Xinwei L.

Interesting article from Bloomberg about life at Google's X in a time of layoffs and cost reduction at https://lnkd.in/gmw3GG7C. X is a component of Alphabet (Google's parent company) that incubates new ideas. They have been responsible for some great successes - getting Waymo and a lot of Google's AI work started - but they've also had projects that didn't survive - like Google's attempt to provide Internet access via weather balloons. When you work at a company that has hundreds of billions of dollars in revenues, it's hard to get a lot of interest in an entirely new business idea that brings in hundreds of millions. If you have a project that improves ads revenue by that amount, or decreases capital expenditures, you can do it, but if you want to, say, build wearable tech, it becomes hard to attract the attention of marketing or product. So, new ideas often die on the vine. For the most part, this is good and proper. Companies may have the financial wherewithal to branch out, but more often than not, they consider it a distraction. And they are probably right - it's hard to argue that Meta was right to divert such a huge chunk of their resources to chase after the metaverse. They've (rightfully) pulled back, and are more focused on their core business again. On the flip side, if you are in the tech sector, and you don't innovate, you are likely to get left behind at some point. So, you need to make and manage these investments somehow. When I joined Google, the CEO had a 70-20-10 rule - 70% of effort went to core businesses, 20% to broader efforts to improve Google, and 10% to stuff that's completely blue-sky. This is probably not completely right, but it is also probably not completely wrong. X is the division of Alphabet that is *specifically* designed to bring blue-sky products to life. Unsurprisingly, they've had to pivot and rethink their strategy many, many times. The article interviews a number of people who have worked at X over the years; it's well worth a perusal, for folks who are interested in the story.

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3 real delusions engineers should get rid of to grow exponentially in career (after working for 13 years). # 𝟭 : 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲, 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄. You joined a startup as SDE1, and got promoted to Staff in 3 years. Now, you don't want to join another company as SDE2. Why did the startup do it in first place? - To keep you in the organisation. Title makes you happy. - To stop you from leaving. You won't get staff outside. Companies use tiles as non monetary form of compensation. (side note: i spoke to a Sr executive from an quick commerce startup 3 weeks back, he reconfirmed above. his company is creating new title to keep him there) If you are in this kind of situation, don't get blindsided. Focus on adding skills, not titles. Check the job levelling sites for your real title. # 𝟮 : 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 "𝗼𝘄𝗲𝘀" 𝘆𝗼𝘂, 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 There is only one person, who owes you anything. And that person is "You". Your manager is "just another employee" in the same organisation, who have similar (even higher) career risks than you. Their work delivery is dependent on the entire team, whereas yours is only dependent on you. The only thing they can help you with is, "guidance", if only you ask for it. # 𝟯 : 𝗡𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 This is another big delusion. Engineers think that, this is their demotion. No, not at all. Your actual demotion is not getting the work that matches your skills. A good manager with less experience than you, can give you faster growth than you can ever imagine. Another "positive" way to think about it is, they must have done "something good" to reach here. So, don't judge your manager by their age, instead: - judge them by their skills - ask, how can you grow with them Remember, your and their skills are completely different. TL;DR: 1- Chase the job title, skills will follow 2- Your manager "owes" you, your career 3- Never report to a manager with less exp than you P.S. What is the 4th delusion you will add to this? Write in comments.

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10x engineer, rock star, brogrammers....these are all unhelpful myths. Were they a great dev? Probably, but a great dev should not have to suffer through ego death to consider themselves successful. I agree with others, this attitude is not how a team succeeds and it is toxic. When I look at Facebook now I see an application stack that constantly breaks, is unintuitive and doesn't have the infrastructure to support itself, worse in quality than it was a decade ago. Exactly the type of thing I would expect from a bunch of individual contributors without cohesion. I'm sure this analysis on my part is unfair and there are dedicated, hard working team members there ready to make a difference, but this type of culture needs to stop. Invest in your internal teams, promote from within, train, encourage, build great things together instead of waiting for an imaginary deus ex programmator to save you.

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Staff engineers don't directly do. They enable others to do. Staff engineers are able to translate directly business value into technical vision. Staff engineers traverse domain boundaries. Staff engineers build strong relationships with stakeholders. Staff engineers are able to engage buy in. Staff engineers influence decisions across realms of ownership. Staff engineers create and understand organisational level success metrics. Staff engineers create space for others to step up and take responsibility. Staff engineers are able to quickly ascertain potential pitfalls in high and low level designs. Being a staff software engineer is no joke. It goes beyond technical ability. You need to be an extremely competent senior and stepping above regularly.

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5 skills I would look for in a candidate if I were hiring for a SWE role (besides the usual technical skills) This is what I’ve learned after spending 20+ years in the industry. 1/ How do you think about trade-offs? There is never a right or wrong solution;  it’s always about picking a solution and managing the trade-offs. -system design choices and trade-offs  -costs and time for development -engineering resources at hand -maintainability of the solution -the scalability of the solution I’ll check if you explain the trade-offs you’re making. 2/ Do you ask clarifying questions? I will give you a vague question during the interview and check if you: - even notice the ambiguity in the requirements - understand by asking clarifying questions or - if you’ll just assume variables and go with it 3/ Are you humble and brave enough to say “I don’t know” It’s okay to say I am not familiar with this technology. It’s not okay to spin up details and give half-baked explanations. 4/ Can you show your thought process? If you can: -explain your steps  -communicate clearly -show your decision process You can be a silent thinker, but showing your thought process is important. Think out loud. 5/ How well do you take your feedback? Alone, you’ll never have the perfect answer. Your higher-ups will give input because they want you to grow & succeed. Do you get trapped in your thinking or take advice when needed? -- P.S: I am starting a paid system design course soon. It’s suitable for software engineers with 5+ years of experience who want to move to the next level in their career. I've got only 2 slots left for this cohort. Please fill this form if you’re interested: https://lnkd.in/g8E88eMB

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At Google, Testing on the Toilet was the most successful and effective technical publication at the company. It actually succeeded at letting engineers know about best practices and effectively changed the culture through short, well-written technical posts focused on a single subject. Although I wasn’t there when it was started, I’ve talked a lot with the folks who were. If I recall correctly, there was a time when Google didn’t have a deep culture of software testing. There was a group of engineers who were passionate about changing this, and they formed the “testing grouplet,” a volunteer initiative to change Google into a company where great testing was done in every team, all the time. Though they had many initiatives, Testing on the Toilet was one of their most successful. I believe it started with members of the grouplet just writing posts and taping them up in bathroom stalls, without asking permission from anybody. To this day, the whole project operates through a series of dedicated volunteers. Until a few years ago, there was even a massive set of volunteers across every office who put them up in the bathrooms every week. At some companies, the Facilities org might get upset that you were taping up unauthorized flyers in bathrooms. But at Google, that group, called Real Estate and Workplace Services (REWS) first helped by putting up plastic holders for the episodes in every stall, and then many years later, took over posting the episodes themselves! As for the overall success of the Testing Grouplet (which later morphed into the Code Health group that I ran for a few years), Google did develop a pretty universal culture of testing!

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Amazon-to-Google-to-Amazon #a2g2a thought of the day: Different companies have taught me different things. 1️⃣ Microsoft taught me how to be a Software Engineer in the industry (ok so this is technically a m2a2g2a post…). I started there in the nineties and spent 11 years. I learned how to write production-worthy code professionally, how to test it to ensure it could safely go out to millions of users, and how to work in large organizations. 2️⃣  Amazon taught me how to be a Leader. By the time I got to Amazon in 2009, Microsoft had shaped me as a Software Engineer, but I hadn’t yet figured out how to lead, particularly without authority. As Amazon doubled in size every year, I found myself in a position where I had to scale and I was surrounded by endless opportunities to step up to the plate. I also had consistently amazing managers, mentors and role models that taught me how to be amazonian. 3️⃣ Google taught me about myself, the things that truly matter to me, and how I get fulfillment in my professional life. There's a lot I liked about Google, and there's a lot I learned at Google, but I eventually realized the culture was not allowing me to be my Best Self. This is what the #a2g2a series has been about. There were things I didn’t even know mattered to me, because I had always taken them for granted at Amazon, until I no longer had them. Please note my series is NOT a generalization: your mileage may vary and Google may be your dream place; it just wasn’t mine because of how my brain works and the leadership training I received at Amazon. Nevertheless, the 4 years I spent at Google were critical in helping me grow and who I am today. But Amazon is most definitely Home. Little by little, I’ll continue peeling the layers of the onion in this #a2g2a series! #amazon #google #microsoft #career #leadership

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Well said. The alarmism around AI replacing software engineers often overlooks the complexity of our role. While AI tools like Devin are impressive, they are assistants, not replacements. 𝟏. 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝟐. 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞, 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧-𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬-𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝟑. 𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬. 𝟒. 𝐄𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥, 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧-𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. AI will definitely reshape our workflows, but it won't replace the need for skilled engineers. Instead, it may allow us to focus more on high-level problem-solving and innovation. Arvind Telharkar 👏

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Status update on my 📚 books 📚: [ 1 📚 ] Product Management Untangled ✅ Amazon India & Kindle - https://lnkd.in/grzPeYfw ✅ Amazon US & Kindle - https://lnkd.in/gB68GXgW ✅ Amazon UK & Kindle - https://lnkd.in/gdMwfQyZ ✅ Direct from publisher in India - Get 11% off via coupon THX2BFFS at https://lnkd.in/g5SrK6iY [ 2 📚 ] Engineering Excellence to Business Outcomes ✅ Manuscript finalization ✅ Book cover finalization - ETA in couple of weeks ➡️ Preparing for book & online store sales [ 3 📚 ] Product Life Cycle Untangled ✅ Manuscript finalization ⏳ Interior formatting in progress

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Distinguished engineers (E9) at Meta make $3,251,000+ per year. Among tens of thousands of strong engineers at Meta, <<1% of them are E9. They are so rare that most people don't work with them directly, but their work is highly visible. One thing I've seen common among all of them is that they are world-class writers. Every diff description, launch post, or directional doc is crystal clear. I don't need to work in their domain to understand what they are saying. This makes sense given that a lot of their impact comes through leverage. They have extraordinary levels of influence through their writing. This skill helps them grow/unblock/direct others at scale. Take writing seriously if you want to have leveraged impact as an engineer.

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I'm hiring an SRE for my team in the Bay Area. My rough parameters (but everything is negotiable, please don't self-select out): - Preference for folks who can be in our SF office at least 2 days per week, WFH the other 3 days. Sunnyvale office days is a secondary option. - Targeting mid-career engineers, not your first job, but you don't need to be senior either. - Total team size is 10, with 40% women. You'll be focusing on load balancers in general and Traffic Director specifically. - Overview of the general space: https://lnkd.in/gv8E7TSR - Deep dive into Traffic Director: https://lnkd.in/gvP9ssJy Hiring at Google is a lot different these days. Less generic, more targeted. While the link below has a lot of boilerplate text, it is for my specific opening. If you apply and notify me, I will personally review your application. https://goo.gle/41R0Dk6 If you have any questions, please message me. Good luck, and pass it along to anyone else you think might be interested!

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Creating a strong GitHub profile with consistent contributions can catch potential employers' eye. However, some may not be aware that you can commit to a GitHub repository with past dates and improve your commit history by simply writing dummy things in a private text file that nobody sees.

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🚀 **System Design Spotlight: The Power of Event-Driven Architecture** 🚀 As a senior software engineer with the privilege of having worked at Google and Microsoft, and having taught thousands of engineers at Scaler, I’m constantly fascinated by the innovations in system design that drive our industry forward. Today, I want to share insights on one of my favourite topics: **Event-Driven Architecture (EDA)**. ### Why Event-Driven Architecture? In today’s fast-paced tech world, the ability to process and react to events in real-time is crucial. EDA decouples event production from event consumption, leading to highly scalable and maintainable systems. ### Key Benefits: 1. **Scalability**: Components scale independently, essential in microservices architectures. 2. **Resilience**: Asynchronous event communication enhances system resilience. If one component fails, others continue operating. 3. **Real-Time Processing**: Ideal for applications requiring real-time data processing, such as financial systems, IoT applications, and social media feeds. 4. **Flexibility and Extensibility**: New features or services can be added without disrupting existing ones. ### Practical Example: Consider a modern e-commerce platform. When a user places an order, several events are triggered: - **Order Placed**: Inventory updates. - **Payment Processed**: Accounting records the transaction. - **Order Shipped**: Customer notification. Each event is processed by different microservices asynchronously, ensuring a seamless user experience. ### Tools of the Trade: - **Apache Kafka**: Handles high throughput with distributed streaming. - **AWS Lambda**: Executes code in response to events in a serverless environment. - **RabbitMQ**: A robust messaging broker for reliable message delivery. ### Conclusion: Event-Driven Architecture is a game-changer for building scalable, resilient, and flexible systems. It’s a powerful paradigm that aligns perfectly with modern software development demands. Whether working on microservices, IoT, or real-time data processing, EDA offers a robust solution for complex workflows. If you’re passionate about system design and want to dive deeper into EDA or other advanced topics, let's connect! I love sharing knowledge and learning from this incredible community. 🌟 #SystemDesign #SoftwareEngineering #EventDrivenArchitecture #Microservices #TechInnovation #Scalability

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“There’s no jobs for Jr Software Engineers out there!” NOT TRUE…But there are some major issues in today’s hiring market. 1. MISALIGNED FOUNDATIONAL EXPERIENCE: The majority of aspiring SEs are either: Recent CS grads (less hands-on exp); OR, Bootcamp grads (less theory). Meanwhile...Most enterprise companies who hire a ton of SEs are looking for CS grads that ALSO have hands-on experience already. 2. MISALIGNED TECH STACKS: The majority of aspiring SEs are only experienced in NodeJS and/or Python. Meanwhile…Most of the companies who hire a ton of SEs are using Java or C# backends. Companies using NodeJS or Python backends are often smaller and can't hire as many SEs. That’s why our Enterprise Accelerator is making a difference. We identify diverse CS grads who are hungry, and we teach them the hands-on Java skills that companies are using in the real world over 3 months. Best of both worlds 😎 If you're interested in seeing some of this kind of talent--send me a DM and we'll get you connected. Want to join our next Enterprise Accelerator cohort? Stay tuned for the next webinar in early August.

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Nice one . Just give it go and learn from the mistakes. It always can be very quick to get skills

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Back at Meta, I worked with a 10x engineer who grew from senior to staff in just 1 year, 5x faster than average. Here was his secret for insane growth: Embrace looking like an idiot. This engineer joined my team, which entirely did Android. However, he came from an iOS background and had never written Android code before. Instead of spending months doing tutorials and reading docs, he just started hacking code together, putting out a PR within his 1st week. It was literally some of the worst Android code I had ever seen. So I left a lot of feedback. And several other engineers left a lot of feedback. His mountain of mistakes didn't phase him at all, quite the opposite. He happily took all the feedback and asked follow-up questions, eager for more. He repeated this process constantly, and after ~2 months, he was writing more code than 95% of the team, including me. You couldn't even tell that he was new to Android. If you want to grow fast, completely let go of your fear and ego. To learn the other tactics this engineer used to learn so quickly, check out my in-depth explainer here: https://lnkd.in/giW8N4FP #techcareergrowth #softwareengineering #staffengineer #growthtips #meta

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I regularly speak with other leaders in the Developer Experience to exchange lessons learned and understand common challenges to overcome to improve the developer experience for builders. One topic that always comes up is "how do we make major upgrades easier." We all have to do them. They yield many benefits. But they take time away from innovation. A few months ago, one tip I have been sharing with DevEx leaders is "take a look at Q Code Transformation (Q Developer Agent for Code Transformation). Our use in Amazon's tool chain has been making upgrades much easier, with frequent positive feedback from our own engineers. I am so pleased we are now able to share these numbers with you. They are part of our journey of "making the work for upgrades go away" to give time back for innovation. Our teams have create some amazing, novel innovations to make easy and reliable for teams. It has been inspiring to watch. I am happy to chat more about how we did this--and you can too. And some other modernization problems we are thinking this can make easy as well. #amazon #q #modernization #developerexperience #devex

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