Arpit bhayani, Stuff Google engineer recently did a live stream focused entirely on career growth for software engineers. Being a die hard follower, I sat through the entire 1.5-hour session so you don’t have to. Here are the most valuable insights that could accelerate your career.
The Context: Why This Matters
The speaker is currently a stuff software engineer at Google, previously built and sold a startup, and has been actively working on open-source projects like DiceDB. What struck me most was that despite being at one of the most prestigious tech companies, most questions he receives aren’t about coding or system design—they’re about career growth. That tells you something about what engineers really struggle with.
The Big Picture: Why “Learning How to Learn” Is Your Career Superpower
The most eye-opening part of the stream was his perspective on why “learning how to learn” has become the most critical skill for software engineers. Here’s his reasoning:
Technology Is Accelerating Exponentially
He painted a picture that really hit home:
- 1995-2005: Nokia dominated, we had Symbian phones
- 2005-2015: Smartphones emerged, Jio happened in India
- 2015-2025: AI went from basic neural networks to ChatGPT answering everything
Each decade shows exponential acceleration. The rate of change isn’t slowing down—it’s speeding up.
The Shift in What Matters
Here’s the kicker: You don’t need to know how to manually compute eigenvalues and eigenvectors anymore. NumPy can do that. What you need to know is:
- That eigenvalues and eigenvectors exist
- When to use them
- How to connect them to your problem
The tools handle computation. You handle strategic thinking.
The New Learning Framework
He broke down “learning how to learn” into actionable components:
Critical Thinking: Always ask “why,” “what,” and “how” at every step
Connecting Dots: Don’t memorize everything—build mental frameworks
First-Principles Thinking: Break complex problems into fundamental components
Agile Learning: Learn just enough to make impact, not everything cover-to-cover
Second-Order Thinking: Think two steps ahead, anticipate consequences
Career Break Strategy: The Plan You Need Before You Take Time Off
One of the most practical segments covered career breaks. Having recently done this himself (startup journey), he shared hard-won wisdom:
Before You Take Any Break
- Have a concrete re-entry plan: Don’t just assume you can get back easily
- Test your assumptions while employed: Can you actually crack interviews? Prove it.
- Understand market timing: In one year, how much will the industry change?
- Have Plan B, C, and D ready: The market is cruel, especially after gaps
The Market Reality Check
His perspective was sobering: “I referred a very good engineer to Google recently. All three roles rejected him. The market is tough.”
Golden Rule: Never quit without another offer. Ever. “Do a seamless flip, not a drop-and-create migration.”
Beating Imposter Syndrome: The Hands-On Approach
This hit close to home. He shared his personal Google experience:
The Problem
When he joined Google, he felt like an imposter for months because he was new to Spark internals and distributed systems.
The Root Cause
“I realized I was just reading documentation. I wasn’t coding. I never made mistakes while coding because I never coded.”
The Solution
Stop reading. Start building.
He immediately started building prototypes to understand Spark internals. The imposter syndrome disappeared once he gained control through hands-on experience.
Key insight: You feel like an imposter when you don’t have control. You gain control by understanding through doing, not just reading.
Real Engineering vs. System Design Theater
This was probably the most brutal truth bomb in the entire stream:
The Problem with “System Design”
Most people approach system design like this:
- Draw some boxes
- Say “this handles load balancing”
- Think they understand the system
What Real Engineers Ask
- Multi-tenancy: How exactly does this work?
- Concurrency: What are the specific challenges?
- Database migrations: What actual commands do I run?
- Active-passive setup: What MySQL commands start/stop replication?
- Protocol Buffers vs JSON: What’s the actual performance difference? By how much?
The Mindset Shift
“Imagine you are the only engineer who’s going to code this out.”
When you adopt this mindset, you stop thinking in terms of HLD/LLD/System Design as separate things. It’s all just engineering.
The Career Growth Playbook by Experience Level
Fresh Graduates/Early Career (0-2 years)
Focus: Ask questions constantly
- “It has always been about asking great questions, never about giving answers”
- Build the habit: Why/What/How at every line of code
- Example: Newton asking “why does the apple fall?” led to gravity
- Example: Uranus orbital aberrations led to Neptune’s discovery through questioning
Mid-Level Engineers (2-5 years)
Focus: Code out everything you read
- Don’t just read engineering blogs—implement the critical components
- Ask implementation questions about everything
- Think about the exact code you’d write, not just the concepts
Senior Engineers (5+ years)
Focus: Find your obsession
- After 5-6 years, identify one domain you’re completely passionate about
- For him, it took 10 years to find his love for databases
- This becomes your most interesting characteristic and career differentiator
The AI Reality Check: Jobs Are Changing, Not Disappearing Overnight
His take on AI’s impact was nuanced:
The Trend
Companies are becoming more efficient. The number of engineers needed to build a billion-dollar company keeps decreasing:
- 20 years ago vs today: massive difference
- Trend toward “single-person companies”
The Timeline
“AI won’t eliminate jobs in one shot, but it will slowly and steadily strangle the number of people required.”
The Strategy
Focus on:
- Learning how to learn
- Critical thinking
- Adaptability
- Making sure your career is stable before making any moves
Practical Networking That Actually Works
He shared his Google networking strategy that I found fascinating:
The Approach
Almost daily, he messages L6, L7, L8, and L9 engineers for casual chats.
The Key
“You should bring more to the table than you take away.”
His conversation starter: “I build DiceDB, let’s chat.” Having something substantial and interesting makes all the difference.
The Philosophy
“Google is not about the brand, it’s about people. Surround yourself with good people—that’s where the magic happens.”
Time Management Philosophy: Work Hard When You Can
This perspective really challenged my thinking:
When You’re Young (Under 25-27)
“Work your ass off literally. You have energy and fewer commitments.”
The Reality of Aging
After 35, you have 2-3 hours per day for personal projects due to:
- Family commitments
- Health issues
- School meetings
- Life responsibilities
The Strategy
Use your high-energy years for maximum career investment. Work-life balance comes later when you need it more.
Learning Strategy: Understanding vs. Retention
The Wrong Approach
Most people read like this:
- Read chapter 1 on availability
- Close book
- Try to remember the four points
The Right Approach
- Focus on understanding, not memorization
- Let your brain rewire rather than trying to retain specific facts
- Build direction awareness: Know something exists and where to find it
- Optimize for recall and connections, not retention
The 0-to-1 Learning Path
- Start with tutorials, not documentation
- Use LLMs for technologies over 1 year old
- Focus on faster iteration: Copy-paste-run approach
- Go deeper only when needed for your specific use case
The Money vs. Leadership Decision
For someone choosing between a higher-paying offer and a leadership opportunity:
His Advice: Take Leadership (If You Want to Manage)
Reasoning: No company hires external managers directly. They hire engineers and transition them to management over 1-2 years.
If you want to be a manager in 2 years, better to become one now and then switch, rather than trying to make the IC-to-manager jump externally.
Personal Experience
He chose management over IC work in 2020, got promoted to director, and says that experience helps him tremendously now because he understands:
- People management
- Prioritization
- Business context
- Engineering trade-offs
The Career Switches Framework
When It’s OK to Switch Jobs
- Early career: Switching after 1.5 months is fine if it’s clearly wrong
- 5 years experience: One abrupt change is acceptable
- General rule: Minimize total number of switches
The Red Flag Pattern
10 years experience with 5 switches (every 2 years) = major hiring concern
Why hiring managers worry: Senior hires require massive investment. If someone’s a flight risk, why invest the effort?
Reading Strategy: Not Everything Needs Cover-to-Cover
The Mindset Shift
- Not every book is a textbook
- Not everything needs to be memorized
- Focus on impact, not knowledge retention
The DFS Approach
When learning Apache Spark internals for optimization:
- Don’t read everything cover-to-cover
- Do a depth-first search into exactly what you need
- Learn that path of the tree
- Make your impact
The Passion Project Advantage
His DiceDB project became a massive career asset:
How It Helps
- Conversation starter: “Why should you give me 30 minutes? I build DiceDB.”
- Networking tool: Interesting projects make people want to talk to you
- Skill development: Still coding while others give up after 30
- Career differentiator: Becomes the most interesting thing about you
The Philosophy
Do things for your soul, not just transactions. “So long as you’re not losing the smile on your face, everything is good.”
Domain Choice: Backend Over Frontend
His clear recommendation: Choose backend over frontend for long-term career growth
Reasoning
- Better career opportunities over time
- Higher cross-domain flexibility
- More well-defined career paths
- Greater switching opportunities between domains
Note: He emphasized this is based on median outcomes, not outliers
Key Takeaways That Changed My Perspective
- Ask better questions: The entire industry runs on people asking great questions, not giving answers
- Code everything you read: Don’t just consume engineering blogs—implement the critical parts
- Find your obsession: After 5-6 years, identify one domain you’re completely passionate about
- Plan your breaks: Never take career breaks without a concrete re-entry strategy
- Learn aggressively while young: Use your high-energy years for maximum career investment
- Network with value: Always bring more to the table than you take away
- Focus on understanding: Optimize for brain rewiring and connection-building, not memorization
- Embrace hands-on learning: Beat imposter syndrome by building, not just reading
- Think like an implementer: Approach system design as if you’re the only engineer who will code it
- Prepare for AI: Focus on critical thinking and adaptability over specific technical skills
Final Thoughts
What struck me most about this stream was the brutal honesty. No sugar-coating about market conditions, no false promises about easy career growth. Just practical wisdom from someone who’s navigated startups, big tech, and everything in between.
The “learning how to learn” framework isn’t just about staying current with technology—it’s about developing the meta-skill that will determine whether you thrive or just survive in an exponentially changing industry.
If you’re early in your career, focus on asking great questions and building things. If you’re mid-level, start coding out everything you read. If you’re senior, find your obsession and go deep.
Most importantly: never stop learning, and never stop building.
The future belongs to engineers who can think critically, adapt quickly, and connect dots faster than the tools can compute.
