Hearted Youtube comments on A Life Engineered (@ALifeEngineered) channel.

  1. This was by far and wide the best way to ask for a "like and subscribe". I watch many of your videos and just realized I wasn't subscribed, yet how you asked forced me to look and make sure. Well done! P.S. - I have an amazon SDE interview soon, wish me luck
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  2. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge! And best of luck in your future endeavors! You are really inspiring.
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  3. Wow, Support Eng to SDE in AWS here myself. "Better job than no job", exactly, also I gave myself a timeline to transition to SDE while in support role, and I did it
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  4. Ahh!! Perfect! I just did a video on this too. I like your take and your delivery on this one. Well done man. Thanks for sharing your story too.
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  5. Had my first entry-level job interview as a junior dev at a local company in my city, and you've been my guide in understanding what helped me secure the job. It led me to the point where my interviewer and I were negotiating my salary. Thanks a lot uncle StevešŸ˜†!
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  6. Haha, grindr for your pets, masterclass Steve
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  7. Bookmarking for this decade.
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  8. Watched this and this gave me MASSIVE hope. While watching this I got an interview which is ironic and I will keep this hope. Thanks for this video!!
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  9. Should I accept a promotion (to senior) without salary bump? The company told me moneys tight so there are no raises, but it doesnā€™t make sense as the revenue and outlook are both positive.
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  10. Principal Engineer tier delegation šŸ’ÆšŸ˜ƒ
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  11. RSU (stock award) vests every 3 months or 12 weeks. 10 weeks means Steve left 2 weeks after his last award. Youā€™re ā€œalways leaving money on the tableā€ with FAANG. Thatā€™s how they retain people, but he left close to the best time.
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  12. From John McEnroe's speech from Stanford, view the pressure to be a privilege to have. It is a privilege that you have this pressure/ opportunity and someone else would gladly take this opportunity. I thought that was an interesting take
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  13. Thanks for sharing this. I've always found promotions to be black box(y) especially in smaller companies who have no process. In large companies, it's tricky too like you said. Hoping to learn from your webinar.
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  14. Folks, this is how Steve would answer in an interview. It is really valuable in: which failure you pick, how you describe in clear manner. Thank Stave!
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  15. it's true. i have 300+ questions but the more questions i do, the less i get from leetcode. it might be cuz i keep choosing medium questions and i dont learn much from it. should try for harder ones.
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  16. Being a dad is such a blessing. Iā€™m a dad as well, starting my career as a software engineer, and my hobby is my bmw e30 restoration. I will definitely follow along and join your cohort once available. Sometimes at work I feel stuck, but change that attitude to grateful. Drop down I know thereā€™s more for my career. Accepting change is one of the biggest challenges.
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  17. Thanks for the quality content! I really appreciate how empathetic you are when answering questions.
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  18. How do you feel about the idea that it may be very risky pursuing a career at faang? If you get caught up in a layoff you will be rejected by other companies/recruiters for being damaged goods. I am a workaholic so I don't think i'd get booted for performance by I could certainly see getting caught up in bureaucratic bullshit that I have little control over.
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  19. This video came at the perfect time, I'm currently in this situation, got laid off after 1 year as a junior engineer
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  20. nerd
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  21. šŸŽ‰ Sign up to get 20% off a year of Brilliant Premium ā†’ https://brilliant.org/alifeengineered NEWSLETTER - Sign up to my free newsletter: https://newsletter.alifeengineered.com/general DISCORD - Continue the conversation on my Discord server. The advice section is chef's kiss - https://discord.gg/HFVMbQgRJJ PATREON - https://www.patreon.com/ALifeEngineered My content will always be free of charge but if you'd like to support the channel, I'd be honored if you supported me on Patreon.
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  22. Just read the analysis - one issue is it's not clear if doing more hard questions would actually make you perform better. It's just that people who do hard questions also perform better in interviews, ie there is room for confounders like "ability" or "educational background" which would simultaneously bias people toward doing harder questions rather than easier ones and those things also making you do well in interviews.
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  23. I started watching your videos when i was in a coding bootcamp, and now I watch them working from the Spheres! Excited for your next chapter.
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  24. The best video on job search that I've seen recently. Real life stories bring the point home. And I appreciate your willingness to help people get into Amazon! I am not ready for Amazon yet :) but I appreciate that you are not just offering generalized advice but practical help (7:07). I am working on my skills systematically and will get there someday.
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  25. #27 is so true, we must celebrate success before next life stressor comes, and #28 is the reason a good mechanical watch is worth getting over quartz. Good one Steve šŸ™Œ
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  26. Rahulā€™s advice is absolutely important !. I see it all day, everyday that most engineers shy away telling their stories in meaningful manner. Stories that follow STAR format make a ton of sense and people remember them. To all my fellow engineers, start telling the meaningful stories. Happy holidays !!.
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  27. I love your effort into these YouTube videos. I'm eventually planning on starting some YouTube content myself and you are an inspiration! I'm an SDE 2 (started at SDE 1) who luckily had a friend let me know about 401k + Mega backdoor Roth 401k at Amazon that I've been able to utilize (and save about $90k in my 401k accounts over the past 2 years). Speaking as someone who is in a MCOL (Seattle, Austin) 25% of your savings is a good place to start but is also likely too little. Housing is crazy now a days and in a MCOL city I think the goal should be 50% so you can save money for your future home/condo purchase. Also one thing that is crazy is the promotions at these large tech companies. I was able to get a promotion in about one and a half years at Amazon (Q1 this year), and got my stock grants priced at $100 a share (they are currently at $130). Now that has ballooned my TC up and I'm planning on selling all on my RSU vests and using this for my house fund, if I had not put in the extra hours here and there and delayed my promotion that would have cost me $30-60k over the next 2 years.šŸ¤Æ
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  28. I appreciate your candor in talking about your mistakes. Leaving over $250k on the table by not waiting 10 weeks is staggering to me. Thatā€™s an incredible amount of money and a short period of time. Hindsight being 20/20, what options were open to you? You mentioned dealing with anxiety, but were there other ways to deal with it in the short term? Did you have any PTO that you couldā€™ve burned instead, etc?
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  29. just 2x speed bro
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  30. What resonated with me in this was the idea of "guide, then let go". Even when you know you could just tell someone exactly what to do, or know that later on, someone's implementation won't be sustainable, letting it go is one of the hardest things to do. At least for me. But its true, the same way that I grew by being allowed to fail, make mistakes, and then level up, you have to give others that opportunity.
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  31. haha happened just to me, rocked my way up to the final round, rocked the most of loop rounds, but had bad feeling for 1 out of 5 interviews and I was correct it seems. More luck next time. First time I applied to AWS Iā€™ve failed first phone screening. Now 2nd time I got to final round and failed here. Third will be the one! šŸ˜‚
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  32. AI will reduce the need for drivers but it won't reduce the need for programmers?
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  33. I needed this, I am going to study computer science next year. I really value your perspective as a principal engineer and I would not value any other perspective!
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  34. No, you didnt listen. Its about saving some of that money. If you spend it all youll never retire with lots of money
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  35. Based on the expressions in the thumbnail, I thought everyone was going to offer sobering, harsh reality checks. But nope šŸ˜Thanks for collabing with all these creators!
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  36. 13:45 That was great!!! HA!! I'm dead ā˜ ļø.
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  37. "nice round number of 64 people". I see what you did there
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  38. Iā€™m frustrated I donā€™t have a job to start saving, but Iā€™m glad I know this stuff before starting. I canā€™t wait until either my security clearance goes through or another company is willing to give me a chance to break the chicken-and-egg problem: need experience to get experience. In the meantime Iā€™m going to try to live life to the fullest while continuing to make myself a better engineer in some way every day.
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  39. Why? Because he has a sponsor for this free video that was chalk full of FREE valuable insights and advice? You think that people should devote themselves to endeavours where they arenā€™t compensated, and that Steve doesnā€™t have a right to income to sustain himself? Get a grip!
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  40. The surgeon example was so insightful! Next level here I come!
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  41. this is so awesome Steve can't wait for this next chapter and congrats on taking the leap super inspiring!! :)
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  42. Steve, I canā€™t believe you are giving all this away for free. I just signed up and canā€™t wait to get started!
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  43. I recently joined big tech as senior engineer and my skip told me that I am not performing at my level. Please do a video on how to perform at senior engineer? Also, what do you think is a practical timeline for matching expectations after joining a new FAANG company as Senior engineer?
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  44. Steve, the pressure / doubt of promoting has been growing on me over time. But this video really helped me feel more at ease and recalibrated. I always appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge and perspective with us.
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  45. I'm a new subscriber, Steve, but your scripting, your manner of speaking and your editing scream "Principal Engineer at FAANG". And I mean that in a good way! Crisp and invaluable, like well written documentation šŸ˜… Would love to learn more from you! Thanks for making videos
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  46. I love a great SEV story. Thanks for sharing!
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  47. This is great, thank you for putting this video together. This is gold.
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  48. Terrible market, much needed video! I havenā€™t even watched this yet lol
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  49. I say the same thing that your company won't be at your bedside when you die!! Your family will! They grow so fast so savor each seconds! Mine will be 7y next month and my daughter is 5y.
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  50. Incredibly brave and transparent of you to share this .. good luck to you on the next amazing step of your journey !
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