Meta's PM Leveling and Compensation: Decoded

Meta's PM Leveling and Compensation: Decoded

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Understanding how Meta defines its PM levels is crucial for positioning yourself as a competitive candidate.

The Two Tracks of Levels

The company has two main PM tracks:

1. The IC Track

• IC3 - RPM, Rotational Product Manager
• IC4 - Lowest level product manager
• IC5 - The most common level for industry PM hires
• IC6 - Held by a large portion of Meta's IC PMs
• IC7 - Senior PMs, only a small percentage reach this level
• IC8 - Parallel to a Director, very few PMs at this level

2. The Manager Track

• M1 - Mostly eliminated, parallel to an IC6
• M2 - Parallel to an IC7, where most Meta people managers sit
• Director (D1) - Parallel to an IC8, with total compensation around $1M
• Senior Director (D2) - A senior executive, with total compensation >$2M

According to a former IC7 PM at Meta with 5 years of experience, around 80-90% of Meta PMs are IC6 or below. Managers are less common, with M2 being the most frequent people manager level.

Reaching the rarified air of IC8 or Director typically requires coming from a senior role at another proven tech company like Google or Stripe. Amazon experience is viewed with more skepticism.

A former Meta PM advised that those coming from senior roles at less established companies should expect to level down.

"A Director of Product at a Series E startup often has to come in as an M2 at Meta. If you're an IC6 at many other places, expect to be an IC5 at Meta."

Meta intentionally brings in over-qualified candidates and trusts its performance evaluation system to properly level them over time.

Compensation

The product is popular enough that you can trust its compensation figures over anything else published.

Here’s the full detailed breakdown:

IC Compensation

• IC3 (RPM): $130K salary, $25K stock, $12K bonus, $166K total
• IC4: $172K salary, $30K stock, $13K bonus, $215K total
• IC5: $208K salary, $121K stock, $24K bonus, $353K total
• IC6: $246K salary, $310K stock, $49K bonus, $605K total
• IC7: $279K salary, $599K stock, $67K bonus, $945K total
• IC8: $350K salary, $610K stock, $175K bonus, $1.14M total

Managerial Compensation

• M1: $246K salary, $310K stock, $49K bonus, $605K total
• M2: $279K salary, $599K stock, $67K bonus, $945K total
• Director: $350K salary, $610K stock, $175K bonus, $1.14M total
• Senior Director: $369K salary, $1.74M stock, $135K bonus, $2.25M total

The exact Meta PM interview process

Meta's PM interview process is standardized, typically consisting of two rounds. It forks based on whether you are being evaluated for an IC or a managerial position.

Round 1

• ICs: Product Sense, Analytical Thinking
• Managers: Product Sense, Execution, Project Retrospective

Round 2

• ICs: Product Sense, Analytical Thinking, Leadership & Drive
• Managers: People Management, Cross-functional Partnership and Influence, Operating at Meta

I’ll break down how to crack each interview in section 4.

How the decision is made

Each interview is conducted by a separate interviewer and scored on a 1-5 scale for each attribute, along with an overall hire/no hire recommendation.

It’s that important to remember this is a standardized, rubric based process. Several people I interviewed emphasized it’s more important to get a 3/5 on each rubric scale, then to get a 5 on some and 0 on others.

The three interviewers don't even discuss their evaluations with each other. Instead, they pass their ratings and detailed feedback to a recruiting panel that makes the final decision.

If all interviewers give a "hire" or "strong hire" rating, the outcome is straightforward. But if it's a mixed bag, the recruiting panel may request additional input before deciding.

Leveling occurs after a candidate passes the hiring committee. The exact team match is also determined after this stage.

When interviews change

The biggest reason you might have another interview or two is if an interviewer didn’t have high confidence.

Interviewers have to note down how confident they are in a rating. And multiple PMs admitted that they had to put no confidence sometimes.

Occasionally, you are just not on your game as an interviewer. In those situations, the recruiters will tell exactly why you are having another round.

If you have any questions about product management or want to share your own PM journey, leave a comment below!

#MetaCareers #ProductManagement #PMLevels #TechCareers #CareerGrowth