Advice from the Top 1% of Software Engineers

Join my free Software Developer community: www.skool.com/software-develo...
For business inquiries email [e-mail]
Advice from the Top 1% of Software Engineers.
Office gear: amzn.to/3dU8mZR
Discord: bit.ly/K2-discord
Socials
linktr.ee/kevinnaughtonjr
Business inquiries: [e-mail]

[@KevinNaughtonJr]

links: K2.codes/

[@himeshmaheshwari1823]

😏

[@oaoskey6051]

18 years and you can still feel the excitement radiating off of the last dude

[@uncomfortabletruths7990]

thats what im saying that dude found his dream job and it just happened to a half a mil year salary job

[@Vivi98104]

Google seems to be an ANTIAMERICAN company.Google need to stop bring foreigner workers from India and China and hire Americans or permanent residents

[@souvikmakur9695]

true

[@uncomfortabletruths7990]

@@Vivi98104 y would they stop? like wtf. Who r u to tell them that

[@tajko]

With a yearly wage of 400K I would be happy too every day.

[@aryub5851]

The last person would literally be the best to have as a work colleague. Wonderful man

[@adamfattal468]

He’s like the Master Oogway of google

[@rz9018]

Thats why he is there longterm, idiots... his soft skill is really good

[@basseygodwin7384]

Yeah

[@tipdub]

@@adamfattal468 lol!

[@DucNguyen-cq5iw]

XT's advice will change my software engineering career: "Most people can do that (become a software engineer) but NOT EVERYONE can become a good one. To be a good software engineer, the most important thing is that you try to understand things how it works, you really really try hard to understand HOW IT WORKS, MAKE IT WORK"

[@midnull6009]

it's like that with all careers

[@Neopitpit]

I see that everyday!

[@darkwoodmovies]

The last guy is one of those rare engineers that are just so chill but smart AF and can dream up solutions to problems other engineers can't even dream of. Funny enough, Google seems to be VERY good at hiring and retaining these types of people.

[@yoyo8293]

The difference in advice given by XT vs other engineers is very phenomenal

[@owenmurphy2022]

I echo this. Amazing the difference of wisdom from a 1-2 yr Googler vs. a 18 yr Googler.

[@Hacktheplanet_]

Yeah thanks for this comment. Not that im trying to join google but what he had to say was the most interesting id sya because of his experience

[@grandsonofstar]

i need to understand how things work to be a gd engineeer!

[@marcospark2803]

He's working there 18 years and they only 5 months, what do you expect....

[@rainlion0]

@@owenmurphy2022 and how much hair they still have...

[@SalihVeseli]

XT is one of those people that can break down any complex concept into plain English. I had a Chinese professor who explained things thoroughly in a such a simple way. It wouldn't get boring for 3 hours long. It would be great to work for people like XT, I feel like, although people like him will surely challenge you, but that's the only way to grow professionally.

[@surajbiswas7794]

absolutely right bro but in india the teachers are fucked up even in iits...

[@leonawroth2516]

That's famously the biggest sign that you actually understand what you're talking about, if you can break it down so well, that even a non developer can understand you.

[@BD-zg7is]

You nailed it Salih, I could listen to this guy talk about anything. Great comment and best of luck in your carreer going forward my friend.

[@gwho]

wtf is xt

[@collby2632]

I know a Chinese guy who can explain everything with a few words he only knows

[@blitzio]

Absolute respect for XT. Being valued and putting people in the right place. This is what all companies must realize fundamentally.

[@TheMastiffprince]

XT has been with Google almost 18 years and it seems like he has developed such wisdom in just telling how it is. It is not often when you talk to managers/software engineers that have been at a company that long so genuine and happy.

[@fdp6517]

I'm impressed by XT's passion in what he is doing after 18 years. I imagine most people after 18 years of working in one field would not share the same level of passion.

[@BD-zg7is]

It's only one guy, but it does seem like Google def uses their talented staff to their best abilities.

[@parkout95]

“When you have a job in what you are passionate about, you will never have to work a day in your life”

[@agnidas5816]

Hmm what a shitty attitude people have towards their lives. Doing something again and again means you have to hate it? I guess that is why people hate their wives/husband too ? Y'all dunno what to do without novelty hmm

[@mathewvanostin7118]

I dont think he is really that passionate. But he is aware his job is quite comfortable and very well paid compared to have to work 40 hours shift at mcdonald or factory for minimum wage

[@Feathertail2205]

@@mathewvanostin7118 Dude loves his job because he likes the work as a SOFTWARE ENGINEER. That IS passion. You can tell from his story of the most memorable moment in his career, cracking that bug problem from his first project in a eureka moment. Obviously he wouldn't be happy doing anything else.

[@life_today]

Best advise given by the guy who had 18 years tenure - Google is not the only good company, don’t define yourself based on your job… the earlier you learn this, the better for your well being

[@computer1889]

💯👌

[@BD-zg7is]

I chased big companies and titles for 11 years...my absolute fav time as a dev was with a startup. Everyone is different. Most corpo jobs pay well but suck.

[@paulogaspar8295]

based on most experiences i see this big tech companies are only good for curriculum and learning. People usually find jobs where you can have better work life balance and be paid more.

[@iorekby]

Also a flip side to this: Don't apply to Google just because you think we'll look good on your CV. Apply to Google because it aligns with what you want to do as an engineer and you think you can succeed there.

[@mcmerry2846]

I'm literally owner of Google

[@consuelogomez6458]

I adored XT!!! he is such an example of the spirit we should have when working for an amazing company! never stop learning and always try to understand how thing work!!

[@bhavyakathuria_sgtbkhalsa6321]

Love the work you've done. I'd love to see more content on google recruitments specifically for non-tech roles. Thanks.

[@heyrmi]

Last person, despite having so much exprience, is so much humble.

[@MuhammadUmar-dq3jf]

I fell in love with the last guy

[@brooklyndeco]

XT is worth 5+ million with just stock options. Humble and smart asf.

[@Mikeishere1234]

The way he talked, it’s like if they were friends. Such a nice guy.

[@jonbrockett1249]

The more you learn, the more you realize you don't know

[@bchero7328]

Sure

[@treyquattro]

XT's enthusiasm is infectious! Great advert for the company. They all were. Good job!

[@JoeCnNd]

The guy that's been there for 17 years, I love his story about the bug he had. It's the best feeling to troubleshoot a problem and figure it all out.

[@hw8533]

So glad I stumbled on this video as I was having a hard time securing an internship position. This kicked my motivation back up :)

[@user-kj2gf1cn1p]

man i gotta say i love how respectful and kind you are to everyone. i usually don’t enjoy these types of interviews but your attitude is refreshing to see brother! keep up the great content!

[@Vivi98104]

Google seems to be an ANTIAMERICAN company.Google need to stop bring foreigner workers from India and China and hire Americans or permanent residents

[@123456789santia]

Indians, asians, there's no africans, latinos and even white americans. That's just...

[@user-kj2gf1cn1p]

@@123456789santia bro go away with that bullshit lol.

[@BD-zg7is]

@@123456789santia did you watch the ppl walking by LOL. he randomly picked 5 ppl...out of 100k+ employees.

[@Xi_Jing_ping]

@@BD-zg7is randomly are u sure about that

[@natejames11]

XT is an absolute legend, you can tell how much he loves his job he's so passionate and he was actually extremely good at explaining that issue to where I felt like I could understand what he was saying even though I do not have any background with coding.

[@user-qt1bq5bw6i]

Xiangtian is such a sweet guy! 17 years and still so upbeat about his work. His advise is right. What do you want to do? Think how can you become better at it. If you do this, companies will come to you. If not google, then some other good company. Love what you do, grow and be where you are happy. Thank you for making and sharing this video.

[@Glori4n]

XT was the only important part of all those interviews. It really must be amazing to have a guy like him as a Project Manager/ Tech lead.

[@helloworld12494]

With 18 years of experience, XT can easily become a CTO in any company but he chose to stay in Google. That is dedication.

[@chriscarlin3972]

not everyone wants to be CTO, maybe XT's passion is in engineering or teaching and less management and business

[@BusinessGoat99]

@@chriszeng1488 for 17 years?!

[@bahubali-]

is it a complement or an insult

[@app11120]

that's just comfort

[@andherium]

Dedication to what? Let’s not act like he’s doing Google a favor by staying while he wants to be a CTO somewhere else. He likes it at Google and he gets paid handsomely.

[@TechnoTube001]

I could hear XT talk all day. To be able to express thoughts so succinctly, so honest.

[@eveningafterrain]

exactly he's so chill, his whole personality is so likeable

[@miaomiao07]

Agreed, natural and positive vibe

[@Scriabinfan593]

XT's a genius. I love the passion he has for his job.

[@kicknotes]

When you can remember the specific technical details of a project (or bug!) you worked on 17+ years ago, that's called passion. Knowing how things work (under the hood) is what separates average devs from good devs; passion is what separates good devs from great devs.

[@2bloodyfox]

True!

[@BRBallin1]

As an Amazonian, I would say that DO NOT expect to get an offer at a specific company. Just try your luck at all the nice companies out there and go to the one that lands. I got rejected by over 10 companies but they served as interview practice which helped me land the role at Amazon. Looking back, if all the companies that rejected had given me an offer, Amazon would've been the best option for me still.

[@aperkins07]

I had an offer with Amazon, but rejected. Offer just wasn't that strong

[@reign3864]

@@aperkins07 I guess not everyone is cut out to be a factory line worker

[@mrheylow7892]

@@reign3864 they could be talking about Amazon’s software engineering careers. Amazon isn’t just a warehouse job, they have one of the biggest cloud services in the world!!

[@_burd.]

@@mrheylow7892 Reign was joking btw

[@midgetsanchez]

I got an offer from Amazon but declined it, cause I actually got higher offers from startups. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@timothysands5537]

Watched about 30% in and then skipped to see XT's interview. Very good advice, and it applies to many industries, not only Software Engineering. Understanding the fundamentals and how things work behind the scenes, this will give you the ability to really problem solve, design, and troubleshoot your specific platform/product. An example would be when designing a house, you must understand not only the building materials, but also soil conditions and how soil behaves in that region from season to season. A more complicated example is understanding differential equations and inverse kinematics so well that you can write out at least the equations for operating a single joint robot by hand. Anything beyond that and I'm turning to Matlab. There will be upwards of 100+ variables with 4 joints if you include moments of inertia, accelerations per COM, centers of masses (COM), sensory feedback from things like rotary encoders, angular acceleration, limits on maximum angle per joint, etc. The point is, if you understood the physics & math behind that, you would be able to pull off things like Boston Robotics does. The dances are all just mathematics & coding when you break it down. One interview with a woman who programs some of the dancing talked about how you just play with the equations to get the movements you want.

[@obumjohnokafor6899]

Yes, that’s the best advice so far. Many people only know how to use things but don’t really understand how they work.

[@rayyanhussain6805]

This is such a motivation! Great video Kevin

[@vincebartle]

Besides being wholesome, XT explained that empty cache problem masterfully, what a cool guy

[@Makrealin]

I could watch the interview with XT for hours. On top of his personality he has a lot to share. Love that guy❤

[@workhardmillionsonwelfared1329]

Wow! I couldn’t have expected it be better! Thanks for making this video

[@Nam_David]

XT gave me the real and useful advices for me as a sophomore pursuing software engineer career, great talk and I did really appreciate this. Thanks from Vietnam.

[@InfoBuzz0830]

Wow that last guy was really humble and explained a lot from his experience. Thanks Kevin 😊👍

[@kalpakHere]

Great 2mins by XT. The sheer passion and enthusiasm says it all

[@tommacari4103]

I loved my time at Google, was really happy there. I agree with XT that it's more about who you work with and what you are working on that makes a role satisfying

[@user-td6fs1qi3g]

Love all the responses. Love the person who has completed 18 years. Totally. thank you!!

[@atwarwithlife]

you can understand why XT has been there for 18 years. he loves what he does. you can just feel it in his voice and expressions, and the advice.

[@rickyshinobi2303]

XT is good vibes! This is the type of person I would love to work with if I was at Google. Great personality. These are the folks that make awesome team members and coworkers.

[@randomytguy7315]

thank you so much for the subtitles, English is not my first language so it was a bit hard to understand what XT was saying but his advices are great!

[@myhandle321]

Awesome interview! I came back to this channel after many years and I found those interview leetcode playlists gone. :( Those were really very educative.

[@flossdaily9]

XT is very articulate, I'm not particularly interested in working for google or being a software engineer, but I enjoyed his insight

[@monaliza3334]

They only take Asian and Indian. 😆 🤣 😂...

[@burnaxel]

@@monaliza3334 they’re the most qualified

[@TheUnderratedOrange]

@@monaliza3334 Bringing race into things just shows how ignorant you truly are. It sets the bar for how intelligible people have to be with you in conversation.

[@franciscobecker159]

Thank you @Kevin, this is a really nice video. I am glad you chose this format. I must say XT needs his own channel, the man is very wise!

[@bhaskar4372]

Amazing work!

[@ronherrera2464]

He reminds me of a supervisor I had, my supervisor would never give up and find a solution for clients she will know a lot about the company since she is been there for 20 plus years but something I admired of her is that even when she knew a lot of operations of the company she was always open to learn from her subordinates.

[@tuyojr]

Love XT and his expressions. 😹😹👏🏽 Great advice too. Amazing video Kevin!!! 🤝🏽

[@codewizme]

XT is a Legend. Thank you Kevin for the awesome experience sharing.

[@user-mb5zh3zo5t]

Xiangtian is exactly like one of my favorite computer science professors. Also a Chinese(I'm Chinese myself), when talking about algorithms and some topic in cs, his face will always light up and have infinite words about them. Amazing. I hope I can be an engineer like them, being passionate about things I love all the time, and always inspirational to next generation.

[@ajaythombare6235]

I think XT gave the best advice & the wholesome moment is dude remembers first projects bugs

[@thiruvetti]

The Indian guys were straight to the point and gave most practical answers. But best was the experienced person at the end. Good advice.

[@Enisss]

brother there were 50 indians on the video, which indian are you talking about?

[@soothingrainshowers]

@@Enisss All of them

[@JL-ej3xu]

xt is chinese😅

[@BD-zg7is]

I always loved all my Indian coworkers and outsourced companies. They work they asses off and are super respectful. One company I worked for flew in the whole QA outsource team to San Jose and it was SOOO fun! Love those guys.

[@thiruvetti]

​@@BD-zg7is Wow nice.

[@TheKundan11]

That problem of different languages working only after second load and it's explanation by XT is amazing. Even with 18 years in Google and so down to earth.

[@karanbirsingh1775]

XT picked all eyes for sure great advice be yourself ❤

[@dariopacheco7196]

God dang it, XT was SOOO wise. Thank you so much for that little piece of advice

[@khafza-k3509]

last guy is so kind and generous 😊😊😊 and you also my friend who is patient listening to him 😅

[@NilesMac2]

I have never heard of someone passing any FAANG interview without getting the questions correct. When my friends and I went through the process, we passed every round until we did not solve a certain question optimally. I do not feel like the advice being given is genuine about you don't have to get the question correct. That or some people must get really lucky with their interviewer. My friend even solved every question correct and still got rejected. At least that is what he told me.

[@FiFiFilth]

1. Huge pool of candidates, of course it will be very hard to pass. You are in competition with the most talented software engineers in the world. 2. It might be more about explaining yourself than about solving. It shows there is room for growth. Being able to solve certain styles of questions isn't everything. 3. The Tech World is in a recession right now, lot of people in FAANG are being let go. Right now it might be the hardest time to get a job there in a long time.

[@utkua]

It is not result, it is thought process, in fact you nail the question in few seconds and fail to explain reasoning is kind of a red flag tells that you memorized the questions, studied without intuituon. So yes you can pass without the right answer, a genuine one mught even get you extra points if your logic is solid.

[@kcm624]

Re your friend solved every question correctly and still no offer - perhaps there were flags around communication like explaining their thought process and explaining trade-offs when coding. There is also the behavioural interview which is about things like resolving conflicts with colleagues in the past, and there might have been flags from that one, too. It's not just coding questions.

[@user-cj6jd3xx9l]

Exactly! They are right then..that you don't have to get every single problem answered correctly and you could still pass. Your friend answered every problem correctly but didn't pass.

[@computer1889]

@@user-cj6jd3xx9l Haha makes sense! 🤣👌

[@riggmundgames]

man the 18yr software engineer was precious, i've the same excitement when speaking of coding and i'm sure i'll have the same in 20yrs. I would have ask him what he thought about AI and their possible role in replacing developers.

[@karsultimatelifeform2620]

Great advice ❤

[@AliMalik-yt5ex]

XT sounds exactly like my machine learning professor! He is the professor with the highest funding in my university and his enthusiasm is fantastic.

[@matzacomn]

Wonder why

[@KevinHaris]

I love the video man .. please do more of these but from different companies including startups Also like the part where you ask them about the technologies to use I think thats very important especially for confused starters like me..Thanks man

[@lalodominguez7121]

"Just calm down" thanks for the mind blowing advice

[@sreeragmsudheesh]

XT made my day, what a fun and humble guy.

[@MRM-9]

XT stands out... he is definitely a great mentor for sure. Lucky engineers who work under him.

[@dharvikumra3760]

XT is very sweet! Thank you for valuable advice.

[@wendybanner6986]

I teach middle school CS. I will use this one for the start of my Advanced Game Design, (Pygame) class from now on. Thank You, Kevin

[@Agnostic080]

Kevin, you know what you gotta do next, a full review with XT!

[@matthewlim-dot-ml]

Yeah I want an xt podcast

[@matthewlim-dot-ml]

Where he talks about his life or career

[@lifetimestudent007]

Everyone can be a software engineer but not everyone can be a good one. How to become a good one? Try to understand deeply on how things work. Really Try! Thanks for the valuable advice XT!

[@souravkumarsamal6310]

I agree

[@adam7802]

As a still relative newbie I feel this. If you use things like Python and Javascript especially it is really easy to get by without knowing what is going on under the hood. Definitely are people who are happy to be like that. Personally I can't stand that, I am too curious lol

[@catify35]

@@adam7802 same to me now learning django and javascript (later maybe react) after i get a job i wanna learn c++ and pointers other stuff. i wanna learn a lot of things :D

[@adam7802]

@@catify35 I'm trying to learn coding on the gameboy for a deeper dive... Its interesting

[@AnimaxNeil]

@@catify35 that's great. I am doing the exact opposite, from c++ (well versed in pointer arithmetic) to JavaScript (dealing with promise chaining).

[@YouAreProbablyInsufferable]

Dude Ashatoth gives such sick answers and energy. Sounds like he really knows what he's doing and is really confident

[@jakewolf079]

People like XT is why I love programming, honestly we could all learn a bit from him. We should approach challenges with genuine passion and curiosity, and spend less time thinking about competition and our relationship with colleagues.

[@leopard5810]

true. and we should stop thinking so much about team culture, all hands meeting, communication, talking fake non sense showing you are a team person

[@Shannnnnnnnnnnnn]

⁠@@leopard5810Thank you. It’s actually killing productivity at a lot of companies I’d assume. Everyone should just do their role/part and let the work speak for itself and them.

[@kyokushinfighter78]

The last interview with Xiangtian was really insightful, this kind of guy has wisdom and knowledge we all can learn.. overall great interviews!

[@JasonGoodison]

Love this video! XT is incredible

[@eg4933]

the last guy is the truth. nuff said.

[@MrLoalex]

Absolutely respect the guy called XT; he is not just sharing how to join Google, but also share the insights on how to be a software engineer in a good manner. I really hope to have the chance to work with this amazing person someday.

[@segs3394]

I have watched XT's interview almost 10 times and I am not bored. He must be a sweet guy to work with.

[@andywang6928]

This video is taken in front of the MP1 building, which is one of the buildings I interned at Google this summer. I did not get an return offer after my internship and it breaks my heart. I have left the Bay Area for a while now and seeing this video really makes me miss the time I spent there. I thing I learnt from this is that just doing leetcode is not enough and I must practice on my CS skills. Hope I can come back one day! Thanks for your video ❤

[@thomastimas]

Mr wang, please work harder to get this opportunity.

[@atomicloop5382]

Imagine that guy worked for 18 years and got layed off with just a cold hearted email 😞

[@ibrahimawone8137]

Really cool! Thanks for the insights

[@DarkFlarePrince]

More interviews with XT please!!

[@zazkegirotron]

XT was so nice! Loved every interview. Thanks for sharing Kevin :)

[@anonimowelwiatko4455]

"You try to understand how something works then make it work" - sums it perfectly.

[@Foolsjoker]

Real advice: If you want to work in tech, rethink what boxes you check (this includes your name, if you think those survey questions are anonymous.)

[@cyberverz]

thanks alot for uploading this video, loved the answers from engineers and XT is great & cool guy

[@lil8579]

Awesome advice from XT

[@gloriyahboregah6384]

Amazing how 18 years ago google found such a gem of an employee. Passionate, enthusiastic, sociable, and clearly very bright

[@HaroonCodes]

*I am really happy to watch this video, especially the views of XT, XT is a senior engineer and he is so humble, I am so happy and i feel like I am at google now* 🚀🤗

[@siddheshswnt]

Last person’s worldview was amazing and so much to learn from. Thanks Kevin!

[@Nishinga.]

That last guy is such a bright light in this world, I wish more people were like him!!

[@superdude292]

I love guys like XT, they make the world run and they enjoy doing it

[@chris.w391]

8:58 is realy inspiring. thanks!

[@billalchami8638]

XT is an awesome man, so humble and passionate about his business, I wish I have him as my mentor

[@hanac5586]

Thanks for including different kinds of people, men, women, younger, older, seniors, juniors... love seeing the variety

[@MM-ow2md]

...and it was really great seeing no blacks

[@ryanm03]

I just wanna sit down and talk to XT all day what an amazing guy with amazing energy

[@u_ziben]

07:50 "I just look at the code just by staring stari sta sta sta sta" 😂. I love XT!

[@anything_I_want]

I don't know why, but I feel comfortable when smart people talk excitedly about their major. Thank you Xiangtian :))

[@sharvyahmed]

What a great guy XT is! 😁

[@svalyavasvalyava9867]

awesome video, thanks ☺️

[@Shivang-dm5rk]

bro XT is the most humble guy I have ever listened to

[@MrUnicornsinmycereal]

Would love to see this expanded in to different orgs like sales/marketing, HR, etc) I got in to SaaS sales after realizing programming wasnt for me long term. Still love it for small DIY projects but not as a job. Really want to transition into the recuriting/HR role but not sure how to set myself up well for those roles.

[@lololoololdudusoejdhdjswkk347]

Any luck? I’m thinking of not doing SE and SW and maybe looking for a different career path that I can utilize with the skills from a cs major. (Yeah I majored in cs, I’m weird 😅)

[@MrUnicornsinmycereal]

@@lololoololdudusoejdhdjswkk347 if ur working somewhere already simply talk to the people in the area you are looking at and get to know them/their day to day and when a role opens up snag it! if ur hunting, tailor your resume the best you can and be upfront in the interview something like yea I may not have experience on paper but I am very passionate about xyz yatta yatta

[@user-id8ng9eq9h]

‘ I found my place’…. Very wise words

[@blueballoon7832]

The enthu radiating the last interviewee is most genuine as it can be. I hope I can work at Google one day.

[@miaomiao07]

XT could be a lecturer. I like his views and the way he shares it in this interview. Haha