MagicalNugget
MagicalNugget

A Staff engineer :: AMA

Why AMA?- New to GV. I see potential here; trying to gauge audience and perhaps I can talk about a thing or two; can definitely learn from ya’al otherwise.

Primer Qs (from some successful AMAs outside of GV)- What tech has better future? Is Ai going to kill our jobs? How to increase Tc 5x, 10x, 20x+? Startups vs big corps?

Background, Tc stuff- Decade+ yoe Started with <10Lpa. Crossed >10Lpm. Life is fun and no amount of money is enough. I’ve seen it firsthand that the investments and luxuries grow at far bigger rate than your comp, Can’t complain though.

13mo ago
Talking product sense with Ridhi
9 min AI interview5 questions
Round 1 by Grapevine
SillyDonut
SillyDonut
TCS13mo

Disagree with your last 2 lines...

Minimalism is the key to happiness, Period.

Qs - As a LinkedIn employee, don't you feel bad that LinkedIn doesn't have monetary benifit plan for creators like meta n Google?

FuzzyDonut
FuzzyDonut

That would just make LinkedIn even more spammy than it is now

MagicalNugget
MagicalNugget

Hard disagree. Maximalism can also very well be the key to success.
You cannot (and should not) hold the view that if you like minimalism, it naturally becomes the only winning strategy.

I am not entirely sure if I understand the complexity of your Q. Lin is basically a job board and extremely successful at being that. All the Feed, shorts etc are just a part of session extensions to incentivise folks to stay on the app + ads pays bills!
I am neutral to the sentiment that content creators aren’t incentivised in monetary terms but I reckon most folks use Lin as an extension to their brand creation and crux stays on YT.

MagicalNugget
MagicalNugget

Answering some common Qs.

How to increase comp by 5x, 10x+
(Here’s what worked for me. Its not guaranteed to work for everyone. If you are clear on responsibilities and are willing to put the hard work, I’hd wager that 💰 will just follow you)

  • Use first 3y to generate passion, learn the trade, learn how to learn! (Twister yea!), find gaps by looking at your local seniors, gaps dont mean you lack in something; it may very well be the case that your seniors are becoming/have become ‘toxic’ and in that case, learn what NOT to do so that you don’t become like them.
    Learn rhythm of the business.
    If possible, don’t chase 💰 at all.

Next 3y, amplify the learnings. You are a Sde2 now.
Check for opportunities to grow fresh grads/interns as successful sde1s. Its a very nurturing experience.
Learn office dynamics.

Next 3y you are now a Senior engg/ sde3.
Exec communication is a thing now. Stakeholder management is a thing now. You’ll be responsible for delivering a sufficiently big project. Think about its operability, manageability, performance etc.

Decade+
You are a Staff engg / sde4 now.
Your main goal is to grow your team, make important bets with your Director, fine tune OKRs, foresee potential misalignments, this is your opportunity to demonstrate leadership. You are DRI for a chunky project and you are doing tech reviews for your fellow Staffs, Seniors and Juniors.

SleepyKoala
SleepyKoala
Amazon13mo

I'll add a few more things.

  • Have role models to look up to early in your career. Work with them to draft a growth plan for yourself. Keep yourself and your manager accountable. You should drive career your growth discussions

  • As you grow through levels, your bandwidth becomes a blocker for your company/org. Learn to delegate effectively and learn to say no

  • ALWAYS be prepared for interviews. Make a switch as soon as you feel there's no growth for you. This is by far the fastest way to double/triple your comp

  • Be a keen observer. See what others around you do well and assimilate whatever makes sense to you

  • Focus on developing skills, compensation should be side effect of your talent

Beyond all this luck matters a lot. Things won't be in your favor all the time. Your effort and attitude is the only thing you control

MagicalNugget
MagicalNugget

🫱🏻‍🫲🏼

SquishyNugget
SquishyNugget
Dunzo13mo

Tne 10 lpm kese kra wo bta bas bhai

MagicalNugget
MagicalNugget

Replied as a separate thread 🧵 for everyone.

SillyDonut
SillyDonut
TCS13mo

Link?

GroovyDonut
GroovyDonut

I used to date a girl in your Bellandur office, she ghosted me saying mom won't allow 🙄. What is this behaviour?

MagicalNugget
MagicalNugget

Dam. Bellandoor gals are in a class of their own 😬 #been there!

But don’t worry. Give it ample time & you’ll find the one.

JumpyPotato
JumpyPotato

Bro is asking the real questions 😁

FuzzyDonut
FuzzyDonut

Are you from a prestigious college?

MagicalNugget
MagicalNugget

Prestige is man made.
We created a problem and then we started suffering from it.
My college was not top ‘tier’

PerkyWalrus
PerkyWalrus
CARS2413mo

Why am I reading with US accent 😐

MagicalNugget
MagicalNugget

Oh prey tell; why indeed 🤔

MagicalQuokka
MagicalQuokka

Do you hunt quadrilaterals?

ZippyPretzel
ZippyPretzel
Amazon13mo

A very general question, didn't you get bored with doing the same thing over and over.
I get not all projects are same, not all technologies are same but the gist remains the same.
Didn't you get bored ?
What keeps you motivated (given you have now earned a decent amount of money to pursue something else if you want) ?

MagicalNugget
MagicalNugget

On the contrary, Iv been fortunate to wear a lot of caps 🧢
Been in a stack much closer to metal and interfaced with C++, been full stack so I got AngularJs and Django api surface, been in proprietary language stack like C#,
Been in Python side, as well as Java

From Json + Http world, I moved to Grpc + Protobuffs

Its been fun!

DizzyPanda
DizzyPanda

For a senior engineer mostly working with JSON + HTTP, how does one move out of that mindset and work on these new protocols?

JazzyBagel
JazzyBagel

Tips to grow quickly for a fresher?

GoofyWaffle
GoofyWaffle

@BigCats I see a lot of people say that DSA is not required anymore. Is that true?

GoofyWaffle
GoofyWaffle

thanks for explaining. I need to work on my dsa

PeppyMarshmallow
PeppyMarshmallow
Student13mo

What kind of changes you had to make with regards to tech stack or core competency to go from 10 LPA to 10 LPM? What someone who is currently in your shoes of <10LPA should do to reach at 10LPM? Some tips which could be generalized and really helped you.

MagicalNugget
MagicalNugget

Iv tried to answer this in a separate thread 🧵
Overall, the more you aggressively chase big comp, more it becomes unlikely to get there. Unless you are doing the hard work in filling the skills gap.

No shortcuts that I know of.

GoofyBurrito
GoofyBurrito
  1. Do you still code?
  2. How do you learn the latest technology, not just the basics(can learn that from documentation), but the nitty gritties which are encountered when solving problems at scale. Are long running side projects the answer? ( I have 2 YOE)
  3. How do you design solutions given a problem statement, do you proceed step by step with RFCs, or wing it via POCs, or something else?
GoofyBurrito
GoofyBurrito

@annunaki Answer me m'lord!🙇🏻

MagicalNugget
MagicalNugget
  1. Yes. LoveIt!
  2. I look upto my Seniors (Senior Staffs+ ie) as they are more likely to have experienced certain pain points at scaling systems. Similarly my juniors look upto me. There’s a constant upskill in this sector. Keep reading engg blogs. Iv never been in a side project. My goal has been to stay focussed on the job (that is not to say that side projects are useless. They are not.)
  3. Its a culture thing. Most/All big corps will have a culture of writing RFCs/docs/pagers while startups will almost always go with PoCing stuff. Both cultures have +es and -es, as expected.
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