Nucleus HQ

Nucleus HQ Empowering India's top software talent to successfully transition into global tech careers

08/01/2024

The average Staff Engineer [E6] at Meta in the US makes $650,000+ per year. Back at Instagram, I worked with a prodigy who grew from E3 (junior) to E6 in just 2.5 years, faster than 99.99% of engineers. How did they do it?

They simply didn't miss.

When you're working at the scale of Instagram, everything has to be A/B tested. There's no point shipping new code if it hurts the user experience.

This is why Big Tech engineering is a lottery. Every new feature is a ticket as you hope for positive metrics so you can actually ship your code and land impact.

For myself and most other engineers, we had many, many experiments fail. But for this rockstar engineer, that wasn't the case. They kept trying stuff, and it just kept working.

What separated this engineer from everyone else was their immense product intuition. While most engineers focus almost entirely on the technical side, this engineer took the time to build up user empathy.

Because they had this more versatile skill set and perspective, they were able to deeply understand user problems and craft genuinely delightful solutions. So whenever they took a swing, they made sure it hit.

03/01/2024

There are a surprising amount of junior software engineers who are literally paid around $100,000 a year to sit around and do nothing. I was one of them.

Tech companies are god-awful with entry-level engineers. We all know how bad the interviews are, but it extends to onboarding and general scope as well.

Juniors need an extraordinary amount of support, because, well, they're new and don't really know what they're doing (yet). This is why many places are lazy and decide to provide 0 support instead.

While it sounds great to collect a free paycheck, this situation is actually extremely dangerous, often unfurling into a deadly career trap that can take years to recover from.

Every coaster job eventually disappears. Corporate bureaucracy can't shield you forever - Someone will eventually realize that your job shouldn't exist.

The problem is that if you were coasting too long, you will be radioactive in the job market. Nobody wants to hire an engineer with "2 years of experience" who can't actually do anything.

29/12/2023

If you're just starting with Node.js, here are some key foundations to focus on:

1️⃣ Run Node: Use the "node" command in your terminal to execute JavaScript code outside the browser. Explore the versatility of server-side and command-line applications.

2️⃣ Global Objects: Get familiar with built-in global objects like console, process, and require. They offer useful functionalities for Node.js development.

3️⃣ Module System: Learn the CommonJS module system to organize your code into reusable components. Import and export functionality between modules seamlessly.

4️⃣ File System (FS): Learn the Node.js File System (FS) module to interact with files and directories. Understand methods for reading, writing, and modifying files.

5️⃣ Error Handling: Gain insights into handling errors in Node.js. Use try-catch blocks, error-first callbacks, or promises for synchronous and asynchronous error handling.

6️⃣ Package Management: Explore the vast npm ecosystem. Install and use existing packages for web frameworks, database connectors, and utility libraries.

7️⃣ Command-Line Tools: Utilize Node.js to build powerful command-line interfaces (CLIs). Automate tasks, interact with APIs, and enhance productivity.

8️⃣ Server Development: Build scalable servers with Node.js. Explore frameworks like Express.js or Nest.js for robust APIs and web applications.

9️⃣ Testing : Embrace testing and use frameworks like Mocha or Jest to ensure reliable Node.js applications. Test at different levels for maintainable code.

🔟 Deployment : Learn about deploying Node.js applications in production. Explore deployment strategies, containerization with tools like Docker, and cloud platforms like AWS or Heroku.

25/12/2023

Sometimes it's refreshing to get back to basics and build something with just HTML, CSS and basic JavaScript.

Now don't get me wrong: modern JS frameworks like React and Vue are great.

They make it easier to build a lot of complicated websites and apps that weren't possible or feasible before.

But they also add a layer of complexity that makes some things more difficult than they have to be.

Either way, it will always be really helpful to have a great understanding of what's happening underneath with the 3 fundamental languages of the web.

14/12/2023

A career death trap I've seen so many engineers fall into is that they care too much about looking "strong" instead of actually growing into a strong person.

When they're faced with major adversity, they completely cloister up and silently push themselves past the brink to brute force solutions.

They won't ask questions or get the help they need, because they're afraid of looking incompetent and "weak".

This can work out for a little while as you can subsidize your productivity by throwing more hours at the problem, but it's not sustainable forever.

If you actually want to become a high-performing engineer, it's crucial to stop running away from reality by obsessing about perception. Embrace your gaps.

12/12/2023

Bad software company:
- Sets deadlines without consulting the team
- Sees you as a number with a profit percentage
- Doesn't provide you with any means to grow your skillset

Good software company:
- Works collaboratively with the team to set realistic goals
- Helps you to achieve more than you ever thought possible
- Provides courses, study leave, craftmanship days and growth opportunities

Find and work for the second.

Run away from the first.

05/12/2023

The Junior Developer Checklist:

1. Raise your hand when you need help
2. Aim to understand the problem, not just the code
3. Ensure you understand the process from requirement to delivery
4. Attempt a solution first - nobody wants to spoon feed you answers

Most importantly - practice, practice, practice.

What worked for you as a junior developer?

30/11/2023

Before you write a line of code, write down your plan.

Coding is easy, understanding the problem is hard.

Understand. Plan. Write.

25/11/2023

8 daily habits that will make you a better developer:

1. Dedicate time to learning
Block out specific time in your calendar for learning new languages, frameworks or best practices. The landscape is constantly evolving and you need to build the habit of staying ahead of the curve.

2. Practice-problem solving
Coding is all about problem solving. Tackle some coding challenges, build a real puzzle or do some brain teaser. Keep your mind active and improve your problem solving skills.

3. Collaborate and communicate
Great developers are team players. Practice effective communication through sharing your knowledge, ideas and experience with others.

4. Embrace code reviews
Don't shy away from reviews. Being open to feedback is the best habit you can have.

5. Prioritize time management
Break down work into smaller, more manageable tasks. This helps you to stay focuses and productive.

6. Write clean code
Take the extra time required to write cleaner code. It's an investment that has the best returns.

7. Test, Test, Test
Build a habit of thorough testing. You'll thank yourself later.

8. Take care of yourself
Your health and mindset directly impact your productivity. A healthy developer is a productive developer.

21/11/2023

Developers should focus on their soft skills:

- Attitude
- Mindset
- Empathy
- Approach
- Communication

You'll naturally become a better developer with time.

You won't become a better teammate or leader unless you intentionally seek to improve.

19/11/2023

Forget FAANG, forget "clean code", forget all the buzzwords lazily associated with peak engineering career growth and focus on something much more important instead: People.

I have worked with so many hard working engineers who were unfortunately also struggling. It was almost never an issue with their technical skill.

The underlying root cause of their pain almost always stemmed from weakness in their professional relationships.

Whether it was a low-trust manager leading to a bad performance review rating or not having a broad enough network to get meaningful referrals, the core of the problem was people.

Technical skills are relatively easy to build. It's the most talked about part of software engineering and there are gazillions of resources to teach them to you.

Relationships on the other hand are much harder to build. They inherently take lots of time to foster and grow, and there's far less material to help you.

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