A Fascinating Q&A with Meta Employees on?Blind

Right after leaving Meta, I posted an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Blind’s Meta channel?—?the response was phenomenal?—?5,468 views, 357 comments, spanning 100+ questions?—?direct, unfiltered, meaningful, and (unusual for Blind) rather respectful. I made it single-blind, i.e. askers’ identity was hidden of course, but I dropped enough hints that folks figured out who I was, e.g. one of the upvoted questions was the super-challenging “Does your name start with R?”. I did this AMA because I felt I had a lot to say about careers and culture there while still fresh in memory, and I knew that many had questions they wouldn’t openly ask. This was also my first and last active post on Blind which is personally a bit too negative and cynical to go beyond passive consumption.

Of the 100+ questions, I ended up writing non-trivial responses to about 85 of them. I spend many hours thinking and then carefully wording the responses to be useful and empathetic. Here I am sharing a subset of these Q&As that are likely to be useful in a company-agnostic manner, after some sanitization to remove company-specific, proprietary, compensation-specific, personally identifiable stuff, or personal attacks. Even filtered for these, there were so many great questions, including some plenty cynical, even controversial ones that we’ve all come to expect from the Blind crowd.

I had detailed responses to ~85 questions and answers organized into 9 buckets.

• IC Career Development
• Manager Career Development
• General Career Dilemmas
• What do Senior Leaders Even Do?
• How to Develop Specific Habits or Skill Sets?
• Cross-functional Skills and Relationships
• Asking for My Opinion on Things
• Something Feels Off About Something
• My Identity, Career, and Life Choices

Here on LinkedIn, I am sharing the entirety of the first three sections, which are the most useful sections by a big margin anyway. If you are still curious, you can check out the full set on Medium (link ) or Substack (link ). Besides paying for my Starbucks, I want to support platforms that share revenue with good writers, as opposed to those that are a tad exploitative.

Helpful References:

Engineering / Management Levels: (consistent across Google and Meta)
E4 = IC4 = L4 
E5 = IC5 = L5 (Senior Engineer)
E6 = IC6 = L6 = M1 (Staff Engineer, Engineering Manager)
E7 = IC7 = L7 = M2 (Senior Staff Engineer, Senior Engineering Manager)
E8 = IC8 = L8 = D1 (Principal Engineer, Director)
E9 = IC9 = L9 = D2 (Distinguished Engineer, Senior Director)

AE = Additional Equity given to a small set of top employees.        

IC Career Development

What’s your advice on how to be successful as an eng in general, specifically ambitious ones? And your advice on how to be successful at?Meta?

In general, I’ve always found engineers who communicate better to be more successful. It’s a bit unfair that just doing amazing work doesn’t make the cut. Otherwise PMs or other more senior eng could get some of that credit only because once they start telling the stories, leadership goes to them, and they take on that identity instead of the engineer doing the actual work. It’s not necessarily malicious on the part of these other functions, but someone needs to communicate. If engineers themselves could clearly communicate in a way that even the CEO understands, they can potentially grow faster in their career.

This advice applies to all places. Specifically for Meta, there’s a huge bias for action. Get more things done and keep hitting goals. The metaverse or any other CEO pet projects are a bit different. There, it’s disproportionately about realizing his long term dreams rather than objectively being the best thing for users in the short term.

Can you give some examples of effective communication? What channels are used, level of abstraction, tone,?etc?

Effective communication means everyone quickly understands most of what you say about the progress and impact of your work, without having to repeat or someone else jumping in to paraphrase on your behalf. Then, if the experts in the room ask deeper questions, you are able to answer well and show that you have really good grasp of the area and done your homework. In terms of mode, real-time discussions in meetings leave the strongest impression.

Do you have any advice for an E6 to get to?E7?

Like I wrote above, pick a problem statement your VP cares about, solve it, and be the key contributor to it. Be persistent?—?don’t give up easily?—?get it done?—?show clearly that it worked?—?keep making progress?—?document the progress?—?show regular progress?—?write articles about it that show technical complexity?—?decisions on packets by others not in your reporting chain are made relatively quickly so the complexity needs to show in seconds or a couple minutes. This last bit is a bit shitty?—?it is marketing but that’s the price you pay for leveling up.

How do you see the ic growth (6->7, 7->8) opportunities atm? There are just too many existing senior folks in different orgs/pillars.

I agree it’s a bit crowded and you have to stand out. For 7 and 8 promos I have always seen that the thesis for promo is a 1–2 sentence summary of something that VP+ level care a lot about e.g. single.handedly solved the performance problem with feed, or made LLM open source with regular stable releases. So you really want to pick a summary like that and reverse engineer toward it in a way that it can be primarily attributed to you. One thing is people are paying less attention to IC budget and want to encourage more senior IC growth than senior EM growth. So it’s a good time to aspire for IC growth.

What does the average 5 to 6 successful promo packet look?like?

At least 2 projects that look sufficiently technically complex as evidenced by design docs and notes. Overall impact looks reasonably high. Solid peer support from 7+ ICs and M2+ that basically state that they’ve seen you operate at 6 for at least 6 months, maybe more. These people ideally are not in your reporting chain. Finally, through collaboration and coordination, you uplifted your colleagues and your org.

How much does your manager play a role in your Performance rating? Given the same engineer, could manager X get them a GE while manager Y only gets them MA? What’s the variance?

Yes, unfortunately, it always happens. There are two steps. Step 1 is how convicted the manager is of a certain rating. Step 2 is how effectively they can defend that rating in a roomful of EMs who are primarily finding flaws in the packet or the argument. So the variance is at a minimum a whole rating.

Any advice for a new grad to progress faster in their?career?

Engineering? Get things done quickly, maintaining high quality. Communicate effectively.

Do you have any senior IC reporting to you? If yes how do you manage them and what are their expectation in terms of driving impact? Do they work with e3 and?e4?

I always did. I would give them a lot of freedom to solve hairy problems. The best ones are incredible, with very low maintenance. They want to solve big problems and they do want to work with more junior folks that are productive and efficient. That multiplies their impact.

What exactly would set these folks apart from others? do you think it’s possible to perform at those levels (I guess IC7+) without tons of experience in Meta?itself?

It’s possible, but when you come in, spend sufficient time with the senior ICs in your org to get a pulse on what they do differently. Many times, external hires don’t do enough of this. They try to apply the success formula from their past job to this new job, and that is recipe for failure.

How do you make decision on E4 to E5 promo? Is it enough to have some senior IC and manager vouching for it? In ML it’s hard to always get launches as many things may just fail. How do you evaluate someone who didn’t get launches in a half but showed many iterations and learning on some projects? How important is ‘Below Expectation’ really in Performance reviews? Should we care more about?it?

Unfortunately not having any launches almost always becomes a promo blocker. Learning alone doesn’t usually make the cut unless the learning led to major decisions like don’t attempt to launch a Twitter competitor. It’s safer to focus on launches that led to positive impact. Don’t rely on your manager to be able to push through a learning based promo argument.

I’m an average E5 at Meta with mixed EE n MA. What would it take people like me to reach the director level? I constantly see myself retiring at terminal IC level. I feel my skill set can never expand to what it takes even if I try hard. I don’t have that talent and I’ve met many like me. How do you suggest we can?thrive?

I used to absolutely feel this way when I was e4! What you are feeling isn’t uncommon at all. This lack of confidence in your ability is going to further reduce your chances of getting there. So you have to first get over that mental hurdle. Also, 3 levels might be too much when you lack confidence. Take 1–2 levels at a time and make step jumps. Also, there’s something to ‘fake it till you make it’.

Manager Career Development

What are the top 3 things a M1 should do to get to next level given the current circumstances? Anything other than 1. Close gaps 2. Find advocates 3. Be patient??

1. Deliver real impact that’s hard to challenge (hacked, faked, etc). 2. Retain employees and attract even more. Be a magnet for talent. Pulse should reflect this. 3. Advocate for yourself that when the opportunity arises you are eagerly willing and able to scale up via managing through managers. This self advocacy will eventually work if 1 and 2 are also met.

What are interviews even like for?D+?

Interviews are not super different. Still some coding and algorithm design rounds, but a lot more on system design, behavioral, and just random chats with very senior folks Iike CxOs. For the company I am joining I think I had 12 rounds.

What are M1/M2 behaviors or preferences which you would discourage? In infra orgs, I noticed some M1 whose team maintains well established services for multiple halves. And keep claiming huge $$ impacc with nearly 0 new developments.

You gave a good example yourself. The fact that you noticed this means others also notice it, and the word spreads. My most disliked behavior is selfishness toward one’s team or, worse, ones personal growth. Everyone thinks about their career and scope, but the good ones still put the users or products above themselves, or at least are smart enough to give that impression (this is very game theoretic). Overt display of selfish behavior and/or scope protection is very common and very annoying. Another one is micromanaging your less perfomant ICs instead of coaching them for the longer term.

I’m a M1 with consistent high ratings. I was up for promotion for 3 times already but got screwed by reorg, flattening, reorg… What’s your advice for me? Or should I change team vs just ride along and see? What kind of team would you recommend me to?join?

Sorry to hear. Both the above advice are good. Changing teams usually reset promo clock, and new manager will usually overpromise to get you to join. Just make really sure if 4th attempt is not a sureshot one, you might be really close. You also might be not set up for success. Find out which one it is. Next level at a different company is only actually better for a handful of companies like Google.

General Career?Dilemmas

How would you tradeoff existing high TC (as M2 or plus) vs growth path given the company is doing (low) HC growth. From my POV, jumping to another company to go for path to director means cutting all existing trust with my leadership since I was new grad, and I kind of fear doing that, but I was also thinking from time to time that staying in the same company for too long will possibly make me ‘not adaptive’ to any other companies.

We are all ridiculously replaceable in large companies. It takes managers hours or days to find backfill for coveted roles or to create growth scope for an adjacent M1. The company will run just fine without many of us. Don’t burn bridges when you leave, just respectfully give notice and leave on good terms. Broadening your experience will pay off over time.

How do you find what you really want and balance?—?money/title or level/ technology/ WLB/etc. Some of my friends wanted growth crazily and they work like 70hrs a week and pick IC/TLM path to optimize for it. For me, I was only thinking that I did enough IC work when growing to 6 and pick org lead path to have some experience. And often times I feel a bit lost in daily work without thinking from the big picture to figure out what I really want,?etc.

Title is all fake and inconsistent. Even within one company, the bar changes over time, let alone across companies. That eliminates one dimension. But I am biased because I have the titles. The one thing that title dictates is respect. Money is real in that it’s a currency of worth across all jobs. Money trades off against daily peace of mind, respect, and WLB. Ideally, you want a good mix of money and WLB, and a minimum bar on respect and mental health, which you shouldn’t go beneath. One suggestion is not to think too far out. Planning to work your ass off for many years, then relax or retire?—?this is a fallacy. There is always something unfortunate or unexpected such as the economy or your health. Limit your planning to at most 5 years, preferably 3 or less.

I’m wondering if it’s worth becoming a director or better to start IC7. Is it true that there are more IC7 roles compared to M2 and D roles in?general.

Between IC7 vs. M2 at Meta, right now, there are many more opportunities in the IC track. But you should do what you are best at.

As also someone who has roughly similar tenures at G and FB, except on the IC track (L7 TLM for a year at G but ran back to IC), I’m curious how you think about IC8 vs D1 as career choices. My current assessment at 8 is that impact is easier than it was at G, but still feels like your career is subject to org whims. Management seems to be able to weather these whims by changing orgs… I’m too specialized now to do that. I can’t just roll into Ads or product from Infra at 8, but I’ve seen many D1 do it. Management also though seems more likely to hate their lives, so it’s hard to see how I should manage things in the?future.

This is a tough one and hard to give advice for these more senior levels without knowing the specifics. But I agree with the general premise that senior ICs are going to find internal mobility harder, while D+ is often moving around if the primary responsibility is people support instead of technical expertise. Not all managers hate their lives. The most important thing is to pick an area that you are passionate about, and find out via informal chats how much drama you are expected to deal with.

In terms of career/job stability, is it better off being going into a people manager path or stick to IC path? I think I can do well in both paths, but I’m more concerned about the fact that if I change a company, is being a manager easier to grow than an?IC.

The number of opportunities is higher in the industry for ICs. This year and the last, the industry has shifted toward more builders and fewer managers. The ratio is shifting toward higher ic to manager ratio. All else being equal, I would stay IC in the tech industry. The caveat is if title is important, it’s near impossible to make VP via the IC path, if that's one of your aspirations. That’s the main downside.

Have you ever got yourself thinking “what’s next”? Everytime I achieve a goal either getting the promo, certain financial goal, the euphoria did not last long and I immediately get myself thinking “what’s next”? Where does it end? What is the end goal in life for?you?

This is a very philosophical question. That specific feeling of being underwhelmed after hitting a big milestone is extremely common. It is almost always underwhelming. I personally focus on the present moment and the near future and make the most of my days and weeks. I expect less from the long term because things are very unpredictable. This wisdom took me a decade to arrive at. Ymmv.

When is the right time and signs to switch teams and companies?

So many different factors, but among the feeling of boredom, lack of excitement, lack of respect, lack of financial growth, lack of learning opportunities, if at least 2 apply to you, it’s probably a good sign. Sorry, this is not very scientific, but it’s one way to build a decision framework around this very important question of yours.

What is that one way to grow levels that nobody tells? I have heard things like growing scope and?skills.

Ask your manager and skip what would get them promoted and help them get there.

[Edit: Probably not directly -- probably via some euphemism like "What would make you successful" or its variant].

Is staying in the same team vs switching around internally a better strategy to build skills and optimize for long term growth? (For?E6+)

Instead of measuring by time, measure by milestone. If you hit 1–2 very meaningful milestones and maybe a promotion, you should consider what new things you would learn or skills you gain by staying on. Don’t immediately switch teams but at least consider it. On the other end, don’t keep changing teams when you don’t see success. That might label you as someone who meanders from failure to failure.

What’s the opportunity to survive if I’m searching for new teams now with Meets All + Below Expectations ratings? Will there be a targeted layoff or silent?pip?

I think you should move quickly to another team and reset your relationship before it is too late. The new manager has to want to champion you. One trick is to apply to a boring area where the EMs are struggling to get any reachouts.