*day in the life* 520k google software engineer

[@yashshukla1637]

Here is a summary of the video: **A Day in the Life of a $520k Google Staff Software Engineer (Hard Mode)** * **Introduction:** * Ricky, a Staff Software Engineer (L6) at Google, shares his experience. * Video focuses on a difficult, meeting-heavy day. * Progression in software engineering levels (L3 to L6). * **Morning Routine:** * Wakes up around 8:00 AM. * Blocks out the first few hours for focused work (design docs, code reviews). * Goes to the gym to prioritize health. * **Work Day:** * Starts with a quick lunch due to a packed schedule. * Attends back-to-back meetings for 6 hours. * **Role of a Staff Engineer:** * Focuses on the bigger picture, competitive landscape, and cross-functional needs. * Develops engineering strategies and delegates tasks to junior engineers. * Emphasizes the importance of soft skills and teamwork. * Continues working from home with late meetings due to time zone differences. * **End of the Day:** * Feels mentally exhausted after a long day of meetings. * **Challenges of Meetings:** * Requires strong soft skills and tailored communication for different audiences (PM, UX, reports). * Giving constructive feedback is crucial. * **Job Satisfaction:** * Acknowledges the privilege and luck of having this job. * Values work-life balance and flexibility. * Doesn't aspire to climb the corporate ladder further at this time. * **Conclusion:** * Provides a realistic view of a senior software engineer's day. * Plans to showcase a more chill workday in a future video. * Encourages viewers to ask questions and leave comments. I hope this summary is helpful! Let me know if you have any other questions. googleusercontent.com/youtube_content/0

[@princeakhil208]

fucking legend, you saved me 7 minutes

[@Krbydav328]

The million asterisks made it difficult to read, but I'll brave the pain and absorb

[@princeakhil208]

@@yashshukla1637 I think this would be an LLM response

[@yashshukla1637]

It's is llm response. Now way I am writing this 😂😂

[@eaty7dhu]

good bot

[@jayaprakashreddy9980]

Can you explain how to get from L4 to L5?

[@narudesigns]

Do you still find time to write code or does the staff level only require leadership skills/activities?

[@jayfeli1482]

Hey Ricky! Thanks for the video, gave a like and a sub :) I’m a senior Comp Sci student (graduating in May 2025) and have been job hunting for new grad roles. My question is, when you were applying for roles at Google, did you only apply to roles that fell under your specialization/similar to what you did at your previous job? Or did you apply for general software engineering roles, regardless of the tech stack. When applying for roles, do you think it’s better to specialize and make a bunch of projects in one domain (for example, only Mobile Apps) or if it’s better to prioritize DSA/Leetcode and just get really good at general problem solving/CS fundamentals? Thanks in advance! :)

[@dirty-kebab]

Damn, as a senior, I can't even get a entry level.

[@harryzhu]

please don't. please grind in senior interviews.

[@erkydi]

Crazy achievement! good stuff. Hope one day I can become a staff level designer!

[@morton4]

Question: is it allowed to just leave to the gym at a random time like that? Like if you don't have pther meetings do they just let you leave and come back?

[@billy8461]

mid level engineer here at a huge multibillion company. I just love writing my code in piece. Of course there are various meetings, sometimes I have to carry out technical interviews, code reviews etch. But most of my time is coding. Yeap meetings are hard due to the soft skills as you mentioned, dealing with people to that extend is also intense. I would turn down this position any day. No thanks.

[@JoannaIsac]

Any advice, or helpful resources for improving the soft skills that help in your day-to-day role?

[@SEBZ101]

@findingricky do you think it makes sense to change careers at age 35 and become a software engineer? have you seen people do that at Google where you work?

[@drakes.7710]

Great video! Could you do one about your path to becoming an SWE? How’d you start programming? Did you go to college, were you at another company before Google, etc.

[@Affalterbach1967]

After watching every Techlead (as a millionaire) video I was ready for something new.

[@Sniper_is_Sniping]

is it possible to go straight to mid-level engineer as a new grad if you are "over-qualified" and are able to do some internships at that company and from a top college in your country if you are coding since high school and then in college like grind leetcode and prove yourself in internships and some open source and freelancing projects? Plz help🙏🙏

[@findingricky]

i would say that the bar for internships / freelance projects is much much lower than the bar to become a mid-level engineer. if you're very confident, you can always ask the recruiter you're working with to set you up for an interview for the mid-level engineer role instead of the entry-level role, but the interviews will definitely be harder and i'm not sure it is worth the risk of getting no offer at all. if you truly feel that you are overqualified, i would suggest going to a company where promotions are faster than google, and then get promoted from entry-level to mid-level in one cycle (~six months) to be on the safer side. for the record, i also did multiple internships during college and also grinded leetcode and also did freelancing projects, but definitely was not overqualified for the entry-level position (though maybe you are a bit smarter or more qualified than i was as a new grad 😅!)

[@musicplaylist6909]

When you're working in so much meetings do you ever miss just learning new technology and getting your hands dirty with code and implementations?

[@Terszel]

Many staff eng say that, esp. in companies like Amazon you basically don't do any coding anymore, just design and delegate. There still a lot of opportunities to write code, but its kind of like seeing the captain clean the latrines, you can do it but you better be doing it way better than the seniors and below, otherwise you should have delegated it and now it looks weird

[@kannonpatterson]

Could you maybe make a video o. How you got your first internship ? What you would do in today’s time ?

[@jessieeang]

loved the pace and honesty in the video! you look super young ngl... and as someone who's about to join the work force next year, i was wondering if you'd be open to share how long you've been working in tech / google and if u have any tips for fresh grads landing their first jobs. thank you!

[@amanmm]

I like that you just told what it is without either sugar coating it, or pepper coating it (yes I made this term). This polarization typa stuff (like showing it as too chad / sigma or showing it as too dystopian) is usually done to attract more views, but I believe that kind of exaggeration is not really representative of what a normal person in that position would live their life like, and maybe even if somebody does live their life like that or like they think of themselves as that, I just dont see it as a sustainable way to navigate through life. Anyways, Loved your video. Thanks for making it ❤ You got a sub i guess 😅

[@Kasukke]

Thanks for sharing. I'm trying to reach your level at 31 years old. I was worried about the level of responsibility since I want to devote more time to my new wife & future kids. That's all to say, please continue to keep it real. There's already enough BS from people selling an unrealistic idea.

[@Krbydav328]

Can you give information on layoffs, what you learned, and how you grew to where you are today?

[@HuyNguyen-en4pr]

Great video, I didn't know that your day would be so heavily focused on interacting with other people you work with. I was wondering if you could make a video talking about the entry-level job market nowadays. How much harder/easier is it compared to when you started, what advice you have for people, and maybe what advice do you have for self-taught people even though you probably went to school for it

[@findingricky]

will try to address that in the future :) but the job market is definitely harder

[@dannyboy900102]

jobs that require managing a team will always pay more because of how difficult and mentally/emotionally challenging it is to deal with people constantly.

[@exposedthat]

do a video about your drive, background, motivation to be a software engineer

[@JustkickinitG]

Damn. I really messed up. Company I work for just had layoffs and I was “promoted” to Engineering Manager of 6 reports, 2 in a different country. No pay raise and I make 150k and my days look like this. Fuck me.

[@k10158]

Can you make a video about your health and fitness routine?

[@denzil7311]

You figured it out🔥🔥🔥👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[@alfcnz]

You may want to purchase a light box for illuminating your face during the recording. 😊

[@tedp9146]

Cixin Liu books in the background, cultured!

[@sasipraveen5257]

Omg I'm from a different platform where u are famous Love u as always

[@EXTRAv2]

More career related videos!

[@cal.e.fornya]

What gym chain do you go to? Do you recommend? I moved into the area and need a new gym rec

[@findingricky]

crunch! best bang for your buck imo

[@leemontime]

I'm curious how did you find yourself ready to climb to the next level of your career? Did you just have that goal each year? Did someone pursuade you? How did you find the resources to go from like new-grad to mid, or to manager and even to staff? Thanks! I'm more at the stage of I don't know what I don't know and I want to become a mid-level

[@kiidoddity9825]

I’m gonna work for google as a software engineer one day!

[@olawaletijani1090]

You gonna have your own company and people would wish they work for you 😊

[@icebones3075]

Is this a caricature video?

[@faruzzy]

Thanks for sharing!

[@kawa8694]

link your github son

[@timmychau]

You should talk about your time in SF vs NYC!

[@griffinjensen7123]

im your #1 fan

[@pattyarun]

inspiring

[@georgeli4642]

Da rain in NY made me take a nap " FIRST " still :)

[@Cygx]

Are you single?

[@alfcnz]

Hahaha, the question we all have! 😂

[@revl6151]

Wait, you can tell that he's...

[@willcubemakes]

ok

[@Start-upPointers]

Wow, so immature and conceited to be flaunting your income like this. You have many friends who live paycheck to paycheck in NYC and this is really obnoxious. We get it, you love attention, but find another way to get it. This is really poor taste and i think its doing way more harm than good. You also make $250k a year with equity in addition. It's misleading to say $500k qnd you know it. I'm sure you'll delete this comment which is also a sign of your character. I dare you to keep it...

[@Melarona23]

A broke ass dude complaining about how others should get the same shitty pay as him😂 Guess u have a "poor" heart too😂🤣 Honestly what are u trying to do here?

[@Melarona23]

Womp womp 😂🤣 he earned it and U have a skill issue. Maybe fix ur shitty attitude and stop acting like a jealous kid.

[@Melarona23]

Dude's triggered over another person earning more than him😂 Go get a job and a life Karen.

[@Eli-uw4zp]

HALF A MILLL WHATTTTT

[@HeatherLewis213]

That's light. I make over 1 million as a quant researcher at 2 Sigma at 28 years old.

[@Eli-uw4zp]

​@@HeatherLewis213 big props to u but no where on earth is 500k a light salary lol what u making with that salary a month is more than what some ppl make all year urs is even more than that lolll

[@HeatherLewis213]

@@Eli-uw4zp Yes compared against the entire country it's a great salary. But when you work in Finance in NYC where your colleagues are making 10,20, 100 million, 1 million makes you feel poor.

[@forstop0]

@@HeatherLewis213 when you mention colleagues are they also quant researchers? and from your experience do the quant researchers get paid more than quant developers or SE at that firm?

[@TheJockerproductions]

@@HeatherLewis213 hire me bro i beg

[@wonderfulgardening]

Basically you get 520k for doing nothing but talk.

[@chriss.3884]

lolll why don’t u get this job then

[@martindang7333]

you have to climb the corporate ladder before thath though

[@josephsu4871]

🫶🫶🫶

[@bobbydan-b2c]

yeah bro your life is definitely hard making more than half a million $ a year in a world where average wage is less than 25% of what you make. Stop boasting and do something better for the world with that money. cringe.

[@teamnovanation]

Your cringe for hating

[@iu.maxvlogs]

HAHAHAHAH not ur choice to decide another life’s impact

[@brianp5205]

You make so much money. You have no excuse for not donating more to Palestine.

[@iu.maxvlogs]

no matter how amazing of a cause you may live for, you don’t know what others do with their money anyway. He may already! but ultimately, it’s none of your business what other people do with money deposited into their bank accounts. You have no control over that, and no say.

[@brianp5205]

@@iu.maxvlogs You have no shame. There is a literal genocide going on and you are defending a person's personal liberty of their money. Typical Zionist evil poison.