Senior Engineer Career Development Videos, Forum, and Q&A

My product team just finished an intense death march project that lasted 6 months and involved collaborating with 2 platform teams. Management pressured us work to nights/weekends. Morale was low because the deadlines were completely unrealistic -- Leadership wanted this project done in 3 months, but it ultimately took 6 months. Any tips to inspire / motivate teams in these situations?

Background:

Our team inherited a set of products which are full of spaghetti code and bad design. We are currently building a high visibility and high impact project based on the backend of this system.

Although the main project UI goes on-track, some critical backend design flaws will hinder product performance and reliability within a couple of months - maybe close to or right after official product launch, which will turn our whole effort into a joke since we have executives' eyes on it.

My progress this year so far: (besides my roadmap item commitment)

• 1. Identified a system hotspot, finished analysis & design, and convinced our EM to rewrite this module (currently 95% finished by a junior engineer.)
• 2. Rewrote 1 foundation module to eliminate legacy design flaw (ended up with less code, less complexity, same performance, more system reliability.)
• 3. Design and rewrite another foundation backend module to address legacy design flaw & unblock development of the next milestone
• 4. Leading on technical design and discussion of a re-architecture for the overall backend end to end flow. (simplify design, improve performance)

NOTE:
- I tried to delegate 2 & 3, but no other engineers can do them after a few try since it's too tightly coupled with the rest of the system.
- our team lead is championing for all these work, which is how we are able to make room for them

Benefit of these work:

• accelerate other engineers' work in the system
• cut clean with the legacy system design flaw, improve product reliability and performance
• ensure our team's win on the high visibility project that built on top of this backend
• easier oncall for the short run or long run

My questions:

• In terms of performance review, my manager thinks this is better engineering work, while I think is closely tied to the success of our main project. What kind of evidence do I need to convince him? (My EM is not very technical)
• From his tone, I sense he thinks better engineering work in considered "lower priority contribution". Is this true? How do I communicate the importance of code/design quality with him?
• I'm trying to reach the staff level promo, does this initiative demonstrate any trait for the next level? (I'm not doing it for promo, but my EM's neglect on this makes me pretty frustrated because refactoring and rewrite is such tedious and painful work... I want to make it count)

Thank you!

Lerner et al recently found that "[in resume evaluations] there were some characteristics that recruiters consistently favored: experience at a top-tier tech company..." []

I worked at Amazon as a contractor. In my resume, this is clearly labeled as contract work. In social media bios, title lines, and so on, should I claim Ex-FAANG?

I was just laid off. I don't think being laid off is a motivation for applying to any particular company. I will have additional reasons for that. I realize that knowledge of the layoff might lead a company to try and lowball me.

On the other hand, I fully expect to get multiple offers, so I am not too worried about the lowballing concern.

Being laid off isn't something I would blurt out in an interview unless I was directly asked, but I am also active on social media and I am planning to share my layoff journey in real time as opposed to hiding it.

Are there other reasons I am not considering that make it a much better idea to keep this quiet(er)?

What I've noticed is that FAANG companies don't seem to look beyond Data Structure and Algorithms (DSA) or system design in interviews, whereas medium-sized companies also consider other skills. For example, for a Python web framework, they might look at Django, Flask, or FAST. For a data engineer role, Apache Airflow might be important. ATS may not even pickup your resume unless they see very specific word like Django or Apache Airflow in your resume. It seems like it might be easier to prepare for big tech companies since they focus only on DSA, System Design, and behavioral rounds. In contrast, other companies look for such a wide range of skills that it's hard to master and work on all of them.

Let me know your views.

I have gone through a post in Slack about paper reading and its benefits.

As an Android developer, I did not find paper reading will be useful in my day to day job. Because the system design for a frontend Android is different.

I have this doubt from long time: How can i improve my design skills in Android? I see many people in our org come up with a good doubts and points in architecture discussions, but I am not able to do that. Could you please help me with what I can do to improve these design skills? I believe I should constantly do something to master this, but I am not sure what to do.

One way is I can learn it by doing - I am learning from my current project but that is not so scalable. I want to multiply my learning curve here.

Thank you in advance.

I have been generalist my whole career, I have moved from front end web development --> platform as a service web development --> microservices cloud development and now as a ML engineer, all on different tech stacks. I am pretty late in career now, 12-15 years in. What do you recommend, in terms of going forward, do I have a chance with trying to be a staff, or should I switch to PM/EM role? I would eventually want to be a good EM.

From what I have heard so far, Staff is: The person needs to be technically very sound, guide the folks, find projects, carve solutions, and lead without authority.

Engineering managers on other hand: Would work these folks to approve/disapprove these projects, get resources, manage the people (promotions, growth of team - product as well as people).

From this I derive that managerial role is subset of staff + people management. But I am sure I am missing something, what am I missing? Why do people choose to be staff over manager, expect for passion to stay IC (not manage people)? Also, is there a pay difference?

How many days a week do you work in the office (hybrid - as in, the expectation of coming in-person) for FAANGMULA companies (Silicon Valley specifically but ok if other regions) as a ratio to work from home/remote?

How many hours a week for actual work on product vs attending meetings are in-person vs. Zoom or remote?

I'm looking at interviewing at different positions at FAANGMULA companies and tech startups in Silicon Valley (from SF to South Bay) and trying to compare against my commute if I work 2-3 days out of the week from home vs work from home/remote and want to know what the standard expectation is.

I ask since I had a friend (director level) who works in analytics/data science that worked remotely from Hawai'i most of the pandemic at a L5-L7 level depending on how folks define that and was able to work 20 hours a week. Their new job they work remotely from Silicon Valley and commute to another state once a quarter for meetings.

I wonder how common this is, it's a pattern I see with a lot of friends, all CTO, founder, investor type of folks (fractional, etc.) who are "full time" on paper (1099 contract paid an equivalent of what I would have previously expected a W-2 working 40 hours a week would pay). I am having issues explaining to my family and my partner who work the traditional 9-5 job, 40 hours a week in old school Silicon Valley (publicly traded companies, biotech etc.), where they are expected to come in the office 3-5 days a week and work on a W-2 so cannot seem to fathom how I see these examples as possible and how it could be a possibility for me have a better work-life balance, working lesser hours, commuting 2 or 3 days a week ideally and remote.

I'm unsure if roles like a TA and TPM are becoming obsolete from an organizational perspective. However, I've noticed a gap in effectively screening potential candidates for job placement. I believe I have the skills to excel in headhunting, but I'm uncertain if transitioning to this role is the right career move for me at this time.

Hi, can you please post the recording for the office hour on "senior to staff"?

Previously was an entrepreneur, I find it difficult to work with other people if it's not my project (lack of ownership) and people telling me what to do controlling my hours, even if that is the case of a manager.

As background I used to work for a company for over 80+ hours a week thinking 100 wouldn't be enough, I crashed and burned and swore I would never do it again (this happened for over a year). I previously founded a company where I was overworking (mentally), and it was not about the hours, but far too many things. I've worked really hard on setting boundaries with those coming to me (clients as a consultant) over the years and it has been a challenge.

Now that I am interviewing at FAANGMULA, I am curious how other folks that identify as neurodivergent (ADHD, AuDHD, Autistic) etc. find safe workplaces where they can not overwork themselves, burn out or work too many hours per week?

I know I am prone to doing this, even if I have learned how to push back boundary wise and I have also learned that other neurotypical people (people who do not identify as neurodivergent) are able to work less hours (less than 40 hours per week) and still be able to function with good "work-life balance," (the Holy Grail). I also have often met lots of tech startup founders/entrepreneurs/investors who also identify as ADHD (or other things like bipolar, other ND comorbidities) that say they can work for someone else, some choose not to, and some absolutely cannot.

What advice do folks have for those that are thinking about working somewhere full time, but not necessarily working over 40+ hours a week (like 60 was my regular workload) and carve out personal time for things they want to work on more (like a startup on the side, other side projects)?

I am currently 'officially' mentoring two colleagues. I have mentored a number of people in the past, but I honestly never felt like I learned how to be effective as a mentor. I wish to change this.

What resources could help me improve my mentoring skills? Would it be beneficial for me to seek a 'mentoring mentor'?

I've heard this many times be true for senior and above level SWEs at FAANGMULA companies, but wasn't sure how true this was?

As I look to take on other interviews at FAANGMULA companies, the main issue for me when it comes to role whether a senior SWE or EM/TPM is time. Will I have inevitably with more meetings as a senior EM/TPM because of management by itself and having to work over 40 hours/wk in order to get promoted or stay at my level (I have heard this is the case at some FAANGMULA companies), or is it possible to be a code machine and manage your own team and workload to the point that it is automated you can build your own side projects (like how some people build their startups on the side while working "full time" at a FAANGMULA company)?

Personally, I still have the entrepreneurial itch and want to continue working on something on the side, but have issue with working at FAANGMULA 40+ hours a week in order to maintain my level and be promoted, if I know it is indeed possible to be more efficient with my time and achieve my metrics/results with half the time (say 20-30 hours a week instead of 40-60 that I'm hearing is quite common for some senior SWEs as ICs or managers).

Hello! I would appreciate some career guidance tips in transitioning to a new role. To give some context about me, I am currently L62 at Microsoft with 7 YOE and have recently received an offer for E5 at Meta. It is a level+1 for me. From what I have gathered, the expectations for E5 are going to be high involving scope/ambiguity resolution, delivering under tight deadline, etc. Also given the stack-ranking nature of evaluation, might need to compete with my new colleagues, who are currently working at senior level.

I feel I'm an average+ engineer and doing WFH for the last 3 years made me working in silos. My current team does not punish teammates without active participation. Being introvert by nature and someone who is afraid of public-speaking, I got used to the comfort zone of inactive participation. My misconception about focusing solely on technical skills to grow in career has made my career progress slower and I am painfully realizing it lately. To add to that, job security is important for me as I'm a visa holder.

Given this context, I am considering whether to take E5 Meta offer. On one end, I can take this as a growth opportunity and improve my technical and soft-skills. I am definitely looking forward for ways to increase participation, influence team and being a strong engineer. I wonder if I should improve my current soft-skills in my current-role and then move or if I could simultaneously improve them on my new job.

On the other end, I wonder if I could survive in an environment like Meta and deal with stress/burnouts and whether the lack of improved soft-skills would make me unsuccessful in my new role.

Appreciate your thoughts!!

My manager suggested I add a weekly "Wins" section to our 1:1 doc. What's worth highlighting there? Is it better to only highlight things that meet the E6 bar? Or should I put everything I could think of, including mundane things like connecting peers with solutions or creating Gantt charts? Should I limit how many wins I highlight each week? How should I organize these wins?

Alex and Rahul give amazing presentations! Would love to hear your tips for creating amazing presentations. For example:

• What's your process for creating your slides?
• How do you find memes/jokes?
• Do you memorize your slides before the presentation?
• How much time do you spend rehearsing before your presentations?
• Any other tips?

Hi all, I'm currently working on GenAI server infra at Meta as an IC5. I'm interested in the space and have had a long standing interest to dig deeper into ML. At a high level, I'm considering the following:

1. Positioned well for E6 scope and exploring interest in people management (M1)
2. Taking an online masters program to brush up on math, ML foundation skills. This can better validate my interests. Alternatively, I can lean into online resources like Cousera, deeplearning.ai
3. Recruit internally as an E5 to a relevant team. Generally internal mobility empowers people to explore and learn new things. However, it helps to have relevant experience.

For online masters programs, I've heard of great things from Georgia Tech, with a ~$7k online program. Alternative options include UT and Stanford, and the latter is ~$60k. Rahul made a great video about his , but this would rather be a part time commitment, and I already have many YOE at Meta for my resume.

I'd also love to hear your general thoughts on navigating career moves into an area with existing, highly talented pool.

Which choice is better for long term career growth in FAANG, especially senior to staff?

1. A team of extremely talented engineers (where showing an impact would be very hard)
2. A team of decent talent (but hardworking) where it might be easy to stand out

I know the way I’ve framed the question makes it more like option 2 is better; but, I would love for hear your thoughts.

I am a mid level engineer from a small startup and have recently secured a senior FAANG engineering position. Given this I am expecting to have some challenges when transitioning both from startup to FAANG and also from a mid level to a senior position.

Given the above my questions are:

• How can I ensure I find a good manager and team during team match to help me succeed? Particularly, what questions should I ask during team match to achieve this?
• Given the quite situational nature and the focus more so on making the transition easier rather than growing, I assume that my focus should be on finding a team with less pressure. Perhaps an internal team?

Would be good to get some thoughts on this.

I often find myself in situations where I need to optimize Spark scripts for processing large volumes of data. However, I frequently encounter challenges such as memory failures or excessively long evaluation times, which can lead to significant costs.

What are the best strategies you employ to test the performance of Spark jobs that handle heavy workloads without incurring substantial expenses? I'm particularly interested in methods that can help identify bottlenecks and optimize performance effectively while keeping costs low. Any insights or recommendations would be greatly appreciated

Hello everyone,

I joined Meta a couple of months ago as an IC5, coming from a predominantly Java background. Recently, I've started working with the PHP codebase, which is somewhat new to me. I've noticed that my diffs tend to undergo several rounds of revisions, which not only delays their integration but also consumes more engineering time than I'd like.

A fellow engineer pointed out that my diffs are often too lengthy, leading to extensive feedback and additional iterations. I'm actively looking for ways to streamline my review process and improve the quality of my submissions.

Here’s what I’m considering to reduce the review cycles and improve my coding approach:

1. Reducing the Size of Diffs
2. Pre-Review Checks: -- Any suggestions here would be great

I would greatly appreciate any advice on:

• Strategies or tools that could help in catching potential issues early.
• Best practices for structuring PHP code and managing larger changes in a PHP environment.
• Any insights on transitioning from Java to PHP, particularly with regard to common pitfalls or key differences I should be aware of.

Thanks in advance for your help! I'm eager to learn from your experiences and improve my contributions to our projects.

In taro there are tons of great resources for Job Switches, like:

• As Alex explained  Job Switching has some caveats
• As , it is a red flag for recruiters when you switch jobs within 12-14 months.

I understand the point, but what if I choose the wrong company? It's well-known that not all companies can offer the opportunities that we wanted initially. In this case, should I stay longer even if I know that I won't grow there due to factors such as the company structure or lack of opportunity?

I have a goal of reaching senior levels in my career, but to achieve this, I need to gain expertise in certain areas, like

• Strong domain knowledge to make an impact on the product side,
• connections and collaboration
• software craftsmanship.

Currently, my role does not offer me an opportunity to gain experience in the first two areas. As the product is well-regulated and the entire engineering team works on-site, it is difficult for me to connect and collaborate remotely.

On the other hand, this is making me lose my confidence and my ability to make an impact, even though I have gained hard skills and knowledge from my previous experiences in software craftsmanship part.

I am seeking advice on what to do next, should I even care about those red flags in my particular case if I switch the job?