Career Advice About Meta

I’m currently working on a 0 to 1 project that’s outside of the team’s scope, so I have no senior engineer on the team to support me and tell me what to do. I have to spend a lot of time piecing things together and it's been rough - I've missed on the team's ship goals as it's hard to move fast enough on this project. How can I make this situation better?

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?

Hi!

I have a question regarding Meta's interview selection/rejection criteria.

I recently interviewed with Meta for E4 Software Engineer role and I actually did well on the interview. I answered both questions with optimal algorithms and also did everything that is expected of the candidate in a good interview (like asking clarifying questions, making a framework for the code to be written/ pseudo code, with the explanation of the process of how I came up with the solution, writing optimal code, discussing time complexity and verification/ dry run - everything within that time limit). I received a rejection from my recruiter. I can't think of anything being the reason for the rejection except that I have been a bit nervous during the interview (but did manage to get everything done still).

Is it normal for Meta to reject a candidate in the screen in spite of such performance? What else would they be expecting to proceed with a candidate? It was not easy for me to get this opportunity to interview with Meta, as I didn't have any previous big tech experience. I'm kind of losing hope on my journey to crack a big tech with this experience. To be honest, I kind of feel like I am being discriminated against. Can anyone please share your thoughts on this experience?

I joined about 6 months ago and my manager is absolutely great. I don’t have anything where I think they can be better at at this stage. At the current stage, I feel like I have a lot of self improvement to do before expecting anything more from them. What do I say in the critical feedback section for my manager?

I was laid off on November 15 2022 and since then, I have been tinkering in different stacks building small projects in C#/.NET and Java / SpringBoot based on job demand from postings. Professionally, I used JavaScript / TypeScript and React as well as Python, Ruby on Rails, some Docker and AWS for 1.5 years.

However, somehow, because of anxiety over getting a job, I have strayed from getting good at any stack and revising Django to build a MVP of a URL link sharing app and building just because I don't know if I'll ever get users or scale as I never did something really impressive hitherto in my career. Because I wasn't really targeting big companies, I have been casually leetcoding etc. this past year and a half and am decent enough to do easies and some mediums in Python.

However, recently, I haven't been really applying as much, but got reached out by Google and Meta based on yolo applying mainly; I failed my Google early career phone technical and have my Meta screening 45 minute round for an IC4 role I applied to in 2 weeks. I am preparing as the recruiter sent me some resources after our call, but I don't know what my priorities should be. As I don't have high hopes, I assume I should still try to go deep in a stack, use more of Taro's resources such as its jobsearch tool etc. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

I was curious if anyone had tips on writing a decent one page resume - especially in how to pick apart what's most "important" from my previous work experiences and fit it into one page.

I’ve been at meta for about 6 months now as a new graduate and my team recently got re-orged. The project of the new team is very uninteresting to me and honestly I realized that I’ve chosen an “easy” work team.

I recently got advice that I need to do more meaningful work such that my skills develop and I can create credibility. I don’t think the work on my current team or the new team makes me excited or even happy in anyway.

I would love to explore the metaverse org as I was heavily involved in VR/AR development work in college.however, I’d have to wait until July to start this process+ this would mean I moved 3 teams in 1 year implying I spent more time ramping up than doing meaningful work.

I’m also considering switching companies. I am able to secure interviews from a few companies that seem interesting to me.

Does anyone have any suggestions ?

Hi everyone, I received an email from a recruiter at Meta requesting to setup an initial call with them, regarding software engineering roles. In a normal situation, I'd setup the call. However, my last 2 roles were both under 2 years in tenure. In the potential situation that I get laid off at Meta or find the wrong team, I'm scared that I'll look like a serial job hopper. The recruiter did mention that I could request to follow up after a few months if now is not a good time to consider opportunities. I'm not sure if this is as good as throwing away my consideration or if they do actually reach out after a few months. Any insight is much appreciated, thanks!

I am currently in Team Match phase at Meta for an E4 role in the Infra Org. What is the general take on joining the Infra org? Is the WLB comparatively better than Monetization/Ads (which is the other option that I have)? Also, how should one define impact after joining a team? Given the recent layoffs, and the stack-ranking, have bouts of imposter syndrome kicking in every now and then, as to whether I would be able to do a good job after joining the team. Also, because of being on a work visa, it makes it quite stressful. I currently work in a non-FAANG semi-conductor company.

Here's a recent example: I took 2 months to finish bootcamp, and I was very indecisive throughout that time, talking with various managers and tech leads. I initially talked to real time ads infra, then streaming areas, and many others. Even after picking a team I feel FOMO that there’s a better team I could have joined instead. How can I feel better about my decisions?

AFAIK, Google is known to issue an L1-A visa for internal transfers to US at L5(Senior) level. Does Meta offer the same visa at E5?

1. What are the key relationships you need to develop to increase your influence within the organization?

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

3. What are the unmet needs or pain points within the organization that you can address to gain credibility and visibility?

4. How can you leverage the principles of reciprocity and mutual benefit to build alliances across different teams or departments?

5. What communication strategies can you employ to effectively share your ideas and persuade others without formal authority?

Fitting into an Established Organization:

1. What is the prevailing culture within the organization, and how does it manifest in day-to-day operations and decision-making?

2. Who are the key stakeholders and decision-makers, and what are their expectations for new members of the organization?

3. What informal networks or communication channels exist, and how can you effectively navigate them to build relationships?

4. How can you demonstrate respect for existing norms and traditions while also introducing fresh perspectives and ideas?

5. What initiatives or projects can you undertake that align with the organization's goals and also allow you to showcase your skills and contributions?

6. How can you seek out mentors or advocates within the organization who can provide guidance and support as you integrate into the company?

Hi Everyone,

I recently received a call from Meta for an interview for the Enterprise Systems Engineer (E4) role. So far, I’ve been focusing solely on the Software Engineer - Infrastructure position at Meta.

I had a few questions:

1. How does the Enterprise Systems Engineer role differ from Software Engineer - Infrastructure?
2. What is the typical career trajectory for an Enterprise Systems Engineer at Meta, or in the industry overall?
3. If I plan to transition to a Software Engineer or Machine Learning Engineer role at Meta after a few years, is that possible internally?
4. Is the Enterprise Systems Engineer role less hands-on with coding compared to the Software Engineer - Infrastructure role?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

I work in a Big Blue team that needs to go through many layers of approvals to ship anything. Sometimes we'll be working on a project for 1-2 halves and then the approvals will be pulled back, torpedoing the project.

What can I do to improve the process here, so my team can ship more?

Hi guys, I’ve recently joined a new team and learning a new coding language. The first task given to me by my team was a refactoring task to ramp up. They said to take your time as there’s no rush to finish it right now. However, it seems to be a very complicated refactor as there’s multiple lambda functions each referencing variables from all over the place. How do I communicate this with the team and not look incompetent?

I joined as IC5 about 2.5 years ago. So far I've done well, EE and GE, probably EE this year - at lot down to the great advice in this community. 1 year ago my previous manager put me up for low confidence promo which I didn't get and now my new manager is doing the same this cycle.

I value WLB which is currently ok to decent and as such I've never really asked about promo to either manager, just general growth areas. Also I've been quite put off IC6 by reddit / blind, I've heard a lot of second hand stories of stress and higher chance of PIP at that level due to higher expectations and smaller higher caliber pool in the stack rank. I need to avoid being in the bottom 15% of a pretty exceptional group.

One other datapoint about me is that I'm a somewhat anxious person and I cannot simply land another comparable tech job since I'm remote and based in EU - hence my appetite for risk is probably lower than average when compared to my peers.

I'm looking to hear some stories of people who have made the transition... what sort of impact did it have on your WLB and stress levels? any regrets? was the additional comp worth it? Has it gotten easier over time?

Finally my manager tells me that promos are lagging and no major changes are needed (except additional org contributions) Was this true in your experience?

Thank you

I'm trying to get promoted to E5, and my progress so far has been decent. I'm doing well on all 4 axes, but I currently have a gap on the people axis (it's not Exceeds Expectations yet). I know that people/direction are very important for E5s, so I really want to get better here. I do things like give tech talks and mentor some rotational engineers, but it doesn't seem to be enough for an E5-level people contribution. What can I do to shore up this aspect of my performance?

Some background about my experience. I have overall 10 years of experience out of which first 3 years was in Service based company in India and then 6 years at Amazon/AWS and around 9 months at Meta. I got promoted to Sr. position almost 3 years ago and have been working as Sr. Engineer since then.

Since few months before my promotion I am feeling bit burnt out. Promotion came after lot of hard work and honestly the compensation increment was totally underwhelming. So I interviewed and switched and comp increase was really good but I am not liking work culture now. This made me sort of realize few things:

1. Promotion and level don’t actually mean much. I feel like I am part of a rat race and trying to prove my worth to someone who can whimsically just say yay or nay. This is extremely demotivating.
2. Early days of my career were great, I was making good money and learning ton of new stuff. However, now I realized that most of the stuff I learned is not useful outside and I saved enough money to not feel the need to do job just because of money.
3. It is not worth being loyal to one employer. Even though I changed companies for comp, my new employer (Meta) recently let go of lot of people. Some of them have been there for at least a decade. Plus the remaining of us are now in constant fear of layoff based on performance.

Now I want to get out of this job→money→stress→new job→money→stress cycle but don’t know how. I am planning to move back to India after few months and was hoping to start may be freelancing or some consulting work where I can control my time. I am more than happy to take a pay cut. So I started doing some research:

1. Freelancing: Most of the jobs in freelancing are web development. I have lot of experience with backend and some experience with web development but I am nowhere close to the people on youtube/udemy. I can most certainly build stuff but have no experience to show for and I am not sure if I’ll be able to find any work whatsoever 😟.
2. Consulting: Everybody suggests to build a network and then you can find work through them. My network is mostly SDEs in FAANG who I’ve already talked to. Most of them told me, dude if we know about such work we’ll jump ship as well, but they have nothing. One of my jobs was to build cloud services so I know how to build them at scale. But I have less experience in how to use them, so even if I do certifications I am not sure I’ll be able to find work on this area.

Now last option for me is to find a job which pays less and have less stress which will be okay. I can most certainly say screw it and not worry about getting promoted. But then I don’t know if that’ll be satisfactory, it’ll be more like I accepted defeat and ducked out of rat race but I still have no direction to go on.

Sorry if this all sounds like a rant, but I would love to have some guidance from people who have been in similar situation. What did you guys do and do you have any suggestions for me?

I have been having a hard time dealing with my tech lead. He’s e5 and leading our project. I’m aiming for promo end of this half and I feel like he’s really using that as a weapon against me.

For the project I am on, he gave me some deliverables. For one of the deliverable d1, I pushed back as there was no clarity. He basically said you have to do it or someone else will. I pulled in my manager and eventually the manager said it’s his project, his decision.

Fast forward, after spending a good week or 2 on this , we were asked to stop the project due to the alignment issues I had highlighted earlier.

The whole deliverable d1 was de prioritized and I was asked to work on something else (d2). It’s close to the end of the half now and the Teach lead is asking me to do more work to show that d1 made any progress and it was landed.

Despite working super hard on this, I have not clear deliverables. I think this is a directional problem. A lot of this was out disambiguating stuff. He’s also said stuff like you don’t seem to be working much on this.

I feel quite frustrated that despite working a lot the TL doesn’t seem to acknowledge any of the work or doubts cleared.

• How do I deal with this when I keep doing things and he keeps moving the finish line slightly ahead?
• I’m also tired of his snide comments such as this really isn’t e4 scope but I can say it is for you.

What are the best practices for onboarding and being successful at meta MLE ads rankings team (E4)? Please share your thoughts on office culture/how to go along well with manager? tips for successful E4-->E5 track? how to ensure getting projects with Impact (team dominated by members from 1 country)?

Note, I will go through the on-boarding course by Rahul, but was looking for some tailored suggestions, thanks

How much of ML experience is needed/looked at during Team Match, if particulary interested in joining a team doing ML? Are Hiring Managers particular about this requirement during TM? This is for a E5 and E4 levels.

Hi everyone, I'm looking to optimize my resume () and would love some feedback on it. I also have two specific questions about it.

1. Should I even include my personal projects in my resume? Neither have any active users, so all they do is show that I can build something, not necessarily something of value. I've seen advice online about not including personal projects unless they have some sort of tangible value and/or active user-base, but I wanted to hear this community's thoughts about this.
2. Is my resume too short? Can a resume even be too short? This partially ties into my first question because without those two projects, the resume would only fill up half of the page. My resume used to have a lot more points describing what I did during my professional experience, but most of it was fluff, so I decided to cut them out. I feel like I am stuck between a rock and a hard place here because if I want to fill up my page with more information, it feels like I would need to add fluff-like material. However, I don't want the few seconds a recruiter will spend looking at my resume to be spent looking at the unimportant fluff material I used to fill up the page, so I added the projects as a way to hopefully avoid the whole issue. I'm wondering if this is even something I should worry about.

Of course, if there's another issue with my resume that I didn't mention in these two questions, please feel free to point it out, even if it's a nitpick. Also, if it helps, for context, I am currently looking to pivot from data engineering to backend development, so I am aiming for more junior level roles.

Thanks in advance!