Dwayne Reeves is a Senior Staff Engineer (IC7) at Meta who is the Tech Lead of the most used programming language (Hack) at the company. He started at the company as a new grad from MIT and shared the story of how his career grew. We discussed:

• His promotions to Senior (IC5), Staff (IC6), and Senior Staff (IC7)

• The value of type systems

• Transitioning to a TLM and why he switched back

• Working with brilliant engineers and overcoming imposter syndrome

• Advice for his younger self

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:39) Joining Facebook

(04:52) Did MIT help with career?

(07:13) His first team

(10:37) Why static typing is superior

(13:17) The uncanny valley of type systems  

(16:11) Senior Eng (IC5) promotion story 

(19:24) Staff Eng (IC6) promotion story 

(23:38) Manager transition story

(28:57) Managing ICs vs EMs

(32:54) Senior staff Eng (IC7) promotion story

(35:42) Impressive ICs

(40:33) Why stay at Meta

(44:28) Advice for younger self

(45:46) Outro 

Where to find Dwayne:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwaynereeves/

Where to find Ryan:

• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/