What are the key relationships you need to develop to increase your influence within the organization? How can you demonstrate your expertise and value to others without stepping on toes or appearing overly ambitious? What are the unmet needs or pain points within the organization that you can address to gain credibility and visibility? How can you leverage the principles of reciprocity and mutual benefit to build alliances across different teams or departments? What communication strategies can you employ to effectively share your ideas and persuade others without formal authority? Fitting into an Established Organization: What is the prevailing culture within the organization, and how does it manifest in day-to-day operations and decision-making? Who are the key stakeholders and decision-makers, and what are their expectations for new members of the organization? What informal networks or communication channels exist, and how can you effectively navigate them to build relationships? How can you demonstrate respect for existing norms and traditions while also introducing fresh perspectives and ideas? What initiatives or projects can you undertake that align with the organization's goals and also allow you to showcase your skills and contributions? How can you seek out mentors or advocates within the organization who can provide guidance and support as you integrate into the company?

Thanks for all the questions! I'll answer one that I think is interesting, but I'd love for you to post the others as separate questions with additional context -- this will make it much easier to help :) How can you demonstrate your expertise and value to others without stepping on toes or appearing overly ambitious? Focus on the value you create for others. Your work has value — out of the 100 things you could be doing, you chose to work on this specific project or initiative. That's because you thought it could be very impactful for your team and company goals. Because you have so much value, the updates about your work will be welcome by your team. You should expect to repeat the value of the work multiple times, and describe the updates with you as the supporting character (not the main character). If you're demonstrating your expertise by advising on other projects, it will also be appreciated if you are helping them achieve their goal. A few tactics to help with this: Generously acknowledge and praise contributions made by others. "Respect what came before" -- realize that in Big Tech (Meta is a prime example), there was probably a valid reason that systems were designed the way they were. Understand the context and constraints before recommending a large change. Some great related discussions: [\[Communication\] How to not make others feel like you're bragging?](https://www.jointaro.com/question/6XRdVkP4a8tlKb6btOLF/communication-how-to-not-make-others-feel-like-youre-bragging/) How do I become more credible, trust worthy at work?

How to approach politics in organization like Meta?

Staff Software Engineer [E6] at Metaa month ago

Building Relationships

Mentorship

Fitting into an Established Organization:

What is the prevailing culture within the organization, and how does it manifest in day-to-day operations and decision-making?
Who are the key stakeholders and decision-makers, and what are their expectations for new members of the organization?
What informal networks or communication channels exist, and how can you effectively navigate them to build relationships?
How can you demonstrate respect for existing norms and traditions while also introducing fresh perspectives and ideas?
What initiatives or projects can you undertake that align with the organization's goals and also allow you to showcase your skills and contributions?
How can you seek out mentors or advocates within the organization who can provide guidance and support as you integrate into the company?

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Meta Platforms, Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate based in Menlo Park, California. The company owns 3 of top 4 social networks in the world: Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. More than 3.5 billion people use at least one of the company's core products every month.

Meta215 questions

Discussion

(3 comments)

3
Rahul Pandey
•Tech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
a month ago
Thanks for all the questions! I'll answer one that I think is interesting, but I'd love for you to post the others as separate questions with additional context -- this will make it much easier to help :)

How can you demonstrate your expertise and value to others without stepping on toes or appearing overly ambitious?

Focus on the value you create for others. Your work has value — out of the 100 things you could be doing, you chose to work on this specific project or initiative. That's because you thought it could be very impactful for your team and company goals.

Because you have so much value, the updates about your work will be welcome by your team. You should expect to repeat the value of the work multiple times, and describe the updates with you as the supporting character (not the main character).

If you're demonstrating your expertise by advising on other projects, it will also be appreciated if you are helping them achieve their goal.

A few tactics to help with this:

Generously acknowledge and praise contributions made by others.

"Respect what came before" -- realize that in Big Tech (Meta is a prime example), there was probably a valid reason that systems were designed the way they were. Understand the context and constraints before recommending a large change.

Some great related discussions:

[Communication] How to not make others feel like you're bragging?

How do I become more credible, trust worthy at work?
1
Kevin Wu
•Ex-Google Senior SWE • FE/Mobile -> BE/Distributed/AI
a month ago
A caveat to start: I have a general strategy in mind for the next company I join but do not have real experience to back it up (yet).

The answers to these questions will likely be found by tapping into the network of people you work with and the network of people that your work already impacts. This means reaching out to them, leading with kindness, and learning about the following, likely over time:

What are they focused on and why

The value they are creating

The challenges they are facing

The things they might need from you to succeed

The culture they are trying to uphold and things they wish could change

In addition to the immediate team, here are two other groups of people I'd also want to talk to:

Customers

Leaders of organizations delivering adjacent goals indirectly related to your team

I'd make a point to ask people I meet to introduce me to three other people/teams they think I should connect with so I can get a feel for who is known for a certain thing.

The skills that'll be required here are active listening, observing others actions over time, and prioritizing high impact win/win investments with fellow doers.

Here are some related discussions and Taro resources that might be helpful:

For a Staff engineer at a Big Tech company, what should their first 3-6 months look like?

How do I sell the vision behind a large, org-level project?

[Masterclass] How to Build Deep Relationships Quickly in Tech
2
Alex Chiou
•Tech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
a month ago
These are all excellent questions! As Rahul mentioned, breaking them down into individual posts across the Taro forum would be really helpful - I'm happy to comment on literally all of them.

Kevin already linked the relationship building masterclass, which I heavily recommend. On top of that, I highly recommend the following playlist as the behavior is a hard requirement for Meta E6s: [Taro Top 10] How To Create Scope As An Engineer

Meta215 questions