Cody Pizzaia

I posted recently about how salaries are still climbing at the top end of the market for hands on Software Engineers. Yesterday we took on 2x Senior roles paying $180K+Super+10% bonus, last week we took a re-brief for another Senior role with a salary increase to $180K+Super+ESOP. Don't get me wrong, it's still only really in that pocket of hands on Senior-Principal level Engineers (for now), but it's starting to feel very similar to some of the work we were doing during the post Covid boom. "We'll pay whatever just get me amazing people" "Not finding anyone good at all, what would another $10K-$20K get us?" "Happy to give a bonus if it'll get it over the line" All snippets of recent conversations with hiring managers... Something to just be aware of though is the trickle down effect. We took a Mid-Senior role on at $160K+Super+ESOP yesterday, and we also took on another Mid-Senior role up to that kind of level about 2 weeks ago. Maybe it's just 2 outliers with big budgets signed off, or maybe Senior is becoming too expensive, and that money is being chucked at the next best thing. Also - as a side note, if you can't run a near perfect process right now for those types of roles just give up, you are wasting your time.

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9/10 Software engineers would never talk about this happening in their career but I will: → Snowballing. Snowballing is a sugar-coated word for the blame game. We've all seen it - a bug gets reported, and everyone starts pointing figures. The game starts, you’ll hear "It’s Front-end's fault!" "No, the back end needs to fix this!" When no one even tries to understand the bug. Everyone immediately starts snowballing, and no one bothers solving the bug. I’ve seen this mostly happening among junior software engineers. Sometimes, they take the reported bugs quite personally and it backfires. See, no one will be punished if a bug is reported. Our only priority is to understand and fix it. So, when a bug comes up, you should: - find out its origin (front-end or back-end). - and flag it to the respective team. It would be better if you took the initiative to: - find the bug’s origin. - and solve it yourself. Remember, you're part of the project, and everyone will appreciate you as you solve the whole team’s problems. The wins & bugs reflect on everyone involved. So, take ownership and be proactive rather than snowballing. Believe me, this is a good skill if you want a strong career ahead. – P.S: How do you deal with bugs?

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Am I Doing “No Real Work”? Are You? Alright, so just to start: this isn’t like, defending Google specifically. The author especially targets Google, but condemns technology companies overall. Are there people who “aren’t contributing” or not doing so at the same level as peers? Yes, that’s absolutely true. Maybe it’s situational and can change, maybe it’s terminal and they aren’t a good fit. That is not really what the article is about, though or not exclusively. My main takeaway was that we are working on things that don’t make money. We build things that never launch. We research things that aren’t profitable. The author seems to have run a successful, technical business. Maybe it had laser focus on one product, and what to build was well understood. This isn’t always true. Technology is a new application of scientific understanding. We don’t always have the scientific understanding we need to build a particular technology, and they require spending on research. Sometimes a promising research project can bear no fruit. Key learnings can come from this, unrelated projects can be improved, research techniques can be made more robust. Investing in research is not “wasting money” that could be “returned to stakeholders”. If human hours spent must equate directly to revenue, don’t invest in companies that invest in research. Invest in businesses with billable hours like law, or physical product production where hours on the line yield salable products. I think it’s really unhelpful to conflate “wasting money” on “unproductive workers” and a company spending money on R&D, which is inherently risky. Google Cloud was not well-understood, or a guaranteed success. It yields billions of dollars now. That was one bet. You can debate how many bets should be made, and at what scale, but we are at a stage where, to move the needle at a company this size, the bets have to be very big, and made fairly frequently. Standing still will not mean we keep making the same amount of money so we can “return value to investors”. I do think in the “white collar”, big tech environment, there is a lot of “silent value”. Maybe that does end up yielding nothing for shareholders. Training and guiding more junior engineers so they can contribute to more complex projects has a very ambiguous value. They can leave. They can never really uplevel skills. They may be tasked with working on something with “no shareholder value”. The cost of not doing it is skill and brain drain, and an inability to continue innovating. If innovation stops, the world moves on around you and shareholder value drops to zero. Mostly I think while I don’t mean specifically to defend Google (because most big tech make these kind of investments), I may have taken this personally. I am contributing to shareholder value? When I turn off this 15 year old system, does the stock price go up? No, but it frees us up for faster innovation. Is it worth what I get paid? That’s a very different question.

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In 2024 I've helped more Software Engineers from FANG (is it MANA now?) companies move onto their next challenge than I've done before. Awesome. It always feels great to help people get their new job. I think this is for 4 reasons. 1. These companies have gone through restructuring at a rate they have never been through before. Even if Engineers are still in place, they are concerned about long term job stability. 2. RSU's locked Engineers in on high annual total earnings that no one could compete with. With share prices adjusting to market pressure, Engineers have more options. 3. These businesses are now no longer at the cutting edge of tech, consolidating and focusing on core product lines and killing off new or risky product development they are not the centres of innovation they once were. 4. We had remote working and now there is a big return to the office. This works for some. Not all. If you are in the market for hiring the top tier of Engineering talent (not that this is defined by someone working at Apple/Amazon etc) now is a great time to go to market. If you're looking for a new role, although the market is slower than it was in 2021/2022. There are some great businesses looking to hire, especially so since the start of 2024. Get in touch if you'd like to learn more. Happy jobsearching everyone.

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software engineer interview practices are often a hot topic, especially regarding Leetcode-style questions. In my years of interviewing engineers at multiple companies, I have found that a more direct, real-world approach yields better results. However, I also understand that Leetcode questions are often necessary to screen applicants. As someone who loves a challenge, I can appreciate working through Leetcode problems to craft interesting solutions! #LeetCode #SoftwareInterview #SoftwareEngineering

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In this week's issue of "Large Scale Web Apps", we share a soundbite from Jem Young (Engineering Manager at Netflix) on how him and his team at Netflix have cultivated a successful testing environment. A few months ago, we asked friends and folks in the industry to share their perspectives on building large-scale web apps with React. Jem Young (Engineering Manager - Web Platform & UI Data Platform at Netflix) was kind enough to share some valuable insights into how testing is integrated into his team’s development culture. Some key takeaways that we love from Jem’s soundbite: 👩‍💻 Testing is not just about the code; it’s about the culture as well. Establishing a culture where testing is viewed as an essential, integrated practice within engineering not only prepares teams to preemptively catch errors but also reinforces a commitment to quality and reliability. This cultural shift ensures that testing becomes a habit rather than an afterthought. 🧪 You need to have a cohesive testing toolset (and strategy). In the modern JavaScript ecosystem, tools change often, which sometimes makes it challenging to keep up with the latest and most effective methods. Despite this, the benefits of standardizing and sticking with a cohesive testing toolset are substantial. A unified set of tools across a development team reduces fragmentation and streamlines both the learning process and the application maintenance. Read the new issue here — https://lnkd.in/gm6VW-pt #programming #javascript #reactjs #testing #developers

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Great compilation of resources! These are definitely some of the best materials out there for prepping for tech interviews. I've personally found the "System Design Interview" books to be incredibly helpful for grasping complex design principles. Also, "Neetcode" has a great collection of problem solutions that are super handy for quick review sessions. One resource I'd add to the list is "The Pragmatic Programmer" book. It's not directly interview-focused, but it provides invaluable insights into software development that can help deepen your understanding and improve your problem-solving skills. For behavioral interviews, practicing the STAR method with real-life examples from your experience can be a game-changer. It's all about storytelling and demonstrating your impact. Curious to hear what others think about these resources. What has been the most effective material for your prep? #TechInterviews #InterviewPrep #SoftwareEngineering

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I love this excerpt from Ryan Peterman on engineering writing. I echo the sentiment that as engineers we aren't taught how to write, at least not in any career-specific manner. In neither school nor industry have I experienced an externally-driven focus on its development as a skill. Despite this, it is massively important to growth. Nearly every time I have received commendation in any role it has been driven more by my ability to communicate and rally people around technical ideas, rather than the raw technical ideas or contributions themselves. Writing is a big part of that. I'd encourage any engineer with ambition for growth to make skill development in this area a top priority.

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Slack adopted a "Fair and Transparent Pricing Model" That sadly is now over. --- Slack's stance was our product offers $X in value so you'll pay $Y per user, and only pay if that user is active that month (on a monthly plan). The idea was brilliant: we don't negotiate because our product is sold at a competitive price and we want to reduce complexity. --- Enter Salesforce acquisition. Salesforce is notorious for overcomplicated SKUs and pricing strategies. If you know how to negotiate with Salesforce you get an amazing contract. If you don't, you're going to overpay for the life of your contract (unless you grow and can trigger a renegotiation) They've decided to start applying this strategy to Slack, especially for the new AI SKUs. --- On one hand, it does mean you can now bundle your total Salesforce contract and get a potential discount. On the other hand, you now have another product that you need a Rubik's cube in order to decipher what you should be paying. --- I think we're in for a world where we'll continue to see add-on SKUs for Slack, which may push companies with a strong Microsoft footprint closer to Teams over Slack. What do you think? Do you prefer Slack's old pricing model or moving towards negotiation and bundles? #salesforce #businesssystems #slack

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You're eager to get promoted as a junior SWE–I’ve been there. To rise through the ranks, you'll need to lead projects that unlock meaningful value for your customers. Luckily, I've walked this road many times over the past 3 years at Wayfair. These 6 steps comprise my battle-tested formula for success: 1. Establish credibility as a competent engineer. Your manager will be taking a risk by investing the team's resources to complete your project. Their reputation is at stake as much as yours, so give them every reason to believe your leadership abilities are worth taking a risk on. 2. Find a problem worth solving, then sell it. Look for high-impact issues your team can feasibly address. Choose one, ideate a few potential solutions, then write a data-driven document that enumerates these options and emphasizes WHY the problem is worth solving. You’ll need everyone’s buy-in, so craft a compelling narrative that drives conversations and facilitates alignment. 3. Eliminate ambiguity as early as you can. The more unknowns there are, the higher the risk of failure. Clarify that ambiguity early and often using these 3 strategies: a. Consult with subject matter experts on your team about the problem and its potential solutions. b. Build small proofs-of-concept to demonstrate feasibility of higher risk components. c. Proactively communicate roadblocks, so others can help you push past them. 4. Document your chosen solution. To ensure your team is building toward the same north star vision, author artifacts like technical specifications and scrum tickets that clearly define: a. The thing you're trying to build, and b. The steps required to build it. Add visual elements like recorded demos, UX mocks, or system diagrams to help others quickly grasp the desired end-state. Crystalize your understanding of the solution and spread that knowledge throughout the team. 5. Drive execution and lead by example. Parallelize tickets when possible and sequence blockers accordingly. Ruthlessly deprioritize features that aren’t essential to the initial release. Put instruments in place to measure the success of the project and quantify business impact. Set a high standard for code quality by leading the implementation efforts yourself. Review code written by other engineers to ensure it satisfies the requirements. 6. Identify key learnings for next time. Congratulations on delivering your project! Take advantage of this valuable learning opportunity to reflect on what worked and what didn't. Organize a time for your team to go through this process together, and extract action items for individuals to follow up on. Remember, failure is in the eye of the beholder. Either you win or you learn. P.S. I'm still perfecting the art of project leadership too, you're not alone. Which steps of this formula do you need to focus on this week? Comment below so we can all learn from each other!👇 #softwareengineering #leadership

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🌶🌶🌶 Hot take… Old problem: if we put more devs on the project, we can deliver it sooner. Same thinking, new manifestation: we can hire more overseas devs for less total money to produce the same result as our US staff. Flaw in that thinking: product development is not an assembly line. Devs are not “interchangeable”. Software is as much an art as it is science. It’s a team sport. The people on your team matters. #tech #staffing #management #hiring #jobs #layoffs #software #startup #teamleadership

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Scale Your Impact Through Efficiency A common trait I see in many bright young engineers is their dedication to working hard and long hours. They are natural problem solvers—relentless in their quest to unearth the root cause and code non-stop until they complete their tasks. Being smart and passionate, they usually succeed in these tasks, earning promotions, salary bumps, and more equity as rewards. However, there often comes a point where they hit a wall: they put in more hours, fix more bugs, take on more projects, become key area owners, and turn into crucial cogs in the company’s operations—but the rewards stop being proportional to the effort they invest. As a long-time individual contributor (IC), I frequently find myself in career conversations with these engineers, empathizing deeply —because I was once in their shoes, and in many ways, still am. Fortunate to have had wise mentors early in my career, the lesson I strive to impart is this: Maximize your realized impact. The math is pretty simple. Doing a lot of work inevitably generates some impact, with certain tasks yielding more than others. Pursuing more of these impactful activities seems like the path to generating even greater impact. However, I learned another vital lesson (from another wise mentor) along the way: Time is a finite resource. You can only do so much in a day or across the years, and as life's priorities shift, whether you aim for career growth or more stability, it's crucial to focus on efficiency rather than hours spent working. So, how do you actually become more efficient? I'm not just talking about crafting creative workflows to minimize scrolling or creating command line aliases—though they can help! It's essential to align your efforts with the business or organizational goals. Take some time to understand these objectives and decide why some tasks might be more important and urgent than others. This understanding is the key to maximizing your impact without burning out. Importantly, this approach does not mean you should simply do what the company tells you to do. Like any complex problem, you need to probe deeper to truly grasp the underlying goals of your organization. This process not only aligns your efforts more effectively with the real needs of the business but also provides a serendipitous chance at self-reflection, prompting you to consider if what you're doing aligns with what you truly want.

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For years, I've led and mentored diverse teams of software engineers, and one gripe consistently surfaces, irrespective of team makeup or project nuances: "Why do I have to resolve conflicts when cherry-picking commits from the master branch?" 🤔 This complaint hits home. Engineers crave independence to innovate and deliver swiftly, yet software development thrives on collaboration, demanding robust code management and teamwork. 🚀💻 Cherry-picking commits can be an efficient way to incorporate specific changes or bug fixes into a hotfix branch or release candidate, but it often triggers conflicts as changes collide with ongoing developments. This conflict resolution process can be time-consuming, error-prone, and frustrating for engineers, detracting from their productivity and morale. 😫⚔️ The absence of a structured cherry-picking process exacerbates the problem. Here's a simple fix to avoid conflicts: 1️⃣ Track the last merged PR number into the base branch when cutting release/hotfix branches. 2️⃣ When receiving a cherry-pick PR, confirm its base branch PR number. 3️⃣ Ensure all PRs between the last merged and new ones are cherry-picked before merging, preventing conflicts. 4️⃣ Once merged, update the base PR number of the last merged cherry-pick for the next cherry-pick PR review can be verified. Yes, adopting this process entails a bit of change, but the dividends in smoother workflows and happier engineers are well worth it. Let's make life easier for our fellow coders! 💪🛠️ #SoftwareEngineering #CodeReview #Collaboration #ConflictResolution #Teamwork #DeveloperLife #CherryPicking #CodeManagement #ProductivityTips #EngineeringCulture #TechTips #Mentorship #WorkflowOptimization #CodingCommunity

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Major layoff journey update! I'm at the one week anniversary of receiving my layoff notice and here are four major steps that I've taken so far: 1. Light social networking, mainly via an uptick in content creation 2. Sharpening my coding round skills! I'm up to what I would call moderate preparedness now (I can do 6 of my 12 standard kata in an hour). 3. I activated a couple "passive profiles" with job boards like hired.com 4. I spent a whole day yesterday refining my resume Now it's time for an exciting and significant step: Starting high-volume Tier 2 applications! Interviewing at Tier 2 companies early provides serious benefits: 1. You get practice without burning Tier 1 opportunities 2. You may get a job offer early, kicking off a snowball of bargaining power and motivation. I will also start placing paid Tier 1 / FAANG+ mock interviews mixed in with real Tier 2+ interviews over the next two weeks, then begin real Tier 1 applications. Follow along for updates! In addition, feel free to DM me if you: 1. Are hiring and would like to refer ahead of the pack 2. Are a fellow job seeker looking for practice interviews, resume review, or other help #programming #jobsearch #bigtech

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One of the simplest techniques for improving sensitivity in your experiments is eliminating or reducing dilution. Dilution is akin to throwing more hay in the haystack, thus making your ability to find a signal extremely challenging. In this blogpost, David Press and I explain dilution and provide some practical guidance on how to handle it. We also provide some examples showcasing how enormous is the impact from eliminating dilution. For ML applications, having a way to handle dilution can lead to 100x+ sensitivity gain.

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A few years ago, I was interviewing for a new role 5 days a week. I cracked 5 offers after several rounds. (But it wouldn’t have been possible without this) → If I wasn’t in the zone Whether you are interviewing for a Junior, Senior, Staff SWE, or Management position, it’s almost like a full-time job. You may be very good at your current job at your current company. You may be: - making solid contributions - collaborating with coworkers - taking good decisions and delivering projects. But when it comes to the interviews.  - you have to start from scratch - brush up on everything again - solve Leetcode problems - do system design problems - Behavioral stories & other prep It takes time to get in the zone! Several weeks to several months! A few years ago, I was doing 5 interviews back to back. One interview every day for the entire week. Those days interviews would happen onsite at the office in person. I had all the 5 companies extend an offer to me. The reason was that I was in the zone and could answer all the questions very fluently. In the last few months, I have heard that people are not getting many interview calls. Given the fewer opportunities to learn from real interviews, you should practice from mock interviews. - Friends - Co-workers  - Or a mentor Do multiple rounds and get into the interview-like mindset. There are many moving parts in interview prep, but the biggest is getting into that mindset and that zone. Without it, even the most talented ones will fail to clear rounds. – P.S: I would be happy to do a mock interview. Please book it on my profile. P.P.S: If you're a senior engineer, tech lead, or a new manager and looking to transition to more senior roles, I'm starting a paid course this Friday (Only 2 seats left) DM me for more details, or please fill out this form: https://lnkd.in/gZ7VcqMD

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Four things i look for when hiring an engineer for my team: As a leader in software engineering, I've had the privilege of working with some incredibly talented individuals. One of the most crucial aspects of building a successful team is hiring the right people. So, what exactly do I look for when hiring software engineers? Let's dive in: • Always Curious About Tech: 🤔 A great candidate isn't just satisfied with knowing the basics. They're always curious and love digging deeper into how things work. - talk about how you enjoy playing around with new tech tools - joining online coding communities to learn and share ideas • Adaptability and Learning Agility: Things change fast in tech! I love candidates who can adapt on the fly and learn new stuff as they go. - tell a story about how they jumped into a project with a new coding language they'd never used before, and how they picked it up like a pro. • Practical Knowledge Backed by Resume: 📝 It's one thing to list skills on a resume, but I'm really impressed when candidates can demonstrate practical knowledge during interviews. - talk about a technologies used in the current or past project and explain why and how it is implemented. • Big Bonus for Passion Projects and Side Hustles: 💡 Beyond their professional experience, candidates who pursue passion projects or side hustles demonstrate a genuine love for coding and innovation. - showcase this by sharing a project initiated outside of work, explaining the problem it solves and the technologies used to bring it to life. If you liked this post. 🔔 Follow: Darpan Pathak ♻ Repost to help others find it. 💾 Save it for future reference. #SoftwareEngineering #TechRecruitment #Hiring #InterviewTips #Hiring #Interview #SoftwareDeveloper

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This is a good post that seems to reflect how many business people may be seeing the future. Here is a little reaction just to the GenAI-will-change-coding part: I enjoy having access to quick softmaxed reproductions of scraped code examples as much as everyone else, but really wish we would all stop spreading the "bots are going to do the coding" trope that so many people in a decision-making position seem to believe in, without much basis and lacking the understand of what software engineering really is - not only producing code, but specifying behaviour and being able to change systems in the face of changing requirements. Good luck with copying-and-pasting that!

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