How To Find A Good Team With Career Growth Opportunities

Not every team will have the scope you need to get to the next level, especially at FAANG and Big Tech. If you're looking to get to senior engineer levels and beyond, here's what to look out for in a team:
- **Past launches** - If the team has frequent, meaningful launches from the past year, it's likely this will continue.
- **Healthy balance of levels** - You want folks more senior than you to learn from and folks more junior than you for you to mentor and work through.
- **Strong engineering manager track record** - In particular, see who they have been able to get promoted. If there are examples of senior and staff engineers grown organically within the team, that's another good sign.

This clip was taken from our team selection masterclass. You can watch it here: [[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/)

Related resources:
- ["What should I look for in a new team in terms of growth?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/i2bOMPrqaRc0NUZ7918F/what-should-i-look-for-in-a-new-team-in-terms-of-growth/) - Question from a Google L4 engineer
- ["How do I find a good team that sets me up for the mid-level -> senior level promotion?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/oHJWlzm1qdHUZx66moaT/how-do-i-find-a-good-team-that-sets-me-up-for-the-mid-level-greater-senior-level-promotion/) - Question from an Amazon SDE 2
- ["What does it mean to not have enough scope to be promoted?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/bJuagPwOEEy5vkcXKkqh/what-does-it-mean-to-not-have-enough-scope-to-be-promoted/)

Rachel's Career Story: Waterloo, Yelp, Airbnb

To check out Rachel's excellent tech career advice, you can find the [full playlist here](https://link.jointaro.com/EFUYvmLHzenKQLRp6).

Rachel moved to Canada in high school, and then attended the University of Waterloo where she picked up programming for the first time. 
- She did various internships as part of the co-op program, and her first job out of college was at Yelp. 
- After 9 years at Yelp, Rachel had become a Director of Engineering there.
- Since 2020, Rachel has been an Engineering Lead at Airbnb, heading up the search product there.

**Rachel's core learning**: The times where you're uncomfortable and struggle are the times you learn the most. Stay calm and embrace the more difficult times in your career - When you view these situations as a growth opportunity, that's how you come out of them stronger than you were before.

Performance Review Ratings Example: Meta & Google

- Meta:
  - Meets Some Expectations (MS)
  - Meets Most Expectations (MM)
  - Meets All Expectations (MA): Need this or above to be doing okay.
  - Exceeds Expectations (EE)
  - Greatly Exceeds Expectations (GE)
  - Redefines Expectations (RE)
- Google (these are the old PERF ratings):
  - Needs Improvement (NI)
  - Consistently Meets Expectations (CME): Need this or above to be doing okay.
  - Exceeds Expectations (EE)
  - Strongly Exceeds Expectations (SEE)
  - Superb
- Other companies will use a 1 to 5 system which roughly maps to the above, Google in particular

If you fall below MA at Meta or CME at Google, you will either immediately be put on a [performance improvement plan (PIP) or be at huge risk for one](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/7SsdpweHE4sbyTtz2kxQ/the-key-to-avoiding-the-performance-improvement-plan-how-to-figure-out-where-youre-trending/). Learn how to [avoid or manage a PIP from our course](https://www.jointaro.com/course/the-ultimate-performance-improvement-plan-pip-guide/).

Related resources:

- [\[Masterclass\] How To Navigate Your Performance Review In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/b0B8uqIAUnBLE10jJHJG/how-to-navigate-your-performance-review-in-tech-7232022/) - This is the full video this clip was taken from
- ["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/)
- ["How do I help my manager (who is also my mentor) be a better manager and mentor?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/LbHgSEtXcb5QR5nVu8xt/how-do-i-help-my-manager-who-is-also-my-mentor-be-a-better-manager-and-mentor/)

Grow From Mid-Level To Senior Engineer [Part 1] - How This Course Works

Meta E4 -&gt; E5. Google L4 -&gt; L5. Amazon SDE 2 -&gt; SDE 3 (the final boss). These are some of the most notorious senior promotions in the tech industry and for good reason: They're hard! The Senior Software Engineer promotion is the first promotion 95%+ of engineers seriously struggle with. So why is that? Well, in this course, we'll break that down in-depth and teach you how to navigate the Senior level up with far less struggle. Here are the core parts of the lesson:

- Your instructor [Alex Chiou](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-chiou/) walks you through his extensive 10+ year Silicon Valley background with rapid career advancement, ending up as a high-performing tech lead making $750k at Robinhood. More importantly, he goes through how he was able to grow his mentees to lightning fast promotions, particularly at Meta where he grew 5+ mid-level engineers (E4) to senior engineers (E5) in just 1 year!
- You'll understand what it means to be a mid-level engineer vs. a senior engineer in the market, including the interview space.
- We walk you through the course objectives. By the end of the course, you will understand:
  - 💡 Truly understand the **difference** between a mid-level engineer and a senior engineer

  - 🧠 Have the right **mindset** to behave as a senior engineer

  - 🛠️ Identify your **technical gaps** to senior engineer

  - 📃 Figure out your **fundamental gaps** to senior engineer

  - ✅ Define a clear **roadmap** to senior engineer

If you want to learn how Alex found a multi-million dollar bug as part of his E4 -&gt; E5 senior promotion packet, check out his case study here: [\[Case Study\] Solving A Multi-Million $$ Instagram Bug](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/WYk4J05iBqOuPtD0CYKX/case-study-solving-a-multi-million-dollardollar-instagram-bug/)

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

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

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

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

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

"How did you decide to quit your job and make a startup?" - 9/13/2022

If you're interested in starting your own startup, check out our curated playlist for it here: [[Taro Top 10] Entrepreneurship And Tech Startups](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/ArtlSzF17v7cad1K6TJG/)

- Alex has wanted to start his own thing for a while - Ever since his side projects started getting serious traction in 2015-2016 (25,000+ users each).
- The initial goal with [Tech Career Growth Community](https://www.linkedin.com/company/techcareergrowth/) wasn't to make a business out of it. The pandemic was happening and people were suffering - We just wanted to help people.
  - Tech Career Growth then grew beyond Rahul's and Alex's wildest imaginations.
  - This made them start thinking what they could accomplish if they worked on it full-time instead of part-time.
- For Alex, there are the core reasons why he decided to make the jump back in early 2022:
  - **Diminishing returns on "preparing" to make a startup** - He had the 0 to 1 experience from doing side projects and building Course Hero's Android apps from scratch. Meta was great helping him build soft skills.
  - **Tech Career Growth taking off** - Alex had more fun working on this community than working his full-time job at Robinhood (which is saying something as he *really* enjoyed working at Robinhood!).
  - **Getting into an incubator** - In late 2021, Alex and Rahul got into OnDeck, which gives the old YC deal of 125k for 7%.
  - **Life timing** - Alex is 30 as of the publishing date of this video, and creating a startup only gets harder as you age due to increasing responsibilities outside of work.

If you're interested in how Alex published ~30 apps that got ~3 million users combined, check these out:
- ["Finding a mobile app idea - How to do it?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/KJ4VXh6rUhKbWeiJoRDe/finding-a-mobile-app-idea-how-to-do-it/)
- [[Masterclass] How To Come Up With 100k+ Users App Ideas You Can Build For Free](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/AI4zi759PSGn6RwIFT6f/masterclass-how-to-come-up-with-100k-users-app-ideas-you-can-build-for-free/)
- [[Masterclass] How To Build And Grow Tech Products To 500k+ Users For Free](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/OEuX0KMhcnNSTJ50Voee/masterclass-how-to-build-and-grow-tech-products-to-500k-users-for-free/)

Lastly, here's a great discussion on how hard startups are compared to leveling up at a "traditional" job: ["Career advancement or building a startup? Which one is harder?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/EquWmWjZhqiiujyltreJ/career-advancement-or-building-a-startup-which-one-is-harder/)

Don’t Do THIS Kind of Code Review - Healthy vs Unhealthy Comment Example

The Most Common Mistake Made When Authoring Code Reviews

The Crucial First Step To Building Relationships That Everyone Misses

Many people in tech are bad at professional networking, and the reason is simple: They're being too selfish. If you want to build a professional network that is truly useful to you, you must strive to put yourself in the other person's shoes.

Here's the core points from the video:
- **Understand their incentives** - Everyone in the professional world is looking out for something: Nobody works purely for the sake of working. When you're working within a company environment, *this is usually what they're rewarded for in their performance review*. When you're asking for something, it's easy to get caught up in what *you're* looking for and how this other person can help *you*. The key to effective interpersonal communication is to flip that mentality and use your empathy to figure out *how you can help them instead*.
- **Alex's Instagram Misalignment Story**
  - Back in 2018, Instagram cofounders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger parted ways with Instagram and Facebook overall. This left a power vacuum with no clear "wing" of the company to drive the overall direction.
  - During this time, Alex was working on Instagram Ads. After the cofounders left, his team tried to ship a project to make the main action button on ads much bigger. Their A/B test showed that the new variant earned far more revenue.
  - The new CEO of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, shot the idea down, citing that it was too tacky. He then declared a design lockdown across all of Instagram stating that all new Instagram features needed to meet Instagram's user design standards.
  - This changed the incentives between designers and engineers at Instagram. Designers were now more focused on upholding the aesthetic integrity of Instagram and less so on shipping projects. On the other hand, engineers were still laser-focused on shipping.
  - *The engineers who best succeeded during this transitory period were those who worked together with the designers and championed their goals.* These engineers were willing to incorporate design polish and didn't immediately dismiss it as a threat to their timelines.

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/tyaPFMXPoz2pmzB7OVzt/how-to-build-deep-relationships-quickly-in-tech-12172022/) - The full video where this clip was taken from
- [9-Part Effective Communication Master Series](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/hVdLQQzfslaYarLSCmmy/)
- ["How do I ask XFN partner for help to make progress in the project?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/OCUrjUM8axEIOJkSKhZp/how-do-i-ask-xfn-partner-for-help-to-make-progress-in-the-project/)

[Part 1] Software Engineer Onboarding: Embrace Your Lack of Knowledge

Don't be afraid to NOT know something. Ask questions.

When you first join a team, there's a lot that you don't know, and that's ok!! No one expects you to know the codebase, the context, and the structure within your new role. Your goal is to gain context through your questions. 

- [Asking Questions Is NOT A Sign Of Weakness](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/YIL3iK8fmSwhWP0PASqe/asking-questions-is-not-a-sign-of-weakness/)
- [Overcoming Imposter Syndrome - You Have Much More Value Than You Realize](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/dTSdd4ozp298jH3glvnx/overcoming-imposter-syndrome-you-have-much-more-value-than-you-realize/)
- [How To Find A Good Team With Career Growth Opportunities](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/UGIUC9zaGccK0tOarBri/how-to-find-a-good-team-with-career-growth-opportunities/)
- [Alex's Guide to Effective Communication](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/hVdLQQzfslaYarLSCmmy/)

This is part 1 of a 4 part series from Daniel about how to **most efficiently** and **most effectively** onboard into a new team or company. What should you spend your time doing in the first few months of joining, and how should that change based on your level? 

This masterclass covers this topic from the perspective of Daniel Tomko, a 20 year Big Tech veteran. Daniel spent 11 years at Microsoft and 8 years at Meta in various senior IC and management positions. 

- [Go to part 2 of the masterclass here](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/jr0iHuUCGW5lCdBndEpO/part-2-software-engineer-onboarding-learn-the-workflow/)
- Connect with Daniel Tomko on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieltomko/)
- Check out the [Formation.dev discount](https://www.jointaro.com/perks/) for Taro Premium members

How To Figure Out If An Engineering Manager Is Good

How Managers Split Their Time Between High/Medium/Low Performers

David Pan (former VP of Engineering) talks about how he managers should split their time between high, medium, and low performers.

David argues that managers should **spend the majority of their time with high performers**, as they are the ones who are most likely to drive the team's success. However, David also argues that managers should not neglect medium and low performers, as they can still contribute to the team's success with the right support.

- 📈 **For high performers**, managers should focus on providing opportunities for growth and development. 
- 🙂 **For medium performers**, managers should provide feedback and coaching. 
- 😔 **For low performers**, managers should provide support and resources to help them improve their performance. If their poor performance is sustained, they should be removed from the team to avoid negative impact on the rest of the team.

High performers typically do 80% of the work, while medium performers do 30% of the work. That means the low performers are contributing -10%!

Related resources:
- ["How to manage a team towards high performance?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/O8vtGxsrwZebiSSlOlRd/how-to-manage-a-team-towards-high-performance/)
- ["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/)

The Best Programming Languages For Interviews

- Try to use a more concise language like Python if possible. This is because interviews, DSA rounds in particular, are a precise time management exercise.
- However, if you are *very* familiar with a certain language, use that. The exception is if that language is very verbose like C.
- Avoid the trap of using a rarer, "fancier" language. It may cost you time to explain, and if you aren't actually that knowledgeable in it, you may get called out.

Related resources:
- [[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/)

What's Often Overrated When Choosing Your Next Job

Here are the attributes we've generally seen software engineers prioritize too much when weighing career opportunities:
- **Product space** - This usually manifests as pursuing a tech trend (like VR or NFTs). Of course, if you're legitimately passionate about the space, go for it, but seriously ask yourself if you would be in this space if it wasn't regularly talked about.
- **Technical space** - Similar to product space, you can follow trends here. Choose a stack that you're legitimately passionate about, which also has the support network you need (very important for junior engineers). The risk with cutting-edge technology is that it often doesn't have a lot of mature teaching resources behind it (it's cutting edge for a reason).
- **Level/title** - Promotion is a decent and concrete career goal earlier on, but don't go to bad companies to maximize your title. At the end of the day, your level and title are just strings next to your name.
- **Compensation** - Money is genuinely important in almost all cases, but what a lot of people don't realize is that very high pay often comes with a catch (usually work-life balance). Try treating this as a lagging indicator - If you're genuinely growing fast as a software engineer, you will eventually
land an opportunity that is top-of-market (as you deserve).

This clip was taken from the following masterclass: [[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/)

Related resources:
- ["How should I think about levels when it comes to evaluating jobs and in my career overall?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/siBFn9WmU204N6D0IRHZ/how-should-i-think-about-levels-when-it-comes-to-evaluating-jobs-and-in-my-career-overall/)
- ["I feel like senior engineers tend to focus on a specific area. How can I pick a specialization that's still relevant in 5-10 years?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/xFEhcvfbJ2P0pYzZ4r6f/i-feel-like-senior-engineers-tend-to-focus-on-a-specific-area-how-can-i-pick-a-specialization-thats-still-relevant-in-5-10-years/)

Balancing Time Between Your Job And Self Learning

Many engineers hear about personal projects (side projects) as a way to accelerate career growth but are confused about how to allocate time for these projects. This video covers a few strategies to balance time between your day job and self-learning. 

1. **Avoid a Binary Approach:** Don't view your day job and side projects as completely distinct: ideally, the work you do in one is good for the other. This can manifest not only in terms of the skills you're building, but also your enthusiasm for writing code or understanding a domain in more detail. Productivity and fulfillment are often maximized when one can excel at work and pursue personal projects simultaneously.

2. **Learning Integration:** Integrate your learning from both day job and personal projects. The knowledge gained in one domain can be applied to the other, so you become better at both!

3. **Effective Self-Learning:** Passive content consumption, such as watching videos or reading blog posts without active engagement, is ineffective for learning. Instead, explain concepts to others or build something to truly benefit from self-learning.

4. **Company-Career Mismatch:** In larger organizations, the company's objectives may not always align with individual career goals. The responsibility for your personal career growth is yours -- don't delegate this to the company! That's why you need to invest in self-learning and personal projects to build the skills and experiences necessary that are best for you.

5. **Enjoyable Self-Learning:** Instead of focusing on the balance between work and personal learning, find ways to make self-learning a fun and fulfilling experience. Common ways this manifests: hitting the publish button, seeing the download count on your app go up, or seeing comments on a blog post you wrote.

Like most things career-related, you should take a proactive approach to career development. Self-learning is no different!

Related resources: 

- [\[Masterclass\] How To Build And Grow Tech Products To 500k+ Users For Free](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/OEuX0KMhcnNSTJ50Voee/masterclass-how-to-build-and-grow-tech-products-to-500k-users-for-free/)
- [How should I set time apart for learning new things?](https://www.jointaro.com/question/FjmcvlTJYssSd5wH2pij/how-should-i-set-time-apart-for-learning-new-things/)
- [How Long to Crank Out a Decent Side Project?](https://www.jointaro.com/question/QA6lCGdPpwAd3xRrpjZ7/how-long-to-crank-out-a-decent-side-project/)
-

Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer [Part 2] - Code Quality = Engineer Quality

Want to make a ton of money as a software engineer? Get incredibly good at writing stellar, high-quality code. This lesson will teach you:

- Why software engineers who write the best code get paid more than everyone else, especially at Big Tech
- The most common trait of low-performing engineers and high-performing engineers (hint: It's about code quality)
- The incredible benefits of striving to write high-quality code and the toxic downsides of writing mediocre code

To dive deeper into the differences between high and low performing software engineers, check this out: ["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/)

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

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

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

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

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

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

**2. Use tentative language**

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

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

**3. Make people feel heard**

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

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

**4. Say thank you**

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

**5. Advance the conversation**

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

**6. Know your audience**

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

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

Avoid This Common Bad Habit That Fails You Interviews

You should allocate enough time to prepare for your data structures and algorithms interview to avoid cramming at the last minute.

Related resources:
- [[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/)

DSA Crash Course [Part 2] - Max Value Approach

In this lesson, Alvin explores the strategy to solving the following interview problem:

> Write a function, *max_value*, that takes in a list of numbers as an argument. The function should return the largest number in the list.\
> \
> Solve this without using any built-in list methods.\
> \
> You can assume that the list is non-empty.

```
max_value([4, 7, 2, 8, 10, 9]) # -> 10
```

```
max_value([10, 5, 40, 40.3]) # -> 40.3
```

```
max_value([-5, -2, -1, -11]) # -> -1
```

If you need additional support taking these DSA skills and actually applying them, take [Alvin's](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/) *complete* data structures and algorithms course on [Structy](https://structy.net/?utm_source=taro). You can try out the concepts yourself in their interactive code editor and learn advanced DSA patterns like stack exhaustive recursion.

Use [this link to get 20% off](https://structy.net/purchase?promo_code=taro20) the entire Structy DSA learning experience.

Follow Alvin on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/>

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 2] - Organizing Your Job Search

A lot of software engineers struggle on the job search because they're just randomly flailing around, drifting from interview failure to interview failure without learning from the overall process. This lesson teaches you:

- The surprisingly basic master plan every successful job search must follow
- How to fix a job search where you are failing to get interviews to begin with
- Actions you can take when you are failing to pass interviews
- What a healthy time spent looks like depending on whether you are trying to *get* interviews vs. trying to *pass* interviews
- How you can organize your job search and turn it into a well-oiled machine where you are constantly overcoming obstacles and improving

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.