After this lesson, you will be able to: Translate engineering fundamentals into resume bullets, portfolio pieces, and interview answers that get junior and mid-level software engineering offers.
Engineering Fundamentals is the sub-track hiring managers screen for first. If you can talk about debugging, testing, and code review like a working engineer, you're past the bar most candidates fail.
Software Engineer / Software Engineer I, the canonical entry role. $90-$160k. Backend Engineer, focuses on APIs, databases, and infrastructure. $100-$180k. Full-Stack Engineer, ships across UI + API + DB. $90-$170k. Platform Engineer / Infrastructure Engineer, builds the tools other engineers use. $130-$220k (more senior bias). Software Engineer in Test / SDET, owns the test pyramid + CI quality. $110-$170k. Search 'software engineer', 'backend engineer', 'full stack engineer' on LinkedIn.
Skills: TypeScript, Python, Node.js, REST APIs, PostgreSQL, Vitest / Jest, Playwright, Git, GitHub Pull Requests, debugging with VS Code, SOLID + DRY principles, code review. Projects: 'Refactored a 600-line file into 8 small modules following separation of concerns; PR linked.' 'Wrote a regression test suite for a personal project; 80 tests covering happy path, error cases, and edge cases.' 'Submitted a PR to <open-source repo>; full PR description + tests linked.' Certs: none canonical for general SWE. Specific stacks (AWS Cloud Practitioner) optional.
'Tell me about a bug you fixed and how you found it.' (Tells the interviewer whether you debug or guess.) 'How do you decide what to test?' (Tests the test-pyramid + behavior-over-implementation mindset.) 'Walk me through a code review you gave.' (Tests communication + judgement.) 'What does SOLID mean to you, in real code?' (Beware textbook answers; have a concrete example.) 'Why does this code feel wrong?' (Often they hand you a snippet on screen-share. Spot the violations.) 'Tell me about a time you disagreed with a code reviewer. What happened?'
Three of these in 60 days lands you past the resume screen.
Pick one personal project; add 20-50 unit + integration tests with Vitest. Publish.
Write 3 blog posts on bugs you debugged: hypothesis, experiment, root cause, regression test added.
Submit 3 PRs to open-source repos; aim for substantive (10-200 line) changes with full PR descriptions.
Record a 5-min Loom walking through a code review you'd give on a real public PR.
Document a refactor: 'before' file → 'after' file with the principles you applied called out.
Listing 'SOLID' or 'Clean Code' on a resume without a concrete example you can talk about. Skipping the engineering-process answers ('I just code') in favor of pure technical answers. Behavioral signal carries half the interview. No PRs on GitHub. Hiring managers look. Empty profiles look bad; thoughtful ones stand out. Pretending to have used Jest / Vitest without writing tests beyond a tutorial. Specific test design questions catch bluffing fast.
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