Team Selection Q&A and Videos

I signed an offer with a company but I feel like I made the wrong choice. I have a few friends in the company (albeit not close) who say they really like the company, and the engineers I talk to during the interview seem to have the same vibe as well. However, when I look at reviews on Blind and Glassdoor, the reviews seem to say that the company is horrible - extremely poor wlb, toxic culture, poor leadership, low pay, etc.

I've tried asking questions on Blind. With Blind, you're going to get responses that are skewed pretty negatively. With Reddit, not many people know about the company.

Personally, I really like this company. I can definitely see myself being happy there. My friends have similar work-styles like mine, so I think I'd enjoy it. Normally, I'd ignore negative reviews here and there, but sheer number of negative reviews makes it pretty hard to ignore, so I don't know who to trust.

I think I am a position where I'm either getting really positive or negative views of a company. I don't know how to get a more "well-rounded" view of a company, and I'm wondering if there are any tips on how to get a more unbiased take?

Some additional questions:

1. What do you look for in the team?
2. Do you tell your manager?

Hey guys. Hope everyone is doing well. Also using AI/ML as an umbrella term throughout - feel free to correct if needed.

Into:

Senior Web Developer. Initially started from Software Development. Developed passion for Web Development and made the move. Worked my way up to Senior position. 70% backend, 30% frontend. Currently 80-90% IC, rest managerial responsibilities. 9.5 years overall. Changed companies over time. Been in various industries.

Problem:

Going back and forth about moving into AI/ML. Motivation - high interest and demand. Fear - leaving web development skills behind.

My Current Solution:

Ask reputable sources about AI/ML day to days and job responsibilities. Lots of it seems to be marketing and all that glitters is not gold.

If all checks out and my passion is rooted in evidence then I would like to take few Stanford machine learning courses online. Once fundamentals are solid would like to go for masters degree in applied machine intelligence or similar. Start looking for jobs.

Questions:

• Since this is one of my reputable sources - would you please describe a day to day/job responsibilities for an AI/ML engineer?
• Granted everything checks out - do you think going for Masters makes sense? Given that finances and time is not the problem.
• Would you say I have to leave a large portion of web development skills behind when making the move? What are some of the transferables?
• Would I have to start as an entry engineer? Do you think Masters helps here? Ultimately I would have to pass the interviews but then there is applying for the position and being considered for it afterwards.

These are all the questions I could think of. Apologize for the length, but thought it would be helpful to give context. Please feel free to include anything else you deem helpful. Much appreciated and Happy holidays.

This post is part AMA and part request for your insights.

I’m currently developing a Taro course for Q1 of 2025, focused on navigating the transition to a career in machine learning. If this topic resonates with you, I’d love to hear your thoughts:

1. What are the most pressing questions or concerns you have about making this transition?

2. What is your current role or background (e.g., Software Engineer, Data Engineer, SRE/PE, Data Scientist, etc.)?

About Me:

I’ve transitioned from Software Engineer to Data Scientist to Machine Learning Engineer over the course of my 14 year career. I’ve been an MLE for 10 years, with experience at Adobe, Twitter, Meta, and as Head of MLOps at a Series B startup.

Thank you!

Update: Thank you for all the questions, keep them coming. I put together a video with a quick outline of the process as I generally recommend it, this is a high level overview and more practical things are coming in a Taro course early next year.

I'm considering joining a new ads org, and I was wondering what working in ads was like overall since I've never worked in ads before.

A more specific question: There's a lot of competition in the online ads space nowadays - Will that make ads orgs more prone to layoffs as they find trouble gaining traction in this crowded market?

I started working at Shopify in the product side. It's backend API development focused with some full stack elements. However with AI popping up everywhere, I get the feeling that to be employable in the future, I need to get a job as an AI engineer or work on a team that focuses on it. With Shopify heavily relying on rails as well which is seen as an older framework, I don't know if I'll have a competitive edge in the future.

I'm currently interviewing with several quant firms for a software engineering position. From a college student's perspective, the general perception seems to be that quant firms are more prestigious than big tech since the pay is so high (and how much harder it is to get into). However, I'm wondering how people in the tech industry view quant firms? Do tech recruiters even know what Citadel, Jane Street or Hudson River Trading are (and what about the smaller firms)? If so, what do tech recruiters think of them?

I'm also in the process with startups that'd be considered rocket ship startups. Think of companies like Databricks, Applied Intuition and Scale AI. Fingers crossed that I'll get offers from both quant firms and these startups. Supposing that I get offers from both, which one should I choose? What factors should I consider?

I joined Meta very recently, so I'm in bootcamp. However, the company just announced a mass hiring freeze, so teams aren't taking in bootcampers at all effectively (there are very few exceptions). It's not clear when this freeze will end. Teams are still giving bootcampers tasks as they understand that we're pretty much "free" labor.

This is such a weird situation, and I feel like I'm spinning my wheels. I like Meta as a company a lot, but I'm unsure how to make the best of this situation. Any advice?

Hey folks,

I’ve been on my current team for almost 1.5 years now. My hope is to get a promotion sometime this year which might require a higher performance review (Exceeds Expectations). But if I get an average performance review (Meets All), does it make sense for me to roll the dice and switch to a different team in the hopes of faster growth there?

I know there are significant costs to switching teams, and I want to make a well-informed decision if I do decide to switch teams internally.

I received a verbal offer from Meta for the Android role and I'm in a team matching phase. Recently team matching has been a lot of struggle and could take weeks or maybe months. Last year a lot of hiring managers posted on LinkedIn about hiring for roles and I did exchange a conversation with them. Is it wise to ask the hiring manager on LinkedIn about open roles in their org and then telling my recruiter about it or I should go with a team that the recruiter helps me to connect with?

Hey everyone!

I just passed all my Meta interviews for E4 in infra! and now I am onto team matching!
However, my recruiter wants me to try out for the monetization/ads org, but I've heard a lot of bad rumors about that org, notably that work life balance is awful and stress is really high. (Blind seems to especially dislike it haha)

Does anyone have real experience with that org here? Are the rumors true?

I don't mind a little bit of extra stress and doing some overtime from time to time as long as it's not overtaking my personal life.
For instance at Amazon (Gen AI) there were months where I was doing 80h+ per week non stop and that's the number one reason why I would like to leave tbh.

This is only the fast track option that my recruiter is offering me tho, I might still be able to get into the normal team matching pipeline afterwards too.

Anyways, thanks in advance! :)

I am currently on a team where I am assigned to work on a different area of the product(s) in each quarter as per the priorities of the leadership for that quarter. This has resulted in me gaining a good full-stack overview but not much depth on any specific components/technologies. I've been on this team for around 18 months right out of college but 80% of the technical work I've delivered till now has just been pattern-matching based on the existing code and infrastructure, although the outcomes have been impactful for the business. I feel like I'm not learning anything technically significant beyond company/product-specific knowledge which are not transferable to other companies. When I check out job postings from other companies for my level of experience, there always seems to be a focus on having expertise in some technology, which I can't confidently claim. This brings me to the following questions:

1. Should I stay at my current company? My career growth prospects seem great here as I have a very good reputation in my team and sibling teams, and have gotten very good feedback and visibility from managers and seniors. I also work as the lead developer for a legacy product which is not that robust and has hard-to-reproduce customer bugs, but the leadership has taken a renewed interest in adding new features to it, resulting in more potential scope for me. The main downside is low technical-learning as mentioned above, and I've heard this same remark being mentioned by senior engineers who have joined from other companies as well.

2. If I decide to switch companies, how do I bridge the lack of technical expertise that's expected for my level? When a recruiter views my resume, the technologies that I've used at work and as part of side-projects are all over the place, without a clear specialization. Although I'm confident that I can pick up these stacks without trouble on the job if needed, I feel underconfident in them in an interview setting.

I have the option to choose between iOS and Android when I start my job. I have minimal experience in each so I don't have a strong preference.

Which platform would be better for my career in the US? Is demand for iOS engineers higher because iOS users typically pay more? Or does platform not really matter much?

I'm not from a strong coding background, learning Java (just to know a JVM language first) for the first time. Worked in IT industry for 4 years now in Infrastructure.

What path can I follow to land a job in a big tech (I'm also from a foreigner country) in the role that I aim to, even if it's to become a Junior or entry-level SWE?

Don't really care about decrease in pay.