Career Advice About Meta

Hello everyone! I recently started my journey as a software engineer at Meta, and I’m eager to continue growing and excelling in my role. To help me navigate this exciting new chapter, I’m looking for a mentor—preferably a senior software engineer at Meta—who can provide guidance, share insights, and help me develop both technically and professionally.

I’m particularly interested in mentorship around:

• Building scalable and impactful solutions.
• Navigating the culture and expectations at Meta.
• Accelerating my growth as a software engineer.

I deeply value mentorship and understand the time commitment it requires, so I’m open to a paid arrangement to ensure the partnership is mutually beneficial.

If you’re interested or know someone who might be, please feel free to reach out or share this post. I would be grateful for any recommendations or advice!

Thank you!

Our office in Bellevue, WA has a beer pub next to it, is it common for people to get team building starting after work with a pizza or a draft IPA in company like Meta?

Meta recruiter said he would reconnect with me next month. Realistically, how much time does that give me to study?

I was a former startup founder and companies like FAANGMULA (Meta, Google, Apple in particular) have reached out to interview me for senior SWE positions, how should I chose any one company (these options or others), that I think might want me to recreate the type of IP that was in my startup paying me a salary instead of acquiring me (if I were to do my company again), which they can cheap out on? If my goal is to have my own company again someday, should I work somewhere else less related to my expertise (just need it to pay the bills for a few years before trying again)? Or do I go somewhere, think I can learn, won’t necessarily get promoted or get paid more and sacrifice my IP that these companies (or other smaller startups), could actually end up owning?

I'm debating between two teams in bootcamp. All else assuming equal, the hiring manager (HM) of team A is higher up on the org chain (Team A HM reports to X, Team B HM reports to U who reports to W who reports to X).

Should this play a factor in deciding between teams?

Curious to hear about what archetypes you think AI teams follow.

For ex: I think Specialist, Tech Leads are pretty common for AI teams. But we probably have a few archetypes like fixer that are slightly different in the skillset (dig through data, analyze common usecases).

Did meta have any additional archetypes for AI eng types?

As I pick up larger projects that require driving alignment across more and more teams, I’d like to understand any tips or advice on effectively driving alignment with those teams and being able to drive those outcomes faster. One recent example is that a partner team came back to us days before the launch of a feature pushing back on one of the core functionalities of the product. While they were consulted earlier in the project planning process and did not have pushback then, what is the best way to make a strong case to push forward while avoiding too much back and forth?

I have final round interviews at Meta coming up, and based on LinkedIn profiles, my interviewers include one Distinguished Engineer, two Directors, and one Senior Engineering Manager. I'm targeting an E4 position, but it seems like my interviewers are at much higher levels (E8, E9 x 2, E7). Is it normal to have interviewers at such high levels for an E4 role?

I'm in the team matching process for an E4 position at Meta. I've reached out to numerous friends at Meta for team recommendations, but responses have been limited, possibly because most of them are at the E4/E5 level and not really connected to hiring decisions. If someone asks me about if there's any good teams hiring in my current company, I'd have a hard time answering it.

I’ve started cold-messaging managers on LinkedIn but haven’t had much success yet. My intuition says it might not be too fruitful because 1) people don't check LinkedIn very often, 2) they might be hiring previously but not hiring now, 3) they are hiring for specialist positions but I'm generalist.

Then, are there benefits of reaching on my own? Are there any success stories from contacting managers versus going through recruiters? I'm not too worried about not having a match, but I'm just trying to optimize to get a best outcome.

edit: got some responses from my friends. I think I'll wait to see if any leads from my personal network can result in something :))

I will be interning at Meta as a Software Engineer. However, it seems the team I'll be joining is more focused on compliance and regulatory issues, which I would think is probably more politically-driven compared to teams that are more consumer-focused.

While I’m confident the team will be great to work with, I'm uncertain if this is an area I would be interested in working in moving forward. What would be the typical process for team matching during the transition from intern to full-time engineer?

Finding a mentor requires effort and patience. It’s about building relationships based on trust, respect, and mutual benefit. By actively seeking out mentors and demonstrating your commitment to growth, you can gain invaluable guidance and support as you navigate your career path.

How to find the best people who would like to be mentored and people who are mentors?

Recently interviewed for the pathways program but was upleveled to E4 and have just entered team matching.

This has been a wild ride and I'm super grateful to have this opportunity. My girlfriend and I currently live in NYC (as well as all of our friends).

From what I hear, there is 0 headcount at E4 in NYC at the moment, but some may be opening up next spring, but seattle and menlo currently have some spots.

I would LOVE to stay in NYC, but also can't afford to let this opportunity slip through my fingers after all the blood, sweat, and leetcode.

My preferences are NYC > Seattle > Menlo Park. Recruiter says there is no ticking clock, so we are setting primary location to seattle until if/when headcount opens in NYC, and then if still no bites, expanding to Menlo Park.

If I get put in Menlo/Seattle, I'd try and transfer back to NYC after ~1-1.5 years.

Looking for guidance on how to play the location game with shifting headcounts, as well as feasibility of a transfer back to the East coast at some point.

Should I really just focus on getting a match and focus on Menlo Park from the start to maximize chances?

Question: This may seem like a dumb question but, doesn't a technical person administer technical interviews (coding / whiteboarding and systems design)?

So I had a behavioral screen with Meta some time ago and the in-house non-technical recruiter to my surprise oddly asked me a systems design question (I was expected to answer in like 5-15 minutes max which made no sense), I get that they want to get an idea of the candidate's 'product sense,' but I found it quite odd.

Recently, I came across another software engineering coaching platform I joined and went to their practice of DSA and system design interview prep sessions which they run weekly, which oddly I found that non-technical admins (executive assistants) ran, I think it was helpful for offloading administrative scheduling, but they didn't seem to help much since they're actually non-technical.

When I started in bootcamp, my bootcamp mentor assigned me a couple tasks to do. How important are these tasks? Do I need to get them done with a certain speed and quality? Are you judged on them in any way?

When I worked at Facebook (Meta), one of the most lively groups was "PSC Memes for Procrastinating Teens."

This was a group to share memes for procrastinating employees working on their performance reviews (self reviews, peer reviews, manager reviews).

I'm going to try to share some memes which captured the spirit of that group, but please drop links to your go-to memes that capture the feeling of dawdling on an important task.

I recently moved and didn't realize how bad the cellphone coverage is with my carrier. During a screening call with a recruiter from Meta, the connection was poor, and he couldn't understand me well. English isn't my native language, so I think the bad connection made it worse. He asked to reschedule, and I requested that he call me on a different phone with a better carrier. I sent this request via email, but now I'm worried about how this might affect my chances. Do you think I'll get a reschedule or be rejected because of this issue?

I’m looking to transition from my current role as a Data Engineer to a full-time Software Engineering (SWE) position. I have over 7 years of experience, including 5 years at Facebook/Meta and more than 2 years at a startup. While I have enjoyed certain aspects of the data engineering , I’m finding the analytics side less fulfilling and would prefer a 100% backend-focused role. I am also open to taking a pay cut if necessary to make this transition.

I am currently pursuing my Master’s in Computer Science online from Georgia Tech, where I’ve focused extensively on systems courses like Operating Systems, Compilers, Distributed Systems, Parallel Programming, and Cloud Computing, maintaining a 4.0 GPA. One standout course involves building a database from the ground up, which is further fueling my desire to shift toward software engineering.

Right now, I’m weighing a few options:

1. Leave my job and join an interview prep company like Formation to improve my chances of landing a SWE role.
2. Continue my studies at Georgia Tech, where I can further develop my SWE skills.

Balancing my current job with a master’s program has been challenging, especially since I’m working toward skills that align with my true career interests.

I would greatly appreciate your advice on how to best navigate this transition.

Hi everyone, I recently started as an Engineer at Meta, and my team has a lot of frequent broken, flaky tests. Like every single week a test must break. The End to End Test Wiki is not enough for this. How can I improve the testing system? Are there resources that you recommend? What suggestions do you have for me?

Thank you!

I am a Staff Engineer and the principal engineer always gives me feedback in meetings. How do I politely ask him to do it in private or offline in chat?

The engineer referred me in the company and I think the intent is positive, but I feel threatened and embarrassed all the time. Also my credibility always goes to zero level. Key Points I would like to Keep in Mind:

• Tone: Keep your tone appreciative and non-confrontational. The goal is to make it a collaborative request rather than a criticism.
• Timing: Raise this when the Principal Engineer is not busy or in a meeting.
• Be Open: Acknowledge their current style and express willingness to work together on finding a middle ground.
  
  What do you think about something like that?

Hi [Principal Engineer's Name],

\

I really value your feedback and the insights you share during our meetings. They’ve been incredibly helpful in refining my work.

That said, I’d like to ask if it might be possible to provide me feedback privately or offline in the future—for example, via chat or a quick one-on-one. I find it easier to process and act on the feedback in a focused setting.

Let me know if that works for you, and thank you again for taking the time to share your thoughts. I really appreciate it!

I am new, what are the most effective ways to meet and build relationships with people across different teams in a large company? Any tips or experiences on navigating cross-functional interactions and expanding your internal network?

I hear a lot about engineers wanting to get into ML, but I kind of have the opposite problem :)

As an ML engineer, I've always been more curious on the infrastructure side of things. How does the infra to train/serve these large models work? What should I know about GPU programming? Is there anything I should know about storage of these data tables? How does distributed computing work?

I tried reading through the book "Designing Data Intensive Applications", but it almost seemed too dense? Is that just me or is that book targeted for a different audience?

In summary, I have two questions:

(1) What infrastructure related stuff would the more senior ML engineers here recommend learning about?

(2) How would one go about actually learning those things? Is DDIA still the best resource or would you recommend something else?

Hi everyone, I’ve spent 6 months at Meta, and I don’t have a project for next half. I want to scope out my project for next half from the roadmapping so I can demonstrate E4 level?

I’m very new to this. How do I do it, and can you share resources that can help me?