Tech Career Events for Software Engineers
Join Chad in the Taro Premium community using his referral link 🎉
This is a resume meetup to collaboratively review resumes in small groups.
Here's how it works:
- People take turns sharing their resume in the call as a presentation.
- People give feedback on the resume (5-7 minutes).
- We will try to get through everyone's resume. We plan to do it on a first-come, first-serve basis for fairness
Here's the masterclass on resume writing for reference: [Masterclass] How To Write A Stellar Tech Resume That Gets You More Job Opportunities
If we aren't able to go through all the resumes, follow up in the #job-searchers-accountability-group channel.
Here's some additional resume optimization resources:
This paper describes Meta’s TestGen-LLM tool, which uses LLMs to automatically improve existing human-written tests. TestGen-LLM verifies that its generated test classes successfully clear a set of filters that assure measurable improvement over the original test suite, thereby eliminating problems due to LLM hallucination.
We describe the deployment of TestGen-LLM at Meta test-a-thons for the Instagram and Facebook platforms. In an evaluation on Reels and Stories products for Instagram, 75% of TestGen-LLM’s test cases built correctly, 57% passed reliably, and 25% increased coverage. During Meta’s Instagram and Facebook test-a-thons, it improved 11.5% of all classes to which it was applied, with 73% of its recommendations being accepted for production deployment by Meta software engineers.
Here is the link to the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.09171
Authors:
- Nadia Alshahwan
- Jubin Chheda
- Anastasia Finegenova
Join us for an exciting discussion on Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks (KANs), a novel approach inspired by the Kolmogorov-Arnold representation theorem. Unlike traditional Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLPs), which use fixed activation functions on nodes, KANs feature learnable activation functions on edges, parametrized as splines. This innovative change eliminates the need for linear weights, enhancing both accuracy and interpretability.
In this session, we will explore how KANs outperform MLPs, achieving comparable or better accuracy with significantly smaller models, particularly in data fitting and PDE solving. We will also explore the theoretical and empirical advantages of KANs, including faster neural scaling laws and intuitive visualization for better human interaction. Discover how KANs can pave the way for advancements in deep learning models.
IMPORTANT NOTE: We are considering converting this discussion into an open-source initiative. This would focus on hands-on experimentation and implementation of KANs. Committed attendees will have the opportunity to contribute to this project, making this session particularly beneficial for those interested in practical applications and collaborative research. We welcome those dedicated to contributing to join us in making significant advancements in deep learning models.
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.19756
Group Office Hours are a very simple event type with a very important goal in mind: Get you the career support you need in a safe, communal setting. This means:
- These sessions are never recorded
- All AI summary and note-taker bots will be kicked out
- If you want to ask your question 100% anonymously, just change your display name and ask it in the chat
So how does it work? Easy: Drop in whenever, raise your hand 🤚 to ask a question (or put it in chat), and leave at your own convenience.
Can't make the event? No worries, just ask your question anonymously in the Taro forum: https://www.jointaro.com/questions/create/
"Voicebox: The first generative AI model for speech" presents a groundbreaking approach to speech synthesis using generative AI models. The paper introduces Voicebox, a model capable of generating highly realistic and expressive synthetic speech. This research is significant as it pushes the boundaries of speech synthesis, opening up new possibilities for applications like virtual assistants, audiobooks, and more. The advancements made in this paper could greatly enhance human-computer interaction and accessibility technologies.
We will be talking about:
- Introduction to Voicebox
- Speech Synthesis
- Model Architecture
- Training Process
- Performance and Evaluation
- Use Cases and Applications
More details to be added soon..
Abstract:
Explore the Mamba paper's groundbreaking approach to sequence modeling efficiency in this event. Uncover how Mamba addresses computational inefficiencies in transformers, especially for long sequences.
Overview:
Discover the motivation behind Mamba, highlighting its improvements over subquadratic-time architectures struggling with language tasks. Learn about Mamba's content-based reasoning and enhancements for superior performance.
Key Features:
1. Selective Structured State Space Models (SSMs): Mamba introduces adaptive SSM parameters for content-based reasoning, allowing selective information handling for discrete modalities.
2. Hardware-Aware Parallel Algorithm: Despite forgoing efficient convolutions, Mamba's hardware-aware parallel algorithm maintains fast inference and linear scaling in sequence length.
3. Architecture Overview: Dive into Mamba's streamlined architecture without attention or MLP blocks, achieving efficiency without sacrificing effectiveness.
4. Performance Metrics: Witness Mamba's 5× higher throughput than Transformers, with linear scaling, showcasing its real-world improvements in language, audio, and genomics tasks.
5. Comparison with Transformers: See Mamba outperforms Transformers of the same size and match larger Transformers, especially in language modeling.
Join us in unraveling the secrets of Mamba, poised to redefine sequence modeling standards. Anticipate a paradigm shift in efficiency and performance in deep learning.
paper link: [https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.00752]
Bay Area Tarodactyls unite!
Join us in Palo Alto for the Silicon Valley Taro meetup! Come by to:
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Network with 100+ talented and ambitious tech workers. We'll segment folks based on seniority and hiring needs.
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Enjoy snacks, drinks (yes, we will have Taro boba!), and swag.
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Meet Alex, Rahul, and other industry veterans from companies like Meta, Robinhood, Google, and Pinterest.
There should be plenty of parking at the venue, along with signage directing you to our indoor/outdoor hybrid space.
For this event, we'll be trying something different: Tech stack specific focus groups. At 3:30PM, we will break into the following (optional) tables:
- Back-end
- Web
- Android
- iOS
- Machine learning
Once this happens, you can go to the room corresponding to your tech stack and have deep discussions about the technical challenges surrounding that domain. If you want to keep hanging out though and not partake in these discussions, that's 100% okay as well!
To stay up-to-date on logistics (especially on the day-of), make sure you're a part of the #g-sf-bayarea-meetup channel in the Taro Premium Slack. We're excited to meet you!
Snacks + drinks sponsored by Jam.dev - one-click bug reports devs love.
Group Office Hours are a very simple event type with a very important goal in mind: Get you the career support you need in a safe, communal setting. This means:
- These sessions are never recorded
- All AI summary and note-taker bots will be kicked out
- If you want to ask your question 100% anonymously, just change your display name and ask it in the chat
So how does it work? Easy: Drop in whenever, raise your hand 🤚 to ask a question (or put it in chat), and leave at your own convenience.
Can't make the event? No worries, just ask your question anonymously in the Taro forum: https://www.jointaro.com/questions/create/
Join us for a discussion about wealth creation and preservation for engineers. We'll also talk about financial independence / retire early (FIRE), a dream for many tech workers. Most engineers earn a high income relatively early in their career -- $200K+ total compensation per year is not uncommon for software engineers working in North America.
Some things we can talk about in this session (April 22):
- Monetizable AI projects.
- Revenue-generating projects, e.g. writing a book, starting a podcast, teaching a course.
- Rahul to share an update on his YouTube income
As a reminder, this session will not be recorded. Group Office Hours are a private, communal way to get the personalized career advice you need.
Resources:
Group Office Hours are a very simple event type with a very important goal in mind: Get you the career support you need in a safe, communal setting. This means:
- These sessions are never recorded
- All AI summary and note-taker bots will be kicked out
- If you want to ask your question 100% anonymously, just change your display name and ask it in the chat
So how does it work? Easy: Drop in whenever, raise your hand 🤚 to ask a question (or put it in chat), and leave at your own convenience.
Can't make the event? No worries, just ask your question anonymously in the Taro forum: https://www.jointaro.com/questions/create/
This session is for wantrepreneurs (someone who wants to leave their full-time job and do a company) and early entrepreneurs. All attendees should be prepared to either pitch an idea or provide thoughtful feedback on other ideas.
In the last two decades, more money and attention have gone to early-stage startups. It's easier and cheaper than ever to start a startup, especially if you're an engineer!
Sample discussions:
- Get feedback on the clarity of your idea, along with the opportunity size. Do you want a VC-scale outcome, or a "lifestyle business"?
- Should you get pre-seed funding (generally $100K - $500K) from an accelerator?
- How and when should you launch your product?
Also happy to share honest thoughts and feedback on well-known accelerators: Y Combinator, PearX, TechStars
What you get:
- Hear ideas from other ambitious engineers to make your own idea/pitch better.
- Taro (this platform!) is a YC-funded startup from S22. Rahul can share thoughts about how Taro got in and what he learned.
- Rahul has personally reviewed and recommended 10+ companies that have gotten funding and launched their product.
Resources to take a look at:
- How To Approach "Doing Your Own Thing" -- Startup Discussion And Feedback
- [Taro Top 10] Entrepreneurship And Tech Startups
- Alex answering "How did you decide to quit your job and make a startup?"
- How To Prepare To Leave Big Tech For A Startup
- Taro at YC's Demo Day (Summer 2022)
This session will not be recorded. Group Office Hours are a communal way to get the personalized career advice you need.
From 2013 to 2023, Tongbo Huang worked as an engineer or manager at three high-growth companies: Pinterest, Chekr, and Amplitude.
After 10 years working in startups of various sizes, Tongo decided to start his own: Sidr Tax. In the past year, Sidr Tax has surpassed 6 figures of revenue and is growing rapidly.
In this talk, Tongbo will share:
- How he thought about taking funding (he previously went through Y Combinator) and why he decided to bootstrap for Sidr.
- How he ended up working on a tax startup and how Shopify is fueling his growth.
- The problem with founders today looking for "exciting" ideas.
Connect with Tongbo here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tongbohuang/
Mo Tiwari is an OpenAI researcher, Stanford PhD, Facebook Software Engineer, DRW finance quant, and Caltech Math + Physics major 😳 🤯
The secret to his prodigious career: ruthless efficiency. Mo is able to achieve more per unit time than most of his peers.
This talk will cover both behaviors and tactics to improve your ability to get things done. Sample topics:
- How and when to process email to minimize disruption.
- Best practices for calendar invites and scheduling
- Keyboard shortcuts that Mo uses dozens of times/day to save time
Connect with Mo on LinkedIn
As the first terminal level in your career, senior engineers independently solve problems and deliver business value. Many engineers are stuck for years as senior engineers.
This is part of the cohort-based course "Senior to Staff - Land Your Promotion As An Engineer." This session is to check in on your progress toward becoming a Staff Engineer. There's no agenda or presentation planned -- come with your questions and discussions.
Some topics:
- How to know where you stand on the path to promotion.
- How to get (or create) scope on a team with many talented engineers.
- How managers and directors perceive very senior IC roles.
Taro resources: