Mid-level Engineer Career Development Videos, Forum, and Q&A

I received a couple of offers from companies when I applied for positions but there is always this thinking: "I haven't learned enough things here; I will wait for a better moment to change jobs". How do you all deal with it?

Hey Folks, I have a System Design Interview with Figma. Is there some fundamental material that I can start from?

Hello, I have 3 years of experience and I'm an SDE II at Amazon. The Q1 promotion results are out, and I'm surprised to see many fast-track SDE III promotions. It seems to me that when the time is right and stars align, SDE III promotion can be quick, and if you stay in one team long enough, it wouldn't be hard to get to SDE III.

80% of my team are SDE IIs, and I don't see my possibility of SDE III promotion in the next 2 years unless:

1. I find some big opportunities that bring huge revenue to the organization
2. There's a major reorg, and I'm assigned to a new team, and the new team expands
3. My current team shrinks for some reason, I stay, and my team grows again. Interestingly, my team's senior manager and 2 senior engineers actually fall into the third bucket.

What do you think? Should I just relax, keep pace, and grow my skills, hoping for a promotion by job hopping when the market recovers?

Some context, last July after getting laid off I started searching for new work with a particular focus on FAANG.

I garner traction with a few companies but am elated when hear from a FAANG head hunter.

I passed the first interview. Scheduled the second and it wasn’t until the confirmation email of the second interview that I saw “Contract”. I was greatly disheartened though I figured I might as well go through the interview process and decide after I’ve lined up all my options. And after talking to the hiring manager I was promised a chance to convert the contract is up.

It was a hard decision, but ultimately I passed up on a well paying senior role at smaller company to take a stab at FAANG.

And I loved it. The engineers I work with are brilliant, the products impacting orders of magnitude more clients than I ever have before and I'm learning.

However, after shipping our first project, the hiring manager that brought me on board switched teams. The projects I've been reassigned to have been largely tech debt and non technical. I have had no direct manager for 4 months with no new one stepping in in the foreseeable future. While conversion is supposedly still on the table, there is no one tracking my contributions and there is a new stipulation of “if the market permits” tacked on top, meaning they have an excuse to prolong the contract rather than give a chance to convert.

The cherry on top of all this is, recruiters from this company have reached out multiple times over the past two weeks but pull out after I inform them that I'm currently contracting for them. This is due to the understandable “external” vs “internal” hiring conflicts.

So I guess the question is, should I quit and open up the chance to once again start applying externally? Or would it make more sense to stick around and try for the mythical conversion or even just maintain and study for the inevitable interviewing at the end of the contract? Maybe try being overemployed?

I have tried asking the stand in managers, but they have much bigger fish to fry than the ambitions of a contractor so I would really appreciate some opinions on how I might navigate this period of contracting.

Thanks for the read and your time,

E

I feel the quality and quantity of my contributions greatly exceeds the expectations of my level, so I'd like to ask for a raise. I'm basing this self-assessment based off raw diff count + SEV participation + project count + good peer feedback.

Typically raises are given out once a year at Robinhood, and I've only heard of employees get an off-cycle pay increase if they threaten to quit. How should I ask for a raise?

I am a frontend focused full-stack engineer with 7 years of relevant experience in the frontend engineering space and a total of 12 years of experience. I am not able to decide where should I invest my time when working on side projects. Should I start picking up mobile (Android/iOS) or continue to sharpen my skills in the frontend development space? To put it another way, should I invest my time in going deep in my current domain or should I invest time learning mobile UI development as that has gained more traction and is viewed as more valuable skill?

I think I am unable to decide whether to go about developing my skills in breadth or depth.

My team is kind of crazy - My manager has 30 direct reports and this craziness reflects in my oncall as well. Here's how my oncall is currently:

• It's made up of 3 engineers, 2 other back-end engineers and myself. This means I'm oncall 1/3 of the time.
• Around 15% of the time is spent actually resolving issues. For the remaining 85%, we focus on operational excellence (improving oncall documentation, adding tests, etc).
• There is no agreed upon SLA time. So we just push ourselves to respond to all issues ASAP.
• We aren't fully equipped to solve a lot of the issues our rotation gets. The oncall often has to rope in another team/oncall to fix the issue.

Given all the layoffs happening all over tech industry.

This Amazon expert thinks so:

Please assist with your advice.

I passed my E4 phone screen round at meta and my recruiter offered me to go through a separate PE interview loop because of my background as a site-reliability engineer (5 YoE). Has anyone ever done a PE interview, ie troubleshooting phone screen and then a more in-depth Linux specific systems interview? Any tips or advice would be super appreciated!

I recently got laid off working as a developer working within an agency. I currently have around 5 years of experience working in the agency setting utilizing React, Next js, Vue, Liquid, and the Shopify API to create custom eCommerce sites. During my time at these agencies, I also had the opportunity to act as a lead, interact with clients, set timelines, and cross collaborate with designers/projects managers to meet deadlines.

I have been looking for new opportunities since January and I've been able to secure a couple of interviews, technical challenges, and one onsite. Most of my interviews have been coming from agencies, but my preference is to join a tech startup or maybe more on the brand side of things within the Shopify niche. Below are a couple of questions:

1. Will working at another agency hurt my career in the long run? My ultimate end goal is to work for a bigger tech company if possible.
2. If an agency does want to hire me right now, should I take the job for now or just wait for one of my preferences?
3. I notice a lot of developers within the agency space freelance after their 9-5. Does studying for interviews or future jobs provide a higher ROI instead of freelancing?
4. Lastly, I just finished (super helpful!). It seems like the best course of action for me is to apply a lot, work on side projects instead of grinding leetcode, and study system design. Does this seem correct?

Thanks in advance!

I have previously worked as a software engineer at an company with a more traditional tech stack and working methods. Now, I am two months into my role as a mid-level engineer at my new company, where I develop microservices using a modern tech stack that supports hundreds of thousands of users.

However, I am finding that my personal progress is slower than desired. My performance in the technical interview was alright, and my EM expects me to gradually assume more senior responsibilities to assist our tech lead. Accordingly, I have been selecting tasks that demonstrate leadership qualities. At the same time I feel like I don't have time to plan meetings when I clearly lack expertise in our current tech stack.

To bridge the gap in my technical skills, I immerse myself in technology podcasts during my commute and workouts, making the most of my available time. In the evenings, I try to read blogs and work on side projects. Additionally, I rely extensively on Taro for learning the behavioral aspects of engineering. To make up for my slow pace, I ensure my PRs are thoroughly prepared, aiming to establish myself as a reliable engineer. Despite these efforts, I recognize the need to boost my productivity. What further steps can I take to thrive in my new role?

I want to ask a question that may sound controversial but I really want to know what the "Hiring Managers" look for in a resume to shortlist for telephonic round. After applying for jobs non-stop for 4 days and receiving the rejections from Big-Tech or Rising successful startups, I came to a conclusion that:

Entry level:
To get into FAANG & similar Big Tech as an entry level is possible only by the university name(Top 10 to 30 from US, IITs from India). I mean atleast they get the chance to shortlist their resumes. If your are not from atleast Top Tier1/2/3 universities, forget about any FAANG. The normal college students never even know of the existence of leetcode, let alone thinking about FAANG and applying for it. if you are one of those exceptional candidate who built an app or something that became famous or viral, you might get 1 or 2 chances at startups(In this AI era, I highly doubt it)

Mid/Senior level:
You should have FAANG or Well Known Big Tech company names on your resume from your past work experiences or you are out. One chance for others is that you might get InMails from BigTech while you are still working(The Company names on your resume doesn't matter here) and you should be well prepared and ready to crack them when such opportunity knocks your door. I highly doubt if there's any other possible way to turn their attention towards you. Especially if you are un-employed and there is a gap due to any reasons, your chances are next to none.

Conclusion:
Either study hard to get into the top most colleges or pay big bucks to get into Top Tier colleges(India) to get notified. Work hard in job + study, prepare and be ready, that someday an opportunity may knock on your door. Expecting a referral from LinkedIn won't work, I mean even I'd just ignore the messages from strangers on linkedin.

This is the analysis I sum up from my experience with job search. Thinking to quit the job and prepare for the BigTech is the worst idea your brain could ever give to you. No matter how motivated you are, you will lose it and there are distractions everywhere and most/all of them are free and they give a comfort that makes you forget your dreams/goals. The digital world is a big lie and it masks the reality by making you laugh and forget your real problems. Don't fall into this trap.

At the end you'd end up as me frustrated, knowing you have the capability to succeed but you failed, don't know how.

I joined Amazon for my first tech job as an SDE I and was able to promote to SDE II after 1 year. Fast forward to 9 months after promotion, My onboarding buddy who has been here ever since the team was founded is leaving. I ended up being the SME for one of the team's projects that makes a lot of $$$, which means a lot of eyes are on it. Although we do have a couple SDE IIIs on the team, they've been more focused on other equally important projects and don't have too much knowledge on this one. I'm starting to feel the weight of the extra responsibility as I often get pinged for escalations, have a lot more say in meetings, and invited to meetings for the roadmap of this project. There was also a recent reshuffle in the Product side and I've become their go-to guy for anything related to this project.

Having joined the industry less than 2 years ago, I kind of feel like things are really moving fast and I'm a bit overwhelmed to be honest. I was still thinking on how to increase my technical depth after promotion, and I'm not even sure if this is a good situation to be in or not. But at the same time, I do want to overcome this and perhaps turn this situation into a growth opportunity.

In my forte review, there were many comments on the expectation of me evolving into a mature leader for the team and this feels like an opportunity to work on that. I'm kind of confused on what direction to take at the moment. What would be some things I can do to make the most of this opportunity and grow my leadership skills? I feel like before all this happened, I was focusing on growing my technical skills and didn't really pay atttention much to the leadership side.

This might be a vague question, so I just wanted to see if anyone has been in this situation and have any advice on how to best navigate this or share similar experiences

Hello Community,

I hope you're all doing well. I'm reaching out to this community because I value the diverse experiences and perspectives we share, and I find myself in need of some advice.

Recently, I've been going through a challenging period due to some personal and family issues. Without going into too much detail, these challenges have started to impact my work performance and my ability to communicate effectively with my team, especially during on-call responsibilities. While I strive to maintain professionalism, I've noticed that my current situation has made it more difficult to manage my work communications as effectively as I would like.

I understand many of you have likely navigated similar waters and may have valuable insights or strategies that could help me improve my communication during this time. Specifically, I'm looking for advice on:

• Balancing Transparency and Professionalism: How much should I share about my personal situation with colleagues or management to explain my current performance without overstepping professional boundaries?
• Requesting Support or Adjustments at Work: What's the best way to ask for flexibility or support from my team or management, ensuring I can manage my responsibilities without compromising the team's objectives?
• Maintaining Productivity and Focus: Any tips for staying productive and maintaining focus on work tasks during personal turmoil?
• Self-Care Strategies: How can I ensure I'm taking care of my mental and emotional health, so I'm in the best position to perform my work and communicate effectively?

I'm committed to overcoming these challenges and continuing to contribute positively to my team. I would greatly appreciate any advice, tips, or resources you could share based on your own experiences or knowledge in this area.

Thank you so much for your time and for any guidance you can provide. This community has always been a source of inspiration and support, and I'm grateful to be a part of it.

I joined Meta and my team in July of last year. I got an MA for this half. I am happy I at least got that, but it looks like a lot of people got exceeds expectations. The thief is making me less happy, and slightly worried. Should I feel good about this?

On most projects that I worked it was enough to have a high-level of how the higher picture of the code works and for the most tasks it was enough to copy paste and adapt existing code and for debugging it was also enough to have grasp the high level image.

However, I worked only on maintenance projects, that weren't very innovative. In order to have the chance to work on a good project how well should I know the tech stack?

For example for the stack: java/spring/elasticsearch/kafka/AWS, should I know the newest annotations or how the framework works under the hood, and probably be able to extend the framework, how to debug machine on VM etc?

Is there any sort of metric with respect to how in depth you should know your tech stack? Because in order to write code in a tech stack you don't need a lot of time to learn if you know the basics, but to write state of the art code I feel like you need years.

I recently had an interview and before booking it, they emailed me a list of questions (including my major, university) and "current company and/or competing deadlines (dates/companies): ______"

I wasn't happy about this when I got the email and read I was never to reveal too much information. I felt cornered, pressured, and my family also really pressured me to interview with this company I know was for the wrong role (too junior, wrong focus area). I did it anyway and now I regret even taking the interview, it was actually a huge waste of my time.

What should you do if a recruiter emails this and says they require this (and a long list of other questions) within a 24 time period? Something I'm thinking about in the future if this happens again.

The recruiter was internal to the company and not 3rd party. By the way this was considered a "pre-screen" interview and normally I don't talk about other competing deadlines or offers until like the very LATE stages of interviewing (meaning you've already gone through like at least 3-6 rounds, not the pre-1st round which I found SO odd).

This is the list of questions I was sent:

"[ACTION] Complete this Questionnaire within 24 hours [copy & paste answers to the below in an email reply]

• current company and/or competing deadlines (dates/companies): ______
• motivators (when deciding on multiple offers, what is most important to you i.e. mission, culture, team selection, location, etc.): ______
• please note that all x y z city headcount has been filled. Rank remaining locations in order of preference * xyz, CA, x y z city, state): _____
• are you open/available to start on September 9, 2024: ______
• preferred name: ______
• pronouns (i.e. he/him, she/her, they/them, etc.): ______
• graduation date (month/year): ______
• degree (level & major): ______
• university: ______
• hobbies/anything else you’d like me to know (optional): ______

I'm working remote and I feel I may not be more visible in what I'm doing:

• Should I keep showcasing things I'm working on?
• How do I be more visible and noticeable so my team doesn't think what I'm doing all day? We have multiple group chats involving skip level bosses and global team in which I feel I should be more visible but don't know how to.

Please guide me.

Going into Q4 there seems to be a lack of projects allocated from planning to our team. I think this is related to our manager being on parental leave last quarter and not having an advocate at the higher level planning meetings.

My question is also around how to deal with a situation where projects are strictly determined from the top-down (aside from engineering/maintenance + backlog issues, which are less valued).

I've a Meta technical phone screen coming next week. I've a good grip on programming patterns but I've been dealing with toxic work culture and hence couldn't focus on preparation so much lately. Any valuable inputs on what should I focus on for the technical screen while I brush up on the patterns would be of great help. Thanks.

Hi Taro Community!

I am in a very similar position as mentioned by someone here: and from the responses it is evident that switching teams/companies will be an unavoidable step soon. I am currently at an entry-level position (will be completing 6 months at current company soon) and wish to look for roles at the next level of hierarchy (for instance my current role is equivalent to SDE 1, I wish to look for roles similar to SDE 2 or equivalent next). Few points:

• I am planning to complete 1 year at my current company, so by the time I switch I shall have ~1 yr of experience as an entry-level software engineer (apart from other experiences as internships/side projects/etc.)
• Firstly, is it realistic to prepare for mid-level at the current position? Do companies hire entry-level SWE's with at most 1 yr of experience for mid-level?
• If yes, is it advisable to apply now (or 6 months down the line)? I do not wish to work as an SDE-1 (entry-level) in another company by leaving my current one as it will only lead to further delays in promotions (I believe it takes at least a few months to set a good impression in a new team that you are capable for a promotion)
• How can I best utilize the next 6 months before I aggressively start applying to companies? I understood the point related to side projects - is it advisable to build side projects in the tech stack my team is using, or should I expand my scope to include new technologies I am interested (but not actively working on right now)?

Any insights/suggestions/interview tips will be really appreciated. I have very less workload right now and really want to make the best use of time to switch further.

Thank you!

One of my colleagues from university recently completed his final interview round with SDM & Senior SWE. It has been five business days since then, but he hasn't heard back about whether he was selected for the role. He mentioned that the interview was supposed to be with HackerRank but encountered issues, so they used Google Docs instead. He said the questions were exclusively on basic Java and little bit of algo. He completed all five questions, except for one where he didn't notice a bug in the line, and another where his syntax was incorrect, although his logic was sound. His recruiter has been consistently responsive, which I told him is a good sign. I want to know what is taking them so long, whether they are considering rejecting him because of his mistakes or if they are planning to give him an offer.

Hi,

I am a mid level engineer. Recently I was given a task which had a tight deadline. I started looking at the task and was stuck as the results from the code run were not as expected while testing. I was unfamiliar with this area of code so tried my best to understand the code and investigate the cause of unexpected result. I raised this with the team and also raised this as a blocker. I mentioned that I did not have confidence in going ahead with the task without understanding the cause of the unexpected results. My team was unhappy with this as the code has been working okay so far without any issues and the unexpected results were likely because of a gap in my understanding. The team assumed that I did not want to do the task whereas my hold up was not wanting to proceed without having a clear understanding of what's going on.

Should I have approached the situation differently? How to work with an unknown or hardly known area of code on a tight deadline?

I have had issues in the past with the team because of performance and other reasons. I have recently improved my performance but fear falling back to the old ways.

Thanks

I work mostly with other senior engineers and the tech lead in my team. I discuss any technical stuff, how to implement my projects, what to do next, etc. with them. With my manager, I meet once every two weeks and update what I am doing.

I actually now wonder what's really the role of an engineering manager as tech leads seem to do most of the work in managing the team. Is it to help with people conflicts, hiring, and performance reviews? That doesn't seem like a lot of work.