A Life Engineered

I Coached a Ex-Microsoft Manager for His Netflix Interview 22.06.2026 37min

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/ale📘 I wrote the book on technical behavioral interviews, nearly 1,000 interviews worth of lessons in one guide. Grab it here: https://geni.us/BehavioralInterview-ytIf you want to be in the hot-seat for the next video like this, apply here: https://forms.gle/121P4FhVhxkBaPiq5🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! ➡️ http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=john-sponsoredFor the extended conversation, become a member to this channel or join my Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/alifeengineered/p/i-coached-a-ex-microsoft-manager?r=2tt9s7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true💥 Continue the conversation on my Discord server with like-minded viewers. The advice section is *chef's kiss* - https://discord.com/invite/HFVMbQgRJJ📈Transform your tech career with my free weekly newsletter - https://alifeengineered.substack.com/After 19 years at Microsoft, John expected his track record to speak for itself. It didn't. A year into his search for an engineering manager role at Netflix, the interviews keep ending the same way. Steve Huynh has seen this before — the experience is all there, but the stories aren't showing it. He coaches John live on exactly what's getting in the way.

I Coached a Front-End Engineer to Sound Senior (Live) 08.06.2026 1t

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/ale📘 Everything I know about behavioral interviews from conducting nearly 1,000 of them as a Bar Raiser, now in one book: https://geni.us/BehavioralInterview-ytIf you want to be in the hot-seat for the next video like this, apply here: https://forms.gle/121P4FhVhxkBaPiq5🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! ➡️ http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=kenan-sponsoredFor the extended conversation, become a member to this channel or join my Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/alifeengineered/p/i-coached-a-front-end-engineer-to?r=2tt9s7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true💥 Continue the conversation on my Discord server with like-minded viewers. The advice section is *chef's kiss* - https://discord.com/invite/HFVMbQgRJJ📈Transform your tech career with my free weekly newsletter - https://alifeengineered.substack.com/Kenan is a senior frontend engineer with six years of experience trying to land his next senior role, and he has the stories to get there. A broken questionnaire costing real money, a production bug impossible to reproduce locally, and an end-to-end testing rollout the team fought back on.What he's missing has nothing to do with experience — and everything to do with how he tells it. Three changes. One session. Watch it happen in real time. Steve Huynh coaches him live through every story.

I Coached an AWS Engineer Senior to Staff (Live) 25.05.2026 49min

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/ale📘 I wrote the book on technical behavioral interviews, nearly 1,000 interviews worth of lessons in one guide. Grab it here: https://geni.us/BehavioralInterview-ytIf you want to be in the hot-seat for the next video like this, apply here: https://forms.gle/121P4FhVhxkBaPiq5🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! ➡️ http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=ahmed-sponsoredFor the extended conversation, become a member to this channel or join my Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/alifeengineered/p/i-coached-an-aws-engineer-senior?r=2tt9s7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true💥 Continue the conversation on my Discord server with like-minded viewers. The advice section is *chef's kiss* - https://discord.com/invite/HFVMbQgRJJ📈Transform your tech career with my free weekly newsletter - https://alifeengineered.substack.com/Ahmed is an AWS senior engineer with 12 years in the industry trying to break into staff — and he has the stories to get there. A four week migration with 20 partner teams, a disagreement with a principal engineer, two years leading a project end to end.What he's missing is knowing which ones to tell and how to tell them at the right level. Steve Huynh coaches him live on the three biggest things holding him back.

I Coached an Amazon Engineer From Mid-Level to Senior (Live) 11.05.2026 1t 8min

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/ale📘 AI can write your code. It can't tell your story. Behavioral interviews are the new differentiator, and I wrote the book on them: https://geni.us/BehavioralInterview-ytIf you want to be in the hot-seat for the next video like this, apply here: https://forms.gle/121P4FhVhxkBaPiq5🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! ➡️ http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=dhruv-sponsored💥 Continue the conversation on my Discord server with like-minded viewers. The advice section is *chef's kiss* - https://discord.com/invite/HFVMbQgRJJ📈Transform your tech career with my free weekly newsletter - https://alifeengineered.substack.com/Dhruv is an L5 engineer at Amazon with five and a half years of experience — and he's doing what 90% of smart engineers do in interviews: telling stories that sound great to him but get him down-leveled.Steve Huynh, a former Amazon principal engineer who conducted nearly a thousand interviews as a bar raiser, coaches Dhruv live on the three things holding him back: decoding what the interviewer is actually asking, picking stories that land at L6, and packaging them so the interviewer can capture his signal before the debrief.

The 2% of Engineers Winning the AI Era (Ex-Meta L8) 27.04.2026 1t 37min

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/ale📘 My book Technical Behavioral Interview hit #1 on Amazon. If you're interviewing soon, this is the playbook: https://geni.us/BehavioralInterview-ytGuest Links:https://linktr.ee/kunchenguidhttps://www.youtube.com/@kunchenguidhttps://kunchenguid.substack.comhttps://x.com/kunchenguid🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=kun-chen-sponsoredKun Chen reached E7 at Meta and Partner level at Microsoft faster than almost anyone his peers knew — and then walked away from management to go back to writing code. Now a solo builder, he breaks down the monthly growth test that told him when to quit, why learning to lose control as a manager made him a better AI orchestrator, and why true vibe coders will always hit a ceiling without real engineering experience underneath them.

Casey Muratori Doesn’t Care About AI (Here’s Why) 13.04.2026 1t 26min

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/aleGuest Links:https://www.computerenhance.com/https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/annarettberg/meow-the-infinite-book-three https://x.com/cmuratori🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=casey-muratori2-sponsoredCasey Muratori has spent 20 years writing code by hand and still couldn't care less about AI — not because he thinks it won't work, but because programming is the point, not the output.

I Tried Everything to Get Hired. This Is What Worked. 30.03.2026 43min

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/aleGuest Links:https://www.instagram.com/anjali.gama/?hl=enhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/anjali-viramgama🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=anjali-viramgama-sponsoredAnjali Viramgama grew her online following to half a million people by turning her own learning into content, while working full time in Big Tech. Since then, she has coached hundreds of students into their first tech roles.She breaks down why “follow your passion” is bad career advice, how she applied to the same role ten different ways, and why depth of specialization — not just the ability to prompt — is what will matter most in an AI-driven industry.

The Career Strategy That Survives AI 16.03.2026 42min

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/aleGuest Links:https://a16z.com/author/anish-acharya/https://www.linkedin.com/in/anishacharya🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=anish-acharya-sponsoredFrom building at Amazon in the early 2000s to selling a company to Google, Anish Acharya has spent his career chasing the edge of where the most ambitious people are working. He breaks down why enterprise software is oversold, how AI coding agents are unlocking a generation of builders, and what it takes to show up with a founder mindset no matter where you sit.

$1.25 Billion CTO: The Career Mistake That Cost Me 9 Years 02.03.2026 47min

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/aleGuest Links:https://es.linkedin.com/in/tuomasartmanhttps://linear.app/about🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=tuomas-artman-sponsoredWhat separates a high-level CTO from a Senior Engineer? And what is the one mistake that can stall your trajectory for nearly a decade? Co-founder and CTO of Linear Tuomas Artman has navigated the highest levels of technical leadership and knows exactly what it takes to scale both systems and careers.

OpenAI and Meta E9: The Career Bet Every Engineer Must Make 16.02.2026 1t 13min

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/aleGuest Links:https://www.linkedin.com/in/suphiliphttps://molochinations.substack.com/ https://superphonic.fm/🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=philip-su2-sponsoredThe "event horizon" for software engineering has arrived, and former Meta I9 engineer Philip Su says the traditional developer role isn't coming back. Discover why your most valuable skill may no longer be writing code.

Tech Interview Expert: AI Isn’t Killing Careers, But THIS is 02.02.2026 1t 18min

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/alePrepare for your next interview the smart way with Hello Interview: https://www.hellointerview.com/?ref=alifeengineered🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=stefan_mai-sponsoredStefan Mai walked away from Meta and Amazon to build Hello Interview, and what he's learned about AI's impact on hiring will surprise you.

The Career Decisions That Quietly Limit Your Future | Christopher Brown 19.01.2026 1t 1min

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/aleGuest Links:https://www.linkedin.com/in/skeptomai🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=christopher_brown-sponsoredChristopher Brown, one of the founding engineers behind EC2 and former Amazon Senior Principal Engineer, pulls back the curtain on Amazon's transformation into a Day Two company. The path to tech success fundamentally changed overnight.

$4 Billion Founder: Should You Leave Big Tech or Ride It Out? 05.01.2026 56min

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/aleGuest Links: https://www.waterfall.net (Mention this podcast for $100 credit when you book)https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophe-bisciglia-745aa810🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=christophe_bisciglia-sponsoredChristophe Bisciglia walked away from early Google equity that would be worth $72 million today to build a multi-billion dollar company. Now he runs a 120-foot waterfall hotel in Hawaii, programs with AI, and finally works on something he actually gives a sh*t about.

Why Even Google Engineers Are Relearning Everything | Maddy Zhang 22.12.2025 48min

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/ale🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=maddy_zhang-sponsoredGuest Links:https://www.instagram.com/madeline.m.zhang/https://www.youtube.com/@maddyzhangMaddie Zhang walked away from Google with four job offers in hand during one of tech’s toughest hiring markets. If you’re thinking about leaving your comfortable job or wondering how to actually land offers in this brutal market, this is your playbook.

How Engineers Break Into The Top 1% | Michael Novati 08.12.2025 1t 8min

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/ale🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! Get the Black Friday offer here: http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=Michael_Novati-sponsoredGuest Links:https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelnovati/https://formation.dev/Michael Novati's journey from Meta intern to E7 principal engineer in six years required the company to invent an entirely new career archetype: the "coding machine."This conversation explores the tension between individual excellence and organizational scale, why the coding machine archetype hits a ceiling, and how AI is simultaneously amplifying and threatening this approach.

Why The Best Reinvent Themselves Every 2 Years | Carlos Arguelles 25.11.2025 49min

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/aleSign up at http://wealthfront.com/ale. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others’ experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY.Investment management and advisory services are provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Securities investments: not bank deposits, bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured, and may lose value.Instant and same-day withdrawals use the Real-Time Payments (RTP) network or FedNow service. Transfers may be limited by your receiving institution, daily caps, or participating entities. New Cash Account deposits have a 2–4 day hold before transfer. Wealthfront does not charge fees for these services, but receiving institutions may impose an RTP or FedNow Fee. Processing times may vary.Carlos Arguelles came to America at 15 with no English and no money, eventually becoming a Senior Principal Engineer who broke Amazon during Black Friday. He then turned that disaster into infrastructure the entire company uses today. From 12 years stuck at Microsoft to the real differences between Amazon and Google, Carlos reveals what actually separates engineers who plateau from those who break through. This is the career advice nobody gives you until it's too late.Guest Links:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-arguelles-6352392https://carloarg02.medium.com/🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! Get the Black Friday offer here: http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=carlos-arguelles-sponsored

Why Even The Best Engineers Are Afraid Of What’s Coming | Philip Su 10.11.2025 56min

We’re thrilled to be partnering with Linear.Linear is the purpose-built tool for planning and building products - trusted by companies like OpenAI, Cursor, and Perplexity.Learn more about Linear's integration with GitHub Copilot 👉🏼 https://linear.app/changelog/2025-10-28-github-copilot-agentAnd get 6 months free of Linear Business (5 seats) 👉🏼 https://linear.app/alePhilip Su climbed to Meta E9, then voluntarily demoted himself to E7 because he missed writing code. Now he's building his own podcast player while sounding the alarm on AI displacement. In this conversation, Philip doesn't sugarcoat it: he thinks most software developers won't be able to compete with AI within a decade, believes companies will choose "more with less" every time, and argues that your career speedrun is actually setting you up for a midlife crisis.But he's not all pessimism. Philip shares why he still pays a developer despite AI being cheaper, explains why the top 1% of engineers will make more than ever, and reveals why he thinks consciousness and wave-particle duality should be dominating our conversations way more than they do.Guest Links:https://www.linkedin.com/in/suphiliphttps://superphonic.fm/

Why People Are INVISIBLE To Leaders And How To Fix It | Ethan Evans 27.10.2025 1t 16min

🎉 Big Announcement: Linear is now the presenting sponsor of A Life Engineered! We're thrilled to partner with Linear for the entire next year. Linear is the purpose-built tool for planning and building products - trusted by companies like OpenAI, Cursor, and Perplexity. Exclusive offer for our listeners: Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership. 👉 Redeem at: https://linear.app/aleEthan Evans got fired twice for his big mouth, yet still became a Vice President at Amazon where he built Prime Video and Twitch. In this raw conversation, he reveals what really happens when you fail catastrophically in front of Jeff Bezos, why his CEO retaliated by seducing his wife, and the uncomfortable truth about the trade-offs executives make to reach the top. He's brutally honest about giving himself a "C" as a parent and explains why turtling up after a mistake is career suicide.We dive into the counterintuitive wisdom that most people miss about career growth: why your nervous system is lying to you about risk, how to turn failure into trust, and why building your network might be more valuable than anything you're currently working on. Ethan shares his test for high-potential employees, the exact emails he sent Jeff Bezos during his biggest disaster, and why he told Elon Musk that having VPs code was "a stupid idea." If you want unfiltered truth about what it actually takes to lead at the highest levels of tech, this is it.Guest Link: https://www.ethanevans.com/

What Big Tech Still Gets WRONG about Great Programmers | Casey Muratori 14.10.2025 56min

🎉 Big Announcement: Linear is now the presenting sponsor of A Life Engineered! We're thrilled to partner with Linear for the entire next year. Linear is the purpose-built tool for planning and building products - trusted by companies like OpenAI, Cursor, and Perplexity. Exclusive offer for our listeners: Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership. 👉 Redeem at: https://linear.app/aleGuest Links:https://www.computerenhance.com/https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/annarettberg/meow-the-infinite-book-threehttps://x.com/cmuratori

Vibe Coding Is The Only Future - Steve Yegge 30.09.2025 50min

🎉 Big Announcement: Linear is now the presenting sponsor of A Life Engineered! We're thrilled to partner with Linear for the entire next year. Linear is the purpose-built tool for planning and building products - trusted by companies like OpenAI, Cursor, and Perplexity. Exclusive offer for our listeners: Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership. 👉 Redeem at: https://linear.app/aleVibe Coding Book:Vibe Coding: Building Production-Grade Software With GenAI, Chat, Agents, and Beyond - by Steve Yegge, Gene Kim, Dario Amodei (Foreword)I just finished an absolutely mind-bending 100+ minute conversation with Steve Yegge, and I need to tell you - this man just called 99% of programmers “dinosaurs using Stone Age tools.” Coming from the guy who accidentally leaked that legendary 3,700-word Google+ rant while drunk, joined Amazon as employee #250, and now claims he can write 12,000 lines of production code per day using AI... you might want to listen. He dropped some absolute bombs in this extended cut - like his prediction that within 5 years, traditional coding will be completely obsolete, and how he codes during meetings now because “vibe coding” has become so addictive he literally can’t stop.The conversation took some wild turns - from why Jeff Bezos personally begged him not to leave Amazon, to his theory that companies will soon face a brutal choice: how many engineers do you fire to pay for AI tools for the rest? What really stuck with me was his comparison to electric vehicles destroying combustion engines - traditional programmers are like angry car enthusiasts watching EVs blow them out of the water on performance. “You’re not writing code anymore,” he says. “You’re literally the team lead for a bunch of coders who can do amazing things or really stupid things in equal proportions.”