**Fails** 

- Agreeing to lead a project before I fully understood what it was 
- Signing up for a live evening class in PST time from the East Coast

**Wins**

- Starting on a new team with an amazing manager
- Joining Sr to Staff course!

Senior Software Engineer at Late Stage Startup

Kasey

- Can you share a bit about when and why you transitioned into management? Was that always your goal?
- In your opinion, when is it appropriate to transition into management, especially if one's goals and strengths align with this career path? For instance, is there a significant difference in transitioning from a Sr Eng to EM as opposed to moving from aStaff to EM?
- What is the role of the Director level in an Engineering department?
- As a Senior Director, what expectations do you have for the impact of the Directors/Managers reporting to you? And what impact does your manager and skip-level expect from you?

For almost all software engineers, they need to become a tech lead (a.k.a. TL) to get to senior levels. However, there's much more to being an effective tech lead than ordering people around.

[Taro Top 10] Tech Leadership

After getting a foothold in the industry, engineers become mid-level. Most engineers stay at this level for quite a while as they navigate the senior engineer promotion (L4 -> L5 by FAANG leveling), which generally requires becoming a tech lead.

[Taro Top 10] Mid-Level Engineer To Senior Engineer (L4 To L5)

Stuff

Communication is a skill that software engineers often underestimate in terms of importance, and being good at it is effectively a senior engineer requirement. In this series, Alex breaks down the principles and tactics he uses to communicate effectively.

Alex's Guide To Effective Communication

Learn what real system design looks like by seeing Alex use the tactics he used as a Meta/Robinhood tech lead to scope out a Taro feature. The skills here are crucial to being a senior+ engineer at FAANG and other top companies.

System Design Masterclass: Taro Playlists

Software engineering work is rarely smooth and well-defined: There will always be crazy surprises. If you're in any sort of engineering leadership role (tech lead or engineering manager), you will need to become great at project management.

[Taro Top 10] Project Management

As a software engineer, you will quickly realize that you can't do it all alone, especially at senior/staff levels and beyond. In order to continue growing, you need to learn to mentor others and delegate.

[Taro Top 10] Effective Mentorship And Growing Others

It doesn't matter how skilled and talented you are as a software engineer if the team around you is fundamentally unsupportive. In order to have a successful career, you need to join organizations that foster your growth.

[Taro Top 10] How To Find A Good Engineering Team And Company

The absolute first step in a successful job search is to write a stellar, concise resume. Despite this, so many engineers fail to do the incredibly high-leverage act of resume optimization, making several basic mistakes.