly to customer-facing teams**: We routinely engaged with customer support representatives to gather firsthand insights about recurring pain points by category—adding human intelligence to our data-driven approach.

These additional techniques may not generate as many metrics as mapping exercises, but they provide powerful context and depth to our understanding of what truly matters to customers.

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

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

Maximize Your Equity And Benefits In Tech [Part 9] - Taxes (ESPP)

Selling stock from your Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) can lead to very different tax outcomes depending on timing. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- A disqualifying disposition (selling within 1 year of purchase or 2 years of the offering date) results in ordinary income tax on the discount and short-term capital gains on additional profits
- A qualifying disposition (selling after both 1 year from purchase and 2 years from offering) splits the gain into lower-taxed long-term capital gains and a smaller portion of ordinary income
- 1099-B forms often underreport your cost basis, so you may need to correct it using Form 8949 to avoid paying tax twice on the same income

Next steps with Andy:

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

Become A Debugging Master [Part 18] - Build The Infra

Building debugging infrastructure is a powerful way to level up your team and career. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Invest in infrastructure like logging, dashboards, session recordings, bisect tools, and experiment tracking to make debugging easier for everyone

- Plan ahead by adding useful logging into products before bugs occur to speed up investigations and root cause analysis

- Funnel logging is especially valuable because it formalizes the end-to-end data flow, making it easier to spot where issues happen

- Building internal tools, even simple ones like the Log Insight tool at Meta, can lead to major team-wide adoption and career milestones

- Internal tooling projects are great side projects because they serve engineers directly, have less red tape, and can be very high impact

Rahul's internal tool case study: [\[Case Study\] Building A Meta Internal Tool To Empower An Entire Org: Staff Promotion Story](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/qvp2quodqAEWSkN7sayt/case-study-building-a-meta-internal-tool-to-empower-an-entire-org-staff-promotion-story/)

Interview Preparation Is Way Better With Others

Here are the core points from the video:
- Social accountability is a good way to motivate yourself to work hard when studying data structures and algorithms, especially given how miserable studying them can be. Peer pressure works!
- Doing a mock interview with a friend can help you prepare for interviews because you are forced to explain yourself out loud. This process will be more akin to the actual interview process, far more than grinding LeetCode at your computer all day.

If you're looking for a mock interview partner, find one with [Taro Networking](https://www.jointaro.com/networking/): [https://www.jointaro.com/networking/?selectedServices=Mock+Interviews](https://www.jointaro.com/networking/?selectedServices=Mock+Interviews)

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Manage Your Time Optimally In Tech And Achieve More Results](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/rnX9EKpzc43TgGW9MozG/masterclass-how-to-manage-your-time-optimally-in-tech-and-achieve-more-results/) - This is the time management session Rahul mentions
- [[Taro Top 10] Effective Interview Prep](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/HLBYxJI7D1j8STolrwum/)
- [[Taro Top 10] Finding A Tech Job](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/E6R0wVJ5EyCfVnVrlfno/)

Code Review is Undervalued

In this lesson, **Adam Ernst**, Software Engineer at **Meta**, explains why code reviews are one of the most powerful—and often overlooked—tools for influencing engineering culture. Drawing from his experience reviewing more than **1,600 code changes** in just 18 months, Adam shares his philosophy on giving constructive feedback, mentoring engineers through review comments, and creating lasting improvements across a codebase. He emphasizes that effective code reviews are not about enforcing preferences but about teaching, understanding context, and helping others grow.

- **Code Reviews Are a Leadership Tool:** Adam views code reviews as an opportunity to mentor engineers, share best practices, and influence technical decisions in a practical, one-on-one setting rather than through broad directives.
- **Explain the "Why," Not Just the "What":** Great review comments focus on the reasoning behind a suggestion instead of simply requesting changes. By explaining trade-offs and remaining open to missing context, reviewers encourage learning instead of compliance.
- **Create a Multiplier Effect:** Constructive feedback helps engineers improve not only their current code but also the way they review others' work. This creates a ripple effect where good engineering practices spread organically throughout the team.

Original podcast link: [**https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA_OYJF3Mmw**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA_OYJF3Mmw)

Are Big Tech Incubation Labs Good Preparation For Being A Startup Founder?

Many companies will have a skunkworks or incubation division. Meta has **New Product Experimentation (NPE)**, Google has **Area 120**, and companies like Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, and others all have toy projects. 

Despite being branded as a “startup within a big company”, there are some important differences to keep in mind between these roles and real entrepreneurship: 
- Apps launched within larger companies have a huge unfair advantage in being able to leverage the parent company’s distribution channels. 
- There’s not as much urgency or risk in these divisions since, even if the app fails, the staff will just get reallocated to other parts of the company.
- Most of these projects eventually get killed by the parent company since they’re looking for multi-billion dollar market opportunities.

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

The First Thing You Must Figure Out

Choosing the right company or team is hard because what’s “great” truly depends on our individual priorities.

Here are the core points from the lesson:

- We emphasize that people differ in life stage, location, responsibilities, and goals, which means there is no universal “best” company or team, only what is best for our personal priorities.
- We caution against blindly chasing FAANG or big tech, noting that while it can be optimal for some, it can be a poor match for others depending on what they value and need at this stage of their career.
- We outline the key first step: listing all potential priorities and stack-ranking them to create a clear, personalized hierarchy that guides the next career move.

Putting It All In Perspective

This bonus session wraps up the *Essence of Management* course by reflecting on the symbolism behind the **Management Deltas** logo and what it teaches us about effective leadership. The logo—featuring a lowercase delta—serves as a metaphor for the kind of impact we aim to create as managers.

- **We focus on small changes**—daily and weekly deltas—that compound over time into meaningful, lasting transformation for our team, our impact, and our careers.
- **We recognize the multidimensional nature of management**, much like the mathematical partial derivative (∂), where influence happens across many axes—people, processes, priorities, and culture.
- **We look for deltas in every direction**, and one of our responsibilities is to map these dimensions so we can lead more intentionally and with greater clarity.
- **We embrace the idea that leadership is not one-size-fits-all**—it's a creative, ongoing practice of identifying leverage points and applying thoughtful, sustainable change.

This session reminds us that our job isn’t to be perfect—it’s to continuously look for small, deliberate ways to move our teams and organizations forward.

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

Maximize Your Equity And Benefits In Tech [Part 11] - Insider Trading Considerations

Insider trading rules can create real constraints on when and how you can sell company stock, especially for those with access to sensitive information. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Insider trading laws prohibit trading on material non-public information, and companies often enforce blackout periods to limit employee risk
- Executives and directors face stricter requirements, including preclearance, holding periods, and detailed SEC reporting (e.g., Forms 4, 144)
- A 10b5-1 plan allows for pre-scheduled trades made while not in possession of inside info, offering a compliant path to selling equity under constraints

Next steps with Andy:

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

Amazon Behavioral Interview [Part 9] - Anticipating Customer Needs (Answer)

This video segment focuses on the interviewee's experience anticipating customer needs and proactively addressing them.

- **Identifying Predictive Signals:** The interviewee observed that certain patterns, such as a high number of open cases or upcoming contract renewals, often indicated potential customer escalations.
- **Developing a Predictive Model:** Based on these observations, they worked with their team to develop a predictive model that identified customers at high risk of experiencing significant issues.
- **Proactive Engagement:** The interviewee leveraged this predictive model to proactively reach out to high-risk customers, often in collaboration with the sales team. This proactive approach helped prevent many escalations before they occurred.
- **Unexpected Benefits:** This proactive approach also presented an opportunity to upsell premium support services to customers who benefited from the proactive assistance.
- **Regional Considerations:** The interviewee acknowledged regional variations in customer behavior and support needs, with a greater focus on proactively addressing potential issues for high-value customers in regions like the Americas.

This example demonstrates the interviewee's ability to analyze data, identify customer needs, and proactively address potential issues, ultimately improving customer satisfaction and driving business value.

Learn more about Alan's job search program, Kadima Careers, using this [discount link](https://signup.kadimacareers.com/mQBsDvu).

Taro Book Club: Designing Data Intensive Applications - Chapter 2 (Data Models and Query Languages)

Discussion led by: [Ankur Agrawal](https://www.linkedin.com/in/erankuragr/) & [Raj Shah](https://www.linkedin.com/in/therajshah/)

Topic: Chapter 2 - Data Models and Query Languages In this #taro-bookclub discussion, we'll go over Chapter 2 of the book "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" by Martin Kleppmann. This chapter is about Data Models and Query Languages and will provide good mental models to think about Relational vs Document Models, Graph Data Models and various types of Query Languages.

Here's the agenda: We’ll break down and discuss the key concepts from Chapter 2. There will also be time for any questions and answers you might have.

Get ready for our second session on this engaging and informative book! If you don't have a Taro Premium membership, you can get it at a discount with Ankur's special link here: <https://www.jointaro.com/r/eventu507/>

Event Link: <https://www.jointaro.com/event/taro-book-club-designing-data-intensive-applications-chapter-2-data-models-and-query-languages/>

Signs A Layoff Is Coming

We outline the practical signals that can help you tell when layoffs may be coming, especially in tech companies.

- For public companies, a prolonged and severe stock price decline is a strong warning sign, as companies generally can’t sustain operations when shares remain far below their highs.
- For startups and private companies, stagnant growth, hiring freezes, and an indefinite pause on recruiting often indicate belt-tightening ahead of potential layoffs.
- Companies preparing for layoffs frequently cut perks first, and leadership demeanor may shift noticeably through more guarded communication and changes that trickle down to managers.
- Gossip can surface through internal networks or platforms like Blind, but it’s unreliable and stressful, so the most consistent signal is the broader move into an “age of austerity,” where profitability replaces growth and visible reductions in spending become the norm.

Who Gets Cut In A Layoff?

We explain how companies decide who gets laid off and why, from the outside, the process often feels random and opaque.

- There is no universal rule for layoff selection, as decisions vary heavily by company, leadership style, and timing, making it impossible for individual contributors to reliably predict outcomes.
- Common factors considered include performance, the business importance of a team, seniority, and tenure, but each of these can cut both ways depending on company priorities and cost pressures.
- From an individual contributor’s perspective, mass layoffs often feel random because decisions are made quickly, by very few executives, and with incomplete information to avoid panic.
- At large companies, layoffs are often driven by shareholder or board pressure to improve profitability, while startups are guided by burn rate, runway, and investor feedback in a tighter funding environment.
- Layoffs can also be opportunistic, used to trim perceived excess, remove deprioritized teams, or reset perks, with additional randomness introduced by legal safeguards like manager quotas to reduce lawsuit risk.

Interviews Go Both Ways

We open this final section by explaining how to evaluate teams *within* a company—starting with the interview process itself.

Here are the core points from the lesson:

- We explain why “first principles thinking” about company financials is usually unhelpful for engineers: exponential growth makes predictions unreliable, and financial modeling without expertise leads to bad conclusions.
- We highlight that the interview stage is your first and most reliable chance to gather real signal about culture and team fit; you should “reverse interview” the company rather than defaulting to superficial questions.
- We point out common bad questions (e.g., “What’s your favorite thing about working here?” or “How’s the food?”) because they produce biased, obvious answers and don’t reveal anything meaningful about career growth or challenges.
- We recommend instead asking questions tied directly to your top priorities—work-life balance, growth, team culture, on-call load—so that you can evaluate whether the environment actually aligns with what you need.

Why Startups Can Be Better Than FAANG For Career Growth

Whether you are just starting your career or have years of experience in Big Tech, startups can be a powerful accelerator for your career and expose you to unique opportunities.

[**Ben Rudolph**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/brudolph/), cofounder and CTO of Peregrine, argues the value of startups in this talk. Ben built Peregrine from within the San Pablo homicide Investigations Unit where, among other cases, he worked with detectives to help solve a high profile cold homicide case. After spending a year embedded onsite with the customer and securing their first contract, Ben has overseen the growth of the company from 2 to 100+ people. Their technology now serves over 30 million citizens and ingests approximately a million data points every 10 minutes.

Topics covered:

- Understanding how the right startup can offer unique experiences not available in Big Tech.
- Deciding if and when to explore startups for your next career move.
- Effectively evaluating the potential of a startup.
- Common traits of top-performing startup engineers.
- Comparing the mindset required for success in startups vs large tech companies.

Related discussions on Taro:

- [**How to evaluate a startup?**](https://www.jointaro.com/question/UCG4XxyEOTjjyg4pEuwY/how-to-evaluate-a-startup/)
- [**How Effectively Do Big Tech Engineers Perform In Startups?**](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/TFhKpoVuu4iKdbrAiJ8d/how-effectively-do-big-tech-engineers-perform-in-startups/)
- [**What questions to ask a CTO of a startup?**](https://www.jointaro.com/question/R4FGhmGlZOQK7Lb1YAlt/what-questions-to-ask-a-cto-of-a-startup/)

Peregrine is hiring Senior Engineers in the SF/DC area (or open to relocation) who have 4+ years of experience. Taro members can use this link to get expedited feedback: [**https://www.peregrine.io/taro**](https://www.peregrine.io/taro)

- [**Connect with Ben on LinkedIn**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/brudolph/)
- [**Learn more about Peregrine Technologies**](https://www.peregrine.io/)

Create A Promotion Plan

In this lesson, we explain why creating a written promotion plan is essential and how treating it like a living contract dramatically increases our chances of moving up, even though perfection or guarantees don’t exist.

- We emphasize getting everything in writing: building a promotion plan that outlines exactly what “performing at the next level” looks like, so expectations are clear and aligned.
- We note that even with a solid plan, promotions can fall through due to org politics or director-level decisions—but having a plan still increases success odds by 10x compared to “just doing good work and hoping.”
- We highlight the need to maintain the plan monthly, updating it as org priorities, reorgs, or company conditions shift—especially crucial at senior or staff levels where project selection matters.
- We explain the importance of defining the delta between your current level and the next—clarifying what skills, behaviors, or scope need to improve.
- We recommend structuring the plan around the company’s evaluation axes (e.g., engineering excellence, direction, project impact, people) to clearly identify which “stats” need leveling up.

How Rahul Accidentally Got 70k Installs On An Android App

### The Story
- Before 2021, Rahul's YouTube channel was focused on Android tutorials.
- One of the tutorials he made was a simple Android app that let you set your status as an emoji. It was a pretty basic example of using Firebase.
- To make the output of the tutorial accessible, Rahul published the completed app to Google Play.
- What he didn't realize is that the app would be discovered by tens of thousands of users. After the past couple years, it has gotten 70,000+ installs with near-0 effort from Rahul.

### Learnings
- *Always publish* - So many people make projects that they then abandon or declare victory after the GitHub has gotten to a good state (even sharing this on their resume). Your code will pretty much never matter until it's fully out there in the world - If you're looking for your projects to help with job searching, recruiters are not going to care how clean the GitHub is.
- *Android distribution is extremely powerful* - Android has over 2.5 billion active users, and that number continues to grow. Due to the sheer volume of people, Android is one of the easiest platforms, if not **the** easiest platform, to publish something that gets a ton of users. There are far fewer Android apps compared to websites, so it's easier competing for Google Play search traffic vs. Google website search traffic. You only need to pay a 1-time $25 fee to publish an infinite amount of apps.

If you want to learn how to build your own side projects that get a ton of users:
- [In-depth Session On How To Come Up With Side Projects That Can Get 100k+ Users](https://link.jointaro.com/4m3CpQGgvkN3Xuem9)
- [In-depth Session On How To Grow Side Projects To 500k+ Users](https://link.jointaro.com/8QPgCkexjUjR9AA29)

Get The Rating You Deserve [Part 18] - Build Inner Strength

**In this final section, we explored the importance of building inner strength to sustain long-term success.**

To cultivate inner strength, we should:

- **Prioritize self-care:** Invest in physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
- **Develop strong habits:** Establish routines that support our goals and values.
- **Practice mindfulness:** Cultivate awareness of our thoughts and feelings.
- **Build strong relationships:** Foster meaningful connections with others.
- **Embrace a growth mindset:** View challenges as opportunities for learning and growth.

By building inner strength, we can navigate challenges with resilience, maintain a positive outlook, and achieve lasting fulfillment.

If you want to get personalized support from Yogi, you can reach out to him at [coaching@yogisharma.com](mailto:coaching@yogisharma.com) or schedule an introductory call to dive into your situation at <https://tinyurl.com/meetyogi>.

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.