3 High-Leverage Career Skills (From a Principal At Amazon)

[@ALifeEngineered]

If you guys have other high-leverage skills I'd love it if you shared in the comment section.

[@fordneild2372]

I think some developer experience can be really high leverage, such as improving CICD build times. Not to mention, EMs understand the pain of slow builds more than they understand the pains of some customers

[@hanshoerni4661]

I'm new to your channel and I love the pragmatism of your content. Some female representation in your videos (e.g., in the stock video filler material) would be rad though. 🤍

[@ZacharyFleischman]

Creating a Time Budget, where you are deciding ahead of time what classes of work you are doing and when you are doing it can ensure you spend the correct proportion of time working on your high-leverage tasks. For example, I know I can spend 2h15m of focused time before I need a full 90 minutes of time to decompress, so I block out one chunk before lunch, and the other chunk before the end of my day, and that’s where I spend my time distraction free working on the priority of the day. I also have blocks scheduled for code review, for breaks, and for processing and scheduling out random less important tasks. Being diligent about keeping to my time budget helps me discriminate when to say no to things, and allows me to train my team when my typical availability is, and when they know I’ll be heads down.

[@boooooooky]

@@hanshoerni4661 He isn't making any kinds of statements with his stock video fillers. Why bring up the topic of representation? Meta, this is fine. These are technical videos, not political, just focus on the content and don't spend extra time on searching through stock videos..

[@DanDascalescu-dandv]

Growing others.

[@AccordingtoWarren]

1. Document your accomplishments and impacts 2. Get good at interviewing 3. Learn when to say no

[@shpluk]

There you go, 13 minutes in 3 bullet points 👍

[@sayilu]

Promo, get out, I’m done

[@JeffHarrison1960]

I have to improve my muscle at saying no. 😮

[@JeffHarrison1960]

I have to improve my muscle at saying no. 😮

[@holdir]

It's not about when to say 'no' but more about when to say 'yes'

[@gamingbud926]

The brag document is a tremendously good idea. I don't quite have that, but I have taken snapshots of features I've made and put them in a file when I'm especially proud of them. However, having a consistent written document--one place to go when you need it or just want to look it up for old time's sake--is very wise.

[@oldman1111]

In the military, we call it the love me book

[@25566]

I have all my notes exported regularly so I can later build a brag document

[@tbcfrankee]

One of the best ways to improve at interviewing I've found is being a tutor. The subject that you tutor doesn't really matter. I find that working with a student one-on-one and having a one-on-one interview feel mostly the same. The interviewer (student) asks you a question, or gives you a topic to discuss, and you have to explain a concept clearly while observing whether the interviewer (student) is following. You ask the interviewer (student) clarification questions and work together on difficult problems. So in my opinion, being a teacher or educator (such as making a KZbin channel where you talk about concepts) is one of the best ways to get "real-world" communication experience in a different setting.

[@Camaral24]

Just wanted to say as someone who is not a software developer and has no intention of becoming one- your channel is amazing. Love the thoughtfulness and humor. Your content is applicable to more people than you might realize!

[@deathbombs]

Interview prep for good listening and reading body language, AND also the path to doing well, and what to avoid actively

[@kmunson007]

Extraordinary video!! I have a new favorite quote of all time (at 12:15): "Your undivided attention is the most precious currency in the universe" Truer words were never spoken.

[@BentleyPascoe]

I've been deep diving a bunch of your videos, this might be the most applicable to my field (QA) and my quest at Amazon. The power of saying no is often something QAEs don't do well and a brag document is perfect for my personal quest to drive the quality bar. Thank you Steve!

[@progpogs]

"Because most work is undifferentiated and unimpactful". Agreed, the vast majority of the work, even at FAANG companies, is this way. The thing I struggle with is that *someone* has to do it eventually or it becomes an issue, no manager is asking you do to something that completely doesn't matter. People get caught in traps doing this work, while others will throw anything under the bus for their promotion project, very few people have a healthy balance on this stance. Eventually it feels more like a game than a business; your advice about keeping your document is something I've learned along the way too, but this work theater is so dystopian.

[@SuboptimalEng]

10:43 This guy is a principal level engineer and a principal level husband 😅

[@rishirajasekaran6055]

Now I really want to see a "3 high leverage skills for a successful marriage (from a Principal Husband)" video 😂

[@mingchung5560]

Thank you for the advice

[@botenjohn1752]

Bruh, when he said “I don’t sell anything….well, I take it back”, my heart dropped a little bit but I was like: he is so good at this, he deserves to sell whatever he wants. Then he proceeds with “just buy me a good beer”…uncle Steve you are the true GOAT

[@dhess34]

Uncle Steve? Oh, you mean the Stevemeister?!

[@user-rt7lr4sg4b]

He's also a content creator I don't know why people get so upset when someone sells something on their platform. As long as it's not pushy or gatekeeping lots of valuable content, I'm like go ahead and put your ad sell (I'll just skip or check it out to see if it actually aligns to something I would need)

[@botenjohn1752]

@@user-rt7lr4sg4b nah, that’s not what I mean. I have been working for a FANNG company for 2 years now. People with uncle Steve’s level I met are either assholes or “figure this out by yourself” elitist. Uncle Steve is a saint for doing this for “free” (ad revenue with this view numbers is nothing compared to L7 income). Also he has the charisma and articulation to do it well. It’s a corner case of a corner case in my opinion

[@plnmbjj]

I received the brag document tip from a colleague about 2 years ago. I was in a promotion review last month and I was shocked by how I couldn’t remember a thing about my accomplishments. I wish I had done it all along, I started doing it right after.

[@TyzFix]

This is probably the most valuable careers suggestions I ever seen. I know them but I need to keep doing that

[@TheCreatorsAttorney]

Steve! You’re one of the smartest guys I know. Such a YT expert and all around so helpful with so much value!

[@Ninthaudio]

As soon as I heard you were an L7, I subscribed. 👍

[@interactivellama]

Chat/Slack feedback screen grab from others (especially execs, customers, etc) is a great thing to put in your Calibration doc (brag doc) and share with your manager privately.

[@carltonnnn]

My current manager is the first one to recommend a brag document. The guy’s a real gem and I will be devastated when I inevitably get a new manager in a reorg 🙃

[@JimmyRayHaines]

Great video. Thanks for sharing. Love the Brag Document tip. I’m implementing this and the other two tips immediately

[@kdot8042]

Brag document is such a great idea! I’m a new-grad PM & have been struggling to organize & articulate my personal achievements when so much of the job is team-based. Now I’ll be better able to organize completed tasks & frame them from what I contributed. Also love the jokes thrown in, keeps the content light & fun to watch :D

[@monsoonle717]

I wish I knew these years ago, but still not too late to start it, thank you Steve, great content as always

[@Silvertonguetony]

As someone in the military, I never expected to see a tip I give to all my Sailors being on this list: Track everything! People don’t seem to understand how invaluable this tip is! While your competition is scrambling every year at review time to remember what impactful work they did, you have a spreadsheet broken down by year, then by quarter of every worthwhile item you’ve done during that time. Not only the date, but what it was, hour many hours you or other contributed, and what the result was. Love it!

[@ZacharyFleischman]

Hey Steve, I just moved to Seattle and am starting a new job as a Staff engineer after being a Senior for 8 years. Your advice helped land me this new role and made me feel confident accepting it, and I’m grateful. I have a few weeks off to get settled here in the city before starting my new role and I wanted to ask you if you’d like to meet up and let me buy you one of those top shelf delicious beverages to say thanks and celebrate?

[@Baronvonbadguy3]

This was your most well put together video! Very concise, and had a great pace.

[@dewaard3301]

Best thing about a brag book, is that you can spend a lot of time making it all up.

[@Jayvil773]

Thanks for the videos. Very informative.

[@Rob-kx7yj]

Easy to absorb actionable methods. Steve - you’re are doing amazing work with this channel!

[@cristobaljavier]

Man this video is so useful, thanks for sharing your insights, this is brilliant.

[@arussellturner]

I highly agree. The 'brag doc' and 'saying no' are my most oft-given advice. Well said, well captured. Now I can just link people this video 😃

[@somakkamos]

I really wish to cultivate steves way of speech. Its so honest and genuine and matter of fact... it never sounds braggy and in no terms sounds humble either 😝 As always learn so much from your videos. I wish we could have a video where you enumerate your career highlights..challenges faced..how u overcame them... as much as confidentiality would allow. I seriosuly believe it wud be far more honest that similar vidoes in utube

[@slmagus]

Thanks for your bragging doc tip. Based on your tip I created a google/office form to quickly journal my what I did, impact, and dates. So I have a standardize format to refer back to.

[@jeroenvermunt3372]

Can you share it :)

[@DanHartwigMusic]

Killing it. I see a diamond play button in your future.

[@goksuokar288]

You are amazing and I love that you shared the books that changed your life, I was just about to search for that, and boom, it was written right here!! I just graduated from a BootCamp, thank you for this valuable channel Steve!

[@carltonnnn]

Boot camp grad here, currently working at a big soulless tech company. You’ve got this!

[@TamNguyen-eg3pq]

Great advice. Gold nuggets all around. Thank you Steve for sharing your knowledge to the world

[@GeorgeDrippy]

Just came across your channel and normally I don't engage, but I think your content and presentation is OUTSTANDING. It is very well thought out, and very well presented. Thank you for sharing this information, invaluable. Take care.

[@ApplicableProgramming]

Thanks Steve, bragging document is an excellent tip. I used to do something similar, but changed company and forgot about it. Now starting on the new position, I remembered things that I did even before I started. Which, why not at least remember and mention here or there. Buying you a beer if you are ever in Norway :)

[@brianbernales5852]

Could you create more videos with actionable advice on how to level up a developer's career? Show us a road map of how to go from L3-L7. How do you choose technologies to learn. How do you go about learning languages, and technologies faster? Thanks.

[@theoutlet9300]

Document is a big one that I could use. It's crazy how easily I forget the most impactful work that I did. Also Learn to say No but in a manner where the other person doesn't feel it's rude especially if they are in a position of power

[@GrantValdes]

I unintentionally improved #2 by starting a for-fun interview podcast. Not for everyone, but it helped!

[@johnwatson8691]

I'm an Electronics engineer experienced with industrial controls engineering. I recently attain a position at an Amazon facility.

[@angelopana7821]

Love the point in regarding interviews & engagment.. sucks because I have ADHD and its pretty tough to listen sometimes.

[@muru7514]

love this, thank you!

[@grapy83]

1st point is very painfully relatable to me. I never thought of recording my accomplishments at work!

[@artemixia]

Very informative video. There were some projects I did in college which I did not document properly, definitely regret that now .

[@Kamel419]

IMHO, a very counter-intuitive thing is to spend some time outside of work on pet projects. The reason it's high leverage is there are no deadlines and no high pressure to get things done, yet it gives you the chance to be exposed to the things you care about. This helps avoid burnout and gives you great talking points if ever you encounter the technologies in a professional setting or during an interview.

[@Pete_xp]

counter intuitive?

[@Kamel419]

@@Pete_xp it means opposite of intuition

[@sidravi]

Consistently great advice in every video. Thanks a lot.

[@nullcheque]

Thank you, greatly appreciate your contributions to the community

[@alexdanisz6577]

What a gold mine of information. Well done Steve!

[@chrispy28]

I will now use the phrase "blankity blank". Thanks Steve!

[@mishabhi]

I do a version of the brag document myself. I'll suggest setting up a quarterly reminder to think and update it. To prime the habit.

[@ebrewste]

Your channel is always great, but this episode is truly on a different level. Amazing!

[@cadeljones2481]

Super helpful and actionable insights, thanks for the great video!

[@DevPicon]

I love the idea to create a brag document... such a good idea! thanks!!

[@JeffHarrison1960]

I’ve been using Apple notes and a series of notebooks for the past five years to record and document. Although the twist to “brag” will become part of the recording. Typically it’s a goal list, to do, and because I enjoy writing, articles, headlines, emails and such for clients, this is often where these will take place. I was hesitant to tick the video, but because I leverage software and automation all the time to get something accomplished, the title “grabbed” me. Thank you.

[@SharmaTushar1-yt]

I just found this channel and the advice shared in the video are pure gold. I'm currently a student and will be graduating next year but most of them are applicable even for me. Also, loved the added humor in between.

[@saggitt]

Thank you so much. I really value your no-distraction straight-to-the-business approach to giving information.

[@DachengCheng]

A high leverage activity I've been practicing is that any time I have to write a significant amount in an email or slack thread that could be public information, I would write it in a wiki or shared folder and reference the doc in my response. This provides strong reusability and a mechanism for making amendments to the doc.

[@Kurares]

This is my first exposure to your video. Thank you for the small lessons. I look forward to testing these out. As a small thank you I also subscribed.

[@p00j35]

Thank you Steve. You inspired me to create a template for the brag document in Notion that I shared with my team. If anyone wants the template, I'm happy to share.

[@prathameshmahankal4180]

This advice is GOLD!

[@suvratdharmadhikari8866]

The video is so detailed and has heavy punch of information that I yook notes!

[@imranmo]

I like the way you talk. Bravo 👏

[@paranoidpanzerpenguin5262]

The brag document is a standard part of your performance management at quite a few places now from what I've heard.

[@Broxerlol]

I’d love to see some opinion videos regarding controversial topics of our profession. You seem like a down to earth, impact oriented engineer. I strive to be the same and I feel like a lot of stuff get over engineered at my current job. Time is wasted on future issues versus delivering value to our clients. Obviously, there’s a balance to be found.

[@angeloliwanag2619]

Just found out about your channel today and have binging it since. Thank you for all the advice! You just got yourself a sub 🚀

[@Eye_sky_high]

I subscribed at the 5th minute mark. Great first tip.

[@wealth6547]

My dude, awesome content. Question for ya, I got an L6 Interview, but I think the recruiter doesn't understand my background. Historically building enterprise systems, interoperability, automation and data management tools. I really don't believe this qualifies me at all to build big data solutions. I need to know what direction I should go, right now I have postponed to research and try to attain a reachable goal.

[@LE0NSKA]

I'm legit flabbergasted by the simplicty and the "of course"-ness of the first skill and how I never thought or heardo of it

[@JayakrishnaP-v8y]

Great content Steve, and I am running into this problem of finding my career achievements in a single place rn and so idea of brag document is fantastic. I am thinking to add it as a monthly reminder to revise the notes. Excited to see more of your content, wish you the best :)

[@yan0kyan0]

I recommend your channel to my colleagues and friends. I received a job offer from Amazon, but I declined it. I regularly go though interviews even though am happy with my current job. It allows me not to loose my shape. As for documenting impactful things - it took me about a decade to come to this. I also document some minor things (If I am sure I will need them) that otherwise take more time to search. As for saying no, it's my default answer. After thinking for some time, I define priorities (in some cases I may change my answer).

[@thefosplus]

Couldn’t agree more on the three major skills. I think I also tried pretty much every single self-documenting method as well. 😅 Gotta give BRAG a try.

[@changomonobananero]

Hey Uncle Steve can you make a video on high demand technical skills? In your opinion what are technical traits no one wants to learn/do and are needed in the industry. Thanks!

[@izueneh7340]

Incredible video, thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

[@aoi9716]

It might be a good idea to keep a brag doc for life too!

[@castlesnake]

This is something I have done for a while and it''s really good. Did not have a cool name for it though!

[@chris.w391]

Thanks for sharing those valuable mindset.

[@codingunconditionally]

What is your opinion on internal transfers within a company? Can I leverage this to accelerate my career growth? How should I find a "better" team, and what are the red flags? When is a bad time to move to other teams? Finally, how should I prepare for this type of interview? Thank you for your time and insightful knowledge as always, Mr. Huynh.

[@undergrad4980]

Thank you so much! Great tips.

[@castlesnake]

I would love to get some of you thoughts on how you view the concept of grading people based on years of experience?

[@amdizle28]

sick dj setup!

[@RainerArencibia]

I appreciate your wise and honest advice. Thank you for sharing!

[@abdoulbarry8111]

God I love this channel!! Thank you so much for existing ahha

[@valsh6181]

Only the best beers for Uncle Steve

[@deemon710]

Good advice. Thank you!

[@abhishekarora7239]

Hey, I was struggling to document my KRA's on a quarterly basis in Google Sheets from last 6 years and now it all seems to be too much to look at one glance. I believe having a BRAG document makes much more sense. Thanks for the video!

[@EitanShteinberg]

Your videos are the signal in the noise of KZbin videos. As a PM, it would be great to have more content on clear communication and business writing skills.

[@delvv81]

I love your insight, how concise your videos are. This is tremendously helpful for a new software dev like myself. Keep them coming Steve, you're a legend!

[@jatinnandwani6678]

Thanks so much Excellent value

[@igorkonstantinov6152]

Great stuff!

[@truesoldier27]

Im curious, what skills and traits are the big differentiator between senior dev, principal, distinguished? Also, any tips for bringing up team members who I can tell just dont have a personal interest in their work? How can i get my team to go beyond bare minimum, and taking 2 days to change a link on a page?

[@Duci1989]

Would you describe leverage activities as the 20% of things you do to get 80% of the results, or do you see the 80/20 rule as a different thing altogether?

[@dominikgmeiner]

Thanks for this.

[@christine_ren]

These are some truly interesting tips,I think that the brag document is good by virtue of being so simple…the ability to say no has been a major sticking point for me.I feel like I have stagnated at my job and I am trying to find a way out but my time is taken up by unimportant stuff that I just happen to be too efficient at :/

[@Iddo97]

Hey, Love your videos! Will you be doing videos for people starting out (in college/switching careers)? Thanks!

[@en1766]

Cool video. Can you make another like this except for specific technical skills? Eg is there some obscure language that when learned is high leverage? Some sort of topic/skill that is really high in demand but low in supply?

[@yuletak]

"Maybe she'd like to create a new character..." I see what you did there.

[@tinaa3459]

Respect. Thank you

[@omegzable]

Your videos are very useful. What would you suggest a new hire to do in first three months to ramp up fast and contribute significantly. How to learn the services fast?

[@riccardocandido]

Thank you Steve for this video I think is a very good content to share. About the second skill: "Interviewing". Where I work I do not have the opportunity to interview people so often. What would you suggest as an alternative to the "interviewing activity" in order to getting better in active listening, give feedback etc. ?

[@tigerflame1588]

very helpful info