Anirudh Dhullipalla

Landing offers from 6 companies back-to-back felt surreal, but the real work happened long before the first interview. Preparation was my superpower. 3 of these companies, well known for their notoriously tough interview processes, tested my limits. I made mistakes, but I recovered each time, thanks to the confidence and speed I gained during my prep. During my Google interview I was able to stop half-way in and code up an entirely different solution because I realized I missed an edge case that broke my first approach. At Uber I had run into a hard to catch bug that I was able to resolve with systematic debugging. Each of these moments felt like pressure tests I was ready for because I had done a bunch of mocks that got my nerves down and greatly increased my problem solving speed. My Amazon leadership principles interviewer jokingly commented how I'm supposed to take longer to answer the questions 🤣 . Mock interviews are an important step in interview prep that a lot of people skip. Practice is paramount because the interview environment isn't the same as on the job. Individuals fully qualified to do the work can easily bomb out of not having the right expectations of the interview format. Mocks provide a controlled environment to simulate the pressure and pacing of a real interview, allowing you to identify and work on areas where you might struggle, be it communication, problem-solving speed, or managing nerves. Interviews are an imperfect attempt to understand your fit for a role. It requires things like explaining your thought process as you type out the code, something you never do at work and can cause anxiety. The mental overhead can also trip you up. It's kind of wild how you can be the one who successfully led and delivered an impactful project,  yet struggle to communicate the details in a way the interview can evaluate under the interview rubric. The biggest benefit of mocks is that unlike real interviews, they can give you direct and actionable feedback. Karat is giving out free mock interviews to members of the Brilliant Black Minds program and helping to connect you to top tech companies that are hiring. This is a great opportunity for black software engineers. Highly recommended, its 100% free!

131

9 Comments

The current market for developers is one of the toughest I’ve seen in my career. In December 2019, I started a small Facebook study group for Black software engineers called Algorythm. At the time, the market was booming but representation was still low. Now, as the group has grown to 13,000 members, we face new challenges. Unfortunately, diversity initiatives are often the first to be sidelined during downturns, and layoffs disproportionately impact underrepresented groups. Black professionals in tech are particularly affected—we are often among the first to be let go. Studies show that Black employees are twice as likely to be laid off. This not only stalls progress but threatens to reverse hard-won gains in diversity across the industry. To continue supporting our community during these tough times, I’m offering a free lesson on graph algorithms tomorrow, focusing on Breadth-First Search (BFS) for members of Algorythm. BFS is key for solving many LeetCode problems, commonly seen in FAANG-style interviews. If you’re interested, join us here: https://bit.ly/4cPm3C5. If all goes well, I’ll follow up with a lesson on DFS. Other members will be encouraged to help with more free lessons. Let’s keep pushing forward together!

494

23 Comments

Informal leadership is critical for your growth as a software engineer! One thing is certain for trying to grow as a software engineer... And that's going to be exhibiting leadership characteristics. That's right! Your career advancement will be more than just how great of a coder you are. At some point, you'll need to influence and lead others -- even if you have no desire to be "managing". Remember: Leadership is a set of traits and characteristics that someone can embody, but management is a specific role. ♻️Reshare to help a software engineer grow in their career! #SoftwareDevelopment #SoftwareEngineer #SoftwareEngineering

10

1 Comment

Informal leadership is critical for your growth as a software engineer! One thing is certain for trying to grow as a software engineer... And that's going to be exhibiting leadership characteristics. That's right! Your career advancement will be more than just how great of a coder you are. At some point, you'll need to influence and lead others -- even if you have no desire to be "managing". Remember: Leadership is a set of traits and characteristics that someone can embody, but management is a specific role. ♻️Reshare to help a software engineer grow in their career! #SoftwareDevelopment #SoftwareEngineer #SoftwareEngineering

17

5 Comments

Informal leadership is critical for your growth as a software engineer! One thing is certain for trying to grow as a software engineer... And that's going to be exhibiting leadership characteristics. That's right! Your career advancement will be more than just how great of a coder you are. At some point, you'll need to influence and lead others -- even if you have no desire to be "managing". Remember: Leadership is a set of traits and characteristics that someone can embody, but management is a specific role. ♻️Reshare to help a software engineer grow in their career!

20

5 Comments

I know some software developers participate in the Advent of Code challenges at the end of the year which can be a fun way to learn a new programming language or hone your skills in ways that you might not get to flex in day-to-day development. If you aren't but are looking for a "winter break" sort of project, I propose that if you have never written a raw TCP client and server, that you try. Could be something simple like an echo server or maybe kick it up a notch to writing a chat server. Most jobs don't need that low of a level of socket programming anymore but I think writing something basic helps you appreciate what the abstractions that using a http or rest client gives you. I have used my knowledge of socket level programming professionally multiple times plus it really scored points when I was interviewing at a very well known company that recruits top talent when I was asked what I knew about networking and I countered with I needed more clarification on the question. Did the interviewer want physical/hardware knowledge, sockets/packet knowledge, or more application knowledge. The counter was asking me a little bit about all three. I could explain what my knowledge on all of those and what I likely didn't know/remember. The interviewer was impressed because he was used to candidates answering around the http protocol in relation to rest. Which helped because I lost some points in a couple of the other interviews. I'm not saying everything needs to be related to interviewing but part of our profession in constant learning. There is nothing that says it has to be the latest and greatest technologies. Diving a little deeper on the fundamentals is never wasted, in my opinion. #software #softwaredeveloper #softwareengineer

54

15 Comments

I have written before about how I think the interview process for software engineers is fundamentally broken. But an article I read some weeks or months ago made me ponder on this a bit more. The article was interviewing recruiters about what they thought of candidates who sent them applications composed with the help of AI. A good portion of the recruiters were very clear on their opinion that the use of AI would immediately disqualify the candidate. Some were more nuanced, depending on how the AI was used, but there was not a single one that thought it didn’t matter, let alone thinking it as a positive. This is somewhat hilarious if you consider the new AI features that LinkedIn offers. One of which automatically writes a cover letter for you, or where it offers to scan your resume to say if you’re a good fit for the role. Worse than that though is the hypocrisy of the recruiters in that they themselves use AI to screen resumes and automatically put 90%+ in the waste bin and send an automated rejection letter. (Supposedly that is what happens, I read about this practice many times but I must admit I have no first-hand knowledge of recruiters’ practices.) So the expectation is candidates put real time and effort in composing their applications, but they have no qualms with not putting any effort in reading the vast majority of them. You could argue that if companies think the current hiring methodology works for them, then it’s their prerogative to employ it. And supposedly getting hired is currently tough, so people out of a job have no choice but to put up with it. It will change when the tech hiring market gets tight again. But is that for real? Occasionally I look at jobs in my area of expertise and I’m often amazed at what many companies offer as compensation for people with a decade or two of experience. Amounts we couldn’t dream of 10 years ago. Not the compulsory disclosure of compensation in the job ad. But the real compensation including RSUs and benefits that doubles or triples it. So are salaries under long-term upward pressure because recruiters are artificially (pun intended) reducing the workforce supply? Would companies be better off to fire any recruiter that uses AI to screen applicants?

7

Automatically filtering or denying candidates based on employment gaps is a deeply unfair employment practice and ought to be illegal. There. I said it. It's unfair to stay-at-home parents, unfair to folks who've battled horrible physical or mental illnesses/traumas (also unfair to familial caregivers), it prevents social mobility by penalizing educational breaks, and pressures workers into a subtly toxic culture that values work above any semblance of an actual healthy life. I could go on... Most importantly, the reason for those gaps may be a deeply personal/private matter, and being expected to justify gaps to an employer is beyond absurd. The fact that ATS platforms even allow filtering based on gaps in their software is atrocious.

17

I've been wanting to share my story about getting into software development but I never know what details to include and earlier attempts just had way too much. I was inspired by the slew of people sharing their stories modeled after Zach Morris Wilson's post with his 11 year journey. I inadvertently included an 11 year span also, mine just has a few holes. 2013 (year -5) : I’m introduced to Codecademy and Python by a coworker when I complain about some of the monotony of my job. I decide to put it down as learning anything as complex as coding on top of a full-time job and full-time university is too much 2015 (year -3): In June I stumble on Free Code Camp. I wasn’t doing summer school so I dove in for a month. I let life get in the way again. 2017 (year -1): Finished school (BS in Economics with a Statistics emphasis and a minor in Math). I also got laid off just before finishing school. I went hard core learning via Udemy. 2018 (year 0): Got a job at a bootcamp as a TA helping students learn a curriculum I didn’t know enough about. Note: I did not attend that nor any bootcamp. I got that job because I knew JS decently and had a long history with troubleshooting technical problems from nearly a decade of tech support jobs. 2019 (year 1): Landed a job with an insurance company because they needed someone who knew React and they liked Econ degrees. I spent most of that year stumbling through building an internal system for administration over a new product line. I also got to play with NumPy, Pandas, and Django. So I got a little better with Python too. 2020 (year 2): More or less a repeat of 2019 but I learn just how many paper forms Insurance companies need to translate into code. Did I mention I’m a master at building forms in React? Yeah, that doesn’t impress me either. 2021 (year 3): I changed companies for a Team Lead/Front End Tech Lead role. I write software that helps people blow stuff up and hire a team. I do my best to help that team level up their coding skills focusing a lot on helping them form a much deeper understanding of React. 2022 - 2023 (year 4-5): I found a role that was to be remote forever so I could move out of Utah and live near the University my wife is attending. A little React, a little Flask, a bunch of Next.js and TypeScript 2024: Freelancing. Slinging more Next.js and TypeScript but my current project I'm using FastAPI.

36

3 Comments

One of the nicest compliments I have ever gotten about my code came long after it was committed. I had spent about 6 months writing a developer tool. By the time another year went by, I was still the project lead, but someone else owned the code, and we were asking it to do things it was never designed to do. "No worries," said he, "your tests were so good, it only took me a few weeks to rewrite the whole thing from scratch". The best thing about my code was how easy it was to delete it. Loved it, and still do. Many decades into my life as a programmer, it still surprises-me-doesn't-surprise-me to see projects follow the same pattern, over and over: * Hack together a prototype * Productionize the prototype * Spend the rest of the project's lifecycle buried under technical debt or * Build something that kind-of looks like what users want * Find out they don't want that, and hack on it until it does, if you squint at it enough * Spend the rest of the project's lifecycle buried under technical debt The number one productivity-related complaint from developers at Google is that they have to deal with too much technical debt: tests that intermittently fail / don't cover critical cases, poor documentation, poorly factored components, out of date dependencies. Every developer with any experience knows full well that designing for the long haul - reliable testing, adequate documentation, monitoring / alerting - is going to save us time in the long haul. Sometimes there is a good reason to take a shortcut, but often, there isn't. We come up with excuses not to plan for this - product is breathing down our neck, we thought it was just prototype code. Some of the more honest among us may admit that we don't like writing tests, or that promotions aren't based on whether our code will stand the test of time. Sometimes, it's based on ego ("that can't be wrong!"), and we can't admit it to ourselves. My take is that, if you want to build a career doing this kind of work, you need to put excellence at the center of what you do. Leaders need to make space for their teams to address maintainability issues. Individual contributors need to push back when they see that they are building something that will collapse on its own weight. And we all need to make it our responsibility to raise the bar for our profession. From the department of yet more preaching to the choir...

159

53 Comments

I keep seeing complaints by software engineers about the ATS selection process. I can see why other professions might complain, but it seems you have forgotten that you are not another profession, you are an engineer. https://lnkd.in/equCnyiB

5

Great post to read, fully in line with my understanding of the value engineers (have to) provide

46

3 Comments

This may be the best advice for engineers looking to advance in their career. Product impact will take you much farther than technical mastery. Having a product mindset can easily make you stand out and shine ✨ —and of course it’s great for your business. Technical skills clearly matter for engineers, but being savvy about how to create product impact puts you on a totally different level.

26

1 Comment

Lunch Note: One of the best staff/lead developers I ever worked with wasn’t the most technical but understood practicality. I remember a time in my career when there was a ui feature, seemingly non impactful, but became the rage for our customers. It was a ui slider that measured some impact that customers could derive change themselves. This small product improvement led that team to be highly visible in the org. I took note. Here is the book he wanted me to read. The Design of everyday things: Donald A. Norman He saw something in me because I do the same now. Great engineers teach by offering the same knowledge reservior they drank from.

9

1 Comment

After a hiatus from posting, I'm excited to share a small project I've been working on. This is a web app (PWA) designed to assist in organizing and planning events/services at the Presbyterian Church of Estreito (IPE), where I'm a member. It also helps manage the song repertoire for our worship team, of which I'm also a part. It was the first project where I actually decided to have the experience of creating an application from scratch, without worrying too much about good practices or code standards (although it's not a total mess 😅), developing it quickly, using technologies that bring more agility and also several ready-made components. The idea for the project had been in my mind for a while and so I took advantage of part of 2 weeks of my last vacation to put the idea into practice, focusing on meeting the functionalities that we use most in our daily life. From a technical perspective, I utilized TypeScript with NextJS to leverage API routes and Server-Side Rendering (SSR). For styling and components, I employed TailwindCSS and Shadcn/ui. The backend is powered by a Postgres database, and I deployed both the app and the database (integrated with Neon) on Vercel. To execute SQL queries, I used Vercel's own SDK. Although the project is quite specific to my current scenario, feel free to fork it and customize it for your own scenarios. Additionally, any contribution is very welcome, especially regarding UI/UX which is not my strong suit 🤣 Repository: https://lnkd.in/eZmJrBnp App's URL: https://lnkd.in/egjxkHtK (Note: You can create an account, but you won't be able to do much later, as you won't have full access right away. 😅) #nextjs #TypeScript #tailwindcss #Vercel #Igreja Presbiteriana do Brasil

20

2 Comments

Excited to share Starknet's core values that drive their ethos! 🌟 Lasting Broadness: Broad power distribution is key for legitimacy, ensuring operations and decision-making remain inclusive and transparent. Centralized operation, if needed, should be brief. 🔓 Neutrality: Starknet supports societal functions impartially, leaving creators in charge. It remains neutral towards user transactions without censorship. 💪 Individual Empowerment: Starknet thrives on an autonomous and informed user base. Education and adherence to core values are central to empowering users. Starknet's principles are defined by openness, inclusivity, and empowerment, ensuring a strong foundation for all stakeholders. Starknet Foundation #keepitstrange

1

I haven't been all that active here or in my job search the last few months. To explain why, I'll go back to the start of my tech career. I started my transition into software development 5 years ago. I was working three jobs and barely getting by, with no real chance of anything better coming along. Tech was booming, there were not enough developers, and there would always be opportunities for good engineers with a strong work ethic. What's better, I really loved coding. It combined the craftsmanship of my writing background with the strong communication and collaboration needed in my education experience plus the flexibility and comfort with ambiguity that I built when I was trying to be a professional comedian. My cohort at Fullstack Academy started in March 2020. While adjusting to remote learning and dealing with the stress of the pandemic, I learned new technologies that I love and built multiple projects that I still brag about. I graduated into what was the toughest market for junior developers ever. It took me 10 months to land my first dev job. Once that happened I knew all the hard work was worth it. At PixelMEDIA (now RafterOne), I got to do interesting work with smart and kind people, and that work paid enough for me to have my own apartment in Chicago, my birthplace, home, and favorite city. After Pixel, I moved on to Reformation. I got the chance to be one of the first engineers working on a relaunched site while working for a company whose cause I cared deeply about. I was laid off in August and have spent the last nine months navigating a job market that just refuses to show any signs of life. I'm back to working multiple jobs and not knowing if I'm going to make ends meets. I just emailed my landlord telling them that I plan to turn my sunroom into a second bedroom and rent it out. It's been really hard not to feel like all the work I did was for nothing. And it's felt pretty much impossible for me to have the patience, work ethic, and resilience this brutal market requires. I know a lot of people have it worse than me. I don't have kids, I'm able to live without a car, I don't own any property. Having roommates and working at a restaurant is not the worst fate in the world. But ya'll, I need some more money ,and I need a sign that this industry is not done with me. If you know of any contract work where I could get started quickly, that would be amazing. If you know of any permanent roles I'd be a fit for, I'd love to hear about it. If you're a fellow job seeker that wants to trade war stories and strategies, my DM's are open. #opentowork #javascript #react #ecommerce #careerchangers

42

6 Comments

Many people may wonder what a Software Engineer does at Lifeway. Don’t we just distribute either physical or digital resources that you can download and print? This was a question that I was asked while on a Zoom call a few weeks ago by an outside individual. My wife happened to step into my office at the time the question was asked to get something out of the storage closet. The question caught her attention and she listened to my response, which was essentially: “We view what we do as working to partner with the local church and make the experience of teaching a small group or consuming our curriculum as easy as possible. Many publishers don’t have both the content and the digital platform to go with it, leaving a fractured experience that makes it difficult for the group leader with all the various apps to watch your content, lead the discussion, and read the material. Our aim is to empower leaders, so they have the best experience possible with our content and can focus on leading their group. As software engineers, we can take our resources and craft digital experiences that help the group leader effectively teach the content and individuals in the group to consume and interact with that content.” My wife shouted from the storage room, “AMEN!”. She has experienced first-hand the problems of teaching digital group material on other non-Lifeway platforms. Fractured experiences, issues with trying to get a video from a phone to a TV, discussion guides that are separate from the video material, books that are only available in print, not every member having access, bad internet or wifi coverage at the church ... the list goes on. All these things are problems that cause issues for the group leader who is there to lead the group – not deal with technology! Lifeway has not arrived yet, but the team I am working with is redefining the process of how digital materials and the group-leader experience Lifeway content. We want to empower the leader in the local church to have as frictionless of an experience as possible. When we do this right, we’re able to fuel the ministry of the local church, instead of being yet another burden on the leader who is trying to teach. Last week, we had our biannual One Lifeway gathering. The entire company gets together to worship, learn, celebrate, and cast vision for the future. The stage backdrop had the phrase “Empowering Leaders” and we spoke of the importance that Lifeway is not the church - we resource the local church to empower and fulfill their mission. I absolutely love this focus, and I feel so blessed to be able to focus my gifts on how our customers experience our content. I came to Lifeway 11 years ago to be involved in exactly this – digital content engagement. We’ve done a lot in the last 11 years, but to borrow a phrase from Amazon – it’s still Day 1. The best is yet to come as we continue to focus on the needs of the local church and innovating solutions to fuel ministry!

42

5 Comments

Attention: All Software Engineers looking to transition into Product Management.    Earlier this week I went to an awesome talent mixer hosted by a16z Cultural Leadership Fund x Black Product Managers Network and had a great conversation with two Software Engineers exploring Product Manager roles.     Here's the summarized advice I gave below. I’m a very big proponent on amplifying your unique advantage to snag the role you want!  🗣   🔎 The Job Search Strategy - Use your technical background to your advantage and search for companies that will value that. Go after companies developing products/tools for software developers. These companies would value your POV and this also allows you to demonstrate your strong customer empathy.     - Narrow your search to high growth startups or enterprise (non-tech led) companies looking to bring in fresh new tech talent as they build up their tech orgs. These companies are willing to take a higher risk on early career PM’s.     - Use your industry or domain expertise to pivot. Find companies that are tackling that same industry/domain.   🛠 Up-skill/Re-skill Strategy   Start a passion project and build something you are passionate about. This will serve as your product portfolio, that you can speak too during interviews.     - Inquire if your current company has a program for you to shadow/rotate into a PM role. Reach out to PM’s at your company and setup coffee chats. Join a product club at your company or one of the many that exist in the industry.     - Join a hackathon as a PM. Take an instructor-led course or a self-guided course. There’s also an infinite amount of content on YouTube. 📌 Critical Thing to Consider Although software engineers and PM’s work together there are some key differences. Here’s a list of skills (mostly soft) that you should lean into more as a PM:   - Cross-functional collaboration. You are managing many stakeholders + user needs vs. working with just one team - Work at high level and in the weeds at the same time   - Be able to identify business/user needs + facilitate conversation to explore solutions vs. Architecting/leading with tech solutions    Have any engineers thought about making the leap in product? If you enjoy my content, repost and follow 👣 me Asia Mariah Stewart 👩🏾‍💻 for more.

7

2 Comments