11 Essentials For New Software Engineers (From A Principal Engineer)

[@ALifeEngineered]

🎉 Sign up to get 20% off a year of Brilliant Premium → brilliant.org/alifeengineered NEWSLETTER - Sign up to my free newsletter: newsletter.alifeengineered.com/general DISCORD - Continue the conversation on my Discord server. The advice section is *chef's kiss* - discord.gg/HFVMbQgRJJ PATREON - www.patreon.com/ALifeEngineered My content will always be free of charge but if you'd like to support the channel, I'd be honored if you supported me on Patreon.

[@anarchoyeasty3908]

Hey Meta, just a heads up. Your link to Designing Data Intensive Applications is broken. You accidentally missed a space between DataIntensive and the word Currently.

[@meNoBatman]

"Comparison is the thief of joy" .... thank you so much for talking about this. We tend to forget these simple mindsets while living a hectic day.

[@exzaf]

I'm 8 months in at AWS, as a new grad, and your advice is so great. I was lucky enough to get a cool team and a manager that loves questions

[@SL-uy8xx]

Low tenure may be an indicator of an unhealthy team, but I think it can be the same for high tenure. I joined a team with manager and ICs of 10y tenure and they are dinosaurs completely stuck in their routines and old reflexes, and so anchored that you can't make them deviate from their confirmation bias towards any change

[@captainchau55]

Thanks a ton for the answer! You really are right about time being an important factor lol. I spent a while trying to understand the codebase since the time I wrote that question but with your feedback I'll try to also take the design decisions into account as well. Thanks again!

[@crazytrashman123]

Damn! Those 25 seconds hit me like a rock! Completely what I’m going through right now.

[@LukeAvedon]

LOL all of those fear thoughts in the first 25 seconds are 100% accurate.

[@new_skyspirit]

Bruh! Felt like he was looking in my soul 😰

[@mingtianfangjiala4292]

still learning how to program, but so glad I see your videos so I can start to prepare my mind from now.

[@sarscov9854]

Damn. I wish I knew about your channel 3 years ago. I'm going on 3 years with my team. These are all the questions I had at the time.

[@Yang5st3R]

Thank you Meta! Your content is helpful and your perspective is spot on.

[@caseybackes]

I don’t have a question but I’m glad you’ve come to YT

[@nameuser5244]

I wish I have watched this when I started my career, thank you Steve

[@Sakura-zu4rz]

I love the kind and generous heartwarming atmosphere that you create, your kind, easygoing, warm vibe. ❤I like the essence how you live on. I need to be true to myself and find a job I am passionate about. I want to find a way to live as who I really am.

[@cleecoloma]

Thank you for sharing your advice. Great info for aspiring developer like me.

[@rutabega306]

Just ordered a metallic jacket to prepare for my transition to senior engineer!

[@edanparker9273]

The best to do it. Thanks Steve

[@caracallaavg]

Rocking the "Legend" look in my next interview

[@iamverybigsad]

lmao

[@aldrinseanpereira140]

what steps can we take to make better career decisions as an intern or entry level SWE?

[@KyranFindlater]

The worst thing you can do as a new guy in a company or in your career is not ask enough questions. Always ask questions, even if they may be a little dumb. I have mentored quite a few new programmers now, and I'm always disappointed to review their work and find they made way too many assumptions and didn't ask questions (and perhaps their inputs were not clear; which is the perfect excuse to sit down and ask questions to clarify and get alignment). I would rather someone ask questions and produce good results than to not ask questions and make garbage that can't be integrated or missed the mark on expectations

[@reyza1899]

great stuff, thanks

[@Keggplant]

Thank you!

[@dennis567]

Hey 👋 You should make a video on how to improve emotional intelligence.

[@leeyoung]

You are a hero to many.

[@carbon-structure]

Something I always point jnr devs and mentees to, is "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" by Eric Raymond and Rick Moen. It's served me well and I wish more devs would internalize this basic common sense. When people are getting paid so much, consider their time worth more than yours.

[@dbesttech]

Thanks a lot !

[@asdf8asdf8asdf8asdf]

Stocks down, Smile cancelled, HQ 2 delayed, stock compensation plan shrinks, more layoffs to come.. ramping up internal layoffs/PIPs... ...love the product, love technology, best cloud vendor on Planet... but it would be good to have an episode on inside "real talk"

[@mnchester]

Thanks for video! What advice do you have for onboarding as a senior software engineer vs a junior engineer? What are things you should do differently and the different expectations?

[@emresafacelik5016]

Descript is such a good tool

[@lifebyvikk6751]

New sub and and greatfull you made this video

[@palaaaurinkoon]

Maybe if grinding leetcode questions doesn't actually apply to the job, it shouldn't be used as a metric.

[@chrisle1527]

I see that turntable setup behind you. As a 12 year club dj veteran that just made a career change into web dev, are there any comparisons you could draw into developing my career as a developer that could relate to DJing?

[@cpandit803]

I usually record the meetings when I am new

[@bobobink7971]

How to effectively self advocate yourself for a promotion when you know you have outgrown everyone else at your current level ?

[@ppppp524]

Apply for another job and get an offer for more money, and use that as leverage. Either way, you move up. Also keep track of the stuff you do. Another vid on this channel suggested keeping a brag journal where you keep track of major accomplishments so you can list them on future resumes or review documents.

[@xordux7]

​​@@ppppp524 😂 yeah! That's 1 way to do it. But there must be some other way too without threatening your manager. Brag journal is good 👍 can definitely use it when appraisal cycle discussions happen.

[@greenlantern7959]

Leave. A manager worth keeping will recognize that you’re killing it and be busting their ass to make sure you don’t leave.

[@Daniel4510]

In a one on one with your manager ask for feedback on your strengths and growth areas then pay attention to what they say. Optionally is to ask the same thing of people you trust on the team.

[@rafasch]

Love your concept of running your own race.

[@witchedwiz]

Honest question.. I've had my fine string on success as a lead (tech lead) in consultancy for large projects.. I was going to run the leet code threadmill for a maang pivot (well i rate myself quite high in system design, but Algo&ds is something too detached from my daily routine, so i do need to run on that threadmill).. Would you still recommend it as a palatable choice, or it would be better to crush on the consultancy side? I'm ambivalent on this, though i prefer coding&&doing architectures i fear that with chatgpt this career might see some hitch in 10 years time.. Advices?

[@Cironus]

I wish I had this video before I started my first SWE internship at a tech company. Even though I was an intern, my manager had really high expectations. I couldn't ask as many questions as I wanted to after the first four weeks because apparently I had enough time to get to know everything. How do you deal with a manager that has these high expectations for an entry level or junior engineer? I worked many weekends and had long days to try and learn things to seem more independent, and even then, I didn't get an offer. I was even called a bad engineer at my last performance review just before being denied an offer. What suggestions do you have to deal with this type of negativity, especially encountering it so early on in my career?

[@erikyoung5139]

Sounds like you got unlucky with that internship. Many places would love to have you.

[@cjhIRL]

Love it.

[@SleepyLink1]

I think the problem I run into a lot is the lack of explanation, and it turns into me being annoying. I should wear a sign that says explain to me like you're writing low level code. I may be slightly on the spectrum because if you tell me something like "close this" while I'm in the IDE I'll either close the file or the IDE itself. Please be specific when explaining things to people. It may also be because I've been a long term tutor, I can usually anticipate questions people will have and I like to explain things in depth to ensure understanding

[@3WR6f3]

What are your thoughts on AI and future swe jobs?

[@joshyboyrules]

I thought patreon was there so that you wouldn't need to have sponsors on your videos 🤔, curious as to what changed?

[@johnboy6799]

What are your thoughts on ChatGPT?

[@andrewpagan]

2:00 - It's a triple "Huynh" situation.

[@christiansnaturestudio6599]

Maybe I'm too annoying for careers in general. I'm a college student and I suck at being an adult

[@federicobalboa9145]

"I can't get fired" just a classic thought.

[@xbmcme9768]

"Oh, and I'm a L7 engineer" straight up flex 😂.

[@mitsuhafan1543]

Hey Steve, do you do any form of skin care?

[@theastuteangler]

based

[@mangos1346]

As a senior eng, I've had some interviews with some companies which are not impressed by me saying "I don't spoonfeed junior engs". To me an engineer needs to learn to solve the issue on their own. Somehow some companies don't do that way.

[@ethanyoung8971]

FYI apps like Turo decrease the car renting age

[@jc6800]

Me: Old AF junior 💅🏼👵🏼👩🏻‍💻👩🏻‍🎓

[@christiansnaturestudio6599]

Maybe software engineering ain't me for me.

[@brendanjones8171]

Great video! One thing I noticed was sometimes you’d use “new guy”, “big boy pants” or assuming a manager is a “he”. Totally guilty of this myself, but using more inclusive language might help open the door to a more broad audience

[@SarahLucie]

“To help you transition from being the scared new guy..” or woman :)

[@natnatwisdom]

Some viewers are so rude

[@ahmedmobark9680]

"I'm an L7 Principal Engineer" - what is the value from mentioning "L7" given the audience are not Amazon employees :D

[@skyhappy]

Why do you take sponsorships if you make 500k+ yearly and probably have hundreds of thousands of dollars in investments? It seems that money is your last concern so why bother with sponsorships?

[@stkbloc9717]

Why does it matter? That’s why I don’t see the point in people posting their salaries just for people like you to criticize for no reason.

[@RM-xr8lq]

more money = good

[@MarkBubel]

Thanks!