New to Meta and trending BE - how can I fix this ASAP and is there hope?

Thanks! If you're trending towards Below Expectations but have not gotten the rating, there is still time. The moment you are handed a PIP, you are effectively out of time.

The first step is talk to your manager around what behavior gaps they're observing: get in writing what are their expectations for behaviors for a mid-level engineer and what behaviors have they observed from you in past/current projects. Then work with them to figure out for the future projects you'll be given, what are the behaviors and artifacts they expect for Consisently Meets Expectations. Every week or two, sync with your manager on how you're trending and course adjust on their feedback.

For mid levels struggling it's usually a mix of:

• You're not showing enough independence when it comes to execution: it's clear that your teammates or manager are carrying you end-to-end for your work (they're breaking down your tasks, handling xfn alignment for your work, setting timelines for your deliverables).
• Your execution of code is perceived to be slower (diffs/half is low) or low quality (big diffs, low quality diff summaries, no/minimal test plan) compared to the general mid-level or junior baseline.

If you'd like more tailored action items, feel free to share more specifics on what your manager is saying (either on here or just DM me on Slack).

Sorry to hear this - I didn't realize even this could happen 2 months in. I guess the "Year of Efficiency" Meta is not messing around, so I'm sadly not too surprised. The good news is that this is pre-PIP. You still have time to turn it around, and given the information you've given me, your manager is at least somewhat supportive (otherwise they wouldn't have done this).

On top of the plan they gave you (it looks like you got a pretty decent one if it has area breakdowns), I would try finding mentors among your team on top of your manager. Maybe there's a high-performing E4 or an E5 you can meet with once a week or biweekly.

When it comes to concrete action items, I highly recommend this very, very similar thread, also from a L4-level engineer: "Feedback that I'm underperforming for my level. Is this PIP? What now?"

Lastly, we actually just released a course on PIP. Check it out here: The Ultimate Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) Guide

Can you break down what those rating abbreviations mean? I haven't seen's those abbrevations used ever for Meta perf system & I don't think most people not familiar with Meta's perf system would be able to guess.

Also, if you're willing to share some metrics, I can give more specific feedback. Over the past 2 months, what are these numbers for you (just share rough ranges)?

• Diffs landed
• Diffs reviewed
• Average number of comments per diff you published
• Average time to land/close for diffs you published

If you haven't used Team Insights yet, now's the time to discover it. There's more to engineering performance than metrics of course, but Meta is notoriously metrics-driven, and managers look at these numbers in calibration.

For an E4 in their 1st half, I am largely just expecting them to be a rock-solid code contributor. I mentored a ton of E4s and helped determine their ratings, so these numbers should be illuminating.

Hard to say if you can improve the rating from Below Expectations (BE) to Consistently Meets Expectations (CME) by the end of the half, but I don't think it's worth worrying much about that.

Even if you get BE, if your trajectory is positive and you show progress, you wouldn't get placed on a PIP. So your goal is to show improvement over the next 4 months.

Given the areas where you're missing the bar, propose a project and chat with your manager about their feedback on your ideas.

For mid year PSC, BE is below expectations and CME is consistently meets expectations