Performance Review Q&A and Videos

I joined my current company a bit more than a year ago as an L4. Within 4 months, I'd launched a high stakes project, and after some churn in the team leadership, I was put into the role of being a tech lead to my remaining team of L3s.

As a pseudo TL, I did well in the mentorship and technical guidance responsibilities, but my code output dropped drastically (due to my projects being in the design phase which were being done by my juniors with me providing high level guidance).

In the last three months, I suffered some mental health issues. My work productivity dropped significantly during that time. I've been very open with my manager about my mental state throughout this process, and they've been very supportive of the things I need to do to recover. Around this time my team also hired an L5, who is now officially the TL.

Due to my drop in performance in the latter half of the year, I'm afraid my manager won't trust me with important projects. I wonder if I need to again prove my credentials to keep me on track for L5. I feel very low about my software development abilities.

This has made me demotivated and disinterested in my work. I took a couple weeks off, yet I don't feel like going back to work. I'm not considering changing teams due to immigration issues. I also don't want to leave a team on a low.

Any tips on turning around my motivation, and trajectory on the team? What can I change in my mindset and working style to overcome my struggles?

Since Dec 2021 to Aug 2022, My managers changed 4 times after and I got promoted from sde1 to 2. Due to multiple projects and managers, I could not take ownership as I was still in ramp up phase but manager was expecting more at the SDE2 level, pointing issues, demotivating. So I took internal transfer to a different team. I am in this new team for 3 months. 1 month - I took to even understand the basics. Manager left and new manager joined. I had to go on vacation for 15 days. I don't have metrics to show that I am performing at the SDE2 level because

1. I didn't get design projects (design phase has already been completed by the time I joined this team).
2. No OPS, this is a new product. There are no operational tasks. Working on beta launch.
3. I am the last person who joined this team. I don't have anyone to become mentor since I have limited knowledge on this new team and work
4. Have not taken interviews due to hiring freeze

Worried about Q1 performance cycle in 2023. 2022 was difficult for me to show any impact. Is there anything I can do now to not get low rating in Q1?

At this point, I am no more interested in work and just want to leave due to lack of mentorship. I have a buddy who answers questions if I ask in this team but I don't have anyone to mentor me to guide me to see what kind of projects I can work, coming up with the initiatives. I feel stuck. There are no hirings happening outside and inside the company. What can I do to proceed further?

Hey everyone! I am looking for some advice. I have weekly 1:1 with my manager and during our last interaction, he suggested to come up with a yearly plan on things I want to achieve. Can someone shed some ideas/templates I can follow to create a roadmap or plan.

I'm a junior engineer working with one other person on a pretty isolated part of the codebase. I work closely with this one person, but I don't work for an extended amount of time with anyone else. I am part of a larger team, but the work we do doesn't really interact with them (for example, I don't even take part in their sprint planning, and they generally don't know anything about what we're working on, and us them.)

As a result I only had a couple of peer reviewers in the last review cycle, and my manager said I would need more peer reviews in order to be promoted. What are some things I can do to plan ahead and assemble more reviewers, given I don't naturally get enough reviewers through my core work? I am trying to review some of my team's PRs and be more active on slack in order to increase my interaction with the team, but I'm not sure that's enough to request peer reviews from others.

Currently, I'm on a 10 person team, but we only have 3 senior engineers and the remaining 7 are E4s (5 people) and E3s (me and one other new grad). For our upcoming half, they want E4s leading some of the projects for their development. However, I would like guidance, mentorship, and feedback from an E5 or above ideally since they are more experienced. Also, from one of the Taro videos on feedback, one of the points made was to find a way to get feedback from senior engineers at the end of the half who will bolster your PSC packet versus a mid-level engineer who might not hold as much weight (Correct me if I'm wrong)?

Anyway to navigate this the right way? Should I avoid certain projects that are led by E4s? Does this even matter?

I came into my role with an advanced degree, so I started out as a mid-level engineer. However, I still need to be able to ask questions as I've never worked as an engineer before. I've seen all the Taro content around asking questions, but my manager has drilled in since a few months into this role that expectations are that I function independently, unblock myself, and don't take up much of others' time by asking questions. That it would count against me in performance reviews (versus for me if I help others with their questions).

Given the current job market, I don't know where else to go, but this environment leaves me pretty exasperated. Is it normal in other companies to go to more senior engineers with help getting unblocked? Are questions only really around code, or is it normal to ask for help debugging a feature/bug/test? I worry about becoming a senior with the expectation to be independent and help others when I myself have never received guidance to grow to that level properly.

What is a typical ramp up time for IC5 engineer? I joined a few months back and I was told that I am still not onboarded completely enough to land projects independently. Will this get me a Below Expectations (BE) rating for the mid-year perf cycle or is there still time to salvage the situation?

Seeking Medical Leave Assistance in the Bay Area

I'm experiencing significant stress and anxiety but can't afford to be unemployed. I don't currently have a primary care physician (PCP), and therapists won't provide a letter for medical leave.

Has anyone here used Zocdoc to obtain medical leave? Do you know of any one in the Bay Area who can assist with getting such a letter?

How would this impact my current job?

I have been doing good at my current company, been here for 3+ years working initially as an Entry Level, then promoted after an year to a MidLevel Software Engineer. I have been receiving "Exceeds Expectations i.e. 4/5" rating since the beginning and "Superb i.e. 5/5" rating once.

I applied for international relocation to Singapore back in July. The manager and skip mentioned that while cost cutting is going on, they are making an exception for me and it should be processed completely by initial weeks of January 2023. In times of layoffs, and especially with my company's stocks not doing that good, I am afraid if it could lead to getting laid off. This is causing me a bit of anxiety.

Although it is being mentioned by leadership that no layoffs are happening, we are seeing projects getting cut off, rigorous re-orgs happening, and entire focus of the organisation is on cost saving, which I feel is great especially in current times.

I started the conversations for relocation when times were going good in terms of offers being posted in the market. The teams were thriving as well in terms of work. But by the time entire process got over, it seems the situations have changed. What should I do?

To add on, another thing I did sometime back was to share with my manager on how I am performing several roles of the next level and how it can be used to further the cause of promotion in the upcoming performance reviews. I tried to break down the career ladder doc into key umbrellas of behaviours needed, and assigned the initiatives I delivered under those. Now afraid if this was another way I shot myself in the foot by asking for more in times of cost-saving and probably being conservative. Please assist with your advice.

I joined a new startup, and I am in a my third month. On the surface, I feel things have been going pretty well. I'm earning more than I did before and my mentor & manager have gave me good feedback on my first month. I followed some good practices I learned in Taro - like having videos in every PR and asking many questions.

But then the next 2 months life has been bit busier for me and I've been running behind on other projects I committed to finishing by the end of Q4. I have been managing to work just under 40 hours a week, but feeling like I should do much more given it's a startup and especially now that I am earning more than I did in my last job. I feel like if I worked more than 40 hours I would easily meet or exceed expectations, but just haven't been finding the time.

I haven't gotten any negative feedback yet, but since it's a startup and there isn't really a clear performance review standard I am trying to understand how worried should I be as my 90 day mark is approaching. I know the company previously parted ways with someone after 3 months.

Currently I am planning to make up for this and spend some extra time in Christmas, but I am wondering for now would companies generally give me a notice in advance if I am underperforming?

Hey everyone,

I'm new to Meta, and while I’ve enjoyed the onboarding experience and the sheer scale of the work here, I’ve found myself navigating through this incentive-induced rivalry culture.

On one hand, the competitive atmosphere can be motivating, but I also sense it might lead to employees chasing artificial metrics or competing for scope in ways that don’t always align with the bigger picture. Everyone talks about this, and I’ve caught myself wondering if I’m slipping into this mindset and whether it’s making me feel jaded.

There had been a few instance where a coworker would ship something that is half working, claim impact and then move off to a different thing, where I am left to fix and get it actually working.

Have any of you felt this way before? It feels less like I'm playing regular chess and more like I'm trying to navigate 5D chess—or maybe even alien chess! If so, how did you approach it without losing sight of the impact you truly want to make?

Looking for some candid advice or strategies to stay grounded and authentic while thriving in this environment!

I've gotten feedback from a mid performance review and my manager wants to see improvements in various areas. It includes improving my debugging skills by paying closer attention to pertinent details (and not getting distracted) for example.

Since then, I've become much more conscious and aware of the errors that I run into and much more deliberate in my debugging approach. This has resulted in me being able to diagnose problems much more accurately, and has also lended to me problem-solving much more effectively as well.

The problem is I'm not sure how to best demonstrate (or prove) that value improvement to my manager. Unlike PRs (which are often more visible in the value it demonstrates) -- you see what you get, my debugging skills/tactics are not readily obvious to the outside party unless they're observing my day-to-day activity. I can say that I've gotten better but if I have nothing to back that up with aren't they just words without weight? Who's to say that I'm even right in my own assessment without social feedback? I could be dunning kruger for all I know.

Is it enough for me to simply document those performance improvements and share (or talk about) them with my manager?

Note: My ultimate goal is to get promoted so I'm trying to (1) show that I've taken their feedback seriously and (2) demonstrate actual improvement since my last performance review.

Let me know if I'm thinking about this the right way or if am I overcomplicating it. Thanks!

My brother is very worried about getting a return offer at Meta - he'll be interning there this summer. He reviewed the videos on , but is still confused on who he would assign to review diffs/vouch for his performance other than his EM.

English is not my first language. I have been keeping work journal but struggling to write good impact of my work. I am following the SBI model but when I write down my impacts they seem very simplistic.

for example, I wrote some training material for my team to teach them a piece of software i created. However, I am at loss to write good sentences to show the impact of this training very well.

In my culture we are not supposed to brag or talk ourselves up to others, so I really struggle at this.

Do you have tips and guidance how I could improve on this area?

Feedback

I got feedback on the last two quarters since I joined the company on three things:

Impact - E; Teamwork - M+; Technical Skills - M

Except for that, something that I was lacking was leadership & ownership.

Current Level: Mid-level.

Question Focus

• I wanted here to discuss my struggles in improving my technical skills & leadership. And what mindsets & behaviors I need adopt.

• My focus is more about getting a good rating & having a good bonus. And less about promotion at the moment.

Discussion

1. At the moment, I rely a lot of my lead to make decisions about things I work on & focus on. This is due to following aspects:
   1. I feel part of it is me not having confidence in myself to know what's right. Since my lead has much more experience in this area & I'm very new to it.
   2. The uneasiness of not knowing what's the right approach. It's easy to have another person look at it than dive deep into something you don't look of.
   3. Sometimes documentation is not in English at my company & that is a burden into looking at things deeply.
      1. It breaks my confidence at times & slows me compared to other people who know that language.
2. New tools & languages
   1. C++: I haven't spent much time learning it since I focussed on moving fast & creating impact so far. So that hampered me in setting aside time to learn this language that's used a lot in backend code.
      1. And at times I ask people in help for navigating code than I should do myself.
   2. I'm also haven't worked much in the backend part before being a MLE but now we all have at my current company but I don't feel any new concepts here I need to know.
   3. Design patterns
      1. I see these patterns in the code-base. Like how they use configs & classes. I see some other people in my team figuring it out very seamlessly. But I don't know which pattern they are using.
      2. And I don't know how time I should spend on this. Since reading a whole book on design patterns would be a lot of time. But knowing them would be useful.
3. Algorithms & ML
   1. A big part of my job or my main-job is improving the algorithms & ML models to make more revenue.
   2. A lot of times, I see my teammates reading similar approaches in the company & adopting them to our use-case. Sometimes doing so I find it hard. Since the docs of these approaches are not in english at times.
      1. So I have ask around some folks to translate things. This severely slows me down.
      2. The better way could be to read outside papers/approaches but that takes more time. And may not know if they fit so good to our use-case.

Would love feedback on

• how I can work better on these things
• what mindsets I can adopt here to make more progress.

I am currently deciding whom to ask for feedback for my performance reviews (due in a couple of weeks). We are usually asked to give 2-3 names. I am trying to choose among the following: a TPM (he oversees most of the projects I have worked on and I have a good rapport with him), a staff scientist (he led a project in which I delivered a key result), a senior staff scientist (I worked with him recently in a project and I helped him with a quick task) and the Director of the GTM team (I worked with her nearly a year ago. I got good feedback from her earlier and I continue to work with her team).

Does it make sense to ask someone with whom you have worked with nearly a year back but are sure to give you a highly positive feedback compared to someone with whom you have worked with recently but might not be strongly positive? Also, are there any general strategies to follow in terms of seniority of the reviewers, how frequently you have worked with them, etc?

I had recently joined as an entry-level engineer 6 months ago, and I have been told now that I will be basically working as part of two teams, with half of my time devoted to each one. So I will essentially continue to deliver some work to my current team, while learning a new tech under the same org and delivering to them as well.

The new team I will be working with is still unsure, I have been given two options and have been told about the scope of each of them, I have to revert back with an answer in a few days. I have been told that priorities might change, and adjustments will be made accordingly. So everything is a bit dicey at the moment.

My concern relating to this is:

• Is this an indication of my current team not having sufficient work for an entry-level software engineer like me? It is a database-ops team, already having 2 senior-level developers. Furthermore, is it an indication that I am not delivering at the level they expected and hence my abilities are not of use in the current scenario?
• I haven't explicitly received any negative feedback from my manager or my peers so far, and have been overworking sometimes. However the current change is a bit overwhelming given it is still not sure where I would be used as a resource, or if my work is actually making an impact. Also even though there is no negative feedback, there has also not been a lot of positive encouragement, it is like a neutral situation where I have been told I am meeting expectations, but it feels like I might not be exceeding them, or might just be an average performer.

Just wanted to know if anyone here has faced this before, or have any insights on this. Also since the market is bad, I am a bit concerned that this change might not be an excuse for a future layoff or something like that.

Recently, due to health concerns, I consulted a doctor who advised me to take a medical leave for about 4 to 6 weeks, depending on my recovery. As I write this in January, my manager rates my performance at 3 or 4 out of 5. Having worked diligently throughout the year, I am eager to achieve a rating of 4, which will be finalized in August, though typically decisions are made by April.

However, I question the wisdom of deferring my health needs for the sake of a rating, especially since the financial and promotional benefits are not significant. Additionally, I have been contemplating a move to a FAANG or similar company for a better role and salary.

Despite the uncertain job market, I don't want to jeopardize my current position. There are also personal matters I need to address during my medical leave.

I'm seeking advice on how to balance pursuing a favorable performance rating with taking my medical leave, possibly in February. Is there a strategy to achieve both objectives?

what I am leaning towards is prioritizing health & starting the medical process by February. If a company penalizes me by giving me a sh*t rating for taking care of my health, then it’s not a good fit. I haven’t taken a long vacation > than 4 days in 2 years.

I've got a performance review coming up. It's not my first one at the company, but it will be the first time I'll be actively pushing for a promotion. It's also the first review with a new format, where we'll need to align our accomplishments with company values and our roles' "competencies"—10 in total, which seems like quite a lot to me. In light of that, I have a few questions:

1. How long should a self-review generally be?
2. Should I cover all or as many of these values and competencies as I can, or should I focus on just a few of them?
3. Should I prioritize quality over quantity and share only the strongest achievements? Or does it make sense to include both the biggest achievements and just good ones?

I know there are a lot going on approaching the end of year in the company/team for everyone, across different levels people are busy with retrospection and planning for next year. For year-end check-in with my manager, I plan to talk about performance as usual, discuss the promotion timeline/expectations, possibly ask about the bonus I should expect to receive? I am hesitating about asking questions on Bonus which should have settled based on my performance in the past year, is it meaningful to mention Bonus in our conversation, or just show your interest in how to perform better rather than how much bonus you are getting this year and how much more you expect to get.

Besides above topics, what else should we cover in Year-End Conversations? Or probably with whom should we have conversations except our managers, so that we can have better understanding on what we did really well or needs improvements on, and lay out action plans for next year? Thank you!

Recently I had asked a friend who works in DevX analytics (developer experience analytics) about her work and she mentioned that currently there was no other way to measure developer productivity other than lines of code or how frequent, often, and long someone was coding. Isn’t this a bad measure for productivity? Couldn’t someone just be pushing crap code (copy and paste) that has no substantive value to the team? I also thought about this article by the CTO of Carta that also talks about alignment and other ways to understand substantive and more qualitative measures than quantitative factors to evaluate success and I guess productivity?

How does your company evaluate developer productivity and success and metrics? I’ve found talking to former Meta engineers a lot they tend to have some really specific ways to measure success metrics that seem reasonable.

I joined less than a year ago out of college, and so far I've been able to learn things decently well, accordingly to what others on my team have told me.

So, there's an internal feedback mechanism in my team, and everyone has asked me for feedback. From where I'm at right now, everyone else in the team (they're all more senior than me by at least 4 years at Amazon) seems really knowledgeable, talented and does their work well.

How do I think about feedback I can give them as a (relative) noob?

It's performance review time, and I want a nice raise and bonus just as much as anyone else.

Standard procedure for getting a raise seems to be making the case for yourself: keep track of all your accomplishments during the year so you can present them to your boss when asking for a raise/bonus. Simple enough. I'm prepping that list of things right now.

It's also been the case that this past year I turned down 3 offers that each would have paid me more than my current gig - between 20% and 40%. Now, even though I'm underpaid at my current gig, it's also the case that I'm compensated for that by it being super chill - no deadlines, lots of latitude on what to work on, a nice WFH arrangement (1 day in office a week), and pleasant coworkers.

My question is, do I mention that I got the offers in addition to mentioning the things I'd accomplished over the year? There's an element of "hardball" in that, but maybe it's not a bad move. I guess the phrasing of it is the key. So instead of saying "I've got other offers, give me more money or I leave", it's "I really like working here and with you. So much so that I turned down other companies that were offering decently more. Can you see what can be done to raise my compensation?"

Finally, I'm aware that the best way to ask for a raise is :
"I really enjoy working on this team. I want to do more to increase my impact and empower my teammates - What are the steps I need to take to get to that next level?"

In the past two years, I've been employed at an Indian company in the role of Engineering Manager. However, my experience was marred by a lack of learning opportunities and a restrictive culture that limited my decision-making authority. Despite these challenges, I chose to stay due to personal commitments, particularly with a baby on the way.

Recently, I decided to transition to a Staff role at a European startup, embracing remote work and a more supportive culture (I loved this job and role). While the change has been positive, I find myself facing the challenge of underdeveloped skills and falling short of my expectations (It's my feeling).

How can I effectively overcome this situation and make the maximum impact in my new role? Specifically, I need to enhance my technological proficiency, deepen my understanding of business dynamics, and integrate seamlessly into the organizational culture. What strategies should I employ to bridge this gap swiftly and justify my position within the company?