Career Advice About Meta

I'm an Android engineer working on an infra team, and like every other Meta E4, I am working towards the E5 promotion. Because of this, I'm spending a good amount of time building up the non-coding skills needed for the people/direction axis, doing things like XFN alignment and project management.

My question is how "all-in" should I go developing these behaviors: How much of an engineering excellence commitment do I still need to maintain? How often should I still be landing diffs?

I recently joined a growth team here at Meta. I'm getting the feeling that we, as software engineers, are evaluated more on experimentation and user impact rather than amount of code written.

We wouldn't have a dedicated PM to provide direction on features or a line of tickets for to be assigned to us. It sounds pretty self-driven and it's very different from my previous role.

Does anyone have any advice on how to succeed in a role like this and what are some key qualities to work on to work my way from E4 to E5?

I joined Meta in late May 2024 as an IC5 and have been there just over four months. At my last company, I was an IC4 and on track for a promotion when I got laid off, so I’m anxious about job security given my past experiences.

I recently received feedback from my manager indicating two main areas for improvement: (1) I need to push more diffs, as my recent ones have been large and encompassed entire features, and (2) I need to be more independent. While I can adjust to (1) fairly easily, (2) concerns me more. My manager noted that I often start projects well but then get blocked and require help, in the form of pair programming or otherwise.

I've worked on three main projects since joining. For the first, I had many cross-functional issues that delayed progress but eventually delivered it. The second project, a new thrift service, I completed independently after clarifying specifics with my TL. The third involved creating a dashboard where I struggled with a specific filter due to Meta's query tool; I finished everything except adding that filter, which my TL finished as I left on scheduled PTO. I did ask for pair programming help a couple times when I first started, but haven't needed it much since.

My questions are:

1. How common is feedback like this at Meta for someone at my level after 4 months?
2. Is this a perception issue, or is there a real problem? What steps can I take to improve and aim for "Meets Expectations" or even "Exceeds"?
3. How serious is this feedback in terms of PSC? Could it severely impact my job security?

Thank you for your guidance!

I hope you all find it useful, and I am happy to answer any questions here.

Reddit

The Phone Screen:
1 Coding (this was incremental non-LeetCode style)
1 System Design (Scalable Reddit)

Onsite:
4 Rounds

1. Coding (same style as TPS)

2. System Design

3. Behavioral

4. Hiring Manager

My Thoughts:

• Good recruiter | preps you well

• Good company vibe

• Felt like a convo not an interrogation

Cons:

• Evaluation criteria is unclear, no clear feedback

• Don’t know how I did

Airbnb

The Phone Screen:
LeetCode style

Onsite:
2 stages

1. Coding

2. PR review

3. System Design

My Thoughts:

• Recruiters have a good say! So have a good rapport with them

Cons:

• Even if they say they are moving forward with you, delays can happen

• Feedback takes time

LinkedIn

The Phone Screen:
LeetCode style

Onsite:
5 rounds

1. 2 Coding

2. System Design

3. Behavioral

4. Hiring Manager

My Thoughts:

• Good pay

• Company brand

Cons:

• Recruiting experience was all messed up / chaotic

• Didn’t feel structured

Square

The Phone Screen:
LeetCode style

• Hiring manager round

Onsite:
5 rounds

1. 2 Coding

2. System Design

3. 1 Behavioural

4. Hiring Manager

My Thoughts:

• Team match is done before

• Manager was nice

Cons:

• Unsure how they level/hire candidates

• Too focused on company values

Atlassian

The Phone Screen:
Karat style – This was a combo of coding + short design

Onsite:
3 stages (you need to clear each stage to go to the next)

1. Coding

2. Low-level Design

3. Behavioural (Hiring Manager)

My Thoughts:

• Some interviewers were good

• Recruiters were communicative

Cons:

• Very long interview loops

• Some interviewers were unprepared

Netflix

The Phone Screen:
Discussion about architecture, design, and past projects

Onsite:
4 rounds

1. Design

2. Pair Programming

3. System Design

4. Leadership

My Thoughts:

• Very product-focused

• Interviewers really cared about engineering

Cons:

• Vague expectations

• Very high bar for systems

There's a couple more, but this post is getting too long. Check out the full spreadsheet for the rest of them:

Can someone be able to give me specific feedback on how i should improve? the recruiter wasn't able to do so.

here's the design i came up with, he specifically didn't want to discuss uploading of movies only streaming, recommendations, user management

many thanks in advance!

Right now I have 25 min per week in our 1:1 and after quick top of mind exchange it is usually 15 min left. So I am getting only one hour per month of quality time to discuss what is important. I feel it is not enough, and my manager has 11 reports.

The product I support breaks often and I've been the go to individual to resolve internal fires. Addressing them takes time away from tackling more impactful tasks, and it's beginning to affect my output. My team doesn't find such infra issues as priorities so fixing them gets little visibility and I'm concerned this will have a negative impact on my PSC. How do I balance this properly?

Recently interviewed for the pathways program but was upleveled to E4 and have just entered team matching.

This has been a wild ride and I'm super grateful to have this opportunity. My girlfriend and I currently live in NYC (as well as all of our friends).

From what I hear, there is 0 headcount at E4 in NYC at the moment, but some may be opening up next spring, but seattle and menlo currently have some spots.

I would LOVE to stay in NYC, but also can't afford to let this opportunity slip through my fingers after all the blood, sweat, and leetcode.

My preferences are NYC > Seattle > Menlo Park. Recruiter says there is no ticking clock, so we are setting primary location to seattle until if/when headcount opens in NYC, and then if still no bites, expanding to Menlo Park.

If I get put in Menlo/Seattle, I'd try and transfer back to NYC after ~1-1.5 years.

Looking for guidance on how to play the location game with shifting headcounts, as well as feasibility of a transfer back to the East coast at some point.

Should I really just focus on getting a match and focus on Menlo Park from the start to maximize chances?

Based on Rahul's answer here, he mentions that you should move to a location where your team is based :

I am interested in moving to Seattle if I get an offer from one of the FAANG companies. I would like to know what are the teams in those companies that have a center of focus in the greater Seattle area?

The project I worked in for the year is getting deprioritized and I am looking for new teams to work in for the next half. Since PSC is coming next month and I am expecting relatively better ratings.

Q1- should I look out for new teams now. have chats with them and switch by next year once ratings are locked? Would managers wait?

Q2 - when is the good time to let my manager know that I will be looking for new teams?

Q3- If I let my manager know now, will it impact my psc results negatively?

Q4 - how to make the best use of time till psc results are locked?

Hi, I hope to join at meta as a MLE for ads rankings team (E4)? now, I am a recent Phd grad, I have worked with efficient ML algorithms for my Phd and mostly used Pytorch for work (but no experience with ads). Now, what other technical things (frameworks/tools/whatever you think it'll be useful) can I learn to better equip myself for success?

As a grad student, I was mostly focused on a small project at a time, so I don’t really have large scale design/distributed systems experience. Please share resources (code/just knowledge-wise, any books/papers or links etc?) that you think as an incoming MLE, I should know. Thanks a ton.

How do you choose a team at Google or Meta? There might be a ton of internal teams that you would have no idea about if you are not working there. Most people only know about Instagram, YouTube and other user facing products. How did the folks working at those companies select which team they want to join? I was asked which team I would like to join in my first conversation with a Google Recruiter.

I've been on ~5 teams during my ~4 years at Meta, and I'm wondering if I need a mindset shift when it comes to choosing a team and staying there. Is it more on Meta that teams don't fit or should I make a bigger effort to stay on teams longer and establish myself there? I'm also looking to get to E6 someday, so the team switching makes things tricky.

I have been on a half a year long break due to unemployment and recently secured an offer at Meta as a senior. I'm a bit stressed about hitting the ground running after coming back from a hiatus, especially because I'll be joining as a senior and am coming as a mid level engineer from a non-faang company. I have a month long break still left before my joining date and I wonder if there is something I can do to set myself up for success.

Additionally how would I go about finding a mentor specifically who has had a good amount of experience working at Meta already?

I've been on my current team for around a half, working primarily on the back-end. Unfortunately, I discovered after I joined the team that Android work is very interesting to me, so in order to pursue this, I would need to switch teams. There is actually a team fairly close to mine in my org where there's compelling Android work.

Right now, I'm heads down on a big project, so my immediate instinct is to wait until that's done to bring up this conversation with my manager, who I have a very good relationship with. Is this the right thing to do or should I have this conversation sooner rather than later?

I recently started a side project that could have an org level impact soon within this year. The feedback for the prototype is pretty good and I got a green-light to put more bandwidth in it.

I used to think once I get the good work done, promotion should come naturally. But both my manager and skip manager are telling me to leave proper documentation and communication as evidence for promotion - docs like PRD, roadmap planning, status update etc.

I usually do communications pretty well, so their feedback make me wonder if I missing something for a staff level promotion.

• What kind of evidence is being valued in a staff promo packet? Any differences between senior and staff promo packet?
• What do I need to highlight and keep track of if I'm creating scope outside of daily work?
• What kind of data I should keep track of to quantify the impact? How do you usually learn about finding the matrix to track?

Thanks!

Hi Taro community,

Seeking your help in evaluating two offers that I received from two start-up companies.

• (1) In general, in such situations how do you suggest researching about the companies and determining which company and offer is better.
• (2) I am also concerned how my future job potential will be affected and so I want to take the decision accordingly.
  (3) In this particular case, my offers are as follows,
• company A
  • Unicorn (post money valuation: $1B-$10B), Industry: Ad Tech (ML and cloud infra based), Last funding type: Series C, Total funding amount: $190M, Estimated revenue range: $1M - $10M, Founded in 2013 by ex-googler,
  • I have seen several folks joined from FAANG companies (eg, Google)
  • Offer: base $160K, bonus: 24K, Equity: $88K (not sellable now, but the company is expecting to go for IPO in one year)
• company B
  • Emerging Unicorn (post money valuation: $500M-$1B), Industry: Healthcare/AI, Last funding type: Series B, Total funding amount: $120M, Estimated revenue range: $1M - $10M, Founded in 2017
  • Among big techs, I have found just one person from AWS who joined this company
  • offer: base $190K, no bonus, Equity: 114K (not sellable now, the company is expecting to go for IPO in 2-4 years). I may be able to negotiate this offer.

Thanks in advance for any kind of suggestions/comments.

I'm considering a team switch, but I'm wary of the effect that it will have on my E3 -> E4 promotion timeline, which I know we have to do within 2 years. I've been at Meta for around a half - Does the timing for a switch work out here and what other factors should I consider?

Hi, I've brought up promotion in a 1:1 with my manager, who did not give any specific timelines, saying "I want to set you up for long-term career success."

I have onboarded quickly, as a former intern. My document tracking accomplishments (thanks Alex for the recommendation) has grown substantially in the 2 months since starting at the company. I have been delivering on writing code, experimentation, and design docs, and I recently helped unblock a mid+ level engineer.

However, in our 1:1's, my manager seems unimpressed. On my end, my presentation of accomplishments could be better. At the same time, most people on my team, including my manager, seem to have a lot on their plates.

Work is the top priority for me for the foreseeable future, and I want to make sure I'm not getting passed on for promotion in favor of a junior who has less accomplishments but whose manager is more easily impressed (like my previous internship team's EM).

So I have two questions:

1. How should I approach the promotion conversation? Give it some time? Bring it up consistently in 1:1's?
2. What should I do to impress my manager?

I'm going to join Meta as a new grad SWE in early June. I would be TNTE (too new to evaluate = automatic meets all) for the July PSC.

However, I would be evaluated in January's full-year PSC. How exactly would this work? I would have ~6mo of work done by Jan. Would I be pitted against other E3s in my org who have been working since Jan 2025? Or would they also consider my tenure at the company?

For example, to find the k largest element in an array,
the straightforward approach is using a minheap, if you know the solution, can code up in 5 mins.

So would the interviewer ask for alternatives like quickselect?