Does Your Job Performance Matter For Building A Startup?

In college, the common wisdom these days for Computer Science students is “your grades don’t matter, just focus on your network and building cool stuff.” 

**Does the same logic apply for aspiring entrepreneurs who are working in Big Tech?**

If you know you want to leave to start a startup, how much should you focus on getting the highest ratings and quickest promotions on the job, vs just doing enough to get by?

In Eric's case, he was was content with doing just enough to get by -- his time and energy was better spent preparing for his startup. Eric was barely getting a Meets All (MA) rating at Meta, and in fact, he was about to be put on a PIP before he left!

Instead of focusing on your ratings on the job, you should instead focus on having positive relationships with the people you work with. You want them to vouch for you as someone who is trustworthy, hard-working, and easy to work with. 

**Your network is your biggest asset as a founder.** Your job is not to be the expert who knows everything. Instead, your job is to have a deep network of people (advisors, friends, employees) who you can leverage to arrive at the best decision. 

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Connect with [Eric on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbahn/)

[Part 7] Meta Intern Success Series - Succeeding As A Remote Intern

- Learning speed is severely nerfed by remote work, which is awful for you as an intern since this is when learning speed is the most important. It's important to keep this mind as you navigate your internship.
- Attend all team events, even the less formal ones (i.e. non-offsite) like team lunch. It's extremely important to build relationships and social capital in this environment where everyone is more isolated.
- Have 2 to 3 1:1s with your non-intern manager peers.
- Match the working hours of your team if you're in different time zones. It's absolutely vital that you always get blocked ASAP, and this is way harder when you're operating on a different time scale. This could be painful, but it will be worth it.
- Do virtual coworking whenever you can. The idea is that everyone joins a video call and just works, no meeting agenda or anything. The idea is to mimic an in-person working environment as much as possible. This creates peer pressure for you to be productive and makes it seamless for you to ask for help (just say something on the call!).

[Part 6] Meta Intern Success Series - How Most Interns Fail

Here are the common ways software engineer interns at Meta fail:
- **Misalignment of expectations**: Make sure that you're getting feedback regularly from your intern manager (IM) and ask every 2-3 weeks for a honest, real take on how you're trending. Don't wait until mid-cycle for real feedback!
- **Doesn't take feedback well**: Remember, feedback is a gift. Respond to it gracefully and quickly; treat every piece of feedback with urgency. As a software engineer intern, you barely know anything (which is expected): If you get constructive criticism, there is a 99% chance that it is correct.
- **Writes sloppy code**: Volume is straightforward and not that special - Most interns know how to write a lot of code from school. The point of your internship is mostly to teach you how to write good, clean, production-level code. Make sure your diffs are thoughtful, focused, and atomic with thorough context sections and test plans.
- **Sphere of influence is too small**: Don't only rely on your IM; you need to have 2-3 other peers to vouch for you in final calibrations. It can be comfortable asking your IM for help on everything, but you have to diversify: Make sure that you also ask other peers for help and to review your diffs. Consider having a recurring 1:1 (once every 3-4 weeks) with your non-IM peers.

[Part 4] Meta Intern Success Series - Working With Your Intern Manager

- Meet with your intern manager (IM) at least every week for 30+ minutes. Anything less is a recipe for failure as your software engineer internship is so short.
- Treat your IM as a resource, not a boss. They are there to help you. Don't be afraid to leverage them aggressively to unblock you.
- The incentives align between you and your IM. They get rewarded substantially if you get the return offer, and it's rough for them if you don't. It's in everyone's best interests for you to get more from your IM.
- **Do not hide issues**. If you have any sort of problem, whether it's a technical one or a mental/emotional one, share it with your IM. Learn to be vulnerable.
- Ask for feedback every 2-3 weeks, don't just wait for mid-cycle. You can ask how you're trending rating-wise to get a clear picture. It is hard to course correct if you come out of mid-cycle with a poor rating.
- Ask for feedback regularly and make it clear to your IM that you treat all feedback as a gift and you act on it fast (literally within a few hours/days).

Related resources:
- [You Should Be Vulnerable With Your Manager](https://link.jointaro.com/CCLPu9Pp6pmRrn427)
- [Having The Proper Mentality For Manager 1:1s](https://link.jointaro.com/wmxxUCrHKvUH1D4b8)
- [Suppress Your Instincts And Treat All Feedback As A Gift](https://link.jointaro.com/TsJKvMLrzvveMkpS9)
- [Full In-Depth 1 Hour Masterclass On Effective 1:1s](https://link.jointaro.com/67uVtoJWBYwrqgDJ7)

Real Stock Options Example - Kosei (Acquired By Pinterest)

Tips On Navigating RSUs

Why Big Tech Compensation Is So High - RSUs

A Huge Way Companies Reward You For Joining - Signing Bonus

Maximize Your Equity And Benefits In Tech [Part 2] - The Big Picture

Equity compensation can be a powerful but complex part of your total rewards in tech. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Startup equity is high risk, with data showing over 60% of startups from 2018 have already shut down, and only a tiny fraction have reached IPO or unicorn status
- Multiple cognitive biases—like endowment effect, loss aversion, and optimism bias—can cloud judgment and lead to poor decisions about holding or selling stock
- Emotional and social factors, such as FOMO, herding behavior, and recency bias, often push people to mirror peers rather than make rational equity decisions
- Selling strategies can range from immediate liquidation to goal-based triggers (e.g., home down payment), percentage-based sales, or predefined holding periods
- It's crucial to plan ahead, especially around liquidity events, and work with financial professionals to optimize tax implications and align decisions with personal goals

Next steps with Andy:

- [Connect with Andy on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/andymoranio)
- [Leave feedback and/or sign up for Andy’s newsletter](https://subscribepage.io/taroequitycourse)
- [Schedule a consultation](http://adastrafp.com/contact-us/)

20 Years Of Fighting Procrastination [Part 12] - Set Up Your Calendar

Segmenting your calendar with intention can drastically increase your deep work capacity and reduce distraction. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Decompose your calendar by assigning specific time blocks for high-leverage work, shallow tasks (like email), and recovery to reduce ambiguity and improve clarity
- Avoid scattering meetings across the week—batch them into clusters (especially 1:1s) to preserve longer stretches of focus time
- Use your influence to improve team-wide productivity by suggesting standardized no-meeting days or more structured meeting schedules
- Even if you don’t follow your calendar plan perfectly, the act of time blocking improves your estimation skills and helps build a rhythm for deep work

20 Years Of Fighting Procrastination [Part 10] - The Simple Playbook For Sleep

Sleep is often underestimated, yet it’s one of the most powerful levers for improving productivity, health, and mental clarity. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Sleep has greater long-term health impact than alcohol or smoking, and chronic deprivation leads to worse mood, lower energy, and reduced cognitive function
- Treating yourself as “a good sleeper” and following a consistent wind-down routine (e.g. reading, brushing teeth early, reflecting on the next day) can drastically improve sleep quality
- Physical activity, especially group-based with accountability, helps regulate sleep and creates natural productivity deadlines
- Even small efforts like 10–15 minutes of movement or consistent pre-bed rituals can create compounding benefits for both rest and output

Become A Debugging Master [Part 14] - Debugging Case Study: Meta

Let's make things concrete with a clear debugging case study from Meta. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Mastering the deployment process (web continuous deploys vs mobile gated releases) and internal tools like “Where Is My Diff” at Meta can make it faster to rule out likely causes
- Being deeply familiar with experiments, gatekeepers, and other release tooling can help you spot issues like sudden error spikes or QA/test build failures without needing to dig into the code immediately
- Effective debuggers can quickly answer questions like when a code change deployed, what experiments launched, and what version a user was on during a bug report
- Going deep into tooling and metrics, not just code, lets you identify root causes faster, communicate precisely with teams, and resolve issues much more efficiently

How Facebook does continuous deployment: <https://engineering.fb.com/2017/08/31/web/rapid-release-at-massive-scale/>

Become A Debugging Master [Part 9] - Understand The End-To-End Flow

Most engineers waste time guessing at random fixes instead of methodically understanding the flow of what’s actually happening. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Before you fix a bug, deeply understand the end-to-end flow, the intended behavior, and where reality deviates
- Avoid “blind fixes”—randomly adding things like null checks without fully identifying the root cause leads to fragile software
- Break down the system into smaller steps, narrow down the problem area through a process of elimination, and ask better questions based on where things fail
- Understand which components are involved, how they communicate, and what data formats they expect to quickly spot mismatches or errors
- Strong debuggers act like detectives: they map out the flow precisely, isolate the problem, and only fix after gaining clarity on why things broke

Become A Debugging Master [Part 8] - Write Down All The Context

One of the easiest ways to massively speed up your debugging (and make yourself look way more senior) is simple: write things down early and often. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Don’t wait for clarity to write—writing your thoughts down is what *creates* clarity and uncovers next steps
- Always document repro steps, failed attempts, blast radius info, and hypotheses while debugging
- Writing things down improves your retention, narrows the search area, gives credit to others, and makes handing off bugs much smoother
- Even half-baked notes are powerful because they build momentum, reduce confusion, and help you communicate progress to others effectively

Become A Debugging Master [Part 6] - Reproduce The Issue

It's crucial to thoroughly reproduce a bug before attempting to fix it - This can be often trickier than engineers think. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Reproducing a bug requires systematically testing different versions, languages, devices, network conditions, experiments, and user paths—not just trying once and giving up
- Bugs might appear intermittent or path-dependent, so multiple attempts and thoughtful investigation into what *wasn’t* captured in the bug report are essential
- Understand the broader categories of software failures (functional, usability, integration, concurrency, security, performance, user error) so you can better diagnose the true underlying problem
- Strong debugging starts with deeply understanding when and why the bug occurs, forming the foundation for prioritizing and fixing it effectively

Types of software bugs: <https://www.browserstack.com/guide/types-of-software-bugs>

Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech [Part 20] - Everyday Is Networking Day

Networking doesn't need to be hard. In fact, it should be easy. This lesson teaches you:

- What networking should feel like when you're doing it properly
- Why networking shouldn't feel like a hard, conscious, extra effort
- Ways to make networking seem more natural
- One of the most common mistakes engineers (and introverts in general) make when it comes to networking and maintaining relationships

Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech [Part 19] - Common Mistakes To Avoid

Networking is really easy to mess up as there's a lot of toxic mentalities you can fall into. This lesson teaches you:

- The #1 way people mess up networking
- How to strike a balance between being pragmatic (having shields up) and being idealistic (helping people)
- Why going outside of your comfort zone is critical for networking
- What fake networking looks like, shown with a very common example among engineers

Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech [Part 14] - Easy Ways To Earn Trust

Gaining trust is always harder than losing trust, but that doesn't mean it needs to be slow. This lesson teaches you:

- How you can earn trust simply by doing your work
- A very natural and technical way to earn trust as an engineer specifically
- Powerful ways to earn trust while scaling up your influence
- The immense power of a $5 coffee ☕️

Related resources:

- Learn how to do good work with our code quality course: [Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)
- The Instagram oncall revamp case study: [\[Case Study\] Revamping Oncall For 20 Instagram Engineers - Senior to Staff Project](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/esVxIGXYC5BdgxXUkO6H/case-study-revamping-oncall-for-20-instagram-engineers-senior-to-staff-project/)

Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech [Part 8] - In-Person Is King

Remote and flexible work are amazing, but they do come with massive downsides, especially when it comes to networking. This lesson teaches you:

- The fatal flaw with remote work, particularly with accruing social capital
- Why humans aren't intrinsically wired to work remotely (quite the opposite)
- What gets lost in translation during remote work and video calls
- What types of engineer should prioritize in-person work

SWE Internship Survival Guide [Part 3] - Do Your Research

Preparing before your internship starts can dramatically boost your success and confidence. Here are the core points from this lesson:

-  Do early research to understand your team, tech stack, workflow, and company culture so you can hit the ground running
- Gather information in two key areas: the day-to-day process (tools, tech, work style) and desired outcomes (like return offer criteria and evaluation timelines)
- Use sources like your future manager, forums, and most importantly, upperclassmen who’ve done similar internships—they’ll offer the most candid, balanced insights
- Ask thoughtful questions to get meaningful answers (e.g., “What do you wish you had known at the start?” instead of “Did you like it?”)
- Even learning small details—like which version control system is used—can give you a valuable head start and make your first week much smoother

Learn how to succeed overall in school as a Computer Science student here: <https://www.jointaro.com/course/15-years-of-software-engineer-knowledge-in-1-hour-30-minutes/succeeding-in-school/>

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