Formation

Join Michael Novati for a free, live working session on building an AI project that helps you stand out in interviews. We’ll walk through a framework for choosing an AI project that's achievable, defensible, and built to extend over time. We'll break down: 💡 What makes an AI project appropriate for interviews 💡 How to choose a project scoped tightly enough to finish, but rich enough to carry a real conversation 💡 How to position your project in the interview process 💡And more! 📅 June 18, 2026 ⏰ 4pm PDT / 7pm EDT 🎟 Free Save your spot: https://fm.dev/4v9S81t

Applying to software engineering jobs and hearing nothing back? Before you send another batch of applications, pause and debug the funnel. Because “not hearing back” can mean a lot of different things: → You’re applying too late → Your target is too broad → Your resume isn’t making the fit clear → Your recruiter screen pitch isn’t landing → Your interview execution needs work Each of those problems has a different fix. The first step is figuring out where your search is breaking, then focusing your energy there. In our latest article, we break down how software engineers can diagnose a stalled job search and fix the right stage first. Read it here: https://fm.dev/4gh64Sn

🚨 Last call: One Sharp Story is tonight! 🚨 Join Daniel Tomko for a free, live working session on finding the through-line that makes your resume, your "Tell Me About Yourself" asnwer, and your interview stories land. We'll break down: 💡 Why experienced engineers with strong resumes still don't get callbacks 💡 How to identify the through-line across your career that differentiates you 💡 What a sharp one or two-sentence positioning statement sounds like, and how to use it to anchor your resume, your TMAY, and your behavioral stories 📅 June 11, 2026 ⏰ 4pm PDT / 7pm EDT 🎟 Free Save your spot: https://fm.dev/43aUocg

💙 Each month, we highlight the people, tools, and insights shaping the Formation community. 💙 Here's what's inside this month's issue: 💬 An engineering tip from Sophie Z. Novati Novati on why fundamentals still matter in the AI era, and how the strongest engineers pair solid problem-solving with smart AI usage 🌊 Rising Tide winners recognized for well-calibrated guidance in a peer mock interview and for the patience and encouragement that helped a peer keep going through a tough search 🌟 A Lighthouse Award mentor who gave the kind of specific, immediately useful feedback that Fellows can start applying the same day 🏆 A placement win from a Fellow who landed at Atlas AI by leaning on the people around him to accelerate his prep and his search 📅 Two upcoming free Studio Sessions: finding the through-line that makes your resume stand out, and building a shippable AI project you can actually walk through in an interview Read the full Monthly Deploy: https://lnkd.in/g6EJADAg

🚨 Take one hour with a Formation mentor to learn (FREE) how to land more interviews (and perform better when you do). 🚨 In this live workshop, we’ll help you tighten three pieces most engineers struggle to nail on their own: ✍ Your resume: so it stops reading like a list of jobs and starts making a clear case for why you should get the interview. 📢 Your "Tell me about yourself" answer: so it stops sounding like a march through your work history and becomes a story that tells a hiring manager who you are. 📚 Your interview stories: so they stop feeling scattered and start reinforcing the same signal across every interview. 📅 June 11, 2026 ⏰ 4pm PDT / 7pm EDT 🎟 Free Spots are limited. Register here: https://fm.dev/43aUocg

🌊 A Rising Tide award is given to Fellows who positively impact other Fellows' weeks. 🌊 This week, we are celebrating … Jennifer Wen 🥳 Jennifer's nominator shared: "They were very patient and kind! It was my first Formation meeting, and they explained the ins and outs, how to make the most of my time with Formation, and how to ask for more help!" Thank you, Jennifer, for making our Fellowship such a welcoming place to grow! If you're navigating the job hunt and want a supportive community to lean on, apply today: https://fm.dev/3S2MM9f

Twenty-one days. Twenty-one coding problems. A clearer way to practice for technical interviews. Formation’s 21-Day Coding Challenge was built by senior engineering hiring managers and ex-FAANG engineers. Each problem is designed to help you practice the data structures and algorithms patterns that come up in interviews and on the job, with solutions that explain the reasoning, not just the answer. Download the challenge here: https://fm.dev/4vs3Js9

When we look at resumes from engineers who are applying broadly and hearing back rarely, the pattern is almost always the same. The problem isn't the market, and it's not the volume of applications. It's positioning. The resume reads as a competent generalist. The tech stack is solid. The experience is real. But a recruiter scanning it for 30 seconds can't answer the question that determines whether it moves forward: what kind of engineer is this person, and why do they fit this role? Tech stack doesn't answer that. Almost every engineer at the same level has touched the same tools. What actually differentiates you is the kind of engineer you've become. The problems you gravitate toward. The work your managers keep handing you. The pattern across everything you've built. We call that the through-line. Finding it, naming it, and lining your resume and stories up behind it is what changes the conversion rate. We wrote up how to find yours: https://lnkd.in/g6-xswVU

System design interviews are where senior engineering judgment becomes visible. Interviewers are listening for how you clarify requirements, choose building blocks, explain tradeoffs, and adjust when constraints change. Our System Design Interview Prep Guide was built by engineers who trained interviewers at Meta and evaluated thousands of candidates. You’ll learn the core framework behind strong system design answers, plus the building blocks that show up again and again: databases, caching, message queues, load balancers, and more. 👉 Download the guide here: https://fm.dev/43OzEr1

The engineers landing interviews right now are specific about who they are and what they do best. Finding that specificity is harder than it sounds. It's not your tech stack. It's the problems you gravitate toward, the work your managers keep handing you, the pattern across everything you've built. Most engineers have never had to name it out loud. We’re hosting a workshop to help. We'll work through it together, live. You'll leave with a one or two-sentence answer to "what kind of engineer are you?" specific enough to anchor your resume, your "tell me about yourself" answer, and your behavioral stories. 📅 June 11, 2026 ⏰ 4 pm PDT / 7 pm EDT 🎟 Free Spots are limited. RSVP today: https://fm.dev/43aUocg