Ajmal Khan

“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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𝗗𝗿𝗮𝘄𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝗙𝗔𝗔𝗡𝗚 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 Working at a FAANG company is widely seen as a mark of success and prestige, but there are hidden drawbacks that often go unnoticed. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗰𝘂𝗳𝗳𝘀 The perks at FAANG companies are hard to walk away from. From high salaries, stock options, and bonuses to lavish office environments, free food, massages, gaming rooms etc. these companies make it incredibly comfortable to stay. However, this comfort can become a trap. Many employees end up feeling "locked in" by the financial rewards and perks, even if they’re no longer passionate about the work. Leaving such a job can feel like a huge risk, especially when the lifestyle and benefits have become part of your everyday life. This dynamic often leads to engineers staying in roles that no longer challenge them, delaying career transitions they might otherwise pursue. 𝗔 𝗖𝗼𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗹 This is in general true for any big tech company. In a massive organization, it’s easy to feel like a small part of a much larger machine. While being part of something big can be exciting, it can also leave you feeling like just another cog in the wheel. Individual achievements may go unnoticed in such a large ecosystem, making it difficult to stand out or receive personal validation for your work. 𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲𝗱 At FAANG companies, there’s an internal tool or system for almost everything. While this can be incredibly efficient, it also means that much of the most complex problems have already been solved, for the complex problems that the company is yet to solve, you might not be the one solving them. Instead, you’re often working within predefined frameworks, which can limit your learning opportunities. Compared to startups where engineers are frequently required to build things from scratch, this environment may feel less rewarding for those who thrive on tackling new and unsolved problems. 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Working on a project at a FAANG company doesn’t always guarantee that it will see the light of day. Due to shifting business priorities, rebranding efforts, or leadership changes, entire projects or even teams can be shut down without warning. This unpredictability can be frustrating, especially for engineers who have invested significant time and effort into a project only to see it canceled. It makes it difficult to get too attached to your work, as priorities can change on a whim. This lack of control can also impact long-term job satisfaction. Is the comfort and prestige of a FAANG job worth the potential trade-offs in personal growth and fulfillment? #FAANG #Google #SoftwareEngineering #BigTech #GoldenHandcuffs #JobSatisfaction

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"I don't like leetcode style interviews!" See I wasn't making it up! Kurtis Nusbaum tells us more about why engineers don't like leetcode and the types of interviews that lead to a more enjoyable and effective interviewing experience.

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Distinguished Engineers (E9) at Meta make $4m/year. That's 16x the Bay Area median ($255k) Let's break it down [output = input x leverage] We all have 24 hours in a day, so there is a cap on [input] But hey, let's say they manage to have 2x-3x more focused time, so their [input] is 2x-3x There is still 5.3x-8x to go And that's [leverage] Here is the [leverage] they have: 1️⃣ Writing Every piece of text they write is clear to everyone, and they write a lot, for a lot of people 2️⃣ They create something from nothing And that something has clear value to the business 3️⃣ They influence other Engineers around them They are often described as having a "Midas Touch" in terms of their ability to uplift and develop other Engineers around them The best indicator is that the Engineers in their teams get promoted faster 4️⃣ They are well known and have an impact beyond Meta, promoting the brand 5️⃣ They have industry-leading experience in some areas There are rumoured to be <50 E9s at Meta

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We’re hiring at Palantir! Apply now: https://lnkd.in/gbvYh4fr It’s difficult to overestimate how transformative the first few months at Palantir are for a new Forward-Deployed Engineer. As an FDE, you’re responsible for it all—from going onsite and scoping out your customer’s toughest challenges to building out the workflows that will drive them to overcome these challenges. Because of Palantir’s flat and mission-driven culture, these responsibilities really do fall on you. The growth I've experienced at Palantir from wearing so many hats and having radical ownership over my team's workflows is both unique and unparalleled. I’ve had the privilege of working with the sharpest people and most fascinating products, all while solving highly complex and impactful issues. What does it take to become an operating system for the modern enterprise? How much impact can you have on some of the world’s most important institutions, all while solving their most interesting problems? How do you zero-to-one solutions that tackle a business’s or government’s most mission-critical workflows? If any of this is of interest to you, let’s chat about becoming a Palantir FDE.

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A few years ago, I wrote a post on Quora about interview process for Principal Engineer role at Amazon. In that post, I shared my own experiences as the recruiter owning that hiring process, as well as tips from other Principal Engineers who had been through the process. Even today, I get weekly emails and messages from senior engineers who saw that post and want to learn more about the Amazon interview. We often end up talking about more than just Amazon. We discuss career development and interview skills in general. I really enjoy those conversations! Since 2017 (when I wrote the Quora post), Amazon has created several helpful resources to prepare candidates for their interviews. Here below are those "official" interview prep materials. I hope you find them useful. Feel free to share them with your friends who are getting ready for job interviews. The Original Quora post: https://lnkd.in/gGVBsJfn Amazon Interview Prep Repo: https://lnkd.in/gnnanGCz Now that you have a starting point, in coming weeks, I plan to write about the "softer skills" that are hard to measure but can really make a difference in interviews. I will expand on those topics. I will breakdown topics like "technical leadership assessment in interviews", authenticity, dealing with ambiguity, "active listening during interview", and other topics. I will write about 'interview preparation' itself! DM, email me on what other 'non-obvious' topics you want me to write about? PS: I'll try to keep my writing practical and broadly applicable, even though my experience is mostly with Amazon. 😀 #interviewing #careeradvise #careergoals #careertransition #interviewpreparation #interviewtips #principalengineer #amazon #amazoninterview

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Check out the latest in our "Debuggability" blog series! This blog is authored by Kevin Downey Jason Johl and me and talks about how we built a Debuggability Paved Road at Intuit using Ephemeral Containers and Argo Workflows. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic. Also, what tools do you build as-a-platform to help debug service, compute and network issues in Kubernetes at scale? #intuit #kubernetes #debug

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Fail often, fail fast and fail better

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Some advice to new grads joining the tech industry :) 1. Be patient (avoid burnout). It's so easy to take on 4 projects at once. At Palantir, I've found that there's interesting problems, both business and technical, everywhere you look and no-one will stop you from taking on more than you should. However, you'll often perform better on 2 tasks than you will on 4. It's so tempting, especially as a new grad or a young engineer, to work at 100% capacity all week every week. That means evenings and weekends. The whole concept of 100% capacity means unsustainability. Yes you will need to burn the midnight oil to meet deadlines but you can't do that every week. Even taking time off can't exactly fix burnout. Pace yourself, and growth will come. 2. Collaborate and get signal. It's very tempting to just dive into a technical problem that you think will meet a need. To spend dozens of hours coding and perfecting a solution. If you're trying to learn a skill, that's great, but if you're trying to build something for other people to use, make sure you get validation before you invest your time. Make a write-up, collaborate with potential users or someone who can help decompose the problem faced by potential users. 3. Don't just take on random tasks. When you're junior, it's tempting to take on small, random tasks in the hope of impressing people or getting recognition. It doesn't work like that - getting reward comes from owning something over an extended period of time. Taking on random tasks certainty helps with learning or building credibility within your team, but it may not have the impact you hope for. 4. You'll find yourself be pressed to make decisions that you don't feel equipped to make. The most important thing is that every decision you make should have a reason - tech can be a high stress environment but this shouldn't lead you to be randomly clicking buttons. Have a reason behind each click. You sometimes cannot afford to spend months doing research into what the best solution is. Getting feature requests in or making an emergency bug fix may lead to tight deadlines - sometimes you can only make a best effort attempt at gathering information, and go forward with a decision from that. But always have a reason. Good luck, and Palantir Technologies are hiring!

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In this world of ongoing layoffs, companies going against the grain to build highly customized in-house tech stacks that don't track to the skills and expertise engineers need for their past and future jobs will find themselves becoming a black hole devoid of talent. The ones who are good enough to leave will, and the ones who aren't will feel stuck because their work isn't advancing their skills in a way that adds to their value as an employee.

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Why do companies so often choose quantity over quality in engineering hires (especially when budgets get tight)? I keep seeing companies filling multiple positions at once at lower rates instead of hiring maybe one or two exceptional engineers. Is this just hedging bets on growth? Perceived playing it safe? Is the value of high-end talent not apparent enough? Maybe a management issue of not knowing how to get said value out of a resource? Don't get me wrong - I'm a huge advocate for mixed-skill teams. Not every team member should be a top-tier performer (in most cases). But when budgets get tight, why gravitate so hard toward a more + cheaper headcount? The math doesn't add up: Lower-cost hires often result in technical debt, poor architectural decisions, and maintenance nightmares that far exceed any initial "savings." One exceptional engineer can often deliver more value and prevent costly mistakes that even multiple mid-tier senior developers might introduce - and with less management overhead. I’m pondering this today considering my two decades of experience w/ marquee accounts, and a lot of cool projects under my belt, questioning my approach to selling myself and my services more and more (especially in this economy). I might be going about it all wrong now. Sure, you might get lucky and find a desperate rockstar willing to work for peanuts, but is that sustainable? What risks come with underpaying top talent just because you can in this market? Thoughts? Am I missing something? Does anyone actually read or remember "The Mythical Man-Month" anymore? 🤔

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Want a preview of what I'm going to be talking about in my keynote for RubyConf? You can catch a glimpse of it here!

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Some engineers are worth +$2,000,000/yr, and I'll explain why. Their biggest skill is not coding. It’s “leverage.” Top software engineers who make millions share these three qualities. 1. They handle a large group of engineers These engineers often lead tech leads and handle teams of 25+ engineers. This influence gives them leverage and increases their impact within the company. 2. They write super impactful and clean code In companies like Meta, even a single change in software can have a huge impact. This impact makes paying a lot for their specialized skills worth it. 3. They improve efficiency at scale They make improvements to tools or infrastructure that everyone uses. Making 500 engineers 5% faster is like creating the bandwidth of 25 new engineers.   Most engineers won’t reach these levels, but we can still learn from them. The key to having more impact is working harder and finding ways to leverage your efforts. Focus on leveraging your impact, as it’s the best way to achieve more. 

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If you're not a software engineer, keep scrolling. I've been an engineer my entire career and have led engineers for 9+ years. I love this profession. But there's one mistake I see mid-level engineers make too often: Not being clear about the value they're providing. There are 4 areas in which engineers provide value: Technology, Product, Process, and People. But no one gets to Product, Process, or People without mastering Technology. And I'm here to tell you there is a lot of value in the technical understanding. Don't try to scale the ranks before you build depth there. We’re engineers. No matter your title, you need to be comfortable building software. Ideally, you should love it. When you’re progressing through your career, it’s exciting to get tapped on the shoulder to lead a product, overhaul a DevOps process, or manage people. And when you get these opportunities, take them. But make sure you stay close to the engineering part of the process. Because as soon as your coding capabilities start to dwindle, you lose value. That sword needs to stay sharp. A principal engineer who is either a) not interested in being hands-on or b) no longer capable of being hands-on, can’t succeed in leading a team. Today I’m a CTO. But if my team needs me to write code, I’m there in a heartbeat. So my advice to younger engineers is: Stay close to the tech. It makes you better at Product, Process, and People. If you’re an engineer reading this, know that I appreciate you. This isn’t an easy job, and I respect you for doing it. P.S. In the spirit of this post, here's a photo of me with much longer hair from *slightly* earlier in my career.

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I’ve been playing around with YC Founder Matching and it seems like everyone and their mother is interested either in 2-sided marketplaces or B2C businesses, even though they’re ostensibly the least profitable and hardest-to-get-off-the-ground business models there are. Why do people do this? You only have to take a glance at enterprise vs individual pricing to want to switch gears.

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🔨 You're a senior software engineer. You know your stuff. But you are not being promoted or recognized, and you're not sure why. Being an amazing engineer will get you from entry level roles until senior. But beyond that you might run into snags that aren't as obvious as they should be. As you progress into more senior and principal roles, your leadership skills, including your ability to influence without authority become more and more important. This might include building trusted relationships across the organization, which is required to lead some critical initiatives. As a principal engineer you might be asked to lead an initiative that impacts all engineering teams. How will you get a group of smart and opinionated engineers to progress in the same direction? That requires teams to trust you. You may not always have a gavel. 👉🏾 Building an internal reputation is critical. Not just be known as a great engineer, but also a great collaborator who listens as much as brings opinions. 👉🏾 If this is where you are in your career, I'd love to chat more. Ping me below and/or send me a DM. I'd like to set you up with mentorship and the tools you need to be success--all free. #mentormesh #leadership #engineering

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