Rahul Pandey

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Rahul worked at Meta (Facebook) from 2017 - 2022, getting promoted from Senior [E5] to Staff [E6] in the process. A critical part of his promotion was the creation of a new internal tool to easily debug and fix tricky Android issues. The tool grew to 250+ engineers regularly using it. This talk details how Rahul was able to identify and create the scope for the tool. The course will cover patterns and tools that you can apply to your own job.

[Case Study] Building A Meta Internal Tool To Empower An Entire Org: Staff Promotion Story

Break past the senior level. Implement the frameworks and tactics to optimize your promotion to Staff Engineer. 

Founder at Taro, ex-Staff Eng/Manager at Meta

Senior to Staff - Land Your Promotion As An Engineer

software engineer

Staff Software Engineer

Tech Lead Manager

Data Engineer

Senior Manager, Cloud Platform Engineering

Senior Software Engineer

The Engineering Career Coach

Senior software engineer 

As the first terminal level in your career, senior engineers independently solve problems and deliver business value. Many engineers are stuck for years as senior engineers, often receiving feedback like this about their promotion: - "You don't have enough scope"- "You're not working strategically enough"- "You need to drive problems with more technical complexity" It's easy to hear this and feel stuck. How can I translate this into action? The promotion beyond Senior Engineer (generally called Staff or Principal Engineer) is not about working faster or longer -- it's about behavior change that enables you to tackle more difficult problems. Across my 4.5 years working at Meta, I experienced the frustration of failing and then finally achieving the Staff Eng (E6) promotion. This course distills years of my own career experience as an IC, transitioning to management, and talking to 500+ engineers directly to observe patterns that hold engineers back at this critical inflection point. Course content (6 hours of live class, June 15/16): - How to know where you stand on the path to promotion.- How to get (or create) scope on a team with many talented engineers.- How managers and directors perceive very senior IC roles.- How to apply frameworks to identify impact that is commensurate with a Staff+ promotion.&nbsp;- How to overcome failure modes of attempted Staff promotions. This course is intended to have value for much longer than the 2 days of live sessions. Each student will receive a complementary Taro Premium membership ($400 value) to expand your network and stay connected to course members. (If you're already in Taro Premium, you'll get a discount in lieu of the 1 year of membership.)

Don't leave your growth to chance

Course syllabus (starts Jan 22)

We'll have lectures, discussions, and guest speakers for the 2 core days of the class. This time will be high-density and filled with active learning.

Saturday and Sunday

After each live session concludes, Rahul will stay with the class for an additional 30 minutes to answer any and all questions.

Bonus Office Hours

Unlock recorded stories from other engineers who landed the promotion to Staff Engineer, with tactical advice from their journey. Accessible via your Taro membership.

Curated Case Studies

All students will get a free year of Taro Premium membership. Use this to access masterclasses, vetted discussions with other engineers, local meetups, and job-searching workshops.

Taro Premium Membership

Course schedule

You're a senior engineer in Big Tech looking to get promoted, but struggling to find scope and influence. e.g. Google L5, Amazon SDE 3

You're an engineering manager or director and want to provide concrete guidance for your engineers to achieve career growth.

You're an engineer who wants to validate your career direction by learning how very senior engineers are evaluated at larger companies.

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

Promotion comes down to two axes: impact and scope. We'll dive into the Talk &amp; Observe framework to methodically understand the role of L6+ ICs and what behaviors they exhibit.

Define the Staff Engineer role and what that means for you

We'll identify the 6 archetypes of Staff Engineers: (1) Generalist (2) Specialist (3) Coding Machine (4) Tech Lead (5) Fixer (6) Product Hybrid. Promotion requires both an understanding of your strengths as an engineer and the needs of your organization.

Chart a path to Staff Engineer

Grasp the mental model of the managers who sponsor (or block) Staff level promotions. We'll also dive into how your manager relationship should change as you become increasingly senior.

Deconstruct how managers and directors at top companies approve promotions

Promotions are not random: judgments are made with people and data as inputs. We'll walk through how to understand what matters, and how to use that information to increase your promotion chances.

Gain confidence in the promotion process

Your network is your most valuable career asset. All students receive complimentary access to <a href="https://www.jointaro.com/membership/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Taro Premium</a>. Through this course, you will connect with other high-caliber engineers and learn from their success and struggles.

Join our engineering community

Onboarding Strategies For Engineers

Former Staff Eng [E6] + EM at Meta. Taught 80K engineers. Stanford lecturer.

Build respect with your new manager and team.

My Talk & Observe framework

Learn crucial context and history from colleagues on your team or adjacent teams.

4 key questions to ask your colleagues

Too many engineers are surprised with negative feedback in their first performance review -- we'll discuss why.

Learn directly from Rahul Pandey

Rahul Pandey

Courses

Senior to Staff - Land Your Promotion As An Engineer

Lightning Lessons

Onboarding Strategies For Engineers

Resources

[Case Study] Building A Meta Internal Tool To Empower An Entire Org: Staff Promotion Story