Luyện nói tiếng Anh bằng Shadowing qua video: ex-Google Senior Engineer: How to Get Hired So Fast It Feels Illegal

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Software engineering companies have cut more than 100 ,000 jobs, but at the exact same time, job postings hit a three -year high.

Các công ty kỹ thuật phần mềm đã cắt giảm hơn 100.000 việc làm, nhưng đồng thời, số lượng tin tuyển dụng việc làm lại đạt mức cao nhất trong ba năm.

Both of these statistics are true, and if you don't understand how, you are wasting your time.

Cả hai con số thống kê này đều đúng, và nếu bạn không hiểu tại sao lại như vậy thì bạn đang lãng phí thời gian của mình.

This is Maddie, Senior Software Engineer ex -Google, interviewed at OpenAI, Meta, Databricks, and Netflix.

Đây là Maddie, Kỹ sư Phần mềm cấp cao từng làm việc tại Google, đã tham gia phỏng vấn tại OpenAI, Meta, Databricks và Netflix.

And in this video, she's going to walk you through every single step of getting hired in 2026.

Và trong video này, cô ấy sẽ hướng dẫn bạn từng bước một để có được việc làm vào năm 2026.

The market, the resume, the projects, the skills, the interviews, and eventually the offer.

Thị trường, hồ sơ xin việc, các dự án, kỹ năng, các buổi phỏng vấn và cuối cùng là lời mời nhận việc.

Let's get started.

So Maddie, everybody watching this has seen the layoff headlines.

We've got Oracle layoffs, meta layoffs, Amazon layoffs, hundreds of thousands of total firings, job cuts, and layoffs so far in 2026.

And because of that, most people think tech is dying.

You're a senior engineer inside big tech, and you've actually gone through the data.

So what's the truth?

Is big tech actually dying?

That's a good question, and that's something I myself have asked myself over and over again.

The short answer, no, big tech is not dying software engineering is not dying, but the role itself is evolving very, very fast.

So like I mentioned, there's a lot of layoffs, but on the other hand, companies like Google,

OpenAI, Anthropic are hiring more and more engineers to build the AI

that other people are saying are going to take over all of the software engineering jobs.

So I like to say the market didn't actually shrink, it split.

So what that means is there's now kind of like a bimodal distribution of jobs.

the old way was basically

if you were a junior engineer

you would get in you'd spend some time getting acquainted with

the code base you'd submit some rudimentary fixes some bugs some small projects

and you build your way up nowadays with ai with you know clod

or open ai chat gpt can understand a code base for you people no longer have

that grace so what that means is instead now juniors are expected to use ai to onboard

and to start producing code faster and faster and to more of a level compared to senior or sophomore engineers.

I will say that even though when I was interviewing, people didn't as much ask system design questions for juniors,

now more than ever, it is important, if you can, to study your system design fundamentals even as a junior

because you can tell AI to write code for you and AI will write code for you.

But if you don't understand how the code will fit in the big picture of your system, you could end up with just jarbled,

unmaintainable, incorrect code that just happens to work with the specific use case that you prompted your AI with.

So another thing I'm going to say is that I believe

that AI is being used as kind of like a scapegoat for job cuts.

So a lot of companies, like this has happened in cycles in the past, a lot of companies go through phases where they think,

Vì vậy, rất nhiều công ty, như điều này đã xảy ra theo chu kỳ trong quá khứ, rất nhiều công ty trải qua các giai đoạn mà họ nghĩ rằng,

oh, we should cut costs and we can do this by, you know, moving headcount from high cost of living areas like

Ồ, chúng ta nên cắt giảm chi phí và chúng ta có thể làm điều này bằng cách, bạn biết đấy, chuyển nhân sự từ những khu vực có chi phí sinh hoạt cao như

New York and the Bay Area and moving them overseas use.

New York và Vùng Vịnh và việc chuyển các cơ sở này ra nước ngoài để sử dụng.

And especially with AI, they're like, oh, we can replace engineers with AI.

Và đặc biệt là với AI, họ cứ kiểu như, ồ, chúng ta có thể thay thế các kỹ sư bằng AI.

However, there are multiple instances of this not working the way that people intended.

Tuy nhiên, có nhiều trường hợp điều này không hoạt động theo đúng ý định của mọi người.

So for example, I don't know if you've heard of like AWS Kiro.

Ví dụ, tôi không biết bạn có nghe về AWS Kiro chưa nhỉ.

Yeah, so what happened was there was an internal agent within Amazon.

Ừ, chuyện là có một nhân viên nội bộ trong Amazon.

And what it did was it actually caused like a pretty big production outage in I think December of last year.

Và điều mà nó gây ra là một sự cố ngừng hoạt động sản xuất khá lớn vào khoảng tháng Mười Hai năm ngoái.

And it basically triggered a whole set of protocols where now you need to have more human loop.

Và điều này về cơ bản đã kích hoạt một loạt các quy trình, theo đó bây giờ bạn cần có sự tham gia của con người nhiều hơn.

This is an example of a big company trying to use AI to replace a software engineering role, but it ended up much worse for them.

Đây là một ví dụ về một công ty lớn cố gắng sử dụng AI để thay thế vị trí kỹ sư phần mềm, nhưng cuối cùng kết quả lại tồi tệ hơn nhiều đối với họ.

So I think that, yes, a lot of tasks are getting automated.

Vì vậy tôi nghĩ rằng, đúng vậy, rất nhiều công việc đang được tự động hóa.

And yes, like as a junior, you're expected to perform faster and faster, but fundamentally the job itself is here to stay.

Và đúng là, khi còn là nhân viên mới, bạn sẽ được kỳ vọng làm việc ngày càng nhanh hơn, nhưng về cơ bản thì chính công việc này vẫn sẽ tồn tại.

Like as we have more AI generated code, more AI in our day -to -day, we also need engineers who understand AI,

Khi chúng ta có ngày càng nhiều mã được tạo ra bởi AI, và AI ngày càng hiện diện nhiều hơn trong cuộc sống hàng ngày, chúng ta cũng cần những kỹ sư thực sự hiểu về AI.

who can, you know, run evals, who can build the infrastructure for the AI.

những người có thể thực hiện các đánh giá, những người có thể xây dựng cơ sở hạ tầng cho hệ thống AI.

So it's definitely like a two -way story.

Vì vậy, đây chắc chắn là một câu chuyện hai chiều.

It's not just is tech big tech dead or not nice

Vấn đề không chỉ là các tập đoàn công nghệ lớn đã chết hay không, hay chúng có tốt đẹp hay không.

so one question i have as well maddie is

Một câu hỏi nữa tôi muốn hỏi là, Maddie ạ,

that kind of back to those statistics we talked about earlier i mean layoffs just keep happening everybody knows

điều đó phần nào quay lại với những số liệu chúng ta đã nói trước đó, ý tôi là việc cắt giảm nhân sự cứ liên tục xảy ra, ai cũng biết điều đó.

that it's like you know oracle amazon meta etc

giống như là bạn biết đấy, Oracle, Amazon, Meta và các công ty tương tự vậy

but then the number of jobs is actually going up right

nhưng rồi số lượng việc làm thực tế lại đang tăng lên đúng không

so both layoffs and job postings are increasing

vậy là cả việc cắt giảm nhân sự và số lượng tin tuyển dụng đều đang tăng lên.

so do you have any idea how this is happening

vậy bạn có biết tại sao chuyện này lại xảy ra không?

because i would expect okay if there are layoffs happening

vì tôi sẽ thấy bình thường nếu có việc cắt giảm nhân sự diễn ra.

that means there are too many roles companies are just hiring less in general

điều đó có nghĩa là hiện có quá nhiều vị trí, và nhìn chung các công ty đang giảm quy mô tuyển dụng.

but it seems like both are simultaneously happening that's a great question

nhưng có vẻ như cả hai điều đó đang xảy ra cùng lúc, đó là một câu hỏi hay đấy.

i will say there are a lot of engineers

Tôi sẽ nói rằng có rất nhiều kỹ sư.

that uh i think they call it boomerang like they in the past

ừm, tôi nghĩ họ gọi đó là boomerang, giống như hồi trước họ vẫn gọi vậy.

it was by choice they would like leave one company to go to a different company

Họ tự nguyện rời khỏi công ty này để đến làm việc tại một công ty khác.

and then come back for more pay and more comp nowadays i think software

và rồi quay lại để nhận lương cao hơn và đãi ngộ tốt hơn, ngày nay tôi nghĩ là ngành phần mềm.

companies are realizing sometimes

các công ty đang nhận ra rằng đôi khi

if they lay off uh you know a bunch of engineers they're actually going to need the same knowledge

nếu họ cắt giảm, ừ, bạn biết đấy, một loạt kỹ sư, thì thực tế họ vẫn cần những kiến thức đó.

that some of those laid off engineers had

rằng một số kỹ sư bị sa thải đó đã có

so they're going to rehire them

vậy là họ sẽ tuyển dụng lại những người đó

so that's actually some of the discrepancy

vậy đó chính là một phần của sự khác biệt đó.

it's um some of the engineers like talented engineers who got

đó là, ừm, một số kỹ sư, những kỹ sư có năng lực mà họ đã có được

laid off through no fault of their own their original company realizes hey like we actually need

bị sa thải mà không phải lỗi của bản thân, sau đó công ty cũ của họ nhận ra rằng ồ, thực ra chúng tôi cần họ.

you this is actually critical it's happened in many companies out there

so that explains some of it and also um because it is kind of employer's market.

I think employers have a little bit more leeway when it comes to, oh, like this is who we're going to keep,

this is who we're going to get rid of.

So because of that, they are able to get, quote, like the best software engineers because they are able to use like other engineers

that got laid out by other companies and use those to fill the headcount

and then release engineers from roles that are deemed like less important for the company.

So unfortunately, that is the case.

Like you can, through no fault of your own,

lose your job and your company will have no problem right now replacing you because of the state of the job market.

A lot of tech companies model the behavior after other big tech companies.

So as soon as one tech company does this, and even if there's backlash, more and more companies realize,

oh, this is a viable option that we can do because there's precedent now.

Interesting.

So it sounds like a lot of the time these companies will do massive layoffs and then realize they overlaid off.

Similar to overhiring, they overfired.

And they essentially rehire a of people

i'm still confused about like why do they still keep doing rounds of layoffs is

that just normal like the way it works is they over they hire a bunch

and they just like try a bunch of projects

and then just do layoffs with ones that don't work is

that kind of like the normal cycle

or essentially what i'm asking is are layoffs here to stay

or will there be a point where they tend to slow down

and stop essentially i think

that they are here to stay for at least the next few years

because there's also precedent and specifically nowadays it's in 2026

so you know how in 2022 and 2021 and 22

when everyone is telling everyone to get into self -engineering right

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now there's like a big surplus of people who are new grads

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or a year or two into like non -seniors who want jobs

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and because of that you know supply

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and demand the companies can then realize oh we have like

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so many people want jobs we can afford to pick

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and choose however i think this is a cycle thing we've seen this in the past once it becomes clear

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that software engineering is not just like the career to go into

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if you want to make money then people will no longer go just

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because they want to get rich right they'll you'll get there's less people into the field

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but people who are genuinely more passionate about the field

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and as a result i do think that will decrease the supply

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and then therefore like that will therefore shift the market more toward the employee

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so i think it's going to be similar to what it is for at least a couple of years.

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But I personally am optimistic that after a while, we'll reach a more steady equilibrium.

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Nice.

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It's kind of like how

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Warren Buffett says, when people are hyping up a stock, you should sell because it's overvalued.

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And when people are freaking out because they think an industry is dying, that's the time to actually invest.

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It feels like software engineering is in that second category where

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everybody and their mother are talking about how it's the worst field ever.

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Don't get into software engineering quit your degree go burn your degree get a job at chipotle

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but in actuality maybe

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if you actually double down still try to recruit build your

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profile get better at engineering in two to four years you'll be ahead of a lot of people at

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that point exactly okay so we just talked about how software engineering as a whole isn't dead

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and there are jobs that definitely exist

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but the real question is what kind of jobs are those

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and how do they differ compared to three to four years ago

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and who are the kind of people profiles backgrounds who actually get those jobs today

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so i think a big difference between a software engineering now

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and even like three four years ago was

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that it was totally fine to be a generalist three four years ago

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you could find good job without any specialization however i believe

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that that era is now dead with ai being able to do a lot of generalist roles

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and be able to take um be able to generate a lot of code that's general,

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it is more and more important to be an expert and to go into specific niches.

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And I'm not saying that everyone has to be an AI engineer per se.

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I'm just saying that you need to know how to like go deep into like, I don't know, like Docker,

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React or something like that and use AI effectively.

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I think a lot of engineers, even me up until like pretty recently, to be honest, like I would just like be,

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I would just prompt like randomly, just like type in words and see what comes out

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but more and more so prompt engineering is a more valuable skill as time goes on

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and even as the models get more powerful

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and more powerful um you can still get really bad results

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if you just prompt randomly versus if you are good about how you prompt

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and for example if you tell claude

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or tell chat gbt this is like the general design

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i want this these are the these are the um like this is the stack otherwise

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you'll always have like what like super base

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or you'll have like the the the react like whatever the ai spits out for you

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so you just mentioned how the era of the generalist is dead

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and gone and long live the specialist in software engineering

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so i'm curious to dive more into that what are those specialist niches

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that people can go into especially if they're a computer science student

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or a new grad with just zero to three years of experience at the junior level.

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I would say that it's important to explore and figure out what you are good at, what you want.

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So, for example, I have friends who are in, like, cybersecurity, databases, front -end, too.

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Like, there's, like, my friends who are really good at React, and I think, maybe it's a hot take.

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Like, I personally don't think front -end is going to die entirely.

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Like, to be honest, like, I have prompted AI to do front -end, and when I don't, if I'm not careful,

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it looks very, you know, like, AI purple haze.

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So I think there's still some time before AI can generate a front -end that doesn't look very AI -generated, in my opinion.

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So yeah, things like that, especially security.

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I feel like every other week you hear stories of someone who vibe -coded an app

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and lost thousands of people's personal data.

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That happens a lot.

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So knowing the fundamentals is more and more important as time goes on.

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And finally, I think infra is really important.

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Like, even if, you know, you have great models, you'll always need infrastructure to run those models on.

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So I don't think that role is anywhere near getting extinct.

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So how does one actually specialize in some of these niches at an early stage?

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Because I don't think these universities are adapting very quickly.

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People still do a general computer science degree with data structures, algorithms, maybe like a databases course and be like user interfaces course.

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But how does one actually pick a niche and specialize in it early on?

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That's a great question.

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I would say building your own projects

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and even it's like a really small project something

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that i don't think i was very good at

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when i was in university was i would just you know build only for my internships

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or for uh my classes

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and i would maybe build for like you know really small projects for hackathon

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but i never really dug deep so if i were to go back

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and redo things like i definitely would try to pick more than a toy project

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and i think especially now with ai it's much easier to prototype something

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so i would say pick a project

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that does have to do with the field

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that you're trying to specialize in and just like build something and then just like,

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you know, ask your AI the questions to understand actually the code is writing.

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Don't just like prompt and just like forget about it until it like messes up like months later.

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On that note, let's talk about projects.

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You made a video about four resume projects that got you into Google,

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but it's 2026 and AI can generate a slot project in seconds and every recruiter knows it.

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So what kind of projects today make recruiters drop scrolling?

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That's a great question.

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I'm going to fully echo that the projects

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that i personally made with my you know organic code with

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my own hands would probably not definitely would not raise would not meet the bar today the type of projects

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that would get you noticed are not toy projects not to do's

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they're not like oh i follow tutorial they're projects

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that would solve like a part like a legitimate problem in your life

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and it'd be and something that is a plus you don't have to it's like

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if you build in a way even you don't have

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that many users it is scalable to many users because

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that shows the recruiter that you understand things besides like how do I make it work for one user?

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You can understand like oh

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if I want to make

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it for like a thousand like this is how I can like shard a database it's like xyz.

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I also think that nowadays projects that utilize AI are also in more high demand.

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So for example if you can like build a second brain

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or if you can build like your own MCP server for a particular use case

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or if you're building a rag system those are very useful projects

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that will not only teach you a lot be very useful in your day -to -day,

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but also will show a recruiter that you know what you're talking about.

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I totally agree with that point.

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What I often tell people to do is forget projects in your bedroom and almost make like a mini micro startup.

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Find a real world problem, something that either you struggle with or friends and family struggle with and actually aim to solve that through software, right?

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I mean, that's the point of coding in the first place.

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It's like solving real world problems.

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And it's a lot more impressive to a recruiter or hiring manager when you've launched your project, you've launched your app, You have actual users,

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even better paying users, people who are getting real value and you're able to scale it to them.

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So that's what I'd recommend.

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Don't just build a calculator in your bedroom.

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Anybody can do that in half a second, right?

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Focus on building real world projects to solve real problems.

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But on that note, how useful are projects nowadays?

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Like if you're talking to someone who's a computer science student or an early career engineer, would you even recommend projects?

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Or should they focus more on other things like maybe internships, hackathons, research, etc.? I don't think those are mutually exclusive.

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I think having maybe I would say quality over quantity.

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So don't just like spin up 30 projects.

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Definitely, if you have like one or two that you want to focus on, actually productionize, focus on that.

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I will say some of the projects that I've heard of have come from hackathons.

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So hackathons are a great way to not just learn yourself.

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It's also to find a team.

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And if you find a team and you build a project

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that you're really excited and you want to build it to something real outside the hackathon, that's even better.

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I would say internships are still important if you can get internships.

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But I know currently there aren't as many companies, like as many roles open for internships.

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So like if you don't get an internship, totally fine to build your own thing to see what you can do.

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Kind of like you mentioned, like being like a mini startup mode.

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But if you can do an internship, I would still highly recommend that because I think that having internships on your resume.

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really, really helps future companies want to hire you.

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On that point about hackathons, I 100 % agree.

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I think hackathons by their nature are competitive.

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A calculator app isn't going to cut it.

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You're forced to build a project that's resume worthy in a hackathon setting

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because otherwise you wouldn't even place or do well at all in the hackathon.

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Another benefit of hackathons is it's done in a team setting, like you said.

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So you can get three or four people together, build those connections, and then build a project that's actually way better in

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that team than you could do on your own in a 24 -hour, very short window.

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So all in all, hackathons, 100 % worth it.

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I would highly recommend.

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Actually, I'll ask you, did you do any hackathons in college that you ended up building connections from or any projects from?

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Yeah, I did a couple.

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So I went to MIT.

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We had this hackathon called HackMIT.

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It's very, I think it's very popular, like a lot of people go.

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So I was able to meet friends from other schools as well and like form connections.

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I'm still friends with them for this very day.

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And also an example of how hackathons can help you find

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um really cool people to connect with i recently went to an opus 4 .8 hackathon that's hosted by

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anthropic in san francisco

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and one of the winners was a group of two guys um

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they didn't know each other before the hackathon they met one of them actually from mit

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which is why i ended up talking to him

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and like they built a really cool project like it was

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like basically being able to um build like a you you could take a photo

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and then a 2d photo

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and then you'd use like ai to generate like a 3D model of it

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and then you could place it into like a virtual world

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and you could world build it and I thought that was really impressive.

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So that's an example of a project that was really impressive

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that was made possible only

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because this hack fund brought two people who did not know each other from Oxford Science of the US together.

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Listen up, if you're struggling to land an amazing software engineering full -time job

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Cool, so we just talked about projects.

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Let's talk about learning, courses, and books.

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Most people are completely overwhelmed with random Udemy courses, leak code, some random AI tutorial,

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a system design playlist, but no idea what actually matters or what order anything goes in.

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So let's go from zero to hired.

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What are the few best courses and books that people should actually pay attention to?

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The first thing I say is it doesn't matter as much, especially in the AI era, what language you use when coding.

292

So pick the one that is most comfortable for you in the interviews.

293

I personally use Python.

294

I have friends who use like Java, JavaScript.

295

Some use C++.

296

I'm not going to comment on that, but if it works for them, it works for them.

297

They got good offers, so they know what they're doing.

298

Second, I would say fundamentals still matter.

299

Like I know right now, most companies are focusing on AI assist interviews.

300

So lead code, the type of data destruction algorithms problems are probably going to like decrease a lot

301

and maybe maybe just stop in the next couple years

302

but as of right now

303

when we're recording this video a lot of companies still ask those

304

so for better for worse so for

305

that i would highly recommend cracking the coding interview

306

and rereading um clrs which is like the standard textbook

307

that teaches all the fundamentals for data destruction algorithms i will also say

308

that even if you don't use recursion or balance a binary tree every day in your job,

309

knowing the fundamentals is still useful

310

and you don't want to be in a position where you

311

need to have your AI explain every single thing to you

312

while you're trying to debug an issue because that's just bad for you and bad for the company.

313

I feel like maybe everybody knows about this, but I think NeetCode genuinely the best resources online

314

if you want a video format for learning data structures

315

and algorithms rather than the book format but

316

if you can somehow get yourself to read a book I think you'll also probably learn more

317

that way so that's what I used I ended up using need code stuff back in the day

318

and then next I would say system design especially

319

if you are going for a more senior role is more

320

and more important as someone who came from big tech even

321

if you use system design in your company sometimes

322

if you are work for a big enough company the stack

323

that you use might not be standard so definitely recommend refreshing

324

and like constantly learning what is new

325

and what is widely used in the fields so for

326

that i recommend personally um i really like hello interview

327

so i think they have they have a bunch of youtube videos

328

i think they have a page here as well

329

i personally didn't pay for it like i use their free youtube videos the reason why i like them is

330

because they basically give you mock interviews for very like standard

331

system design questions like for example oh like design like youtube feed

332

or design facebook but what is really good is that they not only tell you what is passing, They also tell you what isn't passing,

333

like what are common mistakes that candidates make.

334

They also tell you this is passing for a mid -level candidate.

335

This is passing for a senior, for staff.

336

So it's really a great way for you to calibrate yourself.

337

And it gives you not just the right answer, but why that answer is the right answer.

338

Do you think system design is a non -negotiable for early career engineers today?

339

I would say to do well in the job, it is non -negotiable.

340

So because of that, I would say if you have time, definitely learn system design.

341

I personally didn't learn system design formally until I was interviewing to get the role I have now.

342

So that, I think, took a lot of time

343

because I was going from very little

344

because I joined my previous company without any system design experience because I was joining as a new grad.

345

So if you have time, would recommend system design.

346

It makes you not only a better interviewee, it also makes you a better engineer.

347

And finally, as we all know, AI is getting more and more important regardless of what part of engineering you're in.

348

So I personally really like one of my friends, Her name is Chip Huynh.

349

She has a book called AI Engineering, which is really, really comprehensive.

350

And I would say if you're going to just read one AI book in 2026, read that book.

351

It takes you through all the fundamentals.

352

And she goes through a lot of concepts.

353

She talks about like RAG, about agents, about MCP, about beddings.

354

And it's very, very digestible in a format that you can understand even

355

if you don't have a strong or any ML or AI experience.

356

Okay, so we've just gone through the learning layer.

357

Let's talk about the application layer.

358

Most people spam thousands of applications and never hear back.

359

But you've gotten interviews at OpenAI, Netflix, Databricks, and Google.

360

So where do most people go wrong?

361

I would say most people go wrong because they just like,

362

like you said, submit thousands of applications without thinking about if the role is a good fit,

363

without like, without reaching out to the company, without getting a referral.

364

So unfortunately, because there are so many candidates right now that want job, if you don't have like a previous connection,

365

like for example, if you didn't get a referral to the company, the chances of you getting an interview

366

and a callback are much, much lower i will also say i personally got some interviews

367

because a recruiter saw my profile on linkedin

368

and then like reached out being like oh i think this would be a good fit for you so

369

if it is possible for you to put yourself out

370

there more on linkedin that'll make it more likely for recruiters to organically reach out to you by

371

that i mean you could you know talk you could link your projects

372

you could put like specific keywords like for example

373

if you built a rag system for your company you can put rag you built mcp you could put mcp

374

that just like makes it more likely if a recruiter is searching like candidates

375

and a keyword for a job

376

that you will be one of the people considered yeah on the referral note

377

i think a lot of people hear that advice

378

and then they'll get one referral to google

379

and then they won't get an interview

380

and then they'll throw their hands up in there and be like

381

but i'm on but maddie it just didn't work like referrals don't work

382

but in reality just

383

because you get a referral it just increases your probability of getting an interview

384

it doesn't guarantee anything you know what i mean and in fact,

385

I've worked with a student who got a Microsoft referral and then within an hour or two got rejected.

386

And then they messaged me, yo, what the hell am I got rejected?

387

It didn't work.

388

And I was like, bro, you didn't get ghosted.

389

That means they actually looked at your application within a few hours and rejected you, which is a huge win.

390

Like that's way better than being ghosted.

391

So all it is is a referral just creates a different pool that they hire from.

392

You're not guaranteed to get anything, but it just increases your odds from a cold application.

393

So I would highly to recommend referrals.

394

Yeah.

395

And like you mentioned, it doesn't guarantee anything.

396

And I think especially when it comes to larger companies, like there will be many hundreds of people who have referrals.

397

So just scale wise, the recruiter will not give everyone an interview.

398

I will say if you are able to, you can also focus on smaller companies,

399

especially if you can get like a referral from a smaller company

400

that will really greatly increase the chance

401

that your application will be taking more seriously because they will not get like the hundreds, thousands of referrals that people get when applying to Google.

402

They'll get like more curated ones and they know

403

that they can trust their own referrals a little bit more than if it was just like a toss up.

404

100%.

405

I think the power of a referral scales the smaller the company, right?

406

Like for example, startup referrals matter immensely.

407

Most startups, the CEO or founder or whatever reviews basically every single referral, especially at the early stage,

408

just because it's so valuable for them to get hiring right.

409

And I personally know multiple startups of recruiting where like the

410

referral just goes straight to the to the hiring person like every single one gets reviewed

411

you might not get interviewed but at least you'll get reviewed

412

so going for smaller companies definitely makes sense yeah

413

and like it like like you mentioned it's like much better to know immediately

414

you're not a favorite rather than just like wait like i've there are many companies

415

that have ghosted me and other people

416

and it just like i would much rather just get like

417

a no immediately rather than like oh will they won't they for months another objection i often get

418

when it comes to referrals with the people

419

i work with is they often say come on i'm just

420

too nervous to ask for it i don't want to bother someone why would they refer me

421

so how do you get over the fear of rejection

422

when it comes to asking for referrals that's a great question

423

i'll say i myself am not really good at getting over

424

that fear i'm still super self -conscious like obviously i've not job interviewed for many like quite a

425

while but when i was interviewing to get to the job i currently have i felt

426

so self -conscious what kind of helped was thinking that

427

that oh it's not just good for me to get a referral a lot of companies if your person gets hired

428

you'll get a bonus

429

so i personally have gotten some bonuses from people i referred to at google

430

when i was there

431

so it's like a benefit it's mutualistic like it's not just good for the interview

432

it's not just good for the candidates also good for the fur

433

that's one thing also um it's kind of cliche

434

it's like they don't it's like you you miss 100 the shots

435

you don't take they don't have to say yes like obviously

436

if you're not a good fit they might not refer you and that's totally fine.

437

It's like, I feel like I was afraid of like, oh, like what if I'm like pressuring my friend to refer me?

438

But I think like, again, if they don't think you're a good fit, they don't have to refer you.

439

And like, I wouldn't take it.

440

I don't think anyone should take it badly if you are refused a referral.

441

So honestly, just putting, being more comfortable with putting yourself out there is a good trait for many, many different use cases, not just the referrals,

442

but for the referral in particular, I think it's just something, it's like getting over the initial fear is really, really powerful.

443

Okay, we've talked about applications and getting more interviews through networking, but you've actually been on both sides of the table.

444

You've interviewed at these big tech companies, and you've also interviewed people trying to get jobs at these tech companies.

445

And right now, interviews are crazy.

446

I mean, people are cheating using AI, left and right, and companies are redesigning their whole interview process.

447

So could you actually break down what do early career interviews look like in 2026, and how does someone navigate that minefield?

448

This is in flux because interviews are rapidly evolving

449

but as of right

450

now most companies will still start with your standard like phone

451

screen where they ask a candidate like oh like you know

452

why do you want for to work for xyz um are

453

you okay like you know logistics with the compensation the relocation

454

etc as of now they'll give you a legal style interview

455

so it's like your standard like data destruction algorithms challenge

456

i think some companies give multiple it depends on the company

457

and like especially startups i think do more of their own thing i noticed after

458

that usually you'll get especially if you're a senior you'll get on -site

459

which is like a more back -to -back hours of interviews.

460

So oftentimes companies will give you a system design round.

461

So for example like oh can you implement like a notification system?

462

Especially if the company is smaller you'll often get to talk directly to the hiring manager

463

that wants to fill the position so they can kind of judge if you're a good fit.

464

Some companies will have a round where they want you to basically explain a project that you built previously.

465

That's just like a way for them to gauge if you know how to like explain challenges that you face, drop like system design infrastructure diagrams,

466

any challenges and things like that.

467

And then finally, a lot of companies are starting to incorporate those like AI assisted interviews.

468

So I personally have not done any because when I was interviewing back in the day, a year and a half ago,

469

most companies weren't doing this.

470

But nowadays, a lot of companies will have a problem

471

that you're supposed to solve and they let you use your AI coding agent.

472

And then they'll they might ask you questions about how you're using that agent.

473

They might like kind of quiz you on that.

474

Recognizing that you haven't done one of these interviews nowadays, of course, but what do you feel like the best resources

475

or techniques are to prepare for those new kinds of interviews, right?

476

Everybody knows about Classic, LeetCode, DSA, etc. But what about those new AI enabled interviews?

477

That's a good question.

478

So my friends who have taken the interviews generally say like

479

a lot of it's just using AI naturally in your day to day workflow

480

and just finding ways that will make you faster and optimized.

481

Also, I know, for example, Anthropic has guides on prompting so they have found those useful as well

482

and those are free so I think those are good resources to help you optimize how you prompt.

483

Do you have any AI cheating stories where you were interviewing a candidate and you realized they were cheating?

484

Yes maybe it'll be different ones you know AI is condoned in the interviews

485

but I have given a couple of like standard data instruction algorithm questions

486

and it's maybe the people who cheat well I don't notice

487

but the people that I have noticed have been like super super obvious

488

so for example like I had a person who like was typing

489

and then at some point they like yawned

490

and it like it kept on typing i was like what like literally like they reached back they reached back

491

and went like went like this i was like are you seeing

492

this um another time i had a candidate had glasses

493

and there's a reflection in myself and i was like okay like you know

494

that kind of stuff there's been just my friends have also experienced like things

495

there's like someone who was reading like almost verbatim so for example

496

when I asked

497

when they asked a question there's like oh that's a great question the answer to this is blah blah

498

that would happen and I've noticed my friends have said

499

that sometimes the way to catch

500

if it's not super obvious is like you start asking a question

501

that is just wrong like a question doesn't really have good answer

502

and if the person is cheating with AI they're gonna the AI is gonna attempt to answer it

503

if the person's a real person they're gonna be like wait

504

that makes no sense

505

and like ask to clarify yeah I feel like the people I've talked to it ends up being pretty obvious

506

when someone's cheating with AI and I think another tell is like the imports like

507

if you do all your imports at once

508

and then start coding it's like what nobody actually does

509

that you know what i mean

510

so there's like some i feel like niche like micro tells for most people um

511

when it comes to revealing cheating but that's really funny for sure all right

512

so we've gone through projects courses learning the market resume applications and interviews let's talk about the offer.

513

So if you finally got a job offer, can a junior with essentially no leverage negotiate in this job market?

514

And two, how do you not get fired or laid off in this new economy?

515

That's a great question.

516

The first question, I would say if you're able to do all your interviews all at once, so you have competing offers,

517

that's like the best leverage you can get if you don't have prior experience, if you're not currently in a company.

518

A lot of companies will match, depending, especially if it's a competitor, like a good, if it's like a serious competitor to them they'll match

519

or even do more than your other offers

520

if you can show them proof

521

that you did get this other offer you can also use resources online

522

that give you information on what the companies are actually paying other people

523

so the top of my head blind is kind of toxic

524

but blind does have salary information

525

so sometimes people will post being like hey like i have this offer is this good

526

or bad and people will say it also levels .fi

527

if it's a bigger company you can anonymously submit your pay to levels at fi

528

and they check like i'm pretty sure they verify the pay stub they just don't obviously post the pay stub

529

so that's like a verifiable way that you can kind of see the range

530

that your your company is paying other people so

531

if they're offering you less you can counter

532

that makes sense all those seem like very good strategies to negotiate

533

but do juniors have leverage at all like have you heard of juniors entry -level people still negotiating

534

or is that something that just doesn't happen anymore nowadays i think

535

that if the company itself sometimes gives different stock options

536

that there's still possibility like i've heard juniors doing

537

that however i know a lot of companies like for the base pay

538

when it comes to juniors they don't negotiate at all

539

and that's just kind of company policy i think

540

this is also another place where the smaller the company the more negotiation power

541

so for for big tech at this point

542

and maybe i'm wrong about this

543

but a lot of these like entry -level roles are pretty

544

standardized especially internships like you can't really negotiate on an internship

545

but i guess the more advanced you get

546

and also the smaller the company like there's more power

547

there in terms of negotiation exactly there's no like definitive way to avoid layoffs

548

or avoid like getting pushed out unfortunately

549

but i think there's a couple things you can do to increase your chances of surviving

550

so one of them especially if you're a junior like definitely make sure

551

that your manager or your management chain is very much aware of what you've accomplished for example

552

if you like document all your wins that's like really good

553

because then your manager has like proof that you can list your prs

554

and you can like write your you put add your docs on there your manager

555

then has like a very easily accessible way for them to

556

check on your progress something else is to be honest like companies nowadays

557

i would say are a little bit more risk averse

558

and a little bit more they like to prioritize orgs

559

that make money i've noticed a lot of companies like this so if you want an org that probably won't get downsized,

560

perhaps it's the one in your company that's like ads or like that makes money or is doing like frontier AI stuff.

561

So again, there's no definitive way to not get laid off.

562

But those are two things you can do to help decrease your chances, in my opinion. For sure.

563

I feel like the best strategy to not get laid off is just accepting you might get laid off

564

and just keep up your resume and your AV skills so that even if you do get laid off,

565

you can find a new offer pretty quickly.

566

I think especially with layoffs

567

and like large scale big tech layoffs like i've spoken to

568

multiple people who went through the meta layoff a few months ago

569

i'm sure you know people as well went through

570

that it was almost like there's there was essentially no way to predict who was head

571

and i'd be really curious to talk to someone who actually decided who got laid off

572

because it feels like almost like voodoo like you have no clue who got laid off

573

there were people who felt like there were better engineers than others who were laid off

574

and other ones who were spared so you kind of have no idea

575

when it comes to this stuff all

576

you can just keep your profile your resume your applications your networking your interview skills up

577

so you can find a new job faster all right

578

so we've gone through the entire process end to end for how to survive

579

and get hired in the 2026 job market

580

i guess final point maddie what's your one piece of advice

581

to someone who's an early career engineer zero to three years of experience who's struggling to get a job today

582

i would say do not be afraid of rejection um even me as someone

583

you know who's like a classically okay like where's me like i went to mit

584

i intern at Microsoft Amazon Morgan Stanley worked at Google

585

I get a lot of rejections like over the years I used to be

586

so afraid of getting rejected I wouldn't apply

587

because I was like oh like I don't want to get like rejected

588

because that seems final but first everyone gets rejected like even the people

589

that you most admire they've gotten rejected from hundreds of places

590

like they just obviously won't put on their resume on their LinkedIn

591

that they got rejected right it only takes one offer

592

and then after you get the offer then it will help you move on

593

and on so I think that for me fear failure was something

594

that i'm still struggling with at this point

595

but definitely was really detrimental to my career when i was younger

596

and that's something

597

if i could go back i would be like i don't

598

i don't care i should have applied before i thought

599

i was ready i should have applied like you know i should apply to the companies

600

that i i thought i had no chance of getting into

601

and i will say that a lot of my A lot of my friends are doing very well now.

602

They did that.

603

They were not afraid to apply to all the really nice companies.

604

They were not afraid to apply before they studied data instruction algorithms.

605

And some of them did get in.

606

So even if there are requirements, those requirements aren't strict requirements.

607

Maddie, people want to connect with you further.

608

Where should they go?

609

You can find me on YouTube at Maddie Zhang.

610

And you can also find me on Instagram at Madeline .M .Zang.

611

Thank you.

612

Awesome.

613

Maddie, thanks for doing this.

614

Thank you for having me.

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15 từ đáng học trong video, kèm phiên âm và nghĩa:

Từ	Phiên âm	Nghĩa
hire động từ	/ˈhaɪɹ/	thuê, mướn
internship danh từ	/ˈɪntɜːnʃɪp/	thực tập
nowadays trạng từ	/ˈnaʊ.ə.deɪz/	ngày nay, đời nay
resume động từ	/ˈɹɛz.ə.meɪ/	tiếp tục lại
recruit động từ	/ɹɪˈkɹut/	tuyển dụng
cheat động từ	/ˈt͡ʃiːt/	gian lận, bịp
algorithm danh từ	/ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/	thuật toán
generate động từ	/ˈd͡ʒɛn.ə.ɹeɪt/	sinh ra, gây ra
guarantee danh từ	/ˌɡæɹ.ənˈtiː/	sự bảo đảm
solve động từ	/sɒlv/	giải quyết
submit động từ	/səbˈmɪt/	đệ trình, nộp
niche danh từ	/nɪt͡ʃ/	hốc
negotiate động từ	/nəˈɡəʊ.ʃi.eɪt/	thương thuyết, đàm phán
format danh từ	/ˈfɔːɹ.mæt/	khổ (sách, giấy, bìa)
infrastructure danh từ	/ˈɪnfɹəˌstɹʌkt͡ʃə/	cơ sở hạ tầng

Cụm động từ bạn sẽ nghe

Từ	Nghĩa
go back động từ	trở lại
break down động từ	hỏng, hỏng hóc
go up động từ	lên

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Các câu ngắn, trọn ý trong video mà bạn có thể dùng lại khi giao tiếp hằng ngày:

On that note, let's talk about projects.
Don't just build a calculator in your bedroom.
I don't think those are mutually exclusive.
I'm still friends with them for this very day.
Let's talk about learning, courses, and books.

Ngữ pháp trong video

Những cấu trúc người nói dùng nhiều nhất, kèm đúng cụm từ trong video:

Cấu trúc	Trong video
Câu điều kiện if + mệnh đề, will/would + động từ — điều kiện và kết quả	if you have time, would recommend · if you're a senior you'll get · if the company is smaller you'll often
Thì hiện tại hoàn thành have/has + quá khứ phân từ — việc đã xảy ra nhưng còn liên quan đến hiện tại	have cut · has seen · you've actually gone
Câu bị động be + quá khứ phân từ — nhấn vào việc xảy ra, không phải người làm	are expected · being used · are deemed
Mệnh đề quan hệ who / which + mệnh đề — thêm thông tin về người hoặc vật	people who are · friends who are · someone who vibe

Phát âm cần chú ý

Người nói dùng 184 dạng rút gọn, ví dụ don't, you're, I'm. Hãy nói theo dạng ngắn đúng như bạn nghe.

Âm “th”: algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/, bother /ˈbɑðɚ/, worthy /ˈwɝ.ði/, hackathon /ˈhæ.kə.θɑn/, anthropic /ænˈθɹɒp.ɪk/
Âm “sh” và “zh”: internship /ˈɪntɜːnʃɪp/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, negotiate /nəˈɡəʊ.ʃi.eɪt/, destruction /dɪsˈtɹʌkʃən/, specialist /ˈspɛʃəlɪst/
Từ dài — đặt trọng âm cho đúng: fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, negotiate /nəˈɡəʊ.ʃi.eɪt/, infrastructure /ˈɪnfɹəˌstɹʌkt͡ʃə/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/

Những âm người Việt thường gặp khó:

Cụm phụ âm cuối — đọc đủ từng âm, đừng nuốt âm cuối: prompt /pɹɑmpt/, solve /sɒlv/, ghost /ɡoʊst/, react /ɹiːˈækt/, assist /əˈsɪst/
Âm /tʃ/, /dʒ/ và /ʒ/ — tiếng Việt không có, đừng đọc thành “ch” hay “gi”: cheat /ˈt͡ʃiːt/, generate /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ə.ɹeɪt/, niche /nɪt͡ʃ/, infrastructure /ˈɪnfɹəˌstɹʌkt͡ʃə/, leverage /ˈlɛv.(ə.)ɹɪd͡ʒ/
Âm /æ/ — mở miệng rộng hơn âm “e”: algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/, guarantee /ˌɡæɹ.ənˈtiː/, format /ˈfɔːɹ.mæt/, react /ɹiːˈækt/, stack /stæk/

Cách luyện với video này

Nghe hết video một lần, chưa cần nói, và ghi lại những từ bạn chưa biết.
Bắt đầu ở tốc độ 0,75×, nói đuổi từng câu, rồi quay lại tốc độ bình thường khi đã quen.
Ghi âm giọng mình rồi so với bản gốc, chú ý các từ như hire, internship, nowadays.

Phương Pháp Shadowing Là Gì?

Shadowing là kỹ thuật học ngôn ngữ có cơ sở khoa học, ban đầu được phát triển cho chương trình đào tạo phiên dịch viên chuyên nghiệp và được phổ biến rộng rãi bởi nhà đa ngôn ngữ học Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Nguyên lý cốt lõi đơn giản nhưng cực kỳ hiệu quả: bạn nghe tiếng Anh của người bản xứ và lặp lại to ngay lập tức — như một "cái bóng" (shadow) đuổi theo người nói với độ trễ chỉ 1–2 giây. Khác với luyện ngữ pháp hay học từ vựng bị động, Shadowing buộc não bộ và cơ miệng phải đồng thời xử lý và tái tạo ngôn ngữ thực tế. Các nghiên cứu khoa học xác nhận phương pháp này cải thiện đáng kể phát âm, ngữ điệu, nhịp điệu, nối âm, kỹ năng nghe và độ lưu loát khi nói — đặc biệt hiệu quả cho người luyện IELTS Speaking và muốn giao tiếp tiếng Anh tự nhiên như người bản ngữ.

Phương pháp shadowing: đọc hướng dẫn từng bước đầy đủ →

Luyện nói tiếng Anh bằng Shadowing qua video: ex-Google Senior Engineer: How to Get Hired So Fast It Feels Illegal

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Phương Pháp Shadowing Là Gì?