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

Anyone have tips for how to stay motivated to study and grind when facing rejections? I am successfully getting interviews, but moving forward in the process seems difficult. How do I stay motivated when facing the uncertainty?

I was recently asked to design an autocomplete system. I suggested a solution where results by prefix are physically cached to a CDN. I was told that this solution isn't optimal because it represents an inefficient storage approach. I'm trying to understand an optimal solution.

Some alternatives I can think of:

1. S3 - better storage cost, too slow
2. Redis - about as fast, but more expensive
3. Dynamo - about as fast, I don't know how it compares on cost

I think the main two cost components will be storage and read cost. I'm having trouble finding useful comparative data on these. Is it commonly understood/thought that Dynamo is cheaper than a CDN at scale, or is there some other design I'm not thinking of?

Hi

I work in big tech ML org, there are just too many layers and I only end up know things on a high level (product hybrid archetype) but lacking deep technical skills in core ML areas.
Would picking a opensource project to learn deeper technical skills help in interviews ? or Just moving to core area team is better even when sub-org changes and is kind of promo timeline reset.

I’m currently working on developing technical proposals that need to resonate with cost-conscious leadership. Leadership often prioritizes lower costs and tangible ROI, so I want to ensure my proposals highlight these aspects effectively. I have a number of questions so answering any one of these is greatly appreciated.

My Questions:

1. Quantifiable Metrics: What are some quantifiable metrics that engineers can use to demonstrate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of their technical proposals?
2. Measuring Bug Prevention: How can I effectively quantify the cost savings from preventing high-priority bugs? Are there standard methods or tools to estimate the potential impact of these bugs if they were not addressed?
3. Calculating Time Savings: What approaches can I use to measure and present reductions in coding and discovery time? Any suggestions on metrics or tools that can help quantify these time savings in terms of cost?
4. Scaling and Future-Proofing: How can I illustrate the cost benefits of implementing scalable solutions that accommodate future changes without additional coding? Are there ways to forecast and present these long-term savings?
5. Tools and Frameworks: Are there recommended tools, methodologies, or frameworks that assist in gathering and presenting these metrics effectively to a cost-focused audience?

If there are any courses, workshops, or online resources that delve into this topic, I’d appreciate the recommendations. (Obviously any Taro recommended courses are appreciated!)

I’m also interested in hearing about real-world examples or case studies where technical proposals successfully addressed cost concerns.

As I work remotely from UK, I have some co workers in US who are in some meeting room discussing things together. I feel it’s difficult for me to contribute from Zoom. What can I do better to get more involved?

Aside from LC questions, what do interviews for senior mobile roles (L5 equivalent), specifically iOS Engineering, look like at FAANG-like companies? If they are system design heavy, are there resources for mobile specific system design questions, since most of content out there is geared towards web system design?

How can I best prepare for these interviews?

Thanks!

Need some help with Solution Architect/Principal Engineer roles interview mock ups. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

From my observations, only my experience at big or well known companies have been valued when i am interviewing. It doesn't matter if i have done more impactful projects in smaller companies, nobody wants to hear about it. I am trying to decide between joining a big company versus a high growth startup and i am a mid-career professional. I feel like i don't want to take risks with startups anymore since that might hinder my hire-ability in the job market after the stints. But i like the speed of growth at startups.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

I'm deciding between two companies, ie think FAANG and a pre-IPO startup.

The big difference is that

FAANG

• mid level engineering role
• work on high scalability systems in a cloud infrastructure division

Pre-IPO startup

• Senior full stack engineering role
• Work on building new products/features from scratch and continuing to evolve them

The Pre-IPO startup pay is certainly higher, and I think the company's prospects for earnings are higher. However, the FAANG role offers work on highly scalable systems, which I don't quite have much experience on. I'm a product engineering/full stack role.

I worry about there's not that many product engineering/full stack roles across FAANGs and for future job security, it might be worth building up the skillset for highly scalable systems?

The leads/execs in my org want me to lead a new project, and I want to make sure I have all the information I need to make the proper decision. I have some concern as my plate is currently pretty full with projects already, so I'm wondering what questions I can ask to see if the project is or isn't a good fit for me.

I am struggling to shift some behavior that is getting in the way of my own career growth and I am hoping to get some insight from others.

My previous manager was a micro-manager and to satisfy him, I ensured that I focussed solely on a few projects a majority of the time. However, my current manager wants to give me room to be as independent as I'd like to be. This means that I now have room to influence and help others, which is fundamental for growth. But now, because I don't have someone asking me for details of how I spend every moment of my time, I question whether any task I do is the highest priority task I should be doing, which takes the joy out of helping/mentoring others, because I know that time can be spent focusing on my own deliverables. This second-guessing is causing a great deal of mental load for me. I also feel like if I ask my manager too often whether I am prioritizing correctly, he might feel like I am not behaving like a senior engineer. Any thoughts on how I can get out of my own way here?

Hi all! I have an upcoming Apple interview round, for which I have been asked to interview in C language. I have been working in C at work, so I wouldn’t mind. But there are some questions which require DS which I am comfortable with in Java but not in C[Example: Hashsets] .

Did anyone have any similar experiences?

Are there any predictions of how long we will have to ride this terrible economy in the tech world out?

I'm optimizing for compensation over the next 3-5 years.

What makes the most sense to target next?

Context:

Currently a senior software engineer at Big Tech in the US.

I took the system design interview course with the founder of Exponent, while most of it had good examples, I couldn't disagree more when we talk about AI/ML engineering where we actually do talk about Kafka and sharding (in detail). Will there be other courses at Taro that help prepare engineers with this background for interviews? I feel the traditional DSA doesn't get asked for data scientists/analysts/ML engineers the same way for system design (note how Alex Xu had two different products for ByteByteGo). While I super appreciate the attention to detail for general / 'full stack' and software engineering DSA prep and system design, when I feel I interview for other roles related to AI they don't ask that kind of stuff as much?

Right now, I’m the only fully dedicated Android engineer in my company. My career goal is to lead a group of engineers, teaching them how to code and helping out with their problems in general. How can I shape my career to achieve this vision?

As a software engineer with 5 years of varied experience, now in a tech lead role at a large company focused on business-oriented full-stack/fintech projects, how can I effectively pivot my career towards more technical domains, such as database engineering or developer tooling?

Should I transition to a different department? Different company?

What strategies can I use to develop domain-specific skills (e.g., compilers) that aren't directly related to my current job responsibilities?

Context:

I've bounced around a bit over the past 5 years of my career, and I'm in my first big tech role as a tech lead.

I've had to step up and laser focus my time and energy due to the demands of this job, needing to learn a lot about the business needs to deliver impact in my role.

I realize that my past roles I never really picked up how much the business domain and project domain should have mattered to me, because now I feel l'm working on the "wrong" domain and types of problems that inherently interest me.

With tech market at a low, is it a good time to invest in stocks? If yes, what is the best way to get started for a newbie in stock investing?

Having just started my first stint as a senior software engineer (a terminal level at my company), I'm curious to know what I can do to effectively transition into an EM role. How much planning / direction setting does this require with my manager?

Context:

• I'm open to moving along the IC ladder into a staff role, but an EM role might expand other skillsets I'm interested in building.
• I haven't spent much time as a tech lead (~6 months at a startup) and I'm still very new to my current role.

I’ve recently been reflecting on the role of a high-impact individual contributor (IC) and realized there’s a significant gap between what’s expected and what my past performance has delivered. I’m eager to bridge this gap and would love to hear from others who have successfully made this transition.

Specifically, I’m looking for advice on:

• What specific skills should I focus on mastering to increase my impact?
• How can I get involved in or initiate projects that are high-visibility and directly impactful?
• What strategies work best to ensure your contributions are noticed by leadership?
• How do you cultivate a leadership mindset as an IC, even without a formal leadership role?

Any insights, experiences, or resources would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

I'm looking for ideas to improve the retro process. In general, our team does what went well, what didn't and kudos. There are a few action items that come out but those go into the void despite being tracked. What are some of the ways to improve the process and make sure feedback/action items is actually addressed? Thank you!

Hi folks,

I am working on revamping my resume after going through . It was a beneficial course and I believe I can convert my 2-page resume to 1.

For reference: I have nearly 9 years of experience in this industry, worked across two different startup companies.

Company 1:

2015-2018 --> Software Engineer

2018-2019 --> Senior Software Engineer

Company 2:

2019 - 2021 --> SE II

2021 --> Present --> Senior Software Engineer.

If you look through my resume I am kinda at a Senior level for a while :(

I know some recruiters do understand that levels at startup/big-tech companies are considered different. Some may think that this person has been at the same position for a while,etc.

Question for folks:

1. Can I group my experience with 2015-2019 at Company 1 with resume title as SSE
2. 2019-Present at Company 2 with resume title as SSE?
3. Or I can just skip the title and say, Software engineer?
4. I would like to make sure that it doesn't come off as that I am lying on my resume with my title.

I am asking these questions mainly because I would like to fit all the content of my resume on one page.

I am trying to change my job to a midlevel-senior engineer position and not wait for promotion (which is hard to come by, in my case) and grow in my career, compensation and find a better environment with a better work life balance. My ethics play an important role in my life. In the past month, I have gotten 3 offers- 2 from start ups and 1 from a big tech acquired startup. I rejected all the three. The startups because i felt the chaotic and high stress environment might not be good for my mental health. And the big tech startup one which paid the best and had a great work life balance, with a great environment- everything i could ask for, but it was in the business of something i do not condone due to my value system. Hence i felt conflicted with many second thoughts, hence i rejected. Now, I have 2 upcoming interviews with big tech companies which are famous for having difficult work life balance. But i am determined, if i get any of them, I will accept. I am also open to midsized who will sponsor my visa, but those kinds are hard to convince for the visa. I have 5 months after which i will be financially and reputation-wise desperate to have a job. The problem is that i feel terrible for rejecting the offers. I feel i have taken a big risk. People tell me i should have accepted the best offer but all of them mostly came with a monetary commitment to join and work for at least a year due to high visa fees. So i could not just accept and take the next best opportunity. How do i work with this situation emotionally and strategically?
Context-
SDE1 at Amazon (on focus which i am failing purposely since i don't want to continue there)
Trying to change countries. Offers from the country i want to move to.

There are a lot of different side projects, from open source tools to end user apps.

For this question, I would like to know your experience creating and promoting open source projects.

What I think makes sense is:

• You should solve a pain point or problem.
• For nature, mostly of the target users are software engineers.
• You should make it easy to use.
• There should be a decent documentation.

In my case, I created , it's a Next.js boilerplate that helps the developers to start a SaaS web application faster.

I would like to help more developers to get their side projects faster, tho I advise to build your own solution from scratch IF you want to experiment the learning experience completely.

What do you think?

(I'm open to feedback for my open source project, too).