Got a Meta E5 offer, but unsure if I’m ready for it - Should I accept?

My top-line recommendation is that you should accept this offer, but read on for some nuances and caveats.

Here are the four main reasons I think you should accept this offer, in no particular order:

1. If your main concern is employability, I can tell you as someone with a Ph.D. in economics with a focus on employer perception: It's difficult to find a better signal to future tech employers than having experience at both Microsoft and Meta. This decision is likely to pay dividends as a signal through the rest of your career.
2. This decision is also likely to pay in the immediate future. If you are going to Meta L+1 from Microsoft you should be earning more. If the comp is lower than your current comp, you should be able to easily negotiate that up.
3. If you applied to Meta then you already have some intrinsic interest in that company and/or in leaving Microsoft.
4. If you are in tech with a true passion for tech itself, you will be able to learn interesting things by going to Meta that you would not learn by remaining at Microsoft in perpetuity. Given that you will eventually go somewhere else for the sake of tech exposure, Meta is one of the best places to go.

The Soft Skill Gap as a False Difference

I also want to discourage you from choosing to work at Meta for the purpose of soft skill development. You called out a WFH comfort zone, and while I'm sure you in fact have such a comfort zone, I want to emphatically discourage you from using this in a cost-benefit analysis of Microsoft vs Meta. I emphatically disagree that remote work is causing your soft skill gap. There are other ways to develop that skill group even while fully remote.

Caveats and Nuances

1. If you have offers from other Big Tech companies, then you may not want to choose Meta. The main reasons 2 and 3 would be deflated in this case, and you could use Meta's offer to negotiate a better offer elsewhere. Example: If you received an offer from Google.
2. If you do not have a genuine interest in technology itself, then going to Meta will be a bit less interesting. Maybe you are fine spending a whole career at Microsoft. There's nothing wrong with this, it just depends on your personality and goals.
3. If you can use the L+1 offer to obtain promo and better comp at Microsoft, then the incentive to leave will be reduced. Strongly consider main reason 3 to determine whether this consideration is decisive: Why are you wanting to leave Microsoft? If you can cross all of the reasons off of your list, then maybe you shouldn't leave after all. In general, when people write such a list they won't be able to cross everything off. In general, when people get an external offer that is countered by their current employer, even if they accept the counteroffer they will leave within 2 years.

You should take it! Here's why:

1. Meta is great for career progression - Meta has the fastest promotion speeds of any FAANG company (and is on the top end of most tech companies overall). The compensation is also extremely competitive, both for initial offers and raises (particularly for high performers). And in your case, it's extra good for career progression as you're getting upleveled!
2. You're closer to E5 than you think - Microsoft's levels are weird as there's 2 for every title. 62 is the higher-end of SDE 2, so at worst, you're only 0.5 levels below E5. However, given that you have 7 YOE, I think there's a very good chance you're operating at E5 already.
3. Meta is VERY careful with leveling - I have been on ~100 Meta hiring loops and leveled people across E3, E4, E5, and E6. Trust me, we were extremely careful about upleveling people in particular. It's a big risk, and if you mess it up, that engineer is almost certainly getting PIP-ed in their first cycle given how high the performance bar is at Meta. This would be a disaster for everyone involved, so we worked hard to avoid it at all costs. If you were leveled at E5, the interviewers must have seen a lot of great senior signals from you during the interview.
4. You have Taro - I'm biased, but it's true! Given Rahul's and I's extensive background at Meta, there's so much insider info on Meta here like this other discussion: "Is sprint planning and agile not a thing at Meta?"

What I will say though is that you should be very careful about which team you pick at Meta. Given your situation, you probably want a more relaxed team (this is hard to find at Meta, but it's certainly possible). Don't optimize for some crazy team full of difficult challenges that has room for growth to E6. Follow the advice here: "Determining WLB before applying and interviewing?"

Absolutely take the offer!! Even if you don't like it (or don't do well), you'll learn a lot and it will be a huge career accelerant.