We hit 25,000 subscribers! 🎉🎉🎉

Thanks so much to everyone who has supported my work, never thought we'd be here let alone this fast

Had some spare studio time booked and figured I might as well use it as time for an FAQ episode. This episode is for anyone whose curious about some of the story behind the podcast

Feeling very lucky, thank you all! 🙏

Also if you have any feedback for me about the show and how to make it better, I'd love to hear it. Feel free to drop a comment

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:58) Story behind the podcast

(05:30) Behind the scenes of the top episodes

(10:06) Dream guest list

(12:03) Learnings from podcasting

(13:10) Balancing content with a full time job

(14:28) Outro

Stefan Mai was a Senior Manager (M2) with experience across Meta and Amazon. We went over his career story in growing to M2 which is equivalent to Senior Staff (IC7) in big tech. Since he started his own company now, he was happy to be fully transparent about the behind the scenes of managing in big tech.

Since he founded the interview prep company, Hello Interview, I also thought it’d be interesting to talk about trends he’s seeing in AI cheating tools and how to get offers at OpenAI/Anthropic. We discussed:

• Meta Senior Manager (M2) career growth story

• Amazon vs Meta culture

• Which company had stronger engineers

• How low performer quotas & PIPs work

• Eng vs manager career growth

• Transitioning to AI/ML as an eng

• Getting offers at OpenAI and Anthropic

• Advice for his younger self

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:59) Early career at Amazon

(05:46) Growth to eng manager at Amazon

(11:31) Storytelling tips

(16:28) Why he left Amazon

(22:59) Transitioning to AI/ML

(27:01) Senior manager (M2) promo story at Meta

(31:30) Mutiny and manager politics

(40:34) Are managers harder to layoff?

(49:50) Senior manager (M2) skill gaps

(53:21) Eng vs manager career growth

(56:27) Amazon vs Meta culture

(01:00:34) Amazon vs Meta performance

(01:05:24) Low performer quotas

(01:08:55) Can you get out of a PIP?

(01:12:23) AI interview cheating

(01:16:42) Passing OpenAI & Anthropic interviews

(01:18:33) Job hopping

(01:22:37) When he grew the most

(01:24:22) How to write better

(01:26:22) Career motivations past M2

(01:28:11) Advice for younger self

Where to find Stefan:

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

• His company: https://www.hellointerview.com/

Where to find Ryan:

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

• 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

Sash Zats grew to be a Staff Engineer (IC6) at IG despite switching teams 10 times in 9 years. His career journey was a series of jumps to exciting projects and letting career growth happen as a byproduct. I interviewed him to show you how team switches can play out.

We discussed:

• How 10 team switches in 9 years affected his career

• The story behind the Instagram blockchain initiative

• His 2 diff in 6 month performance review

• What working on Instagram Threads was like pre-launch

• The value of prototyping

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:49) First team: iOS on Newsfeed Delight

(05:30) What makes a good designer partner?

(08:30) Joining a hardware team

(12:08) 2 diffs in 6 months

(15:03) Joining the Instagram blockchain team

(21:37) Joining Instagram Threads pre-launch

(28:53) Working with an exceptional engineer (Peter)

(33:02) Working on AI prototyping teams

(37:15) Reflecting on team switching’s impact on career growth

(44:35) Why leave Meta

(46:15) Advice for younger self

(47:53) Outro

Where to find Sash:

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

• X/Twitter: https://x.com/zats

Where to find Ryan:

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

• 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

Ethan Evans went from being fired twice because of poor soft skills to getting promoted to Vice President at Amazon with a team of over 800 engineers. I asked him about everything he learned along the way.

We discussed:

• Being fired for poor soft skills

• What VP promotions look like

• Working with Jeff Bezos and Andy Jassy (current Amazon CEO)

• VP performance reviews

• Stack ranking, PIPs and how managers can fire anyone

• Advice for his younger self

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(01:01) Experience before Amazon

(05:03) Getting fired twice & learnings

(14:02) Joining Amazon

(16:02) What VP promotions look like

(26:03) Promotion failure story

(29:14) Integrating Twitch into Amazon

(33:48) Jeff Bezos vs Andy Jassy stories

(36:53) VP performance reviews

(41:10) Stack ranking & PIPs

(46:11) A manager can fire anyone they want

(50:45) Advice for his younger self

(53:03) Outro

Where to find Ethan:

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

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

• Newsletter: https://levelupwithethanevans.substack.com/

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-BAdkBGjOIlccGLZ3jbLiA

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/

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/

Carey Nachenberg was a Chief Scientist at a GoogleX moonshot, a Fellow (senior most eng at Symantec) and a professor at UCLA. I interviewed him about his career story and we discussed:

• Story behind his growth to IC10 (VP equivalent)

• How high-level IC recruiting works

• How imposter syndrome held him back

• How to develop “project taste”

• How AI is affecting his students

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:54) Growth to Fellow at Symantec 

(13:13) The most complex malware

(16:13) Why C was faster than assembly

(17:17) Imposter syndrome

(21:28) What matters more than intelligence

(28:03) Experience at GoogleX

(34:24) Leaving GoogleX

(37:43) Experience at Lyft

(43:40) Getting credit on collaborative projects

(46:53) Becoming a professor at UCLA

(49:13) How to speak well

(53:23) How AI affected his students

(1:03:53) Career regrets

(1:07:16) Finding work you enjoy

(1:09:03) Advice for younger self

(1:11:04) Outro

Where to find Carey:

•  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carey-nachenberg-14bbb03/

Where to find Ryan:

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

• 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

Michael Novati got promoted to Senior Staff (IC7) Eng at Facebook by the age of 27. He did it while the company was still called Facebook so he had a bunch of interesting pre-IPO stories. In our conversation, we discussed:

• Growth to Senior Staff (IC7) by 27

• Being the #1 code committer at Meta

• Volunteering to resign if his code broke prod

• Stories of working with Zuck pre-IPO

• What was common among IC7+ engineers

• How LLMs will affect the code machine archetype

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:46) Joining Facebook

(10:26) Facebook IPO experience

(16:30) His internal newsletter

(24:26) Working with Zuck

(29:50) Engs that impressed him

(36:20) Will LLMs kill coding machines?

(47:20) Operating as an IC7

(1:10:30) IC7+ only group

(1:12:55) Landing code faster

(1:18:29) Why he left Meta

(1:20:52) IC7+ talent

(1:24:28) Advice for younger self

(1:25:58) Outro

Where to find Michael:

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

Where to find Ryan:

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

• 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

Simon Kindström is a Staff Software Eng (IC6) at Instagram who joined the company as a new grad and got promoted every year. He also achieved the highest ratings ("Redefines Expectations") twice which is almost unheard of. He shared stories about his high performance including what it's like to receive secret equity bonuses.

In this episode, we discuss:

• His promotions to Staff in 3 years

• The story behind his "Redefines Expectations" ratings

• What it's like to receive performance-based equity bonuses

• His transition to management

• Why he switched from management

• Advice for his younger self

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:34) Staff promotions in 3 years

(10:32) “Redefines” expectations ratings

(20:01) Redefining expectations without promotion?

(29:55) Staff promotion story

(41:00) Transitioning to and from management

(54:50) Secret equity bonuses

(58:14) The best interns

(1:07:50) Where most of his growth came from

(1:12:04) What keeps him at Meta

(1:15:20) Advice to his younger self

(1:17:05) Outro

Where to find Simon:

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

Where to find Ryan:

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

Jake Bolam grew from Staff Eng (IC6) to Principal Eng (IC8) at Instagram. He had some hot takes about diff reviews and risk (he accepts diffs that’ll break prod). He also shared interesting stories about his promotions as well as many tips on how to have IC8 impact with a solid work life balance.

We discuss:

• Struggling initially at Facebook

• His promotions from IC6 -> IC8

• Accepting diffs that break prod

• Systems for reasonable work life balance at IC8 

• His note taking system in VSCode

• Advice for his younger self

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:50) His rough onboarding to Facebook product team

(04:32) Switching to Instagram 

(06:39) What IC7 scope looks like

(09:48) Thoughts on management

(10:32) Why he always makes time for others

(13:31) His IC7 & IC8 stories

(20:54) Swapping out infra for 1000s of engs

(22:37) Work life balance tips (IC6 -> IC8) 

(27:26) Diffs reviews & risk 

(36:07) Being a good tech lead 

(42:12) Taking notes in VSCode

(47:03) Advice for his younger self

(49:54) Outro

Where to find Jake:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakebolam/• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@theregularbuiltozzy

Where to find Ryan:

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

• X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

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

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

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

Philip Su grew to Distinguished Engineer (IC9) at Meta and OpenAI. He has a bunch of interesting stories about working with people like Zuck and John Carmack as well as a ton of advice for software engineers. I was really looking forward to chatting with him and enjoyed this conversation a lot. I hope you find it helpful!

In this conversation, we discussed:

• What Distinguished Eng (IC9) expectations look like

• How he got promoted to IC9

• Working with impressive engineers like John Carmack

• What made Zuck and Boz special as coworkers

• Learnings from switching between IC and EM 6x

• Why he joined OpenAI

• Advice for his younger self

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(01:02) Growing to Senior Staff (IC7) at Microsoft

(06:38) Management vs IC transitions

(17:32) Demotion from IC9 to IC7 at Meta

(20:28) IC7, IC8, and IC9 expectations

(28:58) IC9 promo story

(31:30) Building a strong eng team culture

(36:16) Working with Zuck + Meta CTO

(38:57) Working with John Carmack and other impressive ICs

(41:44) Buying $23000 of coffee in a day

(45:35) Why leave Facebook

(49:25) Joining OpenAI

(55:38) Writing well as a software engineer

(1:03:00) Does software eng performance decline as you age?

(1:07:00) Building credibility as a young manager

(1:10:25) Should you be a generalist or a specialist?

(1:12:43) Advice for his younger self

Where to find Philip:

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

• Peak Salvation podcast he referenced: https://peaksalvation.com/

Where to find Ryan:

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

• X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

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

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

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