1st Q&A with
General question-and-answer session. I'm happy to answer questions about my past work, or on career.
My past work includes Microsoft (Windows, Flight Simulator, Cosmos, Azure, and research), Amazon (Principal Engineer in digital), Oracle (Cloud v2), Google (Display Ads Optimization) and much more.
I am from the US but worked in Cambridge, UK for 6 years, and did my PhD in CS while I was there.
I used to answer a lot of questions on Quora (~48 million views, more than 100 answers published in online magazines), and lately have been answering questions on Reddit.
I was a Principal engineer for 15 years, and a software engineering manager for 13.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
00:00 How to grow and improve without a mentor?
01:45 Toughest engineering problem I have solved
03:11 When is a MS / PhD too late?
04:55 How do big tech hiring managers view non-FAANG experience?
08:16 What do you miss from each company team?
09:33 How important is company / team culture?
11:49 Dealing with the rising bar as you get promoted
15:39 Most important factors in software engineering interview
18:30 Lost years to poor career planning, how do I make them up?
20:28 How to work in distributed systems with only monolithic experience
24:06 Microsoft principal engineer: move to management for career?
27:11 Make video about effective senior 1-1's?
29:10 As a startup CTO how to make engineers work hard?
32:28 Most common misinformation on r/csCareerAdvice
35:28 Why I do this
36:16 What do former co-workers mean to me now?
38:45 How to revive your career if stuck / not promoted?
40:33 My projected was canceled. I was up for promotion. What now?
41:54 Promoted to senior. What materials to learn how to mentor juniors?
46:03 Favorite book to help in early career?
46:59 What's better on resumes, more school projects or larger projects?
49:57 How hard to switch from FPGA / hardware engineer to software?
51:05 As intern, how to make good impression?
52:44 Will this livestream be available as a video? [yes :)]
53:11 Best actionable feedback from an IC reporting to me?
54:15 When should automated testing be done?
56:34 What should I focus on to go the next step in my career?
58:34 How long to make it from SDE3 to Principal?
59:35 How do you make your team motivated and passionate about mission?
01:03:10 Advice for someone entering the field at 30?
Thank you everyone for the great questions and for watching!