Junior Engineer Career Development Videos, Forum, and Q&A

I appreciate the value of side projects mentioned on Taro, and I'd like give one a shot. Whenever I've looked before, I got caught up in not finding ones relevant to my work. I work on the backend side, working in the machine learning infrastructure/ops space. That's literally the example used in the side projects video of one where it's hard to do on your own... so is it still worth doing a side project? Maybe one in a similar language (C++), even if it's not related?

I feel like I'm just not being creative enough here, but I'd rather not do a side project that's super unrelated to my area (e.g. learning a ton of frontend to build an app that has a small machine learning component) unless it's still valuable. Maybe to make this more general, how did those of you working on the backend get started with side projects?

I have worked as a software consultant for 4 years at companies like Amazon, Hitachi, etc.

In the class , we talked about how easily people get defensive when receiving feedback that they don’t 100% agree with.

I’m wondering, other than intentionally suppressing this instinct, are there any other tips, tricks, or mindsets that would help?

Context: I work as a Entry Level SWE at Series B Startup with 25 people; the SWE team is 7 people total. I am the only person currently under my manager & my coworkers are fairly clear about what I am building & why. Also, the SWE team morale is strong and productivity seems to be at a sustainable rate.

During our mentor-mentee meeting last week, my manager & I agreed to give each other specific feedback each week (and also agreed for our 1:1 meetings to be used for awkward, personal stuff as Alex & Rahul recommended). In general, I think he is an incredible manager; he’s personable, highly knowledgable, is available to answer my questions, & answers all my noobie questions but I do think there are some shortcomings as he is not used to being a mentor or a manager.

I don’t want to just say “Great job!“ as that is an easy default to fall into week-after-week.

So how do I evaluate my manager? Is there a set of questions somewhere? A framework of some kind?

I’ve been at meta for about 6 months now as a new graduate and my team recently got re-orged. The project of the new team is very uninteresting to me and honestly I realized that I’ve chosen an “easy” work team.

I recently got advice that I need to do more meaningful work such that my skills develop and I can create credibility. I don’t think the work on my current team or the new team makes me excited or even happy in anyway.

I would love to explore the metaverse org as I was heavily involved in VR/AR development work in college.however, I’d have to wait until July to start this process+ this would mean I moved 3 teams in 1 year implying I spent more time ramping up than doing meaningful work.

I’m also considering switching companies. I am able to secure interviews from a few companies that seem interesting to me.

Does anyone have any suggestions ?

I have been having a hard time dealing with my tech lead. He’s e5 and leading our project. I’m aiming for promo end of this half and I feel like he’s really using that as a weapon against me.

For the project I am on, he gave me some deliverables. For one of the deliverable d1, I pushed back as there was no clarity. He basically said you have to do it or someone else will. I pulled in my manager and eventually the manager said it’s his project, his decision.

Fast forward, after spending a good week or 2 on this , we were asked to stop the project due to the alignment issues I had highlighted earlier.

The whole deliverable d1 was de prioritized and I was asked to work on something else (d2). It’s close to the end of the half now and the Teach lead is asking me to do more work to show that d1 made any progress and it was landed.

Despite working super hard on this, I have not clear deliverables. I think this is a directional problem. A lot of this was out disambiguating stuff. He’s also said stuff like you don’t seem to be working much on this.

I feel quite frustrated that despite working a lot the TL doesn’t seem to acknowledge any of the work or doubts cleared.

• How do I deal with this when I keep doing things and he keeps moving the finish line slightly ahead?
• I’m also tired of his snide comments such as this really isn’t e4 scope but I can say it is for you.

Hi my software engineer friends,

Want to ask what is the requirement for design skills at different levels.

I am a software engineer, and for each project I always write a design doc, most time I am listing different options for some implementation. But that is mostly about different ways of data flows, the pros and cons of each data flow. It is not related to design patterns, nor architectures, but it seems enough to move on with my project and team is generally OK with design doc like this way. To make a good design, I feel right now it is more about context, about familiar I am with team's tech stack and all the data flows, and make good judgement about how to implement something.

I also have that in mind "do not try to apply design patterns for the sake of applying it, use it organically".

So a few questions I have

1. Is it normal that in software engineer's daily job, the design is just about how to implementation something? Or I need to try to apply any design pattern or architecture? Is the general design concept same as object oriented design? Want to see am I under design stuff or I am overthinking about this
2. How to you learn the design skills, especially to the space of web application?
3. Any books recommended for designing web apps?
4. What is your opinion about design skills at different levels?
5. Do you think design is the core skill of a software engineer?

At times, we face tight deadlines which I believe are challenging to meet. Despite my reservations about the feasibility of such timelines, my fellow engineer peers often express confidence in meeting them, though history has shown they're frequently mistaken. When I voice my concerns, the project managers claim that delivery is non-negotiable, and everyone in the room goes silent. I've suggested prioritizing essential features for the immediate deadline and planning for a subsequent delivery for the rest, but my ideas are usually ignored. Despite not being in a lead role, it's disheartening to later hear about our inconsistent delivery timelines from my manager when I receive performance feedback. How should I navigate these situations? It's frustrating to be the only one on my team who ever expresses these thoughts as I always appear as the "pessimistic" engineer. I just try to voice concerns to make more reliable deliveries. What should I do in these situations?

I'm considering a team switch, but I'm wary of the effect that it will have on my E3 -> E4 promotion timeline, which I know we have to do within 2 years. I've been at Meta for around a half - Does the timing for a switch work out here and what other factors should I consider?

I joined this new team in October and I'm finding it hard to demonstrate velocity as an entry-level developer. I'm sure this has been discussed before on this thread but what are some sure-shot things to do to increase my commit count?

I know this isn't the healthiest way to approach things but commits and reviews are the best way to demonstrate impact at the L3 level and I'm trying to maximize my impact until the end of this year.

How can I add code quickly? e.g. Add extra unit tests for edge cases, add logging statements, etc.

I recently got moved to a new manager, and I've been having some trouble building back up the more fluid and quite positive relationship I had with my prior manager. In particular, I'm trying to get more signal into my feedback and how I can improve. When I go over this kind of content with my new manager, they'll say something more quick and high-level like "That makes sense", but they won't give me something more specific and concrete. How can I go deeper with these kinds of conversations while keeping our relationship healthy? I want to make sure I respect their boundaries.

I have an interview coming up that isn't DSA / System design focused, but rather a project deep dive or work experience deep dive.

If the interview is 45-60min long, how should I best describe my work experience in that given time. Also, if using STAR method to answer work experience / project related questions how many situations per bullet point on resume should be discussed?

I'm struggling to come up with a way forward as a software engineer. My path to my job today has been VERY unconventional. I failed out of computer science at my university. I still have a degree but in an unrelated field. Did a lot of hackathons and got internships and finally a return offer from a decent ecommerce firm as a software engineer. I know the market is really bad right now but I can tell that I have a lot of prerequisites I'm missing. Trying to do better and I've started taking courses again. I want to craft a self taught dev path. And I want to do well but I just don't know where to begin

@Alex Earlier you mentioned:

Big Tech open-source is obviously ideal (many engineers got hired at :meta: contributed to their OSS), but it's extremely hard to ramp up on the library and get a major PR landed. And it's not like 1 PR will do it - You'll probably need 5 to 10 to get the attention of hiring managers. However, like with most things, it will get much easier over time (the first one's the hardest).

And here: , you said:

These companies all have a large OSS footprint, and I know several people who got hired into these companies by submitting major PRs into them.

What are the parameters for determining whether something is a major PR in Big Tech Open Source according to you? Am currently working on Microsoft Windows Terminal.

Would you consider the below major PR candidates that would get the attention of hiring managers?

Btw they're both from this list as heroic tasks (7158 on completed tab since I've already completed that one):

To my understanding Major PR means lots of people want it and 7158 has around 100 upvotes so that's Major PR. But there are also some PR's where people make commits with 500 - 1000 lines of code

I was told that exceeding expectations doesn't necessarily mean that you're operating at the next level, so I would like to get more clarity here. What does it mean to exceed expectations in a way that's building up towards promotions vs. not?

I’ve been e3 for about two years. my manager put me for promo last two halves but it didn’t go through .(due to a bunch of reasons which are ambiguous , the feedback I got both times was - you’re doing 4 work but we have a quota) I believe there was some politics involved but that’s water under the bridge.

I’m going to reach e4 end of this half. I’ve lost trust in my management chain. I do think my team may have good opportunity and everything else is good but I don’t think my manager is invested in growing me.

I’m very ambitious and would like to get to e5 asap. What would be good ways to set myself up for success?

Here are the 2 main options I’m thinking about:

• Build scope here at Booking, particularly with this Perl -> Java migration where I am well-equipped. I've only been here 6 months, but I have a decent amount of good-will here with a supportive team and manager.
• Go to a more prestigious Big Tech company like Meta/Google

Layoffs are making me quite anxious. I understand job security might not really be a thing when it comes to big tech, but I do want to try pursuing employment security, if that makes sense. How do I "get good" so I can be a little more resilient when it comes to layoffs and employment? I'm not really sure where to start.

Hello, I've seen a lot advice on here about doing side projects that are front-end focused and visible to recruiters, and it seems that Android/ iOS apps are a great way of doing that.

I'm in a position right now where I have about 3 years of web development experience and so most of the positions I'm applying for are web dev related, although I'm open to any. I decided to start working on an iOS app because I thought it'd be fun and the app would actually be useful to me + others.

I do have a side-project on my resume I did involving TypeScript/React, and so I was wondering if creating an iOS app with Swift and putting it on my resume would kind of hinder my chances at web dev jobs or would it still be something that could help land me an interviews for those jobs?

Thank you,

Hamza

Hello, I'm looking for more software jobs to apply for I used LinkedIn and currently using Wellfound. Is there any other good job site I could use to find roles? Specifically, I'm looking for a backend or full-stack role. Also, I wanted to ask how I reach out about finding the rare junior roles that may not be advertised is this something I ask someone or do I hope a position I apply for will make an exception?

I’m an entry-level SDE at my company and we recently hired a new manager for our team. In my second 1:1 with this manager, they said I am already performing at the level of an SDE II and would like to get me promoted. I did get the feeling that I did quite a lot for my level, and I maxed out the rubric for all the areas we measure at our company last year. Got good peer reviews as well.

It's been about a month since this conversation and I'd like some advice on what I should do. Should I prepare a packet of some kind to help them make the decision? Should I just wait?

I recently graduated with my MS and I'm still job hunting. I'm unfortunately at a point where most of my strengths/impressive accomplishments are in MLE/DS which is

1. Harder to break into at the new grad level
2. Fewer jobs in the market

I need a job ASAP and would love advice on how to job search optimally

Here is what I'm doing

1. Creating regular content on LinkedIn
   1. (I've gotten 3-4 interviews from this), 3 of them were recruiter calls that went nowhere, one was an interview that went to final round
2. Applying to any and every job with < 4 YoE requirement with tailored resumes for verticals (MLE/DS/SWE)\
   1. I got 2 interviews from this. Unfortunately didnt get either
3. For strong matches, I am trying to arrange coffee chats with managers at the company.
   1. This has not worked well at all
4. I've tried getting referrals but it's never resulted in an interview. The strong referrals (where the person sends the resume directly to HM) I get the feedback of some internal red tape (not hiring NG, only return intern, or cannot hire international students) or sometimes they just simply want someone with more experience with a specific area (training models, or a specific framework)
5. Trying to apply to SWE roles as well. But quite frankly since I have just spent most of my time, internships, projects directed at MLE/DS, the SWE tailored version of my resume is not top tier. It's quite average in my opinion

I'm not sure what else to be doing or if anything else I can do that I am missing. Any advice would be appreciate!

If you can even just share your experience on what works for you/what doesnt work that would be great to hear as well

My team got split up recently, and I got put onto a sub-team I'm less familiar with (I have more context and experience with the other sub-teams formed in this re-org). Any thoughts on how I can make a case to be on one of the teams I feel like is a better fit for me, and if I'm not able to do that, how do I make the most of this new situation?

As I'm starting to join a team soon(and knowing this answer varies by team, level, and company), I'm wondering how long does onboarding take and what does it mean to be fully onboarded within your team