Let’s Make This Real

Our app is now Taro: a rockstar career mentor in your pocket

3 months after quitting our jobs, we finally have a product: 

Taro provides actionable advice from leaders at the world's best tech companies. After working with thousands of engineers through this community and YouTube, it’s clear that SWEs aren’t held back by technical depth. Software engineers know how to code, but coding isn’t enough. Effective engineers have mastered the skills beyond coding — Taro gives you the inside scoop on building those skills.

If you previously had the Tech Career Growth mobile app, it’ll automatically update to Taro. The TCG community will still exist, but Taro is the product name we’ll use going forward. (If we ever open an office, unlimited Taro boba for everyone at the office party 🧋)

We want Taro to be the premier destination for software engineering growth. This requires a multitude of perspectives beyond me + Alex, so we’re onboarding credible people to share their frameworks + stories. We’re starting with David Pan, who has held eng leadership roles at Mixpanel, Twitter, and Amazon. Look for David’s content in Taro early next week, and let us know who else we should talk to.

With the Taro launch, we’re also opening the waitlist for our first “premium” product. Paid options give you deeper engagement and accountability. Sign up here: https://jointaro.com/#products. 

What I Wish I Knew At Facebook

When I left Meta, I made the traditional badge post with reflections after 4.4 years at the company. My most recent YouTube video shares 3 things I learned from the best engineers:

1. Just dive in, even with incomplete information. Instead of waiting for the “right engineer” to help them, the best engineers unblock themselves and navigate unfamiliar codebases to break down walls. 

2. Talk to people. Given how quickly the technology, people, and products change at Facebook, problems and opportunities are constantly emerging. To turn opportunity into impact, though, you need to talk to people for ideas + feedback.

3. Define clear expectations. If you don’t know what excellence looks like, how can you achieve it? Have a clear conversation about what your org needs, and what your plans are - write more code, establish direction, or communicate with other teams?

The last point is especially critical if you want to get promoted. We just added a bunch of lessons in Taro about promotion if you want to learn more.

Next event

Our next live session about tech compensation is this weekend, on April 30. Zoom link is in the LI event. I’m really excited for this one since SO many people make mistakes around comp, either from undervaluing certain parts of the offer, or being unaware about the earning potential we have in tech. We have a 500 person capacity on Zoom, and we’ll livestream on my YouTube channel for overflow.

Rahul & Alex

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