This is Adam Ernst, a Distinguished Engineer at Meta (IC9) who?s built iOS infrastructure that has impacted the entire company. We talked about how his career grew, a major failed project of his, and everything he learned growing to that level.

? My keyboard project link: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal

??????? ?????:

? YouTube: https://youtu.be/YA_OYJF3Mmw

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/meta-distinguished-eng-ic9-on-influencing

??????????:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:47 - His middle school company

00:03:50 - His first project and promo at Meta

00:10:03 - Why code review is undervalued

00:12:42 - Senior Staff (IC7) promo story and project

00:19:26 - His major failed project

00:26:35 - How to handle a failed project

00:29:04 - Thoughts on management

00:31:35 - Technical depth vs breadth

00:33:32 - IC9 expectations

00:34:46 - Senior engineers he admires

00:37:39 - Advice for his younger self

00:39:52 - Outro

????? ?? ???? ????:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamjernst/

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

Ryan Olson grew from mid-level engineer (IC4) to a principal engineer (IC8) at Instagram through a series of famous projects. The most notable was when he was the lead iOS developer that built Instagram Stories. We discuss his career journey and learnings.

??????? ?????:

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/instagram-principal-eng-ic8-on-building

? Spotify: Episode link from Spotify after scheduling

? YouTube: https://youtu.be/gpVETZnY9Y0

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

? Zuckerberg emails I mentioned:

Twitter link: https://x.com/TechEmails/status/1944451283236303184

Threads link: https://www.threads.com/@techemails/post/DMDi5IWpPyC

??????????:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:31 - Failing his FB interview

00:03:27 - Interning /w future billionaires

00:14:08 - Interview nerves tip

00:16:37 - Early Instagram experiences

00:34:08 - Building Instagram Stories

00:45:03 - 1 promo per half to Staff (IC6)

00:49:51 - Senior staff promo project (IC7)

00:57:37 - IG labs & his principal promo (IC8)

01:08:19 - Starting Retro and leaving big tech

01:21:33 - Small teams hypothetical

01:25:17 - Examples of talented individuals

01:31:16 - Advice to his younger self

01:34:45 - Outro

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Retro (his company): https://retro.app/

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanolsonk/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanolsonk

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanolsonk/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanolsonk

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

In this episode, I talked to "Asian Dad Energy" an anonymous big techie who was laid off after 25 years in the industry. We discussed his layoffs experience, his early career in engineering consulting, and the realities of big tech compensation.

? My keyboard project link: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal

??????? ?????:

? YouTube: https://youtu.be/8bs6KmJX4_g

? Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ApCuf04MXv0nBRqKNLyiQ?si=bko-M46xQM2FHhTG6Vcy6Q

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/laid-off-from-big-tech-after-25-years

??????????:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:41 - His layoff story

00:07:02 - Why he expects more layoffs

00:09:42 - Tech consulting before big tech

00:19:25 - Consultants shipping bad code?

00:26:57 - Why do people dislike consultants?

00:30:55 - Big tech compensation

00:40:27 - When age impacted his flexibility

00:42:04 - Why YouTube

00:46:46 - Speaking advice for engineers

00:49:09 - Advice for younger self

00:49:35 - Outro

????? ?? ???? ???:

? https://www.youtube.com/@AsianDadEnergy

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

In this episode, I talked to Nimit Sohoni, a Stanford PhD and AI Researcher at Cartesia who previously worked as a quant at Citadel. We discussed the differences between AI research and quant careers, including work-life balance and the value of a PhD in these fields. Nimit also shared what he's currently working on and offered advice for those looking to transition into AI research.

??????? ?????:

? YouTube: https://youtu.be/_jECS37M3dQ

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/stanford-phd-ai-researcher-and-quant

??????????:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:45 - Do you need a PhD?

00:06:25 - Research taste and finding problems

00:09:04 - Why become a quant

00:12:01 - What quants do

00:14:53 - How quants and SWEs collaborate

00:16:29 - Quant vs tech culture

00:26:39 - Quant firm tier list

00:27:56 - Quant insider trading and perf culture

00:30:53 - Going back to AI research

00:35:08 - Who the top competitors are in voice AI

00:39:22 - AI startups vs big labs

00:42:08 - State space models vs transformers

00:49:33 - AI labs: research or product?

00:52:38 - Advice for SWEs who want to try AI research

00:56:48 - Advice for younger self

00:57:49 - Outro

????? ?? ???? ?????:

? Twitter/X: https://x.com/nimit_sohoni

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nimit-sohoni-68998854/

? Cartesia: https://cartesia.ai/sonic

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

In this episode, I talked to Igor, a senior staff engineer who has worked at Meta, Google, and Cruise. We discussed his experience of wanting a demotion at Meta and the challenges he faced in that process.

??????? ?????:

? YouTube: https://youtu.be/i1iBweuOQI4

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/meta-senior-staff-ic7-engs-honest

??????? ?????:

? Igor's post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7401415295409700864/

??????????:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:37 - Why he wanted a demotion

00:07:32 - Why Senior Staff at Meta was different

00:16:01 - Meta vs Google culture

00:19:09 - Downleveling at Google

00:23:17 - Why he's willing to be transparent

00:25:11 - Best quality of life eng level

00:30:42 - Senior Staff promo at Google

00:42:27 - Mentorship stories

00:43:11 - Biggest career regret

00:46:46 - Advice for younger self

00:49:06 - Outro

????? ?? ???? ????:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/igorts/

? ML basics youtube videos he made: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVcptlT8D7DgN5FtLMFUdHb5pJXW1g0YL

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

Laurent Charignon was a Staff engineer at Stripe, Airbnb, and Instagram with some experience in management as well. We discussed the unspoken rules you learn as a manager, how he transitioned, what good mentorship looks like, and advice for senior engineers who are stuck looking to grow to Staff.

??????? ?????:

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/airbnb-staff-eng-on-how-to-not-get

? YouTube: https://youtu.be/cgQY_1Uz2b8

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

??????????:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:44 - Joining Airbnb and transitioning to EM

00:18:29 - Untold rules of calibrations

00:23:50 - How to dispute bureaucracy

00:29:54 - Airbnb culture

00:31:36 - Leaving Airbnb for Meta

00:35:56 - Uber TL at Stripe

00:42:52 - How to scale yourself

00:45:22 - What people get wrong in coaching

00:52:58 - Why people get stuck at Senior eng

00:57:24 - Most career impacting book

00:58:39 - Advice for younger self

01:00:27 - Outro

????? ?? ???? ???????:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurentcharignon/

? Personal Website: https://blog.laurentcharignon.com/

? Twitter/X: https://x.com/lc2817

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

Adrien Friggeri went from a new grad to a principal engineer (IC8) at Meta. He is the original TL who started Bento if you?re familiar with that infra at the company. He got to where he was through a series of promotions across different teams and projects. I interviewed him about everything he learned along the way

??????? ?????:

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/new-grad-to-principal-engineer-ic8

? YouTube: https://youtu.be/2Sjzd9pt6Ts

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

??????????:

00:00 - Intro

00:43 - First team at FB

07:24 - Senior promo /w IG

16:30 - Story behind Bento (Senior staff promo)

25:33 - Taking on perf risk to start the project

29:03 - Learnings from leaving big tech

32:46 - Joining Clubhouse

35:08 - Return to Meta (again)

40:51 - Principal promo (IC8) and tips

51:37 - Maximizing your luck /w people

54:26 - Advice for younger self

55:42 - Outro

????? ?? ???? ??????:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/friggeri/

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adrien/

? Personal Website: https://friggeri.net/

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

Fiona Fung currently supports the Claude Code team at Anthropic and was previously a Senior Director at Meta. She grew quickly through the ranks at Microsoft and Meta before joining Anthropic. I interviewed her about what she learned along the way.

??????? ?????:

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/anthropic-eng-leader-and-ex-senior

? YouTube: https://youtu.be/b5-d8u-c99s

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

??????????:

00:00 - Intro

00:38 - Impact vs team health

03:04 - Managing managers for the first time

05:31 - Advice on mentoring others

06:55 - What you should use 1 on 1s for

07:56 - Leaving Microsoft for Facebook

10:59 - Microsoft vs Facebook culture

12:01 - Why dogfooding is important

21:25 - Joining Anthropic

27:23 - Feedback that changed her career

28:43 - Advice for younger self

29:14 - Outro

????? ?? ???? ?????:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fionafung/

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

Hi all, it's been such a fun project for me this year launching this podcast and trying my best to make the content as helpful as possibleAppreciate everyone who has taken the time to watch my videos and give feedback on how to make it betterIt wouldn't be the same without your support! Next year I plan to work hard to keep improving the content, see you in 2026

??????????:

00:00 - Intro

00:50 - Meta Distinguished Eng (Philip Su)

05:23 - Amazon Principal Eng (Steve Huynh)

06:23 - Google Staff Eng by 28 (Ricky Lee)

07:30 - Meta Staff Eng by 25 (Evan King)

08:51 - Shopify Distinguished Eng (Ilya Grigorik)

10:49 - Amazon VP (Ethan Evans)

12:24 - Meta Senior Staff Eng (Dwayne Reeves)

13:14 - CloudKitchens CTO, Ex Uber Senior Staff (Brian Attwell)

13:55 - Instagram Principal Eng (Jake Bolam)

14:42 - Uber Distinguished Eng (Joakim Recht)

15:03 - Creator of Claude Code, Ex Meta Principal (Boris Cherny)

15:45 - Outro

Rong Yan went from a frontline manager at Meta to a Senior Director at Snapchat in 3 years. I interviewed him to ask what led to that rocketship career trajectory in management. We went over how he job hopped into his first Director role and much more.

??????? ?????:

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/frontline-manager-at-meta-to-senior

? YouTube: https://youtu.be/BHlko_Mg-Jk

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

??????????:

00:00 - Intro

00:46 - Joining Facebook

03:06 - Moving up into a Director role

05:09 - Director skill gaps

15:31 - Domain knowledge & management

18:45 - LA vs SF cultures

20:48 - Senior Director growth at Snapchat

22:43 - Evan Spiegel stories

24:59 - Recruitment at higher levels

32:05 - Career planning in hindsight

34:08 - Biggest career regret

35:33 - How much of growth is luck?

38:19 - Advice for younger self

41:53 - Outro

????? ?? ???? ????:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rong-yan-2004692/

? Personal Website: https://cs.cmu.edu/~yanrong

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

Boris Cherny is the Creator of Claude Code but few people know his full career story. I interviewed him about everything he learned growing at Meta and for insights from his time building Claude Code at Anthropic.

??????? ?????:

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/boris-cherny-creator-of-claude-code

? YouTube: https://youtu.be/AmdLVWMdjOk

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

??????????:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:59 - Starting at FB

00:09:43 - Early side projects and book rec

00:17:05 - Being under leveled

00:18:55 - Staff (IC6) promo story

00:25:19 - Proximity to leadership learnings

00:29:36 - Scoping out work for 100s of engs

00:35:31 - Senior Staff (IC7) promo story

00:44:39 - How to find side projects

00:50:45 - Principal (IC8) promo story

00:54:20 - Building credibility in a new org

01:04:23 - Joining Anthropic

01:10:05 - Why Claude Code succeeded

01:15:56 - Claude Code use outside of code

01:17:22 - What he thinks of competition

01:22:57 - Advice for his younger self

01:23:57 - Outro

????? ?? ???? ?????:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bcherny/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/bcherny

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@boris_cherny

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

Marius Schulz grew to a Senior Staff Engineer (IC7) at Instagram by redefining expectations three times (once for each promotion). We talked through each promotion and how he did it. There were also interesting learnings from when his promotion got blocked once even though he greatly exceeded expectations.

??????? ?????:

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/instagram-senior-staff-eng-ic7-on

? YouTube: https://youtu.be/OXJHfb_lZII

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

??????????:

00:00 - Intro

00:55 - Choosing his specialty

02:29 - Greatly exceeding expectations with no promo

08:04 - Senior promo

15:30 - Staff promo

24:43 - Leverage and IC4/5/6 way of solving problems

29:51 - Senior staff promo

44:29 - Career planning past IC7

47:32 - Did IC7+ expectations scare him

49:49 - Advice for his younger self

52:29 - Outro

????? ?? ???? ??????:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariusschulz/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/mariusschulz/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@marius.schulz

? Personal Website: https://mariusschulz.com/

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

Jayendra Jog left Robinhood and raised $35m to start his own crypto startup (Sei Labs). Before he left, he got jaded about software engineering career ladders yet was coasting through promotions at Robinhood. I asked him about how he did that along with a bunch of questions about when to leave your job, how to raise money, and what to expect as a founder.

??????? ?????:

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/quitting-robinhood-and-raising-35m?open=false

? YouTube: https://youtu.be/f4eeoetb8t4

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

??????????:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:54 - Big tech internships

00:04:51 - Joining Robinhood

00:07:58 - Big tech vs startups discussion

00:10:16 - Getting jaded about Robinhood career growth

00:16:04 - Coasting and getting promoted

00:18:54 - Gamestop stories from the inside

00:22:34 - Leaving Robinhood

00:30:25 - Learnings from raising $35m

00:34:07 - What value does crypto provide?

00:37:47 - Learnings and when to leave

00:40:41 - Advice for his younger self

00:41:58 - Outro

????? ?? ???? ???:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayendrajog

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/jayendra_jog

? His Company: https://x.com/Sei_Labs

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

Brian Attwell grew to Senior Staff at Uber by age 25. After that he left Uber to join CloudKitchens (Travis Kalanick?s current startup) and quickly became the CTO after his team doubled in size every 6 months. I asked him about how he did it. He also had a bunch of interesting takes about big tech and stories about Travis Kalanick and Steve Jobs.

??????? ?????:

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/cloudkitchens-cto-on-intelligence

? YouTube: https://youtu.be/egNtHu4q-vI

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

??????????:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:26 - Growth to Senior Staff at Uber

00:10:05 - Was it luck?

00:11:45 - Interviewing for IQ

00:18:02 - Intelligence and prioritization

00:22:19 - How his team doubled every 6 months

00:28:30 - Manager promos tied to scope

00:39:13 - Amazon and Google brutal honesty

00:43:39 - CloudKitchens behind the scenes

00:50:24 - Biggest career regret

00:54:17 - Travis Kalanick experiences

00:56:01 - Most impactful advice received

00:56:56 - Most impactful book for career

00:57:53 - Advice for his younger self

00:58:48 - Outro

????? ?? ???? ?????:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-attwell/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/attwellbrian

? CloudKitchens: https://cloudkitchens.com/careers/

? CloudKitchens tech blog: https://techblog.cloudkitchens.com/

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

Joakim Recht grew to a Distinguished Engineer at Uber and I asked him what it took to get there. We covered his full career including the project that got him promoted, what makes a great software engineer, and learnings from promo committees.

??????? ?????:

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/uber-distinguished-eng-on-unfair

? YouTube: https://youtu.be/feNh_ubBAMI

? Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0MX9PyeCzDhdlyRv6slwIX

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

??????????:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:56 - Distinguished promo project

00:19:07 - How to grow your influence

00:22:38 - Unfair promo story

00:33:09 - On delegation

00:39:05 - Why engs don?t trust management

00:47:58 - Politics as he grew

00:57:00 - How to pick mentees

01:03:22 - Why he left Uber

01:15:16 - Biggest Uber eng mistake

01:20:15 - Uber scandals

01:24:35 - Advice for younger self

01:26:14 - Outro

????? ?? ???? ??????:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/recht/

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

Ilya Grigorik grew to a Distinguished Engineer (VP-level role) at Shopify and I asked him what it took to get there. We covered his full career including the behind the scenes of his startup getting acquired by Google, his growth to Director at Google, and what it means to operate like a Distinguished engineer.

??????? ?????:

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/distinguished-engineer-at-shopify

? Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0MX9PyeCzDhdlyRv6slwIX

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

??????????:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:45 - Thoughts on Waterloo

00:04:36 - Starting his own company

00:08:40 - Google acquisition story

00:14:04 - Joining Google

00:20:28 - Switching back to IC

00:26:42 - Principal+ Engineering at Shopify

00:40:09 - Career regrets

00:44:53 - Top career-impacting book

00:46:59 - Advice for younger self

????? ?? ???? ????:

? YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@igrigorik

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/igrigorik/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/igrigorik

? Personal Website: https://ilya.grigorik.com/

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

Bobby Holley went from an intern to the CTO of Mozilla Firefox. I asked him about everything he learned in that process. We cover his full career including some interesting stories on living through the browser wars and advice on career growth.

??????? ?????:

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/mozilla-firefox-cto-on-browser-war

? Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0MX9PyeCzDhdlyRv6slwIX

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

??????? ?????:

? NYT article link: https://www.livemint.com/Industry/q2EjgGX6d5Ouwec479WSqM/For-Mozilla-Google-group-hugs-get-tricky.html

? Mozilla VP twitter thread: https://www.computerworld.com/article/1722183/former-mozilla-exec-alleges-google-torpedoed-firefox-with-oops-excuses.html

? Internal memo on writing: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1518xKjijjEWHQb6wZjAWJrUN8liZGGI9v5pRFr9eFHo/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.1gfr5hva69qx

??????????:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:57 - Starting at Mozilla

00:04:57 - Browser wars history

00:10:55 - Google relationship changing

00:16:11 - Why work for free

00:19:02 - Projects that drove his career

00:33:12 - No performance reviews

00:34:42 - Rust adoption

00:43:33 - Career progression

00:47:54 - Should you focus on promos

00:57:14 - Distinguished promo rejection

01:00:56 - Examples of distinguished engs

01:10:54 - Advice for aspiring distinguished engs

01:14:40 - AI browser wars

01:26:32 - Biggest technical regret

01:29:11 - Book that impacted his career most

01:32:09 - Advice for his younger self

????? ?? ???? ?????:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbyholley

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/bhology

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

David Fowler went from an intern to a Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft. That?s 11 different promotions all at the same company. I asked him about everything he learned by going through that process.

??????? ?????:

? Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/intern-to-microsoft-distinguished

? YouTube: https://youtu.be/d8tRM8RJ52M

? Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

??????????:

(00:00) Intro

(00:53) Microsofts leveling system

(03:17) Joining Microsoft

(10:18) First successful project

(16:22) Bootstrapping his own project

(25:44) His principal promotion

(37:10) His distinguished promotion

(49:51) Engineers he looks up to

(53:40) Expanding on his top tweets

(1:05:20) Big company tip on reorgs

(1:08:25) What keeps him at Microsoft

(1:17:22) Microsoft culture after Satya

(1:23:04) Career regrets and work life balance

(1:29:51) Advice for his younger self

????? ?? ???? ?????:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfowl/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/davidfowl

????? ?? ???? ????:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

David Singleton was the CTO at Stripe for 7 years before he left to start /dev/agents. Prior to Stripe, he grew from a junior engineer to a VP at Google. I recently asked him about everything he knows about career growth and being an excellent engineering leader. We discussed how Stripe hired at scale without Leetcode, why he thinks all engineering leaders should write code, the book that impacted his career most and many more topics.

Episode Links:

? Transcript

? Youtube

? Apple

Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:00:56) Before Google

(00:06:34) Joining Google

(00:12:56) Deciding to try management

(00:24:15) How to decide on EM vs IC

(00:28:58) Biggest gap in managing managers

(00:34:21) The difference between VP and Senior EM

(00:37:43) How to communicate well

(00:46:14) How managers can scale themselves

(00:51:17) How to build a new engineering site

(01:01:21) What kept him at Google

(01:03:57) The story behind joining Stripe

(01:12:34) Comparing and contrasting cultures

(01:20:55) How to set culture

(01:29:25) Is Stripe too reliable?

(01:33:48) Hiring at scale without Leetcode

(01:38:06) Lessons learned working with Stripe's leadership

(01:40:31) Why leave Stripe

(01:44:55) How his AI startup plans to compete

(01:48:46) Career reflections, regrets, what went well

(01:54:03) Top book and habit that impacted his career

(01:57:40) Advice for younger self

(01:59:04) Outro

Where to find David:

? If you are a builder: https://sdsa.ai/build

? If you are very excited about what they are building and would consider joining his talent dense team, you can email David here: [email protected]

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/dps

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidpsingleton/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@davidsingleton

Where to find Ryan:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@petermanpod

This episode was produced with the help of SF Podcast Studio: https://www.sfpodcast.studio/

We hit 25,000 subscribers! ???

Thanks so much to everyone who has supported my work, never thought we'd be here let alone this fast

Had some spare studio time booked and figured I might as well use it as time for an FAQ episode. This episode is for anyone whose curious about some of the story behind the podcast

Feeling very lucky, thank you all! ?

Also if you have any feedback for me about the show and how to make it better, I'd love to hear it. Feel free to drop a comment

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:58) Story behind the podcast

(05:30) Behind the scenes of the top episodes

(10:06) Dream guest list

(12:03) Learnings from podcasting

(13:10) Balancing content with a full time job

(14:28) Outro

Stefan Mai was a Senior Manager (M2) with experience across Meta and Amazon. We went over his career story in growing to M2 which is equivalent to Senior Staff (IC7) in big tech. Since he started his own company now, he was happy to be fully transparent about the behind the scenes of managing in big tech.

Since he founded the interview prep company, Hello Interview, I also thought it?d be interesting to talk about trends he?s seeing in AI cheating tools and how to get offers at OpenAI/Anthropic. We discussed:

? Meta Senior Manager (M2) career growth story

? Amazon vs Meta culture

? Which company had stronger engineers

? How low performer quotas & PIPs work

? Eng vs manager career growth

? Transitioning to AI/ML as an eng

? Getting offers at OpenAI and Anthropic

? Advice for his younger self

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:59) Early career at Amazon

(05:46) Growth to eng manager at Amazon

(11:31) Storytelling tips

(16:28) Why he left Amazon

(22:59) Transitioning to AI/ML

(27:01) Senior manager (M2) promo story at Meta

(31:30) Mutiny and manager politics

(40:34) Are managers harder to layoff?

(49:50) Senior manager (M2) skill gaps

(53:21) Eng vs manager career growth

(56:27) Amazon vs Meta culture

(01:00:34) Amazon vs Meta performance

(01:05:24) Low performer quotas

(01:08:55) Can you get out of a PIP?

(01:12:23) AI interview cheating

(01:16:42) Passing OpenAI & Anthropic interviews

(01:18:33) Job hopping

(01:22:37) When he grew the most

(01:24:22) How to write better

(01:26:22) Career motivations past M2

(01:28:11) Advice for younger self

Where to find Stefan:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanmai/

? His company: https://www.hellointerview.com/

Where to find Ryan:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

Sash Zats grew to be a Staff Engineer (IC6) at IG despite switching teams 10 times in 9 years. His career journey was a series of jumps to exciting projects and letting career growth happen as a byproduct. I interviewed him to show you how team switches can play out.

We discussed:

? How 10 team switches in 9 years affected his career

? The story behind the Instagram blockchain initiative

? His 2 diff in 6 month performance review

? What working on Instagram Threads was like pre-launch

? The value of prototyping

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:49) First team: iOS on Newsfeed Delight

(05:30) What makes a good designer partner?

(08:30) Joining a hardware team

(12:08) 2 diffs in 6 months

(15:03) Joining the Instagram blockchain team

(21:37) Joining Instagram Threads pre-launch

(28:53) Working with an exceptional engineer (Peter)

(33:02) Working on AI prototyping teams

(37:15) Reflecting on team switching?s impact on career growth

(44:35) Why leave Meta

(46:15) Advice for younger self

(47:53) Outro

Where to find Sash:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sashzats/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/zats

Where to find Ryan:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

Ethan Evans went from being fired twice because of poor soft skills to getting promoted to Vice President at Amazon with a team of over 800 engineers. I asked him about everything he learned along the way.

We discussed:

? Being fired for poor soft skills

? What VP promotions look like

? Working with Jeff Bezos and Andy Jassy (current Amazon CEO)

? VP performance reviews

? Stack ranking, PIPs and how managers can fire anyone

? Advice for his younger self

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(01:01) Experience before Amazon

(05:03) Getting fired twice & learnings

(14:02) Joining Amazon

(16:02) What VP promotions look like

(26:03) Promotion failure story

(29:14) Integrating Twitch into Amazon

(33:48) Jeff Bezos vs Andy Jassy stories

(36:53) VP performance reviews

(41:10) Stack ranking & PIPs

(46:11) A manager can fire anyone they want

(50:45) Advice for his younger self

(53:03) Outro

Where to find Ethan:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/EthanEvansVP

? Newsletter: https://levelupwithethanevans.substack.com/

? YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-BAdkBGjOIlccGLZ3jbLiA

Where to find Ryan:

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

Dwayne Reeves is a Senior Staff Engineer (IC7) at Meta who is the Tech Lead of the most used programming language (Hack) at the company. He started at the company as a new grad from MIT and shared the story of how his career grew. We discussed:

? His promotions to Senior (IC5), Staff (IC6), and Senior Staff (IC7)

? The value of type systems

? Transitioning to a TLM and why he switched back

? Working with brilliant engineers and overcoming imposter syndrome

? Advice for his younger self

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:39) Joining Facebook

(04:52) Did MIT help with career?

(07:13) His first team

(10:37) Why static typing is superior

(13:17) The uncanny valley of type systems  

(16:11) Senior Eng (IC5) promotion story 

(19:24) Staff Eng (IC6) promotion story 

(23:38) Manager transition story

(28:57) Managing ICs vs EMs

(32:54) Senior staff Eng (IC7) promotion story

(35:42) Impressive ICs

(40:33) Why stay at Meta

(44:28) Advice for younger self

(45:46) Outro 

Where to find Dwayne:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwaynereeves/

Where to find Ryan:

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

Carey Nachenberg was a Chief Scientist at a GoogleX moonshot, a Fellow (senior most eng at Symantec) and a professor at UCLA. I interviewed him about his career story and we discussed:

? Story behind his growth to IC10 (VP equivalent)

? How high-level IC recruiting works

? How imposter syndrome held him back

? How to develop ?project taste?

? How AI is affecting his students

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:54) Growth to Fellow at Symantec 

(13:13) The most complex malware

(16:13) Why C was faster than assembly

(17:17) Imposter syndrome

(21:28) What matters more than intelligence

(28:03) Experience at GoogleX

(34:24) Leaving GoogleX

(37:43) Experience at Lyft

(43:40) Getting credit on collaborative projects

(46:53) Becoming a professor at UCLA

(49:13) How to speak well

(53:23) How AI affected his students

(1:03:53) Career regrets

(1:07:16) Finding work you enjoy

(1:09:03) Advice for younger self

(1:11:04) Outro

Where to find Carey:

?  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carey-nachenberg-14bbb03/

Where to find Ryan:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

Michael Novati got promoted to Senior Staff (IC7) Eng at Facebook by the age of 27. He did it while the company was still called Facebook so he had a bunch of interesting pre-IPO stories. In our conversation, we discussed:

? Growth to Senior Staff (IC7) by 27

? Being the #1 code committer at Meta

? Volunteering to resign if his code broke prod

? Stories of working with Zuck pre-IPO

? What was common among IC7+ engineers

? How LLMs will affect the code machine archetype

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:46) Joining Facebook

(10:26) Facebook IPO experience

(16:30) His internal newsletter

(24:26) Working with Zuck

(29:50) Engs that impressed him

(36:20) Will LLMs kill coding machines?

(47:20) Operating as an IC7

(1:10:30) IC7+ only group

(1:12:55) Landing code faster

(1:18:29) Why he left Meta

(1:20:52) IC7+ talent

(1:24:28) Advice for younger self

(1:25:58) Outro

Where to find Michael:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelnovati/

Where to find Ryan:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

Simon Kindström is a Staff Software Eng (IC6) at Instagram who joined the company as a new grad and got promoted every year. He also achieved the highest ratings ("Redefines Expectations") twice which is almost unheard of. He shared stories about his high performance including what it's like to receive secret equity bonuses.

In this episode, we discuss:

? His promotions to Staff in 3 years

? The story behind his "Redefines Expectations" ratings

? What it's like to receive performance-based equity bonuses

? His transition to management

? Why he switched from management

? Advice for his younger self

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:34) Staff promotions in 3 years

(10:32) ?Redefines? expectations ratings

(20:01) Redefining expectations without promotion?

(29:55) Staff promotion story

(41:00) Transitioning to and from management

(54:50) Secret equity bonuses

(58:14) The best interns

(1:07:50) Where most of his growth came from

(1:12:04) What keeps him at Meta

(1:15:20) Advice to his younger self

(1:17:05) Outro

Where to find Simon:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonkindstrom/

Where to find Ryan:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/? X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

Jake Bolam grew from Staff Eng (IC6) to Principal Eng (IC8) at Instagram. He had some hot takes about diff reviews and risk (he accepts diffs that?ll break prod). He also shared interesting stories about his promotions as well as many tips on how to have IC8 impact with a solid work life balance.

We discuss:

? Struggling initially at Facebook

? His promotions from IC6 -> IC8

? Accepting diffs that break prod

? Systems for reasonable work life balance at IC8 

? His note taking system in VSCode

? Advice for his younger self

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:50) His rough onboarding to Facebook product team

(04:32) Switching to Instagram 

(06:39) What IC7 scope looks like

(09:48) Thoughts on management

(10:32) Why he always makes time for others

(13:31) His IC7 & IC8 stories

(20:54) Swapping out infra for 1000s of engs

(22:37) Work life balance tips (IC6 -> IC8) 

(27:26) Diffs reviews & risk 

(36:07) Being a good tech lead 

(42:12) Taking notes in VSCode

(47:03) Advice for his younger self

(49:54) Outro

Where to find Jake:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakebolam/? Threads: https://www.threads.com/@theregularbuiltozzy

Where to find Ryan:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ 

? Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

Philip Su grew to Distinguished Engineer (IC9) at Meta and OpenAI. He has a bunch of interesting stories about working with people like Zuck and John Carmack as well as a ton of advice for software engineers. I was really looking forward to chatting with him and enjoyed this conversation a lot. I hope you find it helpful!

In this conversation, we discussed:

? What Distinguished Eng (IC9) expectations look like

? How he got promoted to IC9

? Working with impressive engineers like John Carmack

? What made Zuck and Boz special as coworkers

? Learnings from switching between IC and EM 6x

? Why he joined OpenAI

? Advice for his younger self

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(01:02) Growing to Senior Staff (IC7) at Microsoft

(06:38) Management vs IC transitions

(17:32) Demotion from IC9 to IC7 at Meta

(20:28) IC7, IC8, and IC9 expectations

(28:58) IC9 promo story

(31:30) Building a strong eng team culture

(36:16) Working with Zuck + Meta CTO

(38:57) Working with John Carmack and other impressive ICs

(41:44) Buying $23000 of coffee in a day

(45:35) Why leave Facebook

(49:25) Joining OpenAI

(55:38) Writing well as a software engineer

(1:03:00) Does software eng performance decline as you age?

(1:07:00) Building credibility as a young manager

(1:10:25) Should you be a generalist or a specialist?

(1:12:43) Advice for his younger self

Where to find Philip:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suphilip/

? Peak Salvation podcast he referenced: https://peaksalvation.com/

Where to find Ryan:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ 

? Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

Ricky (Google Engineering Manager) and I were recently invited to give a talk at UCLA for the UPE/ACM clubs. We wanted to share the industry secrets that college didn?t teach us about the tech industry, career growth, and more.

Students were able to submit questions in advance that we prepared slides for. We received a bunch of interesting questions that should be helpful to any college kids looking to get into tech. You can look at the timestamps below to jump to whatever questions you?re most interested in.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(01:47) Primer on SWE levels

(06:12) How to succeed as an intern? 

(09:13) How did you get promoted quickly?

(11:36) How much of success is luck?

(13:32) If you had one piece of advice, what would it be?

(16:11) What if I?m not a gigachad coder?

(19:12) How to handle imposter syndrome?

(21:36) How to advocate for yourself?

(24:20) Big tech vs startups for new grads?

(30:28) How do people measure impact?

(32:17) Would an MBA help for eng management?

(33:45) How was college recruiting?

(36:10) How do you make as much money as possible?

(38:00) Parting words

(40:10) What are your current goals?

(42:02) Thoughts on job hopping?

(45:49) What Ricky works on?

(46:06) Thoughts on how AI affects engineering?

Thank you to Jordan Nguyen (ACM), Ashley Cheng (UPE), and Lune Chan (Videography) for hosting and helping produce this event!!

Where to find Ricky:

? YouTube: https://youtube.com/@findingricky 

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/findingricky

Where to find Ryan:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ 

? Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

Jia Chen is a 21 year old that won 21x hackathons and co-founded her own startup, all while being a content creator. She?s worked hard to succeed in tech despite attending a non-target school, and has recently dropped out to work on her startup, Sprint.dev.

We discuss:

? Winning hackathon strategies

? How to stand out as a college student

? Content creation

? Dropping out to build a startup

? College reflections and advice

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:55) Getting into hackathons

(04:10) Hackathon strategy

(15:20) Developing agency & time management

(19:27) Standing out at a non-target school

(20:19) Is college useful?

(24:28) Personal brand

(26:25) Dropping out to build a startup

(32:32) Advice to younger self

Where to find Jia:

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jia.seed/

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-chen-tech/

? Startup (Sprint.dev): https://www.sprint.dev/

Where to find Ryan:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ 

? Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

Steve Huynh became a software engineer at Amazon with a Liberal Arts degree. He started as a Support Engineer and eventually became a Principal Engineer (top ~1% at Amazon) before starting his own career growth YouTube channel, A Life Engineered.

We discuss:

? Why most interview prep advice is garbage

? Why most people don?t become Principal Engineers

? Amazon?s performance-based layoff culture

? How to avoid being laid off

? Regrets & advice for his younger self

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:37) Transitioning from liberal arts to tech

(06:31) Becoming a software development engineer

(17:37) Breaking into the tech industry today

(22:56) Future of software engineering with AI

(26:06) SDE1 ? SDE3 promos

(33:11) Perf-based Layoffs at Amazon

(46:22) His Principal promotion project

(59:53) Best parts of Amazon's culture

(1:05:22) His best and worst managers among 20+

(1:09:09) Career reflections

Where to find Steve:

? Newsletter: https://alifeengineered.substack.com/

? YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ALifeEngineered

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/a-life-engineered/

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alifeengineered/

Where to find Ryan:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

Evan King went from Junior (IC3) to Staff (IC6) at Meta 3 years out of college. After that he quit FAANG to start a few companies that were each acquired. In this conversation we go over his career growth, his transition to startups and what he learned along the way. 

We discuss:

? What got him promoted to Staff in 3 years

? What stands out in Meta?s culture

? Creating and leading a new team at IC5

? Differences between big tech and startups

? Regrets looking back

? Advice for his younger self

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(01:28) Getting into programming

(09:34) Leetcode

(15:45) Picking his first team

(22:00) P*nis story

(25:13) Mid-level promo

(29:03) How to ship code fast

(35:28) Senior promo

(52:45) Staff promo

(1:12:02) Meta impact culture

(1:13:16) On being a tech lead

(1:16:46) Influence without authority

(1:19:29) Management vs Eng

(1:26:46) Why leave Meta

(1:36:25) Technical learning (big tech vs startups)

(1:40:26) When to build a startup

(1:44:27) How much he worked

(1:49:02) Biggest career regret

(1:51:54) Advice for new grads & past self

Where to find Evan:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-king-40072280/? His Company: https://www.hellointerview.com/

Where to find Ryan:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ 

? Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

Referenced:

? Evan's post on Substack: https://www.developing.dev/p/new-grad-to-staff-at-meta-in-3-years

? Ryan?s eng blog for Meta (part of IC6 promo): https://engineering.fb.com/2022/11/04/video-engineering/instagram-video-processing-encoding-reduction/

? Meta?s graph database, Tao: https://engineering.fb.com/2013/06/25/core-infra/tao-the-power-of-the-graph/

Rahul Pandey (@rpandey1234) grew to Staff at Meta through a few interesting legs of his career:

? Stanford to Startup - He joined a startup that one of his professors was starting right out of college. This startup was acquired within a year by Pinterest.

? Junior to Mid-level @ Pinterest - His promotion was rejected twice. He appealed the second rejection and got the promotion.

? Senior to Staff @ Meta - He interviewed for Senior at Meta and got a promotion through job hopping. From there, he worked towards his Staff promotion and got it.

After getting to Staff at Meta, he started his own YCombinator-funded startup, Taro. In our conversation we cover:

? What got him promoted to Staff at Meta

? Joining startups and ?two-way doors?

? How his promotion was rejected twice and he appealed successfully

? When job hopping is good and when it is bad

? What real networking looks like

?

Where to find Rahul:

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpandey1234/

? YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RahulPandeyrkp

? Twitter: https://x.com/rpandey1234

? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rpandey1234/

Where to find Ryan:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

In this episode, we cover:

00:00 ? Intro

1:12 ? Stanford to Startup

12:25 ? Jr to Mid-level at Pinterest

30:20 ? Senior to Staff at Meta

45:12 ? Management (TLM) at Meta

53:40 ? Leaving Meta to create a startup

1:05:32 ? Career reflections

Ricky (@findingricky) went from Junior (IC3) to Staff (IC6) at Google by 28. He doesn?t consider himself the best engineer, instead crediting his blend of technical and soft skills for his ability to land promotions quickly. In our conversation, we discuss:

? Managing your manager

? Finding good projects (and rejecting bad ones)

? Imposter syndrome

? Switching from IC to engineering management

? Work-life balance

?

Where to find Ricky:

? Instagram: https://instagram.com/@findingricky 

? YouTube: https://youtube.com/@findingricky

Where to find Ryan:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman

? Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman

? Instagram: https://instagram.com/@ryanlpeterman

In this episode, we cover:

00:00 ? Intro

01:08 ? Promotion timeline

02:34 ? Junior to Mid-level

04:24 ? Finding independence

10:39 ? Mid-level to Senior

11:20 ? Learning how to say no

17:26 ? Senior to Staff

20:18 ? Finding next-level work

23:42 ? Transitioning to management

33:46 ? Reflections

Zach Wilson is an engineer who grew to Staff (IC6) at Airbnb by age 26. He worked at Meta, Netflix, Airbnb and more recently has started his own company. In our conversation, we discuss:

? His promotion from Junior (IC3) to Mid-level (IC4) at Meta

? What blocked his promotion to Senior (IC5) at Meta

? Job hopping to Senior at Netflix instead

? Burning out at Netflix when given Staff scope

? Negotiating Staff at Airbnb

? Regrets & learnings

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Where to find Zach Wilson:

? Instagram: https://instagram.com/eczachly/

? X: https://x.com/EcZachly

? Threads: https://www.threads.net/@eczachly

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eczachly/

? YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EcZachly_

? Newsletter: https://blog.dataengineer.io/

Where to find Ryan:

? Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

? X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

? Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman

In this episode, we cover:

00:27 Introducing Zach Wilson

03:14 Landing a Job at Facebook

06:33 Choosing the Right Team at Facebook

07:28 IC3 to IC4 at Meta

13:54 Trying for IC5 at Meta

23:49 Getting hired as an IC5 at Netflix

39:49 Negotiating IC6 at Airbnb

52:09 Building internal brand when job hopping

56:55 Reflection & learnings