EJ Groechel (Lin)

You're eager to get promoted as a junior SWE–I’ve been there. To rise through the ranks, you'll need to lead projects that unlock meaningful value for your customers. Luckily, I've walked this road many times over the past 3 years at Wayfair. These 6 steps comprise my battle-tested formula for success: 1. Establish credibility as a competent engineer. Your manager will be taking a risk by investing the team's resources to complete your project. Their reputation is at stake as much as yours, so give them every reason to believe your leadership abilities are worth taking a risk on. 2. Find a problem worth solving, then sell it. Look for high-impact issues your team can feasibly address. Choose one, ideate a few potential solutions, then write a data-driven document that enumerates these options and emphasizes WHY the problem is worth solving. You’ll need everyone’s buy-in, so craft a compelling narrative that drives conversations and facilitates alignment. 3. Eliminate ambiguity as early as you can. The more unknowns there are, the higher the risk of failure. Clarify that ambiguity early and often using these 3 strategies: a. Consult with subject matter experts on your team about the problem and its potential solutions. b. Build small proofs-of-concept to demonstrate feasibility of higher risk components. c. Proactively communicate roadblocks, so others can help you push past them. 4. Document your chosen solution. To ensure your team is building toward the same north star vision, author artifacts like technical specifications and scrum tickets that clearly define: a. The thing you're trying to build, and b. The steps required to build it. Add visual elements like recorded demos, UX mocks, or system diagrams to help others quickly grasp the desired end-state. Crystalize your understanding of the solution and spread that knowledge throughout the team. 5. Drive execution and lead by example. Parallelize tickets when possible and sequence blockers accordingly. Ruthlessly deprioritize features that aren’t essential to the initial release. Put instruments in place to measure the success of the project and quantify business impact. Set a high standard for code quality by leading the implementation efforts yourself. Review code written by other engineers to ensure it satisfies the requirements. 6. Identify key learnings for next time. Congratulations on delivering your project! Take advantage of this valuable learning opportunity to reflect on what worked and what didn't. Organize a time for your team to go through this process together, and extract action items for individuals to follow up on. Remember, failure is in the eye of the beholder. Either you win or you learn. P.S. I'm still perfecting the art of project leadership too, you're not alone. Which steps of this formula do you need to focus on this week? Comment below so we can all learn from each other!👇 #softwareengineering #leadership

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“While others might get caught up in building elegant technical solutions, I learned that stepping back and questioning our basic assumptions often revealed much more simple solutions hiding in plain sight…” Really good read with key pointers on how to spearhead a solid career in tech.

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A few months ago, my team and I had the honor of being one of the finalists for Headstarter Fellowship Track A, chosen over 15,000 participants or 3,000+ teams in the fellowship. What a ride it’s been! 🚀 The journey was intense—filled with late nights, endless brainstorming, and relentless coding sessions. But it was all worth it when we saw our vision come to life: Amplifier AI—a platform designed to redefine lead generation and customer engagement for startups and small businesses. 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝑨𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒓 𝑨𝑰? 𝑨𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒓 𝑨𝑰 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒈𝒂𝒎𝒆-𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓, 𝒆𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒑𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆: 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉. 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒍𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒚 𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉, 𝒆𝒏𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒔, 𝒘𝒆’𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒆𝒓. 💡 𝘍𝘶𝘯 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵: 61% 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘥𝘶𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘦𝘴. 𝘞𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥-𝘰𝘯, 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯. 🔧 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤 🖥 Frontend: Next.js, TypeScript 📊 Backend: Python, Prisma, PostgreSQL ☁ Cloud & APIs: AWS S3, OpenAI API 🔐 Authentication & Payments: ClerkAuth, Stripe 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐀𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐈 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐬  ? 1️⃣ AI-Powered Lead Generation Our platform automates outreach by identifying potential customers across LinkedIn, Twitter, and Reddit. Using sentiment analysis, it pinpoints users dissatisfied with competitors, helping you position your solution as their perfect alternative. 2️⃣ Seamless AI Chatbot Integration With just one script, integrate a chatbot into your website. It can: 1. Automatically scrape your site for key info. 2. Provide accurate answers. 3. Book appointments. 4. Process payments via Stripe. And it does all this to deliver 24/7 customer support, ensuring no lead slips through the cracks. The journey was tough, but the results speak for themselves. Huge shoutout to my incredible team Abdul Arif, Ali Meer, & John Victor Stephen Durairaj 🫡 sticking together throughout this process from designing the architecture of Amplifier AI to deploying live production code pushing the boundaries of what an AI can do. Special thanks to Nabeel Alamgir🦄 (CEO of Lunchbox) and Faizan Ahmed Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gNZVjTeU #SoftwareEngineering #SoftwareDeveloper #AI #ML #Webdevelopment #Frontend #Backend #LeadGeneration #Chatbots #AI #CustomerEngagement #BusinessGrowth #DigitalMarketing #AmplifierAI #Headstarter #TrackA #NextJS #OpenAI

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Fail often, fail fast and fail better

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Every year I double down on my belief that thoughtful code reviews are the single greatest act of love you can bestow upon a fellow engineer. If you're trying to elevate from "senior" to "principal" SDE, build a reputation on your team for consistently/timely/thoughtful code reviews and you're already halfway there (in my opinion). If you're already principal and tend to skirt code reviews (me, sometimes), it's quietly noticed a really great opportunity for improvement, because all it requires is your love & attention! ❤️ Guru code reviewers: feel free to tag on your tips/tricks/stories, or am I overcomplicating it?

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How to Become the #1 SWE at Your Company. 👇 Most people believe you have to be more technically capable than any other engineer to be considered "the best," but they’re mistaken. Doing so is highly unlikely, because you'll be competing against a LOT of brilliant, analytical minds. But thankfully, there's a different path you can follow. To see it, we must first understand the concept of "skill stacking," coined by Scott Adams. Consider this example: If you want to be the best coder amongst 1000 engineers at your company, you have to be in the top 0.1%. That's a tall order. You might dedicate your whole career to that task and still never get there. But if you want to be the best coder who can also design distributed systems AND lead teams to implement them, you need only be in the top 10% of each skill. Mathematically, 1000 x 0.1^3 = 1000 x 0.001 = 1 Or, a higher proficiency in one skill might compensate for lower proficiency in another: 1000 x 0.2 x 0.1 x 0.05 = 1 The more things you're good at, the easier it is to be considered "the best" at that unique combination of talents. Thankfully, being a great software engineer isn't confined to a single skill stack. All SWEs will overlap on some stereotypical capabilities, like the ones bolded on your resume. But some of us will be better writers, persuasive speakers, or UX designers than others. The key is to look for complimentary skills that others in your shoes are unlikely to possess. Become proficient in these to set yourself apart in a league of your own. But we can take this one step further. If you truly want to become the #1 SWE at your company (think: CTO), you won't be able to do it alone. You'll be leading many teams of engineers, meaning your ability to ensure their success will be part of your own skill stack. So how do we give those teams the highest chance of success? We compose them of engineers with unique and complimentary skill stacks of their own. For example, you'll want one or two engineers who can optimize the observability of your systems, and others that really understand the infrastructure upon which they rely. You'd also need a couple engineers who are talented writers and presenters, so they're able to interface with other teams about technically complex topics. And so on. Whether you're designing your own skill stack or composing teams of them, think about which unique combinations of talents will set you apart. Then go cultivate those skills with intention. You can be great at many of them – not the best at any particular one – and still climb to the very top. P.S. What skills are you working on adding to your stack in 2024? Mine are already in the comments! #softwareengineering #programming #coding

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It’s no longer news to anyone that Meta’s stock has been on fire, but how much would your TC have changed if you happened to join Meta at a 5 year low back in early 2023? Had a few folks reach out regarding my previous Uber stock growth post asking to cover Meta's stock growth so let’s take a look at a Meta E5 research scientist offer (senior level) submitted in January 2023 and see how it’s grown since then. Meta still utilizes a standard 4-year vesting schedule evenly vesting 25% each year. The total stock grant issued at time of hire was $700k over 4 years. With $META trading at $130 back in January ‘23, that comes to about 1,346 shares vested per year, or 5,384 total shares granted at time-of-hire. Using this month's lowest stock price to approximate the stock price for the 3rd year, this is what the equity growth has looked like: Year 1 (Jan. 2023): 1346 shares * $130 per share = $175k Year 2 (Jan. 2024): 1346 shares * $351 per share = $472k Year 3 (Jan. 2025): 1346 shares * $563 per share (using estimate) = $757k Year 4: (Jan. 2026): 1346 shares * $??? = $??? That's a ~4x increase in stock value at a relative mature company within a pretty short duration. This *is* a unique case in that the new hire happened to catch Meta stock at a 5-year low. If they didn’t sell any stock, their currently vested stock would now be worth ~$2.15M (representing 3,814 shares: 1,346 Y1 + 1,346 Y2 + 1122 vested so far in Y3). This year this individual is set to make just shy of $1M in total compensation ($215k base + $757k stock this year). Since there was some confusion around gross vs net on my previous post, this grant value is the gross value of your stock, before any taxes or withholding as with base salary. View this specific offer: https://lnkd.in/gJT44pZd View Meta research scientist salaries here: https://lnkd.in/gPsxk_jp #salarytransparency #stockgrowth #rsus

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"We started DoorDash to help local businesses, but we’ve always known that what we were building is much bigger than that." — Tony Xu Day 12 of making a portfolio project every day for the next 30 days. Yesterday, was my first day of doing a DoorDash side hustle, and it was a very enjoyable experience. However, I did notice one thing about the DoorDash app that could be improved: the app isn't compatible with Android Autoplay. I ended up driving the wrong direction for 10 miles, never picking up the order, and probably ruining my five-star reputation on my first day. Hence, I thought of ways that this could be improved. Note: This is a hypothetical, and DoorDash employees should consider before making any updates. For one, the map is not visible on the screen of the car dashboard, so it would've been nice if DoorDash could fix this. Hence, I wrote up a couple code snippets in a .pdf that DoorDash Software Engineers may choose or may not choose to implement into their services. Obviously, I can't access their codebase, but I'd definitely like them to at least improve the UI because it was so hard to find where I was going while driving on a highway. In many states, using your phone while driving is illegal, so I believe implementing this will help many people. Matthew 5:16 #PortfolioProject #AndroidAuto #UIUXDesign #AppDevelopment #SoftwareEngineering #SideHustle #TechImprovements #DrivingSafety #CodingLife #DoorDash #MobileApp

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Tech careers are weird In 2024, I worked as a Senior SWE at Meta building scalable systems while somehow growing into a tech career content creator with 55,000+ followers and a newsletter read by 15,000+ engineers. The biggest learning? Impact > Effort, always. What actually happened this year: • Built and shipped multiple features at Meta (day job comes first!) • Grew "The Hustling Engineer" newsletter to 15,000+ subscribers • Started creating tech career content on Instagram (@hemant_careerbytes) • Spoke about my journey at public events and podcasts • Turned 30 and realized I still can't center a div 😅 Key career insights I've shared: • Job security is becoming a myth - build your personal brand • Switching jobs every 3-4 years can accelerate growth • Leetcode style interviews aren't going anywhere (unfortunately) • Career growth is non-linear - some years are golden, others just maintenance • Being called a hard worker isn't always a compliment What's next: Starting paid newsletter subscriptions in 2025 (keeping strong free content too). More focus on helping engineers navigate both technical and career growth. And yes, still trying to fix that production bug from January. To everyone building in tech Keep pushing, keep learning, but don't forget to laugh at the process sometimes 😃 The world needs more authentic tech voices sharing both successes and failures. That's how we all grow.

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I never considered the mental overhead of loyalty program points on the customer, most of the times its just a surprise discount; not allowing the customer to appreciate the reward as much. Rewarding the customer on their birthday/special occasions definitely makes a much larger perceived impact than rewarding them based on a tally of some points. In addition to this, incentivizing a purchase might have a negative impact on brand value. So loyalty points may be a good idea for grocery chains but not for companies with higher brand values. Any points in favor of loyalty programs?

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💡 Working Smarter is a new podcast from Dropbox about how AI is changing the way we work and get stuff done—not in the future, but today. 🤖 On our first episode, hear robotics expert Kate Darling talk about how to think about our relationship with our machines. Click to listen below!

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What's going to happen to NVIDIA now that they've reached 3tn market cap? For the current employees and long timers... I've read stories of mid-level engineers who reportedly earned more than $60M via stock appreciation. Imagine the numbers for the more senior folks. How will NVIDIA keep folks around who are post-economic? And for all the new folks... The value proposition is complex. The company is the most valuable (by market cap) in the world. If they are heavily compensated via RSUs, the assumption is that there is significant remaining upside to be gained. It's incredibly difficult to continue orders of magnitude stock appreciation after reaching the absolute zenith... NVIDIA is an obvious tech darling - it looks and feels like a version of Google in the mid to late 2000's - but I'm really interested to see if the immense financial success of the stock will end up driving out the core talent group (eg, the long timers who are now mega rich) while also limiting access to new upstart talent who don't see a path to outsize financial success. Curious what others think!!

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After 5 remarkable years at Google I've decided to part ways to cofound a startup! Working at Google was an invaluable opportunity for which I'll be forever grateful. I wanted to share some observations I made throughout my tenure (these are anecdotes): 1) Google forces you to develop clear, especially written, communication skills since documentation and written proposals are a big part of the culture. 2) The talent pool is greater than any other place I've worked. I had imposter syndrome for at least the first year. 3) Work hours are variable by project, team, and individual. There are people I know that work 12 hour days and there are others that do half of that. People don't judge other people for how long they work. 4) Managers give lots of autonomy. I never for a moment felt micromanaged. 5) Learning happens naturally since you're frequently surrounded by individuals who know more than you do. It's hard to plateau.

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My friend Jason once told me about his encounter with Sam Altman during his YC batch in 2018. Altman asked him just one question: "What's your most important problem to solve right now?" At first, I thought, "Okay, that makes sense." But as Jason explained further, I realized there was much more to this simple question. 1. Alignment: It's not just about having an answer yourself. All co-founders must agree on the most important problem. If your cofounders have different answers, it means you're not aligned in your efforts and your efforts are not focused. 2. Commitment: Once identified, all cofounders must dedicate 100% of their effort to this problem. Startups face countless challenges, but solving the most important one can offer a glimpse of hope. Any resources spent elsewhere are a distraction. That's when my lightbulb moment happened. Since then, I've found myself thinking about this question quite often. The ideal state for any organization is when 1/ everyone shares a common understanding of the company's most important problem, 2/ each person knows how their responsibilities fit into this big picture. Traditionally, leadership teams answer the first question, while individuals and their managers tackle the second. But I've come to believe that it's everyone's responsibility to consider both questions deeply, especially in smaller organizations where you have access to more context and greater influence. What's your organization's most important problem right now? How does your role contribute to solving it? I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences on this approach to prioritization and alignment. #companybuilding #startup #YC

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**Day 2 as a Headstarter AI fellow with Jack O'Brien** Today, I had the pleasure of being introduced to Jack O'Brien (former Google software Engineer and tech lead, & former CTO of A16z-backed company “stonks”). In todays meeting Jack O'Brien shared valuable insights on how to acquire your first users, build a waitlist, and generate your first $1,000 in revenue. Here are some key takeaways. 1. **Create something cool enough**: Develope something as little as a landing page to get people to sing up and test if people would actually use your product. 2. **Leverage your network**: Get friends, family, and acquaintances to use your product and provide feedback. 3. **Promote Widely**: Share your product all over social media to gain visibility and attract users. A huge thank you to Jack O'Brien for the insightful session and to the Headstarter AI team Faizan Ahmed Yasin Ehsan 🚀 for organizing another great day of learning!

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This is a good post that seems to reflect how many business people may be seeing the future. Here is a little reaction just to the GenAI-will-change-coding part: I enjoy having access to quick softmaxed reproductions of scraped code examples as much as everyone else, but really wish we would all stop spreading the "bots are going to do the coding" trope that so many people in a decision-making position seem to believe in, without much basis and lacking the understand of what software engineering really is - not only producing code, but specifying behaviour and being able to change systems in the face of changing requirements. Good luck with copying-and-pasting that!

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3 types of documents you must master on your path to senior SWE: I rely heavily on each while leading projects across teams at Wayfair. 1️⃣ Discovery Doc → for exploring a problem. Goal: eliminate every doubt that the problem is a. Solvable, and b. Worth solving. 2️⃣ Technical Specification → for designing a solution. Goal: eliminate every doubt that the solution is a. Feasible, b. Accurate, and c. Optimal. 3️⃣ Implementation Plan → for breaking down the solution into smaller steps. Goal: eliminate every doubt about a. How to deliver the solution, and b. How long it will take. But here’s the real secret: These documents form a map of you career progression. Master the last two, and you’ll become an effective mid-level engineer, capable of designing and delivering detailed systems for ambiguous solutions. Master implementation plans, and you’ll become a high performing junior who can transform those designs into executable tickets. If you want to start honing these skills today, free templates for each doc are in the comments. 👇

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