Afleveringen
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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
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.developing.dev -
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
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.developing.dev -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Ricky (Google Engineering Manager) and I were recently invited to give a talk at UCLA for the UPE/ACM clubs. We wanted to share the industry secrets that college didn’t teach us about the tech industry, career growth, and more.
Students were able to submit questions in advance that we prepared slides for. We received a bunch of interesting questions that should be helpful to any college kids looking to get into tech. You can look at the timestamps below to jump to whatever questions you’re most interested in.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(01:47) Primer on SWE levels
(06:12) How to succeed as an intern?
(09:13) How did you get promoted quickly?
(11:36) How much of success is luck?
(13:32) If you had one piece of advice, what would it be?
(16:11) What if I’m not a gigachad coder?
(19:12) How to handle imposter syndrome?
(21:36) How to advocate for yourself?
(24:20) Big tech vs startups for new grads?
(30:28) How do people measure impact?
(32:17) Would an MBA help for eng management?
(33:45) How was college recruiting?
(36:10) How do you make as much money as possible?
(38:00) Parting words
(40:10) What are your current goals?
(42:02) Thoughts on job hopping?
(45:49) What Ricky works on?
(46:06) Thoughts on how AI affects engineering?
Thank you to Jordan Nguyen (ACM), Ashley Cheng (UPE), and Lune Chan (Videography) for hosting and helping produce this event!!
Where to find Ricky:
• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@findingricky
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/findingricky
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
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.developing.dev -
Jia Chen is a 21 year old that won 21x hackathons and co-founded her own startup, all while being a content creator. She’s worked hard to succeed in tech despite attending a non-target school, and has recently dropped out to work on her startup, Sprint.dev.
We discuss:
• Winning hackathon strategies
• How to stand out as a college student
• Content creation
• Dropping out to build a startup
• College reflections and advice
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(00:55) Getting into hackathons
(04:10) Hackathon strategy
(15:20) Developing agency & time management
(19:27) Standing out at a non-target school
(20:19) Is college useful?
(24:28) Personal brand
(26:25) Dropping out to build a startup
(32:32) Advice to younger self
Where to find Jia:
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jia.seed/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-chen-tech/
• Startup (Sprint.dev): https://www.sprint.dev/
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
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.developing.dev -
Steve Huynh became a software engineer at Amazon with a Liberal Arts degree. He started as a Support Engineer and eventually became a Principal Engineer (top ~1% at Amazon) before starting his own career growth YouTube channel, A Life Engineered.
We discuss:
• Why most interview prep advice is garbage
• Why most people don’t become Principal Engineers
• Amazon’s performance-based layoff culture
• How to avoid being laid off
• Regrets & advice for his younger self
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(00:37) Transitioning from liberal arts to tech
(06:31) Becoming a software development engineer
(17:37) Breaking into the tech industry today
(22:56) Future of software engineering with AI
(26:06) SDE1 → SDE3 promos
(33:11) Perf-based Layoffs at Amazon
(46:22) His Principal promotion project
(59:53) Best parts of Amazon's culture
(1:05:22) His best and worst managers among 20+
(1:09:09) Career reflections
Where to find Steve:
• Newsletter: https://alifeengineered.substack.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ALifeEngineered
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/a-life-engineered/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alifeengineered/
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
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.developing.dev -
Evan King went from Junior (IC3) to Staff (IC6) at Meta 3 years out of college. After that he quit FAANG to start a few companies that were each acquired. In this conversation we go over his career growth, his transition to startups and what he learned along the way.
We discuss:
• What got him promoted to Staff in 3 years
• What stands out in Meta’s culture
• Creating and leading a new team at IC5
• Differences between big tech and startups
• Regrets looking back
• Advice for his younger self
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(01:28) Getting into programming
(09:34) Leetcode
(15:45) Picking his first team
(22:00) P*nis story
(25:13) Mid-level promo
(29:03) How to ship code fast
(35:28) Senior promo
(52:45) Staff promo
(1:12:02) Meta impact culture
(1:13:16) On being a tech lead
(1:16:46) Influence without authority
(1:19:29) Management vs Eng
(1:26:46) Why leave Meta
(1:36:25) Technical learning (big tech vs startups)
(1:40:26) When to build a startup
(1:44:27) How much he worked
(1:49:02) Biggest career regret
(1:51:54) Advice for new grads & past self
Where to find Evan:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-king-40072280/• His Company: https://www.hellointerview.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
Referenced:
• Evan's post on Substack: https://www.developing.dev/p/new-grad-to-staff-at-meta-in-3-years
• Ryan’s eng blog for Meta (part of IC6 promo): https://engineering.fb.com/2022/11/04/video-engineering/instagram-video-processing-encoding-reduction/
• Meta’s graph database, Tao: https://engineering.fb.com/2013/06/25/core-infra/tao-the-power-of-the-graph/
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.developing.dev -
Rahul Pandey (@rpandey1234) grew to Staff at Meta through a few interesting legs of his career:
• Stanford to Startup - He joined a startup that one of his professors was starting right out of college. This startup was acquired within a year by Pinterest.
• Junior to Mid-level @ Pinterest - His promotion was rejected twice. He appealed the second rejection and got the promotion.
• Senior to Staff @ Meta - He interviewed for Senior at Meta and got a promotion through job hopping. From there, he worked towards his Staff promotion and got it.
After getting to Staff at Meta, he started his own YCombinator-funded startup, Taro. In our conversation we cover:
• What got him promoted to Staff at Meta
• Joining startups and “two-way doors”
• How his promotion was rejected twice and he appealed successfully
• When job hopping is good and when it is bad
• What real networking looks like
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Where to find Rahul:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpandey1234/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RahulPandeyrkp
• Twitter: https://x.com/rpandey1234
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rpandey1234/
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: instagram.com/ryanlpeterman
In this episode, we cover:
00:00 – Intro
1:12 – Stanford to Startup
12:25 – Jr to Mid-level at Pinterest
30:20 – Senior to Staff at Meta
45:12 – Management (TLM) at Meta
53:40 – Leaving Meta to create a startup
1:05:32 – Career reflections
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.developing.dev -
Ricky (@findingricky) went from Junior (IC3) to Staff (IC6) at Google by 28. He doesn’t consider himself the best engineer, instead crediting his blend of technical and soft skills for his ability to land promotions quickly. In our conversation, we discuss:
• Managing your manager
• Finding good projects (and rejecting bad ones)
• Imposter syndrome
• Switching from IC to engineering management
• Work-life balance
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Where to find Ricky:
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/@findingricky
• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@findingricky
Where to find Ryan:
• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/
• X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman
• Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/@ryanlpeterman
In this episode, we cover:
00:00 – Intro
01:08 – Promotion timeline
02:34 – Junior to Mid-level
04:24 – Finding independence
10:39 – Mid-level to Senior
11:20 – Learning how to say no
17:26 – Senior to Staff
20:18 – Finding next-level work
23:42 – Transitioning to management
33:46 – Reflections
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.developing.dev -
Zach Wilson is an engineer who grew to Staff (IC6) at Airbnb by age 26. He worked at Meta, Netflix, Airbnb and more recently has started his own company. In our conversation, we discuss:
• His promotion from Junior (IC3) to Mid-level (IC4) at Meta
• What blocked his promotion to Senior (IC5) at Meta
• Job hopping to Senior at Netflix instead
• Burning out at Netflix when given Staff scope
• Negotiating Staff at Airbnb
• Regrets & learnings
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Where to find Zach Wilson:
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/eczachly/
• X: https://x.com/EcZachly
• Threads: https://www.threads.net/@eczachly
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eczachly/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EcZachly_
• Newsletter: https://blog.dataengineer.io/
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
In this episode, we cover:
00:27 Introducing Zach Wilson
03:14 Landing a Job at Facebook
06:33 Choosing the Right Team at Facebook
07:28 IC3 to IC4 at Meta
13:54 Trying for IC5 at Meta
23:49 Getting hired as an IC5 at Netflix
39:49 Negotiating IC6 at Airbnb
52:09 Building internal brand when job hopping
56:55 Reflection & learnings
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.developing.dev
