I work overtime a lot, and it's pretty stressful. I'm also worried that amidst all this effort working for Meta, I'll lose track of who I am overall and what I can do for other companies. What can I do to strike a better balance here?
Great question, and exactly the topic of a recent video I made.
In particular, as an engineer at a large company like Meta, I'd recommend you focus on defining an area where you are the master, but don't try to master too much surface area. Be clear with your tech lead/manager on what the impactful work is, and focus on that.
I'm really sorry to hear that you're going through this - This is unfortunately a common scenario for software engineers at Meta. For some initial advice, I recommend going through this Q&A from another E4 at Meta about handling pressure well.
On top of the advice from that Q&A, I highly recommend talking to your manager (assuming you like them and have a good relationship). One of the big things about Meta is that work-life balance is almost always something you need to consciously work towards - It's not something that comes "for free" with your team. Here are the main things to do in that conversation:
I'll lose track of who I am overall and what I can do for other companies.
The cool thing here is that if you fix this problem of over-working and burnout, this problem will naturally get solved as well. Here's why:
All that being said, talking to people and not being alone is one of the best "cures" for this kind of situation. If you have any follow-up concerns/questions, I'm happy to provide more thoughts into Taro or answer them privately on Slack.
Related resources: