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Gergely Orosz Profile picture
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27 Dec, 12 tweets, 5 min read
Here are the 5 most "impactful" and 5 most-read blog articles on The Pragmatic Engineer blog in 2021.

Though my focus has shifted to the newsletter starting late August, I still cross-post some newsletter issues that are free for all subscribers.

The list:
The 5 most "impactful" ones:

1. The Trimodal Nature of Software Engineering Salaries (152K views)

This post resulted in companies re-evaluating how they think about compensation & many engineers realizing there’s a “hidden range” of sw eng compensation.

blog.pragmaticengineer.com/software-engin…
2. What Silicon Valley "Gets" about Software Engineers that Traditional Companies Do Not (110K views)

Silicon Valley companies consistently "get" things their traditional counterparts fail to either understand or implement. The 7 biggest differences.

blog.pragmaticengineer.com/what-silicon-v…
3. Equity 101 for Software Engineers at Big Tech and Startups (70K views)

Any startup that does not issue equity for all employees/engineers is no startup in my book. A summary of key things you should know about equity, and things to pay attention to:

blog.pragmaticengineer.com/equity-for-sof…
4. The Pragmatic Engineer Test (13K views)

12 questions to get a sense of what a tech company is like to work at, based on things most job postings do not mention. All job listings on my job board fill out this test: pragmatic-engineer.pallet.xyz/jobs

blog.pragmaticengineer.com/pragmatic-engi…
5. Reverse Interviewing Your Future Manager and Team (6K views)

The best "career" hack I know of - and one many people shared they wish they would have done earlier.

blog.pragmaticengineer.com/reverse-interv…
The 5 most-read ones not mentioned above:

6. Performance Reviews for Software Developers – How I Do Them In a (Hopefully) Fair Way (85K views)

My approach to preparing for and delivering performance reviews that are fair, build trust & motivate people.

blog.pragmaticengineer.com/performance-re…
7. Preparing for the Systems Design and Coding Interview (83K views)

At Big Tech and high-growth startups, coding and systems design interviews are common - and fairly standard. My advice on how to best prepare for these.

blog.pragmaticengineer.com/preparing-for-…
8. System Design Interview Book Review: Finally, a Book for Getting Better at Architecting Systems (63K views)

My review of the excellent book by @alexxubyte. Surprisingly many people found this article.

blog.pragmaticengineer.com/system-design-…
9. How Big Tech Runs Tech Projects and the Curious Absence of Scrum (49K views)

A survey of how tech projects run across the industry highlights Scrum being absent from Big Tech.

blog.pragmaticengineer.com/project-manage…
10. Uber's Crazy YOLO App Rewrite, From the Front Seat (49K views)

I've worked on many projects throughout my career as a software engineer. However, Helix -Uber's Rider app rewrite in 2016 introducing Swift and RIBs- stands as the craziest project.

blog.pragmaticengineer.com/uber-app-rewri…
Read all articles on my blog: blog.pragmaticengineer.com

Starting from late August this year, I've started to write long-form articles similar to - but often deeper - to these blog posts, and more frequently. Subscribe to get these in your inbox regularly: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com

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More from @GergelyOrosz

Gergely Orosz Profile picture
23 Dec
“I’m a senior engineer and got an offer from a FinTech unicorn. The salary is higher than what I make and I heard good things about the eng culture.

BUT.

There’s no equity.

I’m conflicted if I should take it. What is your take?”

Ok, you know my thoughts on equity. But:
1. The best startups/scaleups offer meaningful equity to employee, especially engineers on top of a solid salary. Period. (More on equity: blog.pragmaticengineer.com/equity-for-sof…)

So this place is not top of market in this sense. However, this doesn’t mean you should ignore them:
2. Where are you right now? And why are your options?

Ask yourself these:
a) Do they pay more to what I make?
b) Would I learn more to what I learn now?
c) Are the people and challenges exciting?
d) Is this my best offer?

If the answer is “yes” to 3 out of 4, don’t ignore them.
Read 5 tweets
Gergely Orosz Profile picture
23 Dec
Do you have leftover budget for the year that you can expense for learning & development / professional development / training, as someone working in tech?

Here are four recommendations to spend it in ways that can help your learning you the next year:
1. Buy a book or two! I find them to be one of the best investments.

Here are more than 100 recommendations for those working in tech.

blog.pragmaticengineer.com/holiday-tech-b…
2. Get a tech-related newsletter subscription. Ones on technology substack.com/discover/categ… and business substack.com/discover/categ…

The most-read one for those in product is Lenny's Newsletter lennysnewsletter.com. I write for eng manager / engineers: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com
Read 4 tweets
Gergely Orosz Profile picture
15 Dec
"I just got a 12% raise at my company as part of the regular pay adjustment. It's because my director noticed someone in the same role made this much more than I do."

A real story, and a common one. Let me tell you how compensation and open salaries at Netflix work in practice:
1. Pay. Netflix pays top of the market... in cash. No equity (although you can ask for it). No bonuses. Just cash. A LOT of it.

How much? As much as competitors (Google, Meta, Amazon) etc pay and they move upwards with them when needed.
2. (Kind of) open compensation. Everyone who is at director or above at Netflix can see the compensation of *every* other Netflix employee - upwards as well. It's all cash, so they see one (big) number.

We're talking 1,000+ people. Unheard of at any other similar size company.
Read 8 tweets
Gergely Orosz Profile picture
15 Dec
“As someone working in tech, how can I get into angel investing?”

I’ve made ~10 angel investments the past months and here’s how I went about it (thread)

1. Big tech alumni. After I quit Uber I got invited to the Uber alumni investment club. Huh? So apparently these exist
1. (Cont’d) Facebook has one, Uber has one, and a bunch of other companies (even smaller ones). They’re places you can see deals come in, and put in from very small checks.

Granted this was lucky, but seeing dozens of pitches over months was helpful in learning on the side.
2. Help founders/startups without expectations.

My first investment came well after I talked with a founder from my network, offering advice, help and feedback as it was an area I was experienced in. When they later raised, I offered to join in, and it made perfect sense.
Read 8 tweets
Gergely Orosz Profile picture
13 Dec
If you work in tech, #TechTwitter is the place to learn, keep up to date and get inspired.

Follow the right people and you learn something new every day.

Here are 20 tech folks I always pay attention to. They tweet no fluff. Plus details on what to expect when following them:
1. @johncutlefish. One of the most inquisitive thinkers in product management. Asks questions that we should all be asking.

Tweets about: the beautiful mess of product management, engineering and the art of getting things done.

Sample of what to expect:
2. @rakyll long-time principal engineer at Google, now at AWS.

As an engineer, I just nod to almost all tweets of hers. They hit too close to home.

Tweets about: software engineering, engineering culture, and hard truths.

Sample of what to expect:
Read 20 tweets
Gergely Orosz Profile picture
13 Dec
An inconvenient fact: the most practical - and a very commonly used - use case for cryptocurrencies is to run Ponzi schemes, and cash in from them.

Someone creates a new currency, promotes it, and those getting in early make massive profits, at the expense of later customers.
Ponzi schemes are typically banned by governments when too many people lose money - which eventually always happens.

The unregulated and cross-border nature of crypto is the reason these schemes can go ahead.

A history of Ponzi schemes: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_P…
An example of a Ponzi scheme is Techlead creating a coin that has all characteristics of a Ponzi scheme. There's no value in it beyond buying early enough, then selling it.

The person making a profit of millions? Who created this useless coin: Techlead.

Read 4 tweets

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