Engineering with People Intelligence | Microsoft, Yahoo, SAP, Carnegie Mellon | The Engineering Career Coach

I transformed from a curious software engineer to a strategic leader, guiding massive teams at Microsoft, Yahoo, Walmart Labs, and startups. Along this journey, I generated over $2.3 billion in revenue. But it wasn't always smooth sailing.

My quest began with questions about management, innovation, and leadership, leading me to an unexpected discovery - emotional intelligence. It sparked a new realization; traditional corporate management training teaches frameworks, not leadership. That's why I created Taha's Method, a unique approach focused on leading yourself before others and applying management frameworks rooted in human principles.

And boy, did it work!

In 6 years, I led from 0 to 250+ team members. To date, I have coached over 600+ professionals, including those at Google, Netflix, Oracle, Microsoft, Meta, Intuit, Yahoo, and startups, helping them to secure management as well as IC roles (Principal+).

But why stop there?

In January 2022, I walked away from a 7-figure career to dedicate myself to enabling ambitious software engineers to reach their full potential. I developed a personalized 6-month 1:1 coaching program - and the impact has been phenomenal. (Check out the reviews from my clients below.)

Every day, I share insights on LinkedIn about effective leadership, emotional intelligence challenges, and career advancements. In doing so, I've created a vibrant community of learners and leaders.

For me, great leadership can make the world a better place. And I believe that everyone has the capacity to become a great leader.

So, are you ready to unlock your potential? 

Join me, and let's change the world one leader at a time.

Taha Hussain

Some engineers still think they’re in school.

They work hard.
Get the answers right.
Turn in clean code.
And expect recognition to follow.

But engineering teams aren’t classrooms.
There are no grades.
No gold stars.
No teacher pulling you aside to whisper, “Great job.”

You can be right AND still be ignored.
You can have the best idea AND still lose the room.

Because the real world doesn’t reward correctness.
It rewards clarity.
Timing.
Trust.
The ability to move people without leaving a bruise.

You’re not here to impress the teacher.
You’re here to shift inertia.
To ship change in a system that doesn’t want to change.

If you’re still playing for grades, you’re going to be outpaced by the ones playing for gravity.

Need help shifting from correctness to real influence?

Enroll in the Top Engineer Method.

I built it from my experience growing engineers at Microsoft, SAP and startups into people whose ideas actually moved teams.

Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

The best idea only matters if it changes something.

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Subconcious

𝙎𝙪𝙗𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨: The part of the mind that is not currently in focal awareness but influences thoughts, feelings, and actions. It operates below the level of conscious perception, often storing beliefs and past experiences that shape behavior and emotional responses without the individual's conscious knowledge.

Goalsetting

📌📌📌 Achieve your ambitions with my top-rated "Brain-Powered Goal-Setting" lesson.

Complimentary for a limited time: https://www.topengineermethod.com/offers/S9pRMBKs

Newsletter Post

📌📌📌 Want a Brilliant Team? Restrict their Freedom

https://open.substack.com/pub/tahahussain/p/want-a-brilliant-team-restrict-their

TopEngineer

📌 Become the lead engineer everyone wants on their team.

Start now: https://www.topengineermethod.com/

Job Hunt 2024

📌 📌 📌 Sign up for the Behavioral Interview BootCamp for Engineers

https://www.topengineermethod.com/behavioral-interview-engineers

COde

LinkedIn Live Event

📌📌📌 Register for the event here:

https://www.linkedin.com/events/q-a-behavioralinterviews7242556186036690944/theater/

Newsletter Subscribe

📌📌📌 Full post:

https://open.substack.com/pub/tahahussain/p/how-to-survive-and-thrive-in-a-toxic

Resume Ghostbuster

📌📌📌 The Resume Ghostbuster

https://www.topengineermethod.com/the-resume-ghostbuster

Engineering Career Coach | Microsoft, Yahoo, SAP, Carnegie Mellon | Engineering with People Intelligence

At Microsoft, I once walked behind a VP into an outage meeting. Screens were red. Graphs were spiking. Engineers were locked in, hunched over their keyboards.

No one dared break focus.

Then the VP spoke.

“What’s the latest?”
5 mins later—“Any updates?”
5 mins after that—“Why is this taking so long?”

What should’ve been a 1-hour fix became a 5-hour disaster.

Here’s what I learned:

In a crisis, great leaders don’t add noise.

They remove it.

If you don’t understand the issue, shut up and listen.
If the right people are on it, get out of the way.
If your boss needs answers, contain the panic—not spread it.

Because when everything breaks, people don’t remember who yelled the loudest.

They remember who kept them focused.

If this story felt familiar, you already know the cost of interference.

I work with leaders on building calm under pressure here ↓
https://lnkd.in/gHSYuJrv

Teams follow steadiness, not volume.

The promotion trap:

You work harder.
You take on more.
You become the person no one can live without.

Congratulations.
You're now too useful to promote.

Because once you’re essential, you’re a hostage.
Too valuable to lose.
Too useful to move.

The reward for being irreplaceable is a longer leash.

So don’t just work harder.
Work quieter.

- Teach others what you know.
- Build systems that breathe without you.
- Make your absence look survivable.

Smart people move up.
Essential people hold the ladder.

Choose wisely.

If you found this useful, there are four more traps waiting for you. 

I mapped them out here: https://lnkd.in/gCVuj3uY

“Feedback is a gift” sounds lovely.

Until you give it to the person who signs your performance review.

Everyone says they want honesty.
Few know what to do with it.

Try telling the VP their strategy makes no sense.
That the roadmap is broken.
That the reorg created more confusion, not less.

Suddenly it’s not feedback.
It’s attitude.
It’s tone.
It’s immaturity.
It’s a lack of alignment.

Here’s the part no one says out loud:

Feedback only feels like a gift when it flows in a safe direction.

From leader to report.
From senior to junior.
From control to compliance.

Reverse it, and everything changes.
Now it’s disrespect.
It’s ego.
It’s a behavior problem.

You can’t build a culture of feedback if people have to calculate how much truth you can handle.

Your engineers don’t respect you.

Not because you don’t code anymore.
Not because you aren’t the smartest person in the room.

But because you don’t protect them.

You let product pile on last-minute scope.
You force them into pointless meetings.
You make them rush, then blame them for tech debt.

And worst of all?

You expect them to be "passionate" about it.

You didn’t build a team. You built survivors.
And survivors don’t innovate. 
They escape.

They leave leaders who feed them to the wolves.

You want their respect?

Fight for sane deadlines.
Say no when it matters.
Shield them from the corporate meat grinder so they can do what they do best — build.

If your best engineers seem “disengaged,” stop asking what’s wrong with them. Start asking what’s wrong with you.

If this felt personal, good. Leadership usually is.

Learn how to lead teams people want to stay on ↓
https://lnkd.in/gHSYuJrv

Respect is earned long before performance reviews.

An Engineering Director hired me to prep him for an M2 role at Meta. He didn’t get it. Not even M1.

On paper, he was perfect.

• Scaled systems
• Managed managers
• Hit every target
• Told every story by the book

So what went wrong?

It wasn’t his answers.
It wasn’t his architecture.
It wasn’t his delivery.

A leadership blind spot, hidden inside his success.

Startups reward it.
Big tech exposes it.

And it revealed itself with one question.

Read it here: https://lnkd.in/gHDGdCE4

Most engineers stay too long at one company because of:

• “The team is great”
• “I’m finally getting visibility”
• “This might be the year I get promoted”

Translation?

You're trading long-term optionality for short-term comfort.

Here’s what they don’t tell you:

• Staying 6+ years means you're indexed on that system
• You stop interviewing, networking, building signal
• You forget how much more the market values you than your employer does

Then a reorg hits.
Or your VP leaves.
Or someone newer, flashier, louder gets the opportunity you waited five years for.

And suddenly, you're stuck.

Because loyalty isn’t rewarded in tech.
Optionality is.

Want to future-proof yourself?

• Build relationships outside your company
• Share your work beyond your Slack channel
• Learn how to package your skills without waiting for a recruiter to “find you”

You don’t owe your company loyalty.

You owe yourself leverage.

If you want leverage without waiting for permission, 
start here ↓
https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

I’ve promoted a lot of engineers.

You know who got promoted the fastest?

The ones who acted like the role before they were given the title.

If you're waiting for your manager to notice you, you're too late.

Promotions don't go to the most deserving.

They go to the most visible.

Don’t just ask for growth.
Prove you’re already growing.

No one owes you a promotion.
You earn it in public.

Want to learn how to position yourself for your next promotion? 

Join 1,000+ engineers in the Top Engineer Method growing their skills and making their work visible: https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

If your manager says “you’re doing great” but won’t put it in writing, you’re being managed.

This shows up in engineering all the time.

1:1s become fog machines.

You hear:

• “You’re crushing it.”
• “No concerns.”
• “Keep doing what you’re doing.”
• “We’ll talk about promotion soon.”

Then review season arrives.

And somehow you’re:

• “not quite there yet”
• “need more scope”
• “need more visibility”
• “missing leadership signals”

That gap is not an accident.

It’s a tactic.

Verbal praise keeps you calm.
Written praise creates receipts.

Receipts create leverage.

So they avoid them.

Here’s the simple test:

Ask for a written summary.

Try this line in your 1:1:

“Can you write 5 bullets on what I’m doing well, and 3 bullets on what would block my next level?”

If they’re honest, you get clarity.

If they squirm, you get clarity faster.

Then do this:

• Keep a running doc of wins with links, metrics, screenshots.
• After big work ships, send a short recap email or message.
• Ask for feedback in writing, even if it’s informal.
• Repeat it monthly, not yearly.

If you can’t get anything concrete, start interviewing.

Because “you’re doing great” with no paper trail is how companies keep high performers productive and powerless.

If everything you’ve done disappears at review time, something is broken.

This is how engineers fix it ↓
https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

Your work deserves to count.

Your employer is a gold digger.

They’re digging for your best years.

Your energy.
Your loyalty.
Your future defined by their rules. 

In return?

A paycheck and a promise they won’t keep.

Because the moment the numbers don’t add up...
You’re not a “valued team member.”
You’re a line item - “Employee 456.”

You brought gold. 
They brought a shovel. 

You gave loyalty.
They played the long con.

You gave them time with your family. 
They took away their future. 

Loyalty isn’t rewarded.
It’s exploited.

So stop betting your future on one company.

→ Build a reputation beyond your job title.
→ Create value outside your 9–5.
→ Grow a network that pays in opportunity, not company swag.

Because companies come and go.
Relationships last.

Your job is a tool, not your identity.

Use it, but don’t let it abuse you.

If this made you uncomfortable, good. That’s leverage calling.
Start here ↓
https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

You don’t get a second chance at your best years.

When I was a Senior Engineer at Yahoo, I used to write essays in every PR.

Protected every pattern. 
Pushed back on every deviation.
People called it “thorough.”

Until one day, a quiet engineer pulled me aside and asked:

“Are you helping, or just showing off?”

That line split me open.

I realized I wasn’t protecting quality.
I was protecting my ego.

I slowed the team down. 
Created tension no one talked about. 
Made collaboration harder than it needed to be.

Since then?

I comment less. Ask more. Unblock fast. Trust quicker.

Because the best senior engineers don’t make themselves the main event. They clear the runway and let the work take flight.

If this felt familiar, you’re ready for the next level ↓
https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

Senior isn’t louder. It’s cleaner.

If nobody swears in a crisis, you’re fucked.

Real engineering teams do not sound polished when production is burning.

They are messy. Direct. Blunt.

So if your standups sound like corporate press releases
“on track,” “should be fine,” “to be honest”
you are not hearing the truth.

You are being fed bullshit dressed up as updates.

And once that becomes normal, your team stops solving problems and starts performing for you instead.

The scary part? 

Most managers don’t notice until it’s too late.

Here are 7 signs your team is faking safety (and what to do about it): https://lnkd.in/g9tV2Cmi

The best engineers leave quietly.

They stop pushing back.
They stop debating ideas.
They stop telling you when something is broken.

And when they finally resign? It’s not a decision.

It’s just the last step in a process that started months ago.

I didn’t see the signs. I lost great people because of it.

So I made three changes to fix this, but they did more than just stop the exits.

Read them here: https://lnkd.in/gsST65Ud

Nobody tells you what a layoff feels like.

The meeting is short.

“Hey, we’ve got some tough news...”

Your chest tightens.
Your thoughts scatter.
Your gut knows before your brain catches up.

You nod. 
You say thanks. 
You ask if there’s anything you need to sign.

Then you close the laptop and just sit there.

Not crying.
Not panicking.
Just... watching the room, like it might explain what just happened.

You check Slack. You're still logged in.
You check your email. Still nothing.

You keep waiting for someone to message you.
Say there was a mistake.
That they meant someone else.

But they never do.

And here’s the part you hope no one finds out:

You feel humiliated.

Even though you did nothing wrong.
Even though it’s happening to thousands of others.
Even though your brain knows better.

Still, something in you folds.

Later, you’ll feel rage.
Or freedom.
Maybe fire.

But right now?

It’s just silence.

So, sit with it.
Feel it.
Hold it tight. 
Like a mother hugging her child after the fall.

I share writing like this every Sunday with 14,000 subscribers.

The Conscious Leader 

Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/g3J25k5w

A real senior engineer does not add options.

They kill them.

They carve away the maybes until there is one clear path.
One owner.
One set of tradeoffs everyone understands.

When the path is narrow, teams move.
When the path is wide, they stall, split, and second guess.

Velocity is not a byproduct of more ideas.
It is what happens when someone is brave enough to say,
“We are going this way, for these reasons,”
and let everything else die.

This is one of the core habits inside Top Engineer Method.

Learning to choose a path, own it, and explain the tradeoffs like a real senior.

Start here: https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

At Microsoft, I once met an engineering manager who'd always show up for design reviews but left without saying a word. I knew this kind. Hell, I had been one.

Polished. Prepared.
Eyes on the roadmap.
Always ready with a status update.

That day, I asked him what he thought about the design.
He said, "Let's check the status on that ticket."

I asked what he'd change in it.
He said, "I'll follow up with the team."

I asked, "what’s broken?"
He pulled up the org chart. 

I wasn’t angry at him.
I was scared for him.

He had traded thinking for tracking.

It doesn’t happen all at once. 
Creeps in slowly.
Quietly.
Conveniently.

You skip a review.
You forward a decision.
You default to process.

And before long, you’re not building systems, you’re babysitting one.

Meanwhile, his engineers?

They were drifting. Quietly.

They didn’t need someone to run meetings.

They needed someone who could look at a whiteboard and say,

“That’s wrong. Let’s fix it.”

And the part that still haunts me?

He thought he was doing a good job.

Because once, I did too.

The more reliable you are, the more invisible you become.

You fix the fire.
You stay late.
You do the thankless work without complaining.

Everyone depends on you.
But no one promotes you.

Because reliability is quiet.
And quiet doesn’t get rewarded in loud systems.

You want to believe the spotlight will find you.
That your work will speak for itself.
That one day, someone will finally say, “You’ve earned it.”

But here’s the truth:

The longer you carry the team, the heavier your silence becomes.

Eventually, they forget what the team would look like without you.

Because you’ve made it too smooth.
Too stable.
Too easy.

And in that comfort, they start promoting chaos.
The loud ones.
The edge-case heroes.
The people who sell half-baked ideas with full-volume confidence.

You stay reliable.
They rise.

Not because they’re better — but because they’re visible.

Need a way to be seen without breaking what works?

Enroll in the Top Engineer Method.

I built it for engineers who carry teams and deserve credit for it.

Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

What you make look easy is often what matters most.

At Senior, your politics tax is low.
Do your job well, and you move forward.

At Staff, the tax goes up.
You need advocates across teams.

At Principal, the tax is heavy.
You’re defending roadmaps, budgets, and headcount.

If you don’t want to pay the tax, you won’t clear the level.

That’s what I teach in the Top Engineer Method.

Learn how to reason, explain, and stand behind your design tradeoffs.

Start here → https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

Most “underperformers” on your team are not found.
They are built.
By you.

You quietly decide someone is “not ready.”
So you give them smaller problems.
With less context.
And softer feedback.

They move slower.
Take fewer risks.
Stay in the shallow end.

Then you point at the gap and call it proof.

Psychologists have a name for this: The Golem Effect
 
Low expectations that quietly become reality.

On engineering teams, it shows up in four places:

1. Climate: Who gets your patience and full attention?
2. Input: Who gets the real “why,” not just the Jira ticket?
3. Output: Who gets the scary migrations and visible projects?
4. Feedback: Who gets specific, stretching one, not “Nice work”?

If the same person keeps landing on the “less” side of those questions, you are not just measuring performance.

You are designing it.

Leaders love to say, “I wish they would step up.”

Often, they are already standing as tall as the room you built for them.

I learned this the hard way with an engineer on my team at Yahoo.

I ran the Golem script.

I did not like how the story ended.

I wrote the full story in this newsletter, including what I changed after.

If you manage people, someone is living inside the room you built for them. Make sure you can live with how small or how wide that room is.

How nice managers ruin careers It was 2015. I was at Yahoo in Sunnyvale, newly appointed to an engineering manager role, and the purple badge still fe

The Golem Effect

If you’re low ego, heads down, and quietly excellent...

You're exactly who the system forgets first.

Because most orgs aren't built to spot deep contributors.

They're built to notice:

– The loudest voice in the meeting
– The person who recaps their own success
– The one who attaches themselves to visibility

You think you're being humble.
They think you're on the sidelines.

And it's not malice. Its design.

The system doesn’t reward quality.
It rewards clarity.

And clarity requires you to show up. Speak up.
Name the work. Share the win. Claim your impact.

This isn’t ego.
It’s survival.

So don’t just be excellent.
Be visible.

If you’ve been overlooked for doing excellent work quietly, I built something to help you turn quiet impact into visible leverage. Start here → https://lnkd.in/gMGfmVas

I’ve been in tech for 12+ years - from Software Engineer to Tech Lead to Product Director.

I got there by doubling down on soft skills. Now I help others develop them too.

For the past 4 years, I’ve coached 500+ engineers and trained 300+ tech leads - helping them build confidence, grow as leadership, and reach the next level in their careers.

Curious about working together?
DM me here or email me at anemarifiser@gmail.com

Anemari Fiser

It’s here 🤩 🎉

I cannot believe it.

After a year of writing, rewriting, editing, discussing, updating 😩 … my “Leveling up as a Tech Lead” book is ready.

This is the moment when all the struggle fades away.

This was very much a team effort and I want to say thank you.

Starting with the O'Reilly team: David Michelson, Shira Evans, Gregory Hyman - thank you for trusting me, pushing me, and supporting me every step of the way. And thank you to all the other people who contributed in ways I may never know about 🙂

To my friends: Radu Chilom, Elena García Peña, Stefania Rosca, Sorin Mihai, Eduard Almasqué, Elisa Cutrín Aller, Valentina Servile, thank you not just for your thoughtful feedback on the book but for keeping my spirits high with advice, encouragement, and friendship.

Thank you Patrick Kua for the generous foreword.
Rebecca Parsons for the back cover quote.
Birgitta Boeckeler for the AI discussions and sharp insights :)

To all the people who showed interest in reviewing the book. 
When I asked for volunteers, I definitely didn’t expect more than 160 people to sign up 🤯 
I couldn’t include everyone, but every message, comment, and “this book is needed” note gave me the confidence to keep going.

Which brings me to my 20 selected tech reviewers. 
Thank you for reading carefully, sharing your stories and experience, debated topics with me, and made the book so much better :)

→ Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eecPJHe6 

And let me know what you think 
questions, thoughts, disagreements… always happy to debate 🔥😉

Training techies in soft skills that scale | Workshops & 1-1 coaching | O’Reilly Author | Engineering Leader | ex-Thoughtworks

Tech leads owning the 1-1 agenda is a red flag 🚩

One of my clients was doing all of this:

→ Checking status
→ Asking about blockers
→ Coming up with all the topics
→ Tracking progress for her team
→ Figuring out next steps for them

On the surface, it sounds responsible.

In reality: she was carrying everything.

And slowly… the team stopped carrying anything.

I asked her: “What if your team owned the agenda instead?”

They bring the topics.
They bring the problems.
They bring the thinking.

Her reaction:
“That would take so much off my shoulders 😮‍💨
And finally give me space for strategic work.”

So she changed her approach.
She asked people to start owning their 1-1s.

Of course, this transfer of ownership doesn’t happen overnight.
It’s a process of unlearning bad habits - for everyone.

But it pays off 😉

1-1s aren’t about doing the thinking for people.
They’re about teaching people how to think.

Let them own it.

Clarity accelerates careers.

Helping techies find it is the work I enjoy most 🙂

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