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

Hello Taro Community, I hope you are doing well.

I was hit by a lay off mid sept and I have been unable to land a job. I enrolled in Grad school since I have limited unemployment days because of my student visa. My degree starts Jan 2024.

During Grad School, I am only allowed part time work. I am still looking for part time work in the tech industry. And currently on 3 years of work experience.

I want to do things right this time when I graduate and go back into the job market again after Grad School.

An obvious mistake I made which was I didn’t have a clear direction of career in mind. I kinda wanted to have a tech job where I get to code, pretty vague and my applications were also shooting blind darts and seeing what sticks. I did land my first job quite fast after graduation from undergrad and got a new one a year after with a better pay and change of location which was my recent company I worked in for almost 2 years.

But these last 3 months were pretty brutal, I know the market wasn’t the best but I could’ve also been more prepared. I want to improve my odds for my next job hunt.

My goal after graduation: Front End Developer/ Full Stack Developer Position. Preferably in a non tech company example: Starbucks, Nike, H and M, Chase Bank etc.

and I set location and pay range goal too.

Question: From the seasoned in the industry here, what are some actions I can take on daily consistent basis during my Grad School to move closer to this goal and possibly achieve it when I graduate?

My plan:

• Keep revising the fundamentals of Front End and Back End to have strong grip on interviews.
• Personal Projects for a stronger portfolio

Open to any suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

Would you recommend getting a lawyer to review employment / confidentiality contracts? I’m not sure how common this is, and what to watch for.

I recently was fortunate to receive an offer from an early-stage startup, and I recently received an offer letter and a confidentiality agreement. I'm curious if I should get my employment contract reviewed, and how to go about doing that.

Thanks,
Mani

Hi all,

I was put on PIP today. The PIP period is from 01/2024 till end of 01/2024. He said unsatisfactory performance & had to do this to be fair to others in the team. I think I was being benchmarked against others who work on weekends as outlined in my previous question: .

Yesterday I asked my manager for a 1-week remote and 3 weeks PTO (the company has unlimited PTO) from end of January to 3rd week of February. Do you think this was one of the reasons leading to me being PIP during the month of January?

What should I do now? Should I strive to overcome the PIP or should I find a new job? Anyone successfully overcame the PIP? How do I balance PIP and finding new job?

For more information, my 1st-year stock won't be vested till 06/2024 (so 25% of my RSUs won't be vested till end of the 1st year working for them). I think I'm out looking for a new job, but don't want to lose the RSUs.

For the sake of extreme ownership what could I have done better? If you need more info from me I can definitely provide in the threads below.

Hi All,

Would love to get some advice on how to ask highly pointed questions during a 30 minute conversation with a hiring manager to get the maximum info out of him regarding the team culture and the product.

Regarding my preferences...

I would love to stick fully on the Backend stack. I have experience working with Python, NodeJS, Typescript and a bit of Java, I have experience working with Infra and databases as well. I get excited working with data at scale but do not have stellar industry experience with it such that I can start being impactful on day 1.

Since this will be my first time at a big tech, I want to optimize for a decent to moderate enough ramp up time, good wlb and not being super heavy with oncall at least for my first team.

Once I get used to the pace, I'll jump around to start optimizing for impact, visibility and scope.

Here is what I have in mind for my Hiring Manager meetings but feel free to add/subtract from this.

1. Basics, what is the product/org
2. What is the team size and team structure (how many E5s, E4s etc) and tech stack.
3. What is the code velocity like on average for an E5.
4. Give me a brief idea about what the first project you have in mind for me, if not tell me about a project an E5 is currently working on.

Hello everyone,

I am currently moving from one team to another. I had an external offer from TikTok but I decided not to take it because it wasn't the right position for me. I want to focus more on AI and Mobile Development which I will get to do on this new team at Microsoft. I tried to get Microsoft to match the offer from TikTok but they said that they won't do that for internal Transfers. My new hiring manager wanted to give me a promotion and match the offer but the leadership denied it.

My questions are:

1. What can I do once I join the team to expedite my promotion and try to get exceeds expectations?
2. Is there a way I can target an SSA(Special Stock Award)? I hear getting awarded SSA's are basically a black box. Wanted to see if Taro has any insights on this.
3. Are there any other things that I am not considering?

I know to refactor my commits only based on previous review comments. I code and test it thoroughly most of the time, but it's hard for me to identify places to refactor. How to get good at refactoring or even identifying places to refactor?

Hello everyone hope you are all doing well.

I got laid off from my Full Stack Developer position mid Sept. It’s Dec, and I’m at 1700 applications. I only got 1 interview early Oct, nothing after. I couldn’t get a call back from a few companies paying 15/hr.

Positions I’m applying to: Web Developer, Full stack developer, Front End Developer, UI/UX designer (occasionally), Software engineer.

What I have been doing this time

1. Setting a day every Thursday of the week to improve something in my resume
2. I’m a foreign student so I don’t have the luxury to wait out, or work any other job than tech so I’ve been working on a project alongside applications.
3. Finishing Meta’s full stack certificate on coursera so I can be prepped up with the basics
4. Collaboration posts contributions on LinkedIn
5. Walkins at recruiter agencies
6. Using referrals still no luck
7. Messaging hiring managers and recruiters - no luck or response on that end to
8. Going an extra mile with cover letters
9. Redid my LinkedIn

I’d be curious to hear your opinions on how I can break out of that cycle.

I’ll attach my resume below for your reference and feel free to point out everything that I can change.

Link to my resume:

Hello!

So, my job's getting outsourced this summer, and I'm deep into figuring out my game plan for interviews. I'm mostly a frontend engineer, working with Angular, SCSS, and ngRX for our app. I've dabbled in backend too, even went full-stack in my team, but my backend skills aren't great. My manager supports me marketing myself as a full stack person, but I'm wondering if going all-in on full stack jobs is worth the effort during the interview prep, especially since I'm not a big fan of backend work.

Then I wonder if the downside of applying for frontend jobs is that there are not that many and the barrier for frontend is lower (maybe because of coding bootcamps and it can be self-learned) so competition will be higher.

Now, I'm drowning in prep work - data structures, algorithms, frontend know-how, and system design. Recently got hit with a surprise system design coding round in an interview (an internal position I arrogantly thought I had in the bag) I thought was all about frontend and DSA. Did okay, but not stellar, and now I'm feeling unprepared for every interview. I feel crippled to even apply to positions. It's a bit of a mess.

So questions:

1. Any tips on tackling system design questions, especially the coding part? Most online resources seem to focus more on design rather than coding specifics.
2. How should I balance DSA, system design, frontend prep? What topics and how much time should I commit to each of them?
3. Also, am I on the right track leaning towards applying for just frontend roles?

Appreciate any & all feedback!!

Just joined a new team at Meta. Looking to level up to E5 which will require team influence and driving the team direction by creating projects. What is the best way to quickly learn and understand what the priorities are in the org? Once this is understood, what are some ways to influence the team?

I have recently started at a new company (full-time) but remain interested in continuing to apply as I am uncertain about how much I can grow here. It has been less than 2 months and I would like to ask the community if it is wise to add this new company on my résumé for new applications. I presume I will have to explain (loosely in the least) anyway to interviewers what I am doing currently... There is not anything ‘toxic’ I am experiencing in particular, just that I want to keep looking.

Has anyone been in this situation before? Regardless, I would love some advice and (various) perspectives on how one might go about this discreetly (or at all). Thank you all in advance!

Hi,

I recently joined Amazon as a boomerang after a few years here. I am on a newly-forming team that has a few SDEs without a SDM. I've been wanting to get into a SDM role and haven't seen a ton of opportunities internally for switching. I am aware of the differences between SDE and SDM since I've gone through the expectations for each role.

Here are some things I've done on helping grow teams:

• I have experience mentoring 3 junior engineers and helping them grow by taking on more initiative and becoming technically stronger.
• I have experience helping out a junior-heavy software engineering team that was also at it's early stages (I was the most experienced team member)
• I have experience cutting through ambiguity, tracking down the right people, setting up meetings and getting consensus

I just joined a few weeks ago, so I'm aware this is sudden. I'm not sure if an opportunity like this is going to happen anytime soon. I'd like to get others' perspectives if I brought this up to the interim Sr. SDM. Would it look bad if I asked to be my new team's SDM and what sort of consequences could result from this?

I joined company A in October (prior to which I did a contract job at company C for 1 month) but I already had an offer from company B which was delayed and joining was pushed to Dec. Now, I need to inform my manager at company A that I have to leave the company. It breaks my heart because all we have been doing so far is kind of training and stuff and no active work however, I do not like the kind of work I would be doing here as it is more like a Salesforce developer/ tester with the development outsourced and they are building a team to bring development inhouse. So even though the company is quite stable and has good benefits I have decided to leave it for a better paying role that I feel will satiate my career aspirations. Here are a few questions I am seeking answers for:

1. The company has a Winter break starting Dec 22 and my manager goes on leave from 20, when should I break this news to him? (In my last company I informed my employer with a two week notice and I was given the last date to be just a week later. I am a foreign student in USA who has just started working and utilized almost half the number of unemployment days I have for this year to be precise 2 July, 2024)
2. How should I tell him about this decision without burning the bridges. Honestly, I have this feeling that I am kind of cheating my employer so I am finding it difficult to justify it in front of my manager.

Thanks in advance!

Hi all,

I joined my current company (known in our industry for not-so-good WLB) 6 months ago as a Senior Software Engineer and have been doing side hustle in the evening and weekends over past 6 months beside my main job. This means I still completed the 9am to 6pm work schedule before doing my side hustle.

Now my manager is saying I have low bug fix count and my team consists of some weekends workaholics which I suspect I’m being benchmarked against. My upcoming performance review is due end of December 2023 (1 month away). The expectation for my level is ramping up in 3 months which means the last 3 months are no longer considered ramp-up period.

What should I do in this last 1 month leading to the performance review? Should I go all in on the weekends too or should I keep the pace I’m working (I’ve started working in the evening from 7PM to 10PM since receiving this feedback 2-3 weeks ago but on weekends I still hustle). Was I wrong in doing side gigs / projects while ramping up for my full time job and should have instead pushed weekends to ramp up? What could have I done better in the past 6 months and moving forward in 1 month ahead?

I know Rahul talked about doing side contract gigs and Alex talked about doing side projects while both are still at Meta (a very demanding big tech company). How did you guys handle the pressure and what are your schedules like? (Wake up @ 4AM, work on side hustle till 6-7AM, then go to sleep at night around 12AM LOL)? I'm curious about how people organize their side gigs schedule.

Thank you for your advices. I really appreciate it.

I am working at a 2 year old startup that has just launched its product a few months ago. The launch was considered a failure because the product has so many issues and customer complaints. Some customers even stated that they prefer the competitor product.

After being here for less than 6 months, I observed that the company has a culture of rushing everything with lack of planning and resources/manpower to execute their vision. None of the upper management has business experience in this exact product, they only have experience in tangentially related product. Also, prior to the formation of the current engineering team, the company hired an overseas vendor that overpromised a 6 months project that dragged out into 2 years. That is the main reason the current engineering team I am part of is built: to replace the vendors. The investors are known to be very profit-oriented right from the start, and they are also funding another startup that has the exact same product as my company, although this startup will not be launching anything until next year. The combination of inexperienced upper management and culture of rushing things lead to product failure. Thankfully, I think the atmosphere in the office is still pretty positive and laid-back. People are not pointing fingers and they still do their best to recover from their mistakes and prepare for future initiatives.

My manager has stated from the very first time I join the company that he prioritizes quality over speed, and given our previous product failure by the vendor, I agree that this is the solution. However, the Product Manager doesn't agree with this and he pushes us to prioritize speed over quality, even if that's the exact mindset that leads to our product failure. The rest of the upper management seems to adopt the same mindset of quick fixes and rushing, and the most alarming part is that we don't seem to have identified our core users, so I'm not sure if our previous launch has actually taught us anything. Also, I noticed that the Product Manager is lacking competencies in some key areas. I expect a PM to be someone who can not only have a vision on what the product would grow into, but also someone who can do analytics, business projections, and prioritize the most impactful projects for the team. In our daily interactions, he seems to be someone who just passes words from one person to another without doing any substantial management. This is slowly leading to resentment from my manager towards the PM because the team is slowly being overwhelmed with unimpactful tasks that hinder our future milestones.

My questions are:

1. Which direction should I follow? My manager's or the PM's (majority)?
2. Should I consider this a sign for me to look for new company? Or is this still normal and workable? If yes, what kind of role / actions should I take in this situation?
3. How should I convey this in my 1-1 to my manager?

I'm currently employed at a startup where we're building bookkeeping tools. My work mainly involves Python, some database work, and a lot of business logic wrangling. Due to the small size of our app and engineering org, I don't have many opportunities to gain the necessary experience in distributed systems. I'm seeking advice on how to transition to distributed systems. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

I have often observed that male colleagues become friends quicker over common interests. Men also don't joke as openly with us in fear of offending us in professional setting and humour is an important factor towards friendships. As a woman it takes me atleast an year longer to create a similar bond with a colleague.

I have often seen such friendships creating a major impact on career. There were two instances where two my colleagues paired up and took major initiatives and brought great ideas. Whatever knowledge one had, he would share it with the other. In both these instances, these dynamic-duo pairs had a faster than usual promotion.

It could be a cultural thing, but I wanted to hear from other women in this community if you ever felt like you were missing out. If yes, how did you navigate through it?

Hi all, I need an advice on quite a random thing. I recently changed teams at Amazon. Since I shared a close bond with my previous team members, I continue to hang out with them sometimes and my ex-manager is quite aware of it. (He was new, and has worked with the team for less than an year)

Is it fine if I continue engaging with old friends, or does it make me look bad from professional aspect?

I'm in the process of transferring teams right now.

What topics should I discuss with my new manager in our first 2-4 1-on-1s?

Topics that come to my mind:

• Working styles
• Strengths, weaknesses, interests
• Career goals
• Onboarding expectations (30/60/90 days)
• The team's mission / goals / KPIs
• Things on the manager's top of mind
• People to meet with / get to know

Hello everyone,

Excited to be a part of the community. I have been out of the work force for a while and have worked on different projects for my own consulting company for a while. I was wondering if I could get my resume critiqued by someone with experience and get some feedback?

All the best,

Rob

I know there are a lot going on approaching the end of year in the company/team for everyone, across different levels people are busy with retrospection and planning for next year. For year-end check-in with my manager, I plan to talk about performance as usual, discuss the promotion timeline/expectations, possibly ask about the bonus I should expect to receive? I am hesitating about asking questions on Bonus which should have settled based on my performance in the past year, is it meaningful to mention Bonus in our conversation, or just show your interest in how to perform better rather than how much bonus you are getting this year and how much more you expect to get.

Besides above topics, what else should we cover in Year-End Conversations? Or probably with whom should we have conversations except our managers, so that we can have better understanding on what we did really well or needs improvements on, and lay out action plans for next year? Thank you!

Hey, currently looking through Google's careers site, seems like the only realistic SWE EU option is Warsaw, Poland, Google Cloud Software Engineer . There is a posting for SWE III and Senior SWE, other than that it's the same department, place, requirements.

If I apply for both the middle & senior positions, it seems logical for a company to only review me for one of them - if I pass for senior, but I'm willing to get paid as Middle, the clear option is to down-level me; and I only have 3 applications/month, so just wasting one of them on the 'same' job posting reduces my chances of getting an interview this month.

On the other hand, maybe it works as a 'boost' for my chances to even get noticed for a position of Warsaw Cloud SWE, as I have 3 applications/month I can make, and I spend 2 on it?

I'm thinking there are a few options:

1. Get a role on an AI project/team (internal transfer), learn AI specific engineering expertise on the job (not research)
2. Do part-time masters, land a role in AI research
3. Self-learn, land a role in AI research

I have been working on writing a case for my promotion and one of the biggest challenge that I face is bragging about my own achievements. I took the advice from Rahul's other post and started keeping a daily todo/brag doc. Its a bullet point list of things that I do on the daily basis and has been helpful.

But when it comes to creating a full blown promo case, I feel there is a need to focus on the impact and actions in a more verbose way and I really struggling with that. Maybe I need to learn more documenting skills.

Any suggestions or even resources I can refer to improve my writing skills would be appreciated.

This question always stresses me because I'm a backend Python developer and the stuff I could learn is a lot that I end up studying/practicing nothing.

I use in my day to day: Python, Flask Docker, and Oracle. I don't know what else I could study or if I need to get better at these technologies.