Advice from the Top 1% of Software EngineerㅣExaltitude Jean Lee

Summary

The speaker reflects on their growth from the 19th engineer at WhatsApp to witnessing its user base swell to 1.2 billion. They emphasize the importance of influence through likability and credibility in the tech industry, advocating for genuine skill over trend-following. The success of WhatsApp is attributed to a focus on core utility and quality over gimmicks, and the speaker highlights the balance between autonomy and mentorship they found at the company. The acquisition by Facebook for $19 billion was a life-changing event, prompting reflection on the true meaning of work and financial freedom.

Takeaways

• 🚀 The speaker was the 19th engineer at WhatsApp, which grew from 20 million users to 1.2 billion active monthly users during their tenure.
• 🤝 Influence in the workplace is about a combination of likability and credibility, which can lead to more opportunities and recognition.
• 🛠️ The speaker emphasizes the importance of being able to learn new things and adapt, as programming languages and technologies evolve rapidly.
• 🌟 Success is not about following trends but being inquisitive and following one's passions and strengths.
• 🔩 WhatsApp's philosophy was to focus on core utility features and quality, avoiding gimmicks and unnecessary features.
• 📢 The company aimed to ensure that even users in remote areas with poor internet connections could reliably use their app.
• 🧩 Balancing autonomy with mentorship was crucial for the speaker, which they found at WhatsApp with its experienced founders.
• 🌱 The growth at WhatsApp was managed with a focus on maintaining the engineering culture, emphasizing simplicity and prioritization.
• 🏆 The acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion was a life-changing event for the speaker, highlighting the impact of such a significant financial transaction.
• 💡 Money can bring fulfillment and stability, but it's also important to find meaningful work that goes beyond financial gain.
• 🛑 The speaker had to redefine the meaning of work after achieving financial freedom, exploring how to spend time meaningfully.

Q & A

How many users did WhatsApp have when the speaker joined, and how many when they left?

When the speaker joined WhatsApp, they had around 20 million users. By the time they left, the number of active monthly users had grown to 1.2 billion.

What is the importance of likability and credibility in the speaker's view of influence?

The speaker believes that likability and credibility are key to gaining influence. Being dependable, pleasant to work with, and likable can lead to more opportunities and make one the first choice for teams and projects.

What does the speaker suggest as a better approach than following trends for career success?

The speaker encourages being inquisitive and exploring one's passions rather than blindly following trends. They emphasize the importance of being able to learn new things and pick up new skills.

What was the guiding principle for WhatsApp's feature development?

The guiding principle for WhatsApp's feature development was to focus on core utility features that work reliably, ensuring that even someone in a remote area with a poor internet connection on an old device could use the app effectively.

How did WhatsApp balance between a startup culture and providing mentorship?

WhatsApp provided a balance between a startup culture and mentorship by being a small enough company where an individual could see the impact of their work, while also having founders with significant tech experience from Yahoo to provide guidance and leadership.

What was the WhatsApp engineering culture like, according to the speaker?

The WhatsApp engineering culture was characterized by simplicity and challenging work. The team focused on prioritizing a few core features and ensuring a quality user experience across different conditions and devices.

How did the speaker and the team at WhatsApp ensure that new hires understood the company's engineering culture?

The speaker made sure that every new engineer understood the engineering culture of WhatsApp by clearly communicating the company's values and priorities, and by setting a clear decision-making process for feature development.

What was the speaker's reaction when WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook for $19 billion?

The speaker was initially unsure and confused about the acquisition news, struggling to comprehend the magnitude of $19 billion and what it meant for them personally.

How did financial freedom change the speaker's perspective on work?

Financial freedom allowed the speaker to experiment and redefine the meaning of work, leading to a realization that work should be something interesting and meaningful, rather than just a means to earn money.

What advice does the speaker give about choosing a career path?

The speaker advises choosing a career path based on personal interest and passion, suggesting that successful individuals often view their work as a meaningful part of their life rather than just a job.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Growth and Influence at WhatsApp

The speaker reflects on their experience as the 19th engineer at WhatsApp, highlighting the company's exponential growth from 20 million to 1.2 billion active monthly users. They emphasize the importance of influence in the tech industry, defined by likability and credibility, which can lead to new opportunities. The speaker also stresses the value of being known for a specific skill or expertise, rather than following trends, which is a common mistake among professionals. The narrative includes personal anecdotes about working at WhatsApp, the company's focus on core utility features, and the importance of quality over gimmicks, as illustrated by stories of people relying on WhatsApp during emergencies.

05:02

🎯 Prioritizing Simplicity for Success

This paragraph delves into the concept of simplicity as a key to success, particularly in the context of WhatsApp's engineering culture. The speaker describes how the company prioritized a few core features over a multitude of less essential ones, which was a deliberate strategy to ensure a consistent and high-quality user experience, even for those with limited internet access or older devices. The guiding principle was to make the app user-friendly for everyone, including the elderly in remote areas. The speaker also shares insights on how this approach to prioritization was implemented within their team, allowing for clear understanding and autonomous decision-making regarding project priorities. The narrative concludes with the speaker's personal experience of the acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook for $19 billion, their initial confusion about the financial implications, and the subsequent realization of the profound life changes that such an event can bring.

Keywords

💡Engineer

An engineer is a professional who applies scientific principles to design, build, and maintain structures, machines, devices, systems, materials, and processes. In the context of the video, the speaker refers to being an engineer at WhatsApp, indicating their role in developing and maintaining the technology behind the platform. The script mentions the speaker as the '19th engineer to join WhatsApp,' highlighting the growth and expansion of the company's engineering team.

💡Influence

Influence refers to the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something. Within the video's narrative, the speaker discusses the desire for influence among individuals, particularly in a professional setting. They mention that influence can manifest in the form of seeking promotions or affecting decisions, and it is closely tied to the concepts of likability and credibility.

💡Likability

Likability is the quality of being pleasant or attractive, making others feel positively towards you. The speaker emphasizes the importance of likability in conjunction with credibility to gain influence. They provide an example of how individuals who are both likable and credible are more likely to be sought after for new opportunities, such as being part of a startup team.

💡Credibility

Credibility is the quality of being trusted or believed in. It is a key aspect of the speaker's discussion on influence. The speaker explains that credibility is about being dependable and not disappointing others, which, when combined with likability, can significantly increase one's influence in a professional environment.

💡Trends

Trends refer to the general direction in which something is developing or changing. The speaker criticizes the focus on trends, particularly in the context of programming languages, stating that it is more important to be adaptable and learn new skills rather than just following what is currently popular. They argue that blindly following trends can lead to failure.

💡Passion

Passion is a strong emotion or feeling of enthusiasm for something. The speaker encourages individuals to explore their passions as a path to success, rather than just following trends. They believe that being inquisitive and pursuing what one enjoys doing is more fulfilling and leads to better outcomes than simply following the crowd.

💡Core Utility Features

Core utility features are the essential functions or services that a product provides to fulfill its primary purpose. The speaker discusses WhatsApp's focus on these features, such as reliable messaging and calling, rather than adding gimmicks or unnecessary features. This approach is highlighted as a key to the company's success.

💡Quality

Quality refers to the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; it is the degree of excellence of something. The speaker mentions that WhatsApp aimed for quality by ensuring that their core features worked reliably every time, rather than adding numerous new features that might compromise the user experience.

💡Ownership

Ownership is the state or fact of possessing or controlling something. The speaker reflects on their experience at a startup where they felt a sense of ownership and autonomy, which allowed them to see the direct impact of their work. This feeling of ownership is contrasted with the experience at larger companies, where they felt less autonomy but had more mentorship.

💡Mentorship

Mentorship is a relationship in which a more experienced or knowledgeable person helps guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. The speaker contrasts their experiences with mentorship at IBM, where they felt guided but lacked autonomy, with their experience at WhatsApp, where they found a balance between mentorship and the ability to see the impact of their work.

💡Simplicity

Simplicity is the quality of being easy to understand or do. In the context of the video, the speaker describes the WhatsApp engineering culture as valuing simplicity, which they equate with prioritizing a few core features over trying to do many things at once. Simplicity is achieved by focusing on what is essential and delivering those features with clear decision-making and intentionality.

💡Acquisition

Acquisition refers to the act of acquiring something, especially by effort or action. In the script, the speaker recounts the moment when WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook for $19 billion, an event that was significant and transformative for the company and its employees. The acquisition marked a turning point in the speaker's life, providing financial freedom and prompting a reevaluation of the meaning of work.

💡Financial Freedom

Financial freedom is the state of having enough wealth to live life without having to work actively for a basic living. The speaker discusses how the acquisition provided them with financial freedom, which was initially confusing due to their background of not being financially free. This new status allowed them to explore and redefine their relationship with work, seeking meaningful engagement beyond financial necessity.

Highlights

The speaker was the 19th engineer at WhatsApp, which had grown to 1.2 billion active monthly users by the time of their departure.

Having 17 years of experience in tech, the speaker emphasizes the importance of influence in the workplace, which can be achieved through likability and credibility.

Influence is not just about promotions but also about being a dependable and pleasant person to work with.

The speaker suggests that engineers should focus on being known for something specific to gain influence and be considered for new opportunities.

The speaker criticizes top trends and languages in tech, arguing that adaptability and learning new skills are more important for success.

As a hiring manager, the speaker values smart engineers who can code and learn new things over those who know specific languages.

At WhatsApp, the focus was on core utility features ensuring reliable messaging and calling functionality.

The company's philosophy was to avoid gimmicks and prioritize quality and functionality over adding numerous features.

WhatsApp's success stories include enabling communication during natural disasters and aiding in rescues.

The speaker's experience at a startup provided them with a sense of ownership and autonomy but lacked direction.

IBM offered great mentorship but lacked the autonomy the speaker enjoyed at a startup.

WhatsApp provided a balance of mentorship and autonomy, which was attractive to the speaker.

The speaker learned a lot from observing and working closely with experienced founders at WhatsApp.

WhatsApp's engineering culture was defined by simplicity, achieved through prioritization and focusing on core features.

The guiding principle at WhatsApp was to ensure even those in remote areas with poor internet could use the app.

The speaker's role as an engineering manager involved making sure everyone understood the company's goals and priorities.

The acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook for $19 billion was a life-changing event for the speaker.

Financial freedom brought about by the acquisition required the speaker to redefine the meaning of work and how to spend their time.

The speaker believes that finding work that is enjoyable and meaningful is more important than just financial stability.

Transcripts

I was the 19th engineer to join WhatsApp.

We may have had around 20 million users at the time,

and by the time I was leaving the company, we had 1.2 billion active monthly users.

I've been working in tech for 17 years, so over the years I probably worked

with thousands of engineers.

Every single person wants some kind of influence.

It could be influence in terms of I want to get a promotion.

That's a form of influence.

You want to influence your manager or I want to get a different job.

So that's part of our curriculum influence.

And we say influence is about likability and credibility.

When I ask Peter, I know Peter will deliver X, I know he's dependable and he's

not going to make me feel like shit.

He's not going to be an asshole, and he's going to be pleasant to work with.

So likability plus credibility can bring you a lot of influence.

People will come to you for new opportunities.

If I'm building a new startup, I'm thinking about who do I want on my team.

They're going to think of people who have the likability and the

credibility together, because if you only have one or the other, you're okay.

You might be able to tag along, but you're not going to be

the first person they think of.

So I do recommend, okay, even if you are really good at all

of them, please choose one.

What is your thing? What do you want to be known for?

As I started getting more involved with YouTube, I've been watching more content.

That drives me crazy when I see these videos like top five trends

or top five languages to follow, because I don't think that's

what really will help you be successful.

It's not about which language, you know, because as a hiring manager,

I'm often trying to just understand, are you a smart engineer?

Can you code?

Because what languages we're using today may not be applicable tomorrow.

So I want to be able to work with people who can learn new things,

pick up new skills.

And that's what I'm interviewing for when I talk to new software engineers.

Similar principles apply to success.

Blindly following trends is a recipe for failure because you're

always going to be a step behind.

So I encourage people to be inquisitive and explore your passions.

What are you good at? What do you enjoy doing and follow that?

At WhatsApp, we actually had a note written by one of the founders.

We wrote no gimmicks and we had it posted on the walls.

We decided we're not going to do games, we're not going to do gimmicks, we're

not going to throw in a bunch of features just to appease every single person.

The way we are going to appease every single person is

by focusing on the core utility features.

Like, does the messaging actually work?

Can you call someone and can you actually hear them?

I guess another word you can say is we focused on quality.

We wanted to drill in to make sure it works every single time, rather than

adding on a bunch of new features.

We would get a lot of emails from people all over the world and they would tell us

there was a natural disaster.

Nothing was working.

The phone lines were down, but I was able to use WhatsApp to call the

firefighters and I was rescued where I was in a car accident and I was rescued.

So I do believe it worked.

So when I was in college, I actually interned for a three person

startup and we had a lot of fun.

I loved the ownership, the autonomy. I could really see the impact of my work.

I also felt like we were lacking direction and leadership and mentorship, and that's

part of the reason why I joined IBM.

And when I did join IBM, I felt like there was great mentorship,

but I lacked the autonomy.

So WhatsApp for me struck a balance because at the time I was the 19th

engineer, it was small enough where I could see the impact of the work,

but the founders had a lot of experience.

They were both from Yahoo.

They had a lot of experience working in tech, and I felt like that would be

a great balance for me to find both ownership and mentorship.

And it's not like we had one on one every week.

It wasn't a formal mentorship, but just by being there in a small company

and observing and watching, similar to my upbringing, I guess just

learning how they operate, how they lead was a really great opportunity for me,

and I learned so much by just being there.

We may have had around 20 million users at the time,

and by the time I was leaving the company, we had 1.2 billion active monthly users.

There were several values.

I think that was key to the success of WhatsApp.

And as we experienced the growth, I think it was really important to be able

to hold on to our engineering culture, and that was part of my big focus as well.

When I was starting the new office in London, I went there in 2018.

We grew the office to about 100 engineers and a couple of years,

and in that short period of time, we were hiring new engineers every week.

And one thing that we tried to really do was to make sure that everyone understands

the engineering culture for WhatsApp, I think was pretty special.

And if I were to sum up the WhatsApp engineering culture in one word,

it's challenging.

But I would say it was simplicity.

So simplicity can mean a lot of different things.

But one way of achieving simplicity is really prioritizing.

It's easy for us to say, I'm going to do ten different things and be really

great at it, but it's actually much harder to be focused on a few core features

and a few core offerings that we will offer and prioritize them ruthlessly.

We had a clear decision maker who gave us clear messaging about

which features were going to deliver, and we came up with these features

really intentionally as well.

We had ideas like, okay, we want to make sure even someone in the middle of nowhere

with bad internet connection on an old device should be able to use our app.

So we wanted to prioritize the user experience.

So even people in remote places with body internet connection

on older devices can use our app.

Also, we like to talk about can a grandma in the middle of nowhere use this feature?

And that was our guiding principle for how we prioritize our work.

We made sure that every single person understood what we're building

and where we're going, and I also implemented that in my personal team

as engineering manager as well.

I let people know these are the things that we're building

and this is our long tum overall goal.

So when they are working, I can't always be there to hold their hand

and guide them, but when they're working, they can prioritize their own work.

When they have competing projects or features or priorities, they can say,

these are our guiding values or priorities, and I know exactly which one I

need to prioritize, and it would work.

Also, when you're working cross functionally if someone's asking you

for help or giving you new ideas or suggestions, you understand what needs

to be done for not just yourself, but for your team and company as a whole.

So achieving simplicity through prioritizing was one of the key factors

for success for us.

When WhatsApp got acquired for $19 billion, I actually wasn't even sure

what $1 billion was.

The type of amount of money that you can't really tangibly describe.

How much is $1 billion?

The moment that I heard the acquisition news,

I was sitting in the conference room. It was really weird.

The founders looked a little weird.

I couldn't articulate at the time because I didn't know what was happening.

But they're like waving their arms and like saying,

you need to get into this conference room.

I couldn't believe my ears. I wasn't sure what was happening.

But when I heard the news, okay, Facebook's buying us for $19 billion.

And I was sitting in the conference room thinking, how much is that?

And what does that mean for me?

Like, I was pretty young at the time, so I didn't even know how much shares

I actually exactly had.

And I wasn't really sure what that meant for me.

And I was trying to calculate the number. What does that mean for me?

And I couldn't do the math.

So yeah, it was an incredible opportunity and it was really exciting to be there.

And it does really change your life.

There are many things money can change or doesn't change as well.

It can bring you a certain fulfillment and stability,

but there is a lot more that we need.

Beyond that, what do you want to do if you don't work?

Yeah, you can stay home, watch TV, but after a while TV is kind of boring.

So I think it's about how you view your work.

I don't feel like I'm working. I'm just having fun.

That's why you need to find something that's interesting for you, right?

Why does Bill gates work? He's still doing so much.

He's working all the time.

But I don't know Bill gates, and I don't know why he's working, but I would suspect

most of these people who continue to work, they don't see it as work.

They see it as a meaningful part of their life.

I think it was a turning point for my life because I was never

financially free growing up, so having the financial freedom

was a little bit confusing at times.

I did have to go experiment a lot and explore again to redefine the meaning

of work for myself to understand how do I want to spend my time?