Lesson 17Proof of Work — Brand, Projects, Products, and the Door into Silicon Valley
Welcome to Module 12 (Bonus): The Career Layer — personal brand, portfolio, products, and the path into YC/a16z/Silicon Valley startups as an LLM engineer. Fair warning: this module is blunter than the others, because career advice that hedges is worthless. Everything here assumes you've done (or are doing) the course's build exercises — this module is about converting that work into leverage.
In this lesson
- 85Proof-of-Workwhat "personal brand" actually means for engineersDelete the influencer image. For engineers, personal brand = discoverable evidence of ability. When a YC founder or an a16z-portfolio CTO…3 min
- 86The Advanced Project Portfoliowhat to actually buildThe heart of your request. The rule before the list: one flagship done to completion beats ten half-projects — and "completion" means the…4 min
- 87Open-Source Strategybecoming a known nameYou already understand OSS as a contributor; this topic is OSS as career architecture. Two ladders, climb both: Ladder 1 — contribute to…3 min
- 88Building Products as an Engineerthe second résuméModule 11 taught product shapes; this topic is why an engineer chasing SV jobs should ship products anyway — and how. The core claim: a…3 min
- 89Distributionwriting and launching like an engineerArtifacts that no one sees don't exist. Distribution is the multiplier on everything above — and engineers systematically underinvest in it…3 min
- 90Landing the YC / a16z / Silicon Valley Jobthe mechanicsNow the target itself. First, understand how these companies actually hire, because it's structurally different from big tech: teams of…6 min
Start with Topic 85: Proof-of-Work, or browse all 90 topics.