How Managers Hire Great Engineers [Part 19] - Speed

Great engineers don't stay on the market for a long time. From this lesson, you will:

- Understand that reducing the time from initial contact to offer acceptance can significantly improve your chances of closing a candidate
- Learn that a faster process can position your company advantageously against competitors who may have longer hiring cycles
- Discover how streamlining your recruitment process to make decisions quicker can prevent candidates from pursuing or waiting for other offers

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

Amazon Behavioral Interview [Part 31] - Missing A Commitment (Answer)

This video segment describes a situation where the interviewee failed to meet a commitment during their time at Google.

- **The Commitment:** The interviewee committed to flawless execution of a major advertising campaign during the Super Bowl, ensuring all ads ran smoothly across all platforms.

- **The Obstacle:** Despite thorough planning and preparation, a critical ad failed to run on Mac computers due to a software bug.

- **The Impact:** This failure resulted in significant disruption, including:

  - **Lost revenue:** The ad in question was a high-value advertisement.
  - **Damaged reputation:** The incident could have negatively impacted Google's reputation with advertisers.
  - **Increased stress:** The interviewee experienced significant stress due to the unexpected issue and the pressure to resolve it quickly.

- **Corrective Actions:**

  - **Root Cause Analysis:** The team conducted a post-mortem analysis to identify the root causes of the failure, including inadequate testing on all devices and insufficient escalation procedures for technical issues.
  - **Process Improvements:**
    - Implemented a more comprehensive testing process to ensure compatibility across all devices and browsers.
    - Established a clear escalation path for technical issues, including multiple levels of support and on-call engineers.
  - **Improved Communication:** Enhanced communication protocols to ensure timely identification and resolution of technical issues.

- **Key Learnings:**

  - The importance of thorough planning and rigorous testing.
  - The need for robust contingency plans to address unexpected challenges.
  - The importance of effective communication and collaboration within and across teams.
  - The value of learning from mistakes and using them to improve future performance.

This example demonstrates the interviewee's ability to: *Acknowledge and take responsibility for their mistakes.* Conduct a thorough root cause analysis to identify areas for improvement. *Implement corrective actions to prevent similar issues from occurring in the future.* Demonstrate resilience and the ability to learn from challenging situations.

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

Build Up Relationships

We highlight why building strong relationships and social capital is essential for career resilience, especially during layoffs. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Relationships are a form of social capital, and having people who know you, like you, and will advocate for you can directly influence whether you survive layoffs or get new opportunities.
- Engineers often underinvest in relationship-building by staying heads-down, but proactively connecting with managers, skips, and peers across teams is increasingly important in today’s economy.
- Building relationships doesn’t require forced networking—it can happen naturally through code reviews, coffee chats, offsites, and one-on-ones if you are intentional about seeking opportunities.
- No matter how senior or skilled you are, everyone is expendable, so you should never rely on company loyalty alone and should continuously invest in relationships that outlast any single job.

Amazon Behavioral Interview [Part 25] - Working Outside Of Your Domain (Answer)

This video segment describes a situation where the interviewee took on a project outside their core responsibilities to improve employee engagement at Google.

- **Identified a Problem:** The interviewee noticed that employee engagement scores were low, particularly regarding the perception of fair and transparent promotions.
- **Took Initiative:** The interviewee proactively identified this issue and proposed a solution: creating an anonymous feedback system to gather data on employee perceptions of promotion fairness.
- **Implemented a Solution:** The interviewee worked with HR to develop and implement the "Perfolution" system, which collected anonymous feedback from employees on promotion decisions.
- **Achieved Positive Results:** The system successfully gathered valuable data, which was then used to identify areas for improvement in promotion processes. This resulted in a significant improvement in employee engagement scores related to promotion fairness.
- **Demonstrated Initiative and Collaboration:** This example demonstrates the interviewee's initiative, problem-solving skills, and ability to collaborate effectively with other teams (HR) to achieve a positive impact.

This example effectively demonstrates the interviewee's: 

- ***Proactive approach:*** *Identifying a critical issue and taking the initiative to address it.* 
- **Problem-solving skills:** Developing and implementing a creative solution to gather data and identify areas for improvement. 
- ***Collaboration and teamwork:*** *Effectively collaborating with HR to implement the solution and address the identified issues.* 
- **Focus on employee engagement:** Demonstrating a commitment to improving employee satisfaction and well-being. 
- **Ability to drive positive change:** Successfully implementing the solution and achieving a significant improvement in employee engagement scores.

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

The Sales Engineering Career Path (And How To Become One)

The sales engineering role combines technical expertise with sales skills as an alternative career path. Even if you don't want to become a full-time sales engineer, many of the skills that are essential for sales engineers are directly applicable for strong software engineers.

🛠️ **Learn Why Engineers are in the Best Position to Sell:**

- Explore the intersection of coding and client interaction that defines the Sales Engineering role.
- Learn why Sales Engineering might be the ideal choice for software engineers looking to blend their technical prowess with business dealings.

💡 PRO TIP: **Sales Presentation and Demo Flow For the Best Outcomes:**

- Gain insights into the advantages of pursuing a career in Sales Engineering, from enhanced earning potential to dynamic job roles.
- Understand how your unique skill set can significantly impact client-facing roles within the technology industry.

🔍 **Explore What Career Options Exist in Sales Engineering:**

- Explore different career paths within Sales Engineering and understand the growth potential.
- Learn about real-world success stories from software engineers who have transitioned into Sales Engineering roles.

Taro member discount is available for the [**2-week cohort-based course**](https://maven.com/techsales/sales-for-software-engineers?promoCode=TARO).

Course conducted by: [**https://www.linkedin.com/in/kbalachandran/**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kbalachandran/)

Explore more on Taro: 

- [Should I become a sales engineer?](https://www.jointaro.com/question/CZdBlFzIDk4rxaLJ1jzu/should-i-become-a-sales-engineer/)
- [How do you "sell" your work and show impact as an aspiring Staff Engineer?](https://www.jointaro.com/question/Zr5koQ1TGgx8GzSAquwG/how-do-you-sell-your-work-and-show-impact-as-an-aspiring-staff-engineer/)

How Should I Practice For These Interviews?

In this lesson we talk about how AI is making previously time-prohibitive advanced data structures and algorithms newly relevant in coding interviews, and what that means for how you should prepare.

- **AI unlocks harder concepts by handling the boilerplate** — complex structures like tries, heaps, and LRU caches were rarely testable in a 45–60 minute interview because implementation alone could eat up 15–20 minutes; with AI generating that scaffolding in seconds, interviewers can now reasonably include them, making them worth studying once you've solidified the fundamentals.
- **What you actually need to demonstrate has shifted** — since AI handles much of the implementation, your value lies in recognizing when a given data structure is the right tool, clearly articulating *why* it helps (e.g. "a trie eliminates the factor of M by checking all patterns simultaneously through shared prefix traversal"), and writing precise prompts that reflect that understanding.
- **Master the basics first, and don't over-rotate on this** — the vast majority of interviews (roughly 95%) will not require these advanced concepts, so treat this as the final 5–10% polish layer, not the foundation; verification of AI output remains just as critical here as everywhere else in the interview.

How To Crack Any Interview

If you want direct interview support from Alex and Uzair, take their live Maven course with discount code **TARO10**: <https://maven.com/alex-kliotzkin/acing-em-interviews>

To ace any Engineering Manager (EM) interview, we need to go beyond memorized answers and demonstrate a deep, tailored understanding of the role, the company, and the people interviewing us. This final video recap ties together the core strategies we've learned throughout the course.

- **Deeply Understand the Role and the Interviewer**

  - We should thoroughly research the company's culture, the team’s business priorities, and even the interviewer’s background if possible.
  - This helps us anticipate questions and articulate the team’s pain points—making us stand out as someone who already thinks like an insider.

- **Focus on the Intent Behind the Questions**

  - Every question has an underlying purpose. We must listen for the *question behind the question* to understand what trait or leadership ability is being evaluated.
  - Once we’ve identified this, we lead our response with our **engineering management systems** and **leadership philosophies** to show intentionality and maturity.

- **Build and Customize Our Story Bank**

  - We should prepare core EM stories that demonstrate a range of leadership abilities and adverse situations.
  - The goal isn’t perfection but authenticity—sharing how we made decisions, what we learned, and how we’ve grown as a result.

- **Showcase Growth Through Adversity**

  - Most interview questions center around difficult moments. We should use these opportunities to demonstrate emotional maturity, resilience, and our ability to evolve—crucial traits for a leader.

- **Be Convincing and Confident**

  - At the end of the day, we’re not just answering questions—we’re telling a story about why we’re the best fit. We need to sell our value clearly and confidently, grounded in real experience and reflection.

Maximize Your Equity And Benefits In Tech [Part 23] - Conclusion

Congratulations on making it to the end of this course! Here are core points from the lesson:

- Know the details of your equity, 401k, and ESPP plans, and set calendar reminders for things like stock option expirations, enrollment windows, and rollover opportunities
- Automate what you can only after understanding your holdings—review RSU tax withholdings, grant docs, and whether you’re using pre-tax vs. Roth intentionally
- Explore advanced options like mega backdoor Roths if your 401k allows them, and ensure you're not missing out on your employer match or other benefits
- Review your health plan and associated perks like HSAs, FSAs, and wellness stipends, and use reminders to avoid letting free money go to waste

If you want to get additional support from Andy:

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

How Managers Hire Great Engineers [Part 16] - Follow Up

If at first you don't succeed, try try again. From this lesson, you will:

- Learn the impact of follow-up emails, which can significantly enhance response rates when sent in addition to an initial email
- Discover tools like Mixmax and features within ATS systems like Ashby that can automate the follow-up process and track email openings
- Understand the strategy of escalating outreach, involving higher levels of management, to engage high-value candidates effectively

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

Amazon Behavioral Interview [Part 30] - Building Trust With Stakeholders (Evaluation)

This video segment discusses the quality of an interview conducted by a person named Alan.

- **The Interviewer's Approach:**

  - **Unclear Questioning:** Alan initially asked a general question about building trust, which is not a typical behavioral interview question.
  - **Unnecessary Detour:** This initial question led to a lengthy discussion that was not directly relevant to assessing the interviewee's skills or experiences.
  - **Awkward Transition:** Alan then abruptly shifted to a more relevant question about a time the interviewee failed to meet a commitment, but the transition felt awkward and disjointed.

- **Concerns about Interview Quality:**

  - **Lack of Clear Focus:** The interviewer's approach seemed unstructured and lacked a clear focus on assessing the interviewee's skills and experiences.
  - **Potential for Bias:** The interviewer's personal style and communication approach could potentially bias the interview outcome, particularly for interviewees who are less experienced or less comfortable with unexpected questioning.
  - **Limited Quality Control:** The video highlights a concern about the lack of quality control for interviewer performance and the potential impact on interview outcomes.

- **Recommendations:**

  - **Focus on Clear and Relevant Questions:** Interviewers should focus on asking clear, concise, and relevant behavioral questions that directly assess the candidate's skills and experiences.
  - **Maintain a Structured Approach:** A structured interview approach helps ensure that all candidates are evaluated fairly and consistently.
  - **Improve Interviewer Training:** Investing in interviewer training programs can help to improve the quality of interviews and ensure that all interviewers are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to conduct effective and unbiased interviews.

This analysis highlights the importance of conducting high-quality interviews to ensure fair and accurate assessments of candidate qualifications.

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

Be Deliberate With Team Selection

We explain how team selection within a company can influence both career growth and layoff risk, while stressing the importance of balance and personal fit.

- Team choice is one of the remaining factors within your control, and teams that are important to leadership or closely tied to core revenue are generally less likely to be cut.
- Importance is relative to executive priorities, not just revenue, so understanding what leadership truly cares about is key, especially at companies with strong founder influence.
- Choosing a high-priority team is usually good career advice anyway, since those teams tend to have more scope, visibility, and growth opportunities.
- You should not sacrifice genuine interest or passion just to chase perceived safety, because lack of engagement hurts performance and long-term career growth.
- This guidance is clearer at companies with product-market fit, while earlier-stage startups carry more inherent uncertainty, making stability harder to assess regardless of team choice.

Amazon Behavioral Interview [Part 10] - Anticipating Customer Needs (Evaluation)

This video provides feedback on an individual's response to a behavioral interview question: "Can you give me an example of when you were able to anticipate a customer need with a solution or product that they didn't know they needed yet?"

- **Strengths:**

  - The interviewee effectively demonstrated customer obsession by describing how they proactively identified and addressed customer needs before they escalated.
  - They highlighted the development of a predictive model to identify at-risk customers.
  - They described how they collaborated with the sales team to proactively reach out to these customers and address potential issues.
  - The interviewee also mentioned the unexpected benefit of this proactive approach: the opportunity to upsell premium support services to delighted customers.

- **Areas for Improvement:**

  - **Quantifying Impact:** While the interviewee mentioned a 75% conversion rate for upselling premium services, they could further enhance their response by quantifying other key outcomes, such as a reduction in customer escalations, improved customer satisfaction scores, or increased customer retention rates.
  - **Highlighting Leadership and Collaboration:** The interviewee could have further emphasized their leadership and collaboration skills by describing how they overcame resistance from within their team or obtained buy-in from other stakeholders for their proactive approach.
  - **Addressing Potential Challenges:** The interviewee could have proactively addressed potential challenges, such as the risk of over-escalation or the potential for misuse of the predictive model by the sales team.

- **Overall:** The interviewee provided a strong foundation for their response. By incorporating the suggested improvements, they can further enhance their ability to effectively communicate their accomplishments and demonstrate their leadership, problem-solving, and customer-centric approach in a job interview setting.

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

Leaving An Executive Role To Become A Teacher

[**Ethan Evans**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp/) is a retired Amazon VP who now teaches managers how to break into executive levels. He was at Amazon for 15 years, and he became a VP in 2013 until he left in 2020.

Ethan could have spent several more decades in high-powered engineering leadership roles, but he chose to leave his lucrative career at Amazon to focuse on personal development coaching and teaching.

**Reason for leaving Amazon:**

- Ethan found more satisfaction in helping people develop than building things. He actually wanted to scale his impact beyond at Amazon with the role of upgrading the whole eng team.
- Amazon wasn't receptive to his ideas for talent development initiatives. they told him the best bet was for him to become the VP of Eng for the HR products.

**Today, Ethan is focused on** teaching individuals for career development. He creates and shares free content (e.g., daily writing on LinkedIn) and then offers paid coaching and training programs for high-potential individuals.

**Motivation for charging for some services:**

- Belief that people value paid services more than free ones.
- Desire to focus limited time on highly motivated clients.
- Money is not the primary driver but it is important for reaching a wider audience and sustaining the work.
- Charging for high-value services from those who can afford it is ethical and practical.

Ethan is now pursuing his passion to help people grow and achieve their career goals. He's adopted a hybrid approach of free and paid services to maximize their impact and reach.

More to explore: 

- [\[Case Study\] 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/)
- [When does it make sense to leave big tech?](https://www.jointaro.com/question/v6GBLlfXb1ugNobkEm7w/when-does-it-make-sense-to-leave-big-tech/)
- [I'm Greg, Ex-Google/Netflix current Director at Disney. AMA!](https://www.jointaro.com/question/CdPjNOXvU882180yzs6R/im-greg-ex-googlenetflix-current-director-at-disney-ama/?a=X1zCA1EgxqdSBELHLfkO)

Become An Engineer Influencer [Part 27] - How to De-Risk Quitting

Ask Me Anything (AMA) with a Senior Eng Director - Sanjay Siddhanti

[**Sanjay Siddhanti**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjaysiddhanti/) is a Senior Director of Engineering at AKASA. After graduating from Stanford, he previously held engineering roles at Counsyl, Karius, and Flatiron Health.

Sanjay's background:

I'm the Senior Director of Engineering at AKASA. I joined AKASA in 2019 as one of the first employees when we were a seed-stage startup. I originally joined AKASA as an individual contributor, and quickly switched over to management. I built much of the company's early technology as an IC and later as a tech lead / manager. I also started and managed multiple engineering teams at the company, including Platform Engineering, now an org with 20 engineers.

Happy to answer questions about:

- How engineering leaders think about the role of Senior, Staff, and Principal ICs.
- How and why to transition from IC to management
- The differences between an Engineering Manager vs Engineering Director
- How to hire and retain great talent
- How to succeed in a startup environment.

Become An Engineer Influencer [Part 20] - 1,000 True Fans

It Depends

After exploring the wide range of pros and cons of working at Big Tech companies, the speakers emphasize that choosing this career path is highly personal and should align with one's individual goals and priorities.

- **No One-Size-Fits-All Answer**: The intention isn’t to prescribe a particular path, but rather to offer transparency around what working at Big Tech is really like—information they wish they'd had early in their careers.
- **Reflect on Personal Priorities**: It's crucial to explicitly list what matters most in a career - whether that’s compensation, work-life balance, tech stack, team culture, or product space—and then align job choices accordingly.
- **Framework for Decision-Making**: By identifying top 2–3 priorities and working backward from those, engineers can better evaluate whether Big Tech aligns with their long-term goals.

Creating A Customized Study Plan

**In this segment, we’re guided through how to create an effective, targeted prep plan for ML interviews. Preparation should be intentional, role-specific, and company-informed.**

- **Create a tailored study plan** based on your target role. Spend 1–2 weeks on behavioral prep, overlap topics wisely, and prioritize deliberate, focused practice.
- **Do company-specific preparation** by researching their tech stack, ML frameworks, and use cases. Read blogs, papers, and talk to current employees to understand their challenges and how they approach ML.
- **For product-focused ML roles**, focus on business impact, case studies, model selection trade-offs, and deep feature engineering—interviewers value end-to-end thinkers.
- **For infrastructure-focused ML roles**, focus on scalable systems, distributed training, MLOps best practices, feature stores, and real-world reliability scenarios like traffic spikes.
- **For research-oriented ML roles**, go deep into recent papers, experimental design, evaluation strategies, and be ready to explain your own contributions with clarity—even to non-experts.

If you want to learn even more from Yayun:

- Book 1 on 1 career guidance with her here: <https://calendly.com/your-friend-yayun/1on1>
- Follow her on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/yayunjin/>

Amazon Behavioral Interview [Part 22] - Disagreeing With Your Manager (Evaluation)

This video segment provides feedback on an individual's response to a behavioral interview question about navigating a disagreement with a manager.

- **Identified Potential Concerns:** The feedback highlights potential concerns about the interviewee's response, specifically regarding its potential impact on how an Amazon interviewer might perceive the candidate's "bias for action."

  - The initial disagreement with the manager's unrealistic 15-minute response time could be perceived negatively, as Amazon highly values individuals who demonstrate strong initiative and a bias for action.
  - The interviewee's acknowledgment of the initial failure to meet the 15-minute target could be interpreted as a lack of commitment or a reluctance to fully embrace the manager's directive.

- **Suggested Improvements:** To address these concerns, the feedback suggests that the interviewee could have:

  - **Emphasized proactive problem-solving:** Instead of simply acknowledging the initial failure, the interviewee could have highlighted their proactive efforts to gather data, analyze the situation, and propose an alternative solution that was more realistic and achievable.
  - **Demonstrated commitment to the team's success:** The interviewee could have further emphasized their commitment to the team's success by describing how they actively engaged with stakeholders, addressed their concerns, and ultimately achieved the revised goal of a 90th percentile response time within one hour.
  - **Framed the disagreement constructively:** Instead of focusing on the initial disagreement and the perceived failure to meet the 15-minute target, the interviewee could have framed the situation as a learning opportunity and emphasized their ability to adapt and find a successful solution that aligned with the team's capabilities and customer needs.

- **Overall:** The feedback emphasizes the importance of demonstrating a strong bias for action, a commitment to achieving goals, and the ability to navigate disagreements constructively in an Amazon interview setting. By incorporating these suggestions, the interviewee can enhance their ability to effectively communicate their accomplishments and demonstrate their suitability for a role at Amazon.

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

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.