Taeyang Kim

I've been able to help many people land jobs using these strategies. I go over these points in even more detail in the Masterclass to Landing Tech Jobs. Here's the recording and slides: https://lnkd.in/ezmskWei Steps 1. Be What They What - "A Problem Solver" Gain technical skill and experience to be a top candidate and problem solver that companies hire for. 2. Be Where They Are - "A Great Networker" Network offline and online with people that can help you gain/find opportunities. 3. Communicate It Well - "Explain Your Value Clearly" Express the value you can offer clearly and remain respectful. 4. Organize the Process - "Make Your Life Simple" Track your progress and study plan in your job hunt. 5. Use Strategies - "More Focused Action" Have core strategies to work smarter and not harder.

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Let’s Settle This Debate: From ML to GenAI In recent times, I’ve noticed an increasing amount of trolling directed toward GenAI engineers. Many label them as mere "OpenAI API calling engineers," dismissing their work as lacking creativity or the "hardcore" machine learning expertise traditionally associated with AI engineering! This attitude reflects a broader narcissistic tendency to devalue others’ contributions, rooted in our primal fear of being outpaced—especially by AI itself. It’s a reflection of the human desire to feel superior, even within our professional communities. Let me break this down with an analogy: Imagine claiming that architects just draw buildings or that civil engineers merely oversee construction. By this logic, a "true" civil engineer would need to mold steel in a factory, create architectural designs, and construct the building single-handedly. This unrealistic standard is equivalent to the argument that GenAI engineering lacks depth or "soul." Creativity and curiosity are what define intelligence—not the tools you use or the comparisons others make. History is filled with examples of interconnected progress. Newton developed calculus; Einstein used that calculus to formulate the theory of relativity. Today, that same calculus underpins many aspects of AI development. Each contribution builds on the last in a continuous cycle of innovation. We live in an interconnected world where every field and every role contributes to the bigger picture. Dismissing GenAI engineers overlooks their role in making AI accessible, impactful, and usable. Their work is not just about calling APIs—it’s about applying those tools in meaningful, creative, and innovative ways. So, instead of engaging in divisive comparisons, let’s acknowledge the unique contributions that each discipline brings to the table. Together, we advance science, technology, and society. #AI #ML #GENAI #machinelearning #thoughts #futuretech #community #linkedin #thoughoftheday #advance #futuretech #Technology #society #science #researchAI

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🤩 ✨ Weekly Highlights ✨ 🤩 These past couple weeks, I focused on 3 graph problems and I solved another Hard problem on my own!!! 🙌 🙌 Woohoo!! I have to say, hard problems are not that intimidating as I thought before. As long as you break the problem into several sub-problems, and solve those sub-problems in manageable steps, it’s definitely figureoutable! 🪜 LC #127 🪜 Word Ladder- HARD PROBLEM 🔴 📝 Step 1: Build Connections In this problem, constructing the adjacency list is unique! Unlike previous problems, where the connections (adjacency list, adjacency matrix, or 2D array) are part of the input, here we need to determine connections by checking if two words differ by exactly one character. For example, the adjacency list looks like this: adjList = { "hit": ["hot"], "hot": ["hit", "dot", "lot"], "dot": ["hot", "dog", "lot"], "dog": ["dot", "log", "cog"], "lot": ["hot", "dot", "log"], "log": ["dog", "cog"], "cog": ["dog", "log"] }; 📝 Step 2: Solve Using BFS Once the adjacency list is built, the problem becomes a classic shortest path search, where BFS is the optimal approach. 💡 Key Insight: Where you increment curStep++ in the BFS matters. To ensure correct results, you only increase the step count after traversing an entire tree level. This requires keeping track of the current level’s size. LC #547 Number of Provinces Used Union-Find to solve this one. A small but useful reminder: 💡 Maps are iterable! This means you can conveniently iterate over your adjacency list like this: for (let [node, neighbors] of adjList) { console.log("Node and neighbors:", node, neighbors); } LC #463 Island Perimeter 💡 Key Challenge: Calculating the perimeter was the new twist in this problem! While similar to other "area calculation" problems, the key lies in figuring out the logic for perimeter calculation. 🎯 Came up with two solutions: 1️⃣ DFS 2️⃣ BFS #leetcode #dsa #graph #lifelonglearning #swe

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My cohort is the best Machine Learning Engineering class you'll find online. I shouldn't say it myself, but I'm too old to be modest. The next cohort starts in February. If you want to get your butt kicked and learn a ton, consider joining. Link to join: ml.school.

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Here’s how DoorDash evaluates its RAG performance by using LLM As A Judge. It's able to monitor retrieval correctness, response accuracy, coherence, and relevance to support questions which are posed by Dashers. 1. First, thousands of chat transcripts from Dashers are reviewed to identify common issues. 2. The LLM Judge is prompted with open-ended questions to assess them, and its answers are summarised into actionable feedback. 3. From these, high-frequency issues are built into prompts or rule-based metrics for continuous monitoring. 4. Human review teams validate the LLM’s evaluations by reviewing random transcript samples. This human feedback is calibrated with the automated system for better coverage. LLM Judge helps address issues like inaccurate retrieval, hallucinations, and low quality prompts. It makes sure that there's a continuous quality improvement pipeline alongside human support agents. Link to their full report is in the comments. #AI #LLMs #RAG

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It’s been five years since I updated my portfolio, and I thoroughly enjoyed refreshing it after two years of primarily working in backend and data. Flexing my frontend skills again was refreshing. I built the new portfolio using Vite-React, Tailwind, and Three-fiber, which combined to make the development process both quick and enjoyable. The integration of Vite with a 3D library like Three-fiber particularly enhanced the speed, making my coding experience efficient and a lot of fun! It only took two days of actual coding! The most challenging part was finding 3D models that fit my theme, which definitely increased my appreciation for 3D modeling. Anyway, check it out here: https://kimlongtvo.com. It’s mobile-friendly but best enjoyed on desktop. See if you can discover the Easter egg—just click around! This project was not only a technical exercise but also a reflection of my personal growth and evolution in the tech industry. Excited by these advancements, I’ve embarked on a new chapter in my career, stepping away from my stable job to dive into the entrepreneurial realm and develop new apps and businesses. It was a decision fueled by curiosity and a desire to innovate. Risky? Perhaps. Brave? You tell me. What’s certain is that this transformative period allowed me the opportunity to reconnect with my roots. Recently, I visited Vietnam for the first time since my childhood. Returning to my home country after such a long time has given me fresh perspectives and inspiration I’m grateful for everyone I’ve worked with. Now, I’m eager to tackle new challenges and continue learning. While I may not be a ‘10x engineer’—more like an ‘8x or 9x’ but I love solving problems. So if you’re working on something impactful—whether it’s a project, product, or just an idea—let’s connect and make it happen. #Innovation #SoftwareDevelopment #ContinuousLearning #threejs #TechCareers

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I am now a Headstarter AI Software Engineering fellow. 50% of 300+ alumni landed jobs at companies like Google, Apple and top Startups. I will be doing building 5 AI projects in 5 weeks and and as my final project I will try to get 1000 people on waitlist or 1000 accounts created or $1000 in revenue. The part I am most excited about this fellowship is I will be able to build my skills including Vision, Personal brand, Interview prep, Network, Project, Teamwork/Collab, Deadlines, Presentation, Feedback, How to Sell. I look forward to sharing my progress and technical growth over the next few week. Yasin Ehsan 🚀 ➡ REQUIREMENTS: Know one programming language and commit 20 hours weekly. ➡ DATES: July 22 – September 8. ➡ APPLY: https://lnkd.in/dWpGGXHD (deadline 18 July 24) If you need a referral: ⏩ Name: Sumeet Ghumare ⏩ Email: sumeetghumare4@gmail.com ⏩ linkedin: https://lnkd.in/dZwDDAeM Join Open Community on Discord: https://lnkd.in/de4GDZvk (if the Discord link does not work, copy the invite link and paste it into any Discord server, then click the join button). #Headstarter #SofftwareEngineering #ComputerScience #DataScience #Machinelearning #ArtificialIntelligence #Techs

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🚨 Why Your Projects Aren’t Landing You Interviews 🚨 If you’re a CS student or grad, you’ve likely added projects to your CV, but here’s the hard truth: not all projects are equal. 💡 Employers want projects that show real impact—not just that you can write code, but that you can solve real-world problems. 🛠️ For example: - A to-do app proves you know how to follow tutorials. - A project that delivers value to real users? That shows you’re a problem- solver with skills that employers need. What Makes a Project Stand Out? 📈 Tangible Outcomes: Build something people can actually use and engage with. 👥 Real Users: Solve real-world problems for a target audience. ✨ Polish: Deliver functionality with intuitive UI/UX design and clean execution. Projects that tick these boxes get noticed because they highlight your ability to think critically, build effectively, and create value. 💡 What You Can Do Today - Seek projects with real impact—not just portfolio fillers. - Collaborate with startups, take on challenges, or build for underserved audiences. - Focus on outcomes, not just functionality. - Your projects should showcase the skills employers actually care about. Build to make an impression—and land the opportunities you deserve. #TechCareers #CSStudents #CareerTips #RealProjects #BuildYourFuture #SoftwareEngineering

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Data Science/AI leveling up: Week 1 • Completed my first five days of accelerated linear algebra • Began learning Java - compiled, debugged and ran my first 20 (small) programs Early Takeaways: • Math is beautiful. And it takes time. Decided that simultaneously studying calculus is a bad idea, unless I can slow down time to give myself a 36-hour day. (*Note to self: Explore a time-dilation venture studio concept as my next venture) • There’s a special kind of joy in getting code to execute as intended, after debugging a poorly-capitalized letter or missing semi-colon. 🤦🏻‍♂️ #lifelonglearner #ai #datascience #testloop

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Happy Aloha Friday! 🌺 As we head into the weekend, I wanted to share some rules that guide me in life: 1) **Keep First Things First:** Prioritizing my family above all else is non-negotiable. Time is precious, and if what I'm doing doesn't align with spending more time with my loved ones, it's time to reassess. 2) **Build Anyway:** The fear of failure can paralyze us from pursuing our dreams. Remember, what takes years to build can be destroyed overnight, but the journey is worth it. Embrace the uncertainty and take that first step towards your goals. 3) **No Phone Use in the Bathroom:** Let's admit it, scrolling through our phones in the bathroom isn't ideal (and kind of gross). Embrace moments of boredom; they often spark creativity and new ideas. Keep the phone for emergencies, but resist the urge to scroll mindlessly. Do you have any practical life rules that you swear by? Share them below! #personaldevelopment #growthmindset 🌟

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why did i get into tech? a) i was a UCSB political science major from the bay area looking to get a job b) all the poli sci literature i was reading about the potential of ICT4D (Information Communications Technology for Development) struck me as ignorant of how technology actually worked c) i got the opportunity to learn to code. Plus a magazine i interned at allowed me to mess with their WordPress site and that was the instigation There was a clear personal upside for me to learn how to code and learn about how the internet works. I hope that employbl helps other people break into tech and find their upside 📈 #tech #startups #jobs

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The Andy Wong™ Challenge: Name another FAANGineer "influencer" who not only responds to their DMs, but also provides tailored, end-to-end guidance (i.e., more than just, "hOw To CrAcK tHe InTeRvIeW" or "hOw To GeT pRoMoTeD fAsT") for 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦? (Screenshot: Introduction to a seven-page document I wrote from scratch for a mentee who recently secured a return offer at a FAANGMULA company. (Because in addition to being a badass SWE, I can also be your agent/copywriter/financial advisor/paralegal/therapist/etc. in a pinch.)

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🚀 🚀 🚀 As the first week of the Headstarter AI SWE Fellowship comes to an end. I want to share a few things with you that have been valuable to me as an aspiring software engineer. 🤖 After the #Pathways2Tech event, I want to share a few takeaways: - Dustin Beadle (ex-Director, AMD): He spoke about the importance of effective communication within a team. Communication can't be taught easily, and many aspects affect team efforts on projects. This talk was definitely my favorite, as Dustin has about 16 years of international experience, so gaining wisdom from him was extremely valuable. 🌏 - Nabeel Alamgir🦄 (CEO, Lunchbox) gave an inspiring talk about his journey to become the CEO of Lunchbox, raising 100M. He changed my perspective on what I want when looking for a career. A key takeaway from his talk is to stop searching for acceptance and start gathering rejections. This way, you can find the right fit for you. - Shariar Kabir & Miguel Acero (Co-founders, Ruby) spoke on their progression to become co-founders of Ruby. As someone who eventually wants to build a startup, failure is the one thing you have to accept. Experiencing failure makes you more resilient. That resiliency allows you to continue to grow stronger and better in whatever you aspire to be. 💫 Overall, it was an incredible experience to partake in this event, and this is only the beginning. I plan on continuing to share my progress for weeks to come. It won't be an easy journey, but when is reaching your goals ever easy? Once again, thank you, Yasin Ehsan 🚀 and Headstarter AI, for providing me with this opportunity. 🙌 🙌

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I just spoke at my 2nd webinar 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 It was an absolute pleasure connecting with other SWE interns this summer and sharing my past experiences with students. Whether you're a current SWE intern or applying to summer 2025 internships, I have some advice for you below! If you're an intern: 💡 Take your internship as a LEARNING opportunity! You're not expected to know everything at the start. In fact, the company hired you since they saw a lot of potential in you. Ask questions and be curious about your project and the company as a whole. 💡 Don't just focus on your project and learning new skills. Also focus on expanding your network! Schedule coffee chats with new folks, attend company events or happy hour events. In the professional world, it's not just what but also who you know. 💡 Maintain a POSITIVE attitude. Whether you're in daily standups or spring planning, pay attention, take notes, and show that you're following along. Moreover, when your manager gives you feedback, take it as an opportunity for you to grow. If you're applying to summer 2025 internships: 💡 APPLY EARLY! Believe it or not, many companies have already opened their summer 2025 internship applications. The earlier you apply, the higher the chance your resume gets seen. 💡 Brush up on data structures and algorithms. The first step to many applications is a coding challenge on HackerRank or CodeSignal. Definitely consider LeetCode here to get used to those algorithmic style questions. 💡 Regularly update your resume. Remember, your resume is the first step to getting your foot in the door and getting the interview. Whether it's a new project you've built or a new role you've started, make sure your resume is up to date. 💡 TAILOR your resume to the role you're applying for. If you're going for SWE or data science roles, I recommend having a resume for each, since each role asks for different skills. Make sure you tailor your resume to the job description and include as many keywords from the job description as possible! 💡 DON'T be discouraged by rejections. It only takes 1 yes, so don't give up! Also, Simplify just released their github repo of summer 2025 tech internships: https://lnkd.in/eSk6nUP3 Thanks WaffleHacks once again for having me! I look forward to more collaborations in the future ~Kevin

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Super excited to share that our Week 3 project for the Headstarter SWE Fellowship is done! This time, we built a customer support chatbot for Silver Spoons, a fine-dining restaurant. The chatbot handles all sorts of things—answering questions about the menu, telling you when the restaurant’s open, and even booking reservations for you. 🍽️🤖 Just drop in the details, and it’s all set! We put this together using: - Next.js and TypeScript for the front-end. - AWS Bedrock, Gemini 1.5 pro and Meta LLaMA 3 70B for the AI smarts. - MUI for the UI. - Firebase for the backend. Our main goal was to make it work smoothly, so the UI isn’t super flashy, but it gets the job done. Big thanks to my teammate, Harrison Akunne and the whole Headstarter team for their support! 🙌 Also big shout out to Bill Zhang and Yasin Ehsan 🚀 for all the support provided. Curious about how it works? Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/ddG3qRrq Can’t wait to tackle what’s next! 🚀 #TechJourney #AI #Chatbot #HeadstarterFellowship #NextJS #AWS #LLaMA3 #Firebase

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Check out my newly polished GitHub profile! It’s looking slicker than ever! 👀 https://lnkd.in/gsX6E54s Recently, I took a step back and evaluated my GitHub profile. I realized that while I had a lot of activity, it wasn’t presented in the best way. I found a fantastic tutorial by Magdeline Huang on "How to Level Up Your GitHub Profile README." You can watch it here 👉 https://lnkd.in/guCGnwGG Her insights and tips were incredibly helpful, guiding me through the process of enhancing my profile's readability and attractiveness. During the tutorial, I discovered the GitHub Profile README Generator, which is incredibly convenient: https://lnkd.in/g76Y_akb https://gprm.itsvg.in/ You can also find stack badges here. These badges add a professional touch, highlighting the technologies and tools I am proficient in. https://lnkd.in/gDXgGSWF If you’re looking to give your GitHub a new face, I highly recommend these resources. Let's give our GitHub profiles a new face! 🧏‍♀️ #GitHub #Coding #Developer #Tech #CareerGrowth #ProfileEnhancement

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Last year before I joined Google and after conducting 300+ interviews in three years between my roles as a Software Engineer at Bloomberg, an Engineering Mentor at Formation, and running a Career Coaching business, I spent the long weekend developing a GPT tool, ‘LeetPrep Coach’. Made to help people prep for interviews. The goal was to let anyone practice by themselves, regardless of time or place, because having someone to do a mock interview with is a privilege not everyone has. 🤖💼 Just ask a question, it doesn’t have to be directly from LeetCode and the GPT would act as an AI interviewer of sorts. I checked on it today and saw it surprisingly has a 4.8 rating and has been used in 1k+ conversations! 🙌 To see that a weekend of my time has helped over 1k people means a lot to me, that’s the goal here. If you’ve used this GPT, I’d love to hear your feedback on how it can be improved! If you haven’t tried it yet, I’ll share a link in the comments. If you think this could help someone you know, feel free to share or repost so others can benefit #InterviewPrep #ChatGPT #AI #MockInterviews #JobSearch #Google

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"I don't like leetcode style interviews!" See I wasn't making it up! Kurtis Nusbaum tells us more about why engineers don't like leetcode and the types of interviews that lead to a more enjoyable and effective interviewing experience.

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Quick Update on my HeadstarterAI Week 2 Project 🚀 The Inventory Management System project, created during the HeadStarter SWE Fellowship Week 2, involved setting up a Next.js project with Material UI components 💻, implementing a Firebase backend for data storage 🔥, and developing a form to add, delete, and update pantry items. 🛒 By utilizing these technologies, the project aimed to provide users with a seamless and efficient way to manage their pantry inventory. 📊 Here's the video link for the Demo: https://lnkd.in/gfHeeaRx Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or want to collaborate on similar projects! 🤝 #HeadstarterAI #InventoryManagement #NextJS #MaterialUI #Firebase #SoftwareEngineering

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