Do FAANG and other top tech companies ever hire M1 from outside?

I have seen managers hired externally into FAANG and FAANG-adjacent companies, but it's pretty rare as it's very risky (and a lot of those EMs struggle immensely during the interview). At Meta, most engineering managers were raised up internally (i.e. they grew to E6 and then switched over) and the externally hired engineering managers came from other top-tier companies like Uber, Square, Airbnb, etc.

This is also one of the worst markets to interview in as an engineering manager (EM). A lot of companies are slashing EM headcount - Meta in particular forced a bunch of M1s to switch to E6. If you are trying to jump from lower-tier companies to higher-tier ones, it will only be harder.

Anyways, you never know until you try so I recommend applying and seeing what happens. If nobody will even give you an interview, maybe you can try getting in as a Staff Engineer/Tech Lead.

The majority of the EM interview is behavioral and fairly similar to what a behavioral round for a Staff+ engineer would look like. Check these out: [Taro Top 10] Behavioral Interviews

I don't know about other companies, but I'm fairly sure Meta gives M1 candidates a DSA interview as well. Check this out to help there: [Masterclass] How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview - Data Structures And Algorithms

Best of luck!

Agreed . I have figured another that is Its extremely tough to break in as a female engineering manager as well. A lot of time they don’t believe that a woman have the rigor and toughness to be a front line application manager 😞. I will see what I can do . thanks for your note.

Can you explain what M1 is?