The Peterman Pod
The Peterman Pod shares transparent career stories of technical people. Hosted by an ex-Staff engineer at Instagram, it offers insights into the tech industry. Each episode features candid conversations about professional journeys and lessons learned.
Episodes
Creator of TypeScript: 10x Faster Typescript, Why AI Won't Replace SWEs | Anders Hejlsberg
Anders Hejlsberg is the creator of TypeScript and C#, and I asked him about how the TypeScript compiler got 10x faster through a rewrite in Go and his thoughts on how AI has impacted software engineering.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/• The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-er
Creator of Lean: Handwritten Math Will Change Dramatically | Leonardo de Moura
Leonardo de Moura is the creator of Lean and the Z3 theorem prover. I talked with him about how Lean works and why LLMs plus Lean will fundamentally change how we write software and do math.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/• The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beaut
Creator of Lua: Scripting, Programming Languages, Predictions | Roberto Ierusalimschy
Roberto Ierusalimschy is the creator of the Lua programming language. I interviewed him about Lua's unique strengths, programming language design and predictions for how AI will impact programming languages.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/• The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-si
Turing Award Winner: Early AI, LLM Predictions, Causality | Judea Pearl
Judea Pearl is a Turing Award winner and a pioneer in artificial intelligence and causal reasoning. We talked about how he got into science, his major breakthroughs and his predictions for AI today.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/• The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomi
Creator of OCaml: Functional Programming, Formal Verification, Programming Languages | Xavier Leroy
Xavier Leroy (creator of OCaml) is an expert in compilers, formal verification of software and functional programming. This interview should be an approachable resource if you're curious about formal verification of software since I was learning that on the fly during it.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/• The Kickstarter page for
Turing Award Winner: TPU vs GPU vs CPU, Computer Architecture, RISC vs CISC | David Patterson
David Patterson is a Turing Award winner famous for his contributions to computer architecture. I interviewed him about his past work, thoughts on GPU/TPUs and career advice from half a century of experience.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/• The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simpl
Turing Award Winner: NSA, Public Key Cryptography, Crypto Wars | Martin Hellman
Martin Hellman is a Turing Award winner who helped to invent public-key cryptography against the NSA's wishes. I interviewed him all about his work and why it broke the law at the time.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/• The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beauti
MIT Complexity Theorist: Why You Can Do Better Than “Optimal” On Leetcode & SAT | Ryan Williams
Ryan Williams is a professor at MIT and the winner of the Gödel Prize in theoretical computer science. I interviewed him all about his work starting by asking him a popular Leetcode question (3 SUM).Correction: In this podcast I say "lower bound" when I mean "upper bound" and vice versa. Was speaking using the intuition that lower is better for running time. In reality, the acc
OpenAI Eng & Dev Tools Founder: How Software Engineering Is Changing | Charlie Marsh
Charlie Marsh is the founder of Astral, the Python devtool startup that was acquired by OpenAI. I inteviewed him about how software engineering is changing and learnings from starting his own company as an engineer.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/• The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compos
Google DeepMind Pre-Training Lead: How To Land a Job at a Frontier Lab | Vlad Feinberg
Vlad Feinberg is Google DeepMind’s pre-training area lead and I asked him all about how to land a job at a frontier lab like Google DeepMind, Anthropic or OpenAI.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/• The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-donePodcast links:• Y
Co-Creator of Haskell: Functional Programming, Thinking in Types, Useless Languages | Simon Jones
Simon Peyton Jones is the co-creator of Haskell (pure functional programming language) and I interviewed him about functional programming, why it matters, and his thoughts on other programming languages.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/Podcast links:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/xcB_LF3cdqw• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/
Turing Award Winner: P vs NP, Zero-Knowledge Proofs, Quantum Computation | Avi Wigderson
Avi Wigderson is the only person in history to have won both a Turing Award (computer science) and Abel Prize (math). I interviewed him all about his field.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/Podcast links:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/5GUcvSAJcJw• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835• Transcript: http
Dropbox’s Former Most Senior Eng: Building Great Systems and Advice for the AI Era | James Cowling
James Cowling is the CTO at Convex and was previously the most senior engineer at Dropbox. We discussed technical details of his past projects, simplicity vs complexity, and career advice given where AI is today.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/Podcast links:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/3XkmNSuHFmY• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us
Creator of C++: Bell Labs, Negative Overhead Abstraction, Mistakes | Bjarne Stroustrup
Bjarne Stroustrup is the creator of the C++ programming language and a former researcher at Bell Labs. We talked about what Bell Labs was like, programming language design, and interesting anecdotes from his experience.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/U46fJ2bJ-co• Apple: https://podcasts.apple
Harvard Professor: CS50, What Matters More Than CS, Lecturing Well | David J Malan
David Malan is a Harvard professor known for turning CS50 into a popular online computer science course. We discussed the story behind CS50, how to lecture well, and how AI is changing CS education including in cheating/academic dishonesty.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/bB2o81DnKHk• Apple: h
PyTorch Eng Director: Promo Hacking, Industry Shifts, Regrets | John Myles White
John Myles White recently left his role as a director of engineering at Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) so we spoke freely about promo culture, how big tech has changed, and how his career grew.𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/aPfnP4iAIH8• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/msl-eng-director-promo-hacking-i
Turing Award Winner: Data Abstraction, Dijkstra, Distributed Systems | Barbara Liskov
Barbara Liskov is a Turing Award winner known for her work in programming languages and distributed systems. We discussed the major problems she solved in her career, stories about Dijkstra, getting rejected from Princeton because she was a woman and misc topics around her work.🔸 My keyboard Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done𝗣
Turing Award Winner: Postgres, Disagreeing with Google, Future Problems | Mike Stonebraker
Mike Stonebraker is a Turing Award winner famous for his contributions to fundamental database technologies. We discussed the story behind building Postgres, where he disagrees with Google/Amazon on databases, and what he's working on now.🔸 My keyboard Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• YouTube: https://yout
AWS Distinguished Eng: Learning From 3000 Incidents And How Engineering Is Changing | Marc Brooker
In this episode, I talked to Marc Brooker, a distinguished engineer at AWS who started there as a new grad and rose through the ranks. We discussed technical learnings from 3,000+ cloud system postmortems, how software engineering is changing with AI, how to find impactful problems and much more.🔶 My keyboard Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics
Ex-Head of Eng at Instagram: Career Regrets and Learnings | James Everingham
This is James Everingham, former head of engineering at Instagram and a veteran of the tech world with experience at Netscape. We talked about his unconventional start in the industry, learnings from every leg of his career, and regrets he has looking back.𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/VIF5Fm8NdE8• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835• Transcript:
Retired Amazon VP: How Corporate Politics Work And How To Win | Ethan Evans
Ethan Evans is a former VP at Amazon has seen pretty much every possible type of corporate politics. Now that he's retired, he could share everything he'd seen including stories about empire building, hidden politics, reorgs, senior promos and dealing with bad managers.🔸 The keyboard I'm building: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁
The Co-Creator of Kubernetes On Convincing Google, Building It, and Scaling for LLMs
This is a conversation with Brendan Burns, co-creator of Kubernetes and current technical fellow at Microsoft working on Azure. We discussed what it was like building it at Google, how he got buy-in, and what he learned along the way.🔸 My keyboard project: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/FKijpCEH9D8• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/u
Meta Hiring Lead On Behind The Scenes of Senior+ Eng Hiring
Austen McDonald is a former hiring committee member at Meta, where he led mobile hiring and conducted hundreds of interviews. In this episode, we talked about what happens behind the scenes in a hiring committee, unethical candidates, and the role referrals play.🔸 (Sponsor) Hello Interview's Website - https://www.hellointerview.com/𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/nOapM8i5jr0• Apple:
OpenAI Codex Tech Lead On How His Career Grew And How He Uses Codex | Michael Bolin
This is Michael Bolin, the tech lead for the open source Codex repository and a former distinguished engineer at Meta. We talked about his career path, how OpenAI engineers use Codex and the difference between research-led vs engineering-led company cultures.🔸 My keyboard project: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/hN5ZFzWFhhg• Apple: htt
Distinguished Eng On Stack Ranking, Competing with Bezos, Regrets | Bryan Cantrill
Bryan Cantrill was a distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems and has now founded his own company called Oxide Computer Company. We discussed his career experiences through boom/busts, what competing with Bezos was like, and career regrets.𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/qhSL-5GtmQM• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835• Transcript: https://www.dev
Turing Award Winner On Thinking Clearly, Paxos vs Raft, Working With Dijkstra | Leslie Lamport
I interviewed Leslie Lamport, a Turing Award winner known for his contributions to distributed systems and the inventor of the Paxos algorithm. We walked through the major contributions of his career for the stories behind them and what he learned along the way.🔸 My keyboard project: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/U719vQz-WFs• Apple:
Retired Netflix Engineering Director On Regrets, Video Engineering, Hiring Stories
David Ronca joined Netflix in 2007 and grew to an engineering director there. Later he joined Meta as a Director and transitioned to a Principal engineer working on video technologies. Now he's retired and was graciously willing to share his career story with us. I asked him for everything he learned in his 36 year career.𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/retired-netflix
Meta Distinguished Eng (IC9) On Influencing Engs, Failures, and Learnings
This is Adam Ernst, a Distinguished Engineer at Meta (IC9) who’s built iOS infrastructure that has impacted the entire company. We talked about how his career grew, a major failed project of his, and everything he learned growing to that level.🔸 My keyboard project link: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/YA_OYJF3Mmw• Apple: https://podca
Instagram Principal Eng (IC8) On Building IG Stories, 1 Promo Per Half, Small Teams
Ryan Olson grew from mid-level engineer (IC4) to a principal engineer (IC8) at Instagram through a series of famous projects. The most notable was when he was the lead iOS developer that built Instagram Stories. We discuss his career journey and learnings.𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/instagram-principal-eng-ic8-on-building• Spotify: Episode link from Spotify after sched
Honest Big Tech Layoff Story After 25 Year Career
In this episode, I talked to "Asian Dad Energy" an anonymous big techie who was laid off after 25 years in the industry. We discussed his layoffs experience, his early career in engineering consulting, and the realities of big tech compensation.🔸 My keyboard project link: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/8bs6KmJX4_g• Spotify: https://op
Ex-Citadel Quant and AI Researcher On Breaking In, Tech vs Finance Careers
In this episode, I talked to Nimit Sohoni, a Stanford PhD and AI Researcher at Cartesia who previously worked as a quant at Citadel. We discussed the differences between AI research and quant careers, including work-life balance and the value of a PhD in these fields. Nimit also shared what he's currently working on and offered advice for those looking to transition into AI research.𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶
Meta Senior Staff (IC7) Eng's Honest Demotion Story
In this episode, I talked to Igor, a senior staff engineer who has worked at Meta, Google, and Cruise. We discussed his experience of wanting a demotion at Meta and the challenges he faced in that process.𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/i1iBweuOQI4• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/meta-senior-staff-ic7-e
Airbnb Staff Eng on How To Not Get Stuck at Senior and Untold Rules of Calibrations
Laurent Charignon was a Staff engineer at Stripe, Airbnb, and Instagram with some experience in management as well. We discussed the unspoken rules you learn as a manager, how he transitioned, what good mentorship looks like, and advice for senior engineers who are stuck looking to grow to Staff.𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/airbnb-staff-eng-on-how-to-not-get• YouTube: h
New Grad to Principal Engineer (IC8) at Meta (Career Story)
Adrien Friggeri went from a new grad to a principal engineer (IC8) at Meta. He is the original TL who started Bento if you’re familiar with that infra at the company. He got to where he was through a series of promotions across different teams and projects. I interviewed him about everything he learned along the way𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/new-grad-to-principal-engi
Anthropic Eng Leader And Ex-Senior Director at Meta On Microsoft vs Facebook, Career Learnings
Fiona Fung currently supports the Claude Code team at Anthropic and was previously a Senior Director at Meta. She grew quickly through the ranks at Microsoft and Meta before joining Anthropic. I interviewed her about what she learned along the way.𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/anthropic-eng-leader-and-ex-senior• YouTube: https://youtu.be/b5-d8u-c99s• Apple: https://podca
Best Software Engineering Career Advice of 2025
Hi all, it's been such a fun project for me this year launching this podcast and trying my best to make the content as helpful as possibleAppreciate everyone who has taken the time to watch my videos and give feedback on how to make it betterIt wouldn't be the same without your support! Next year I plan to work hard to keep improving the content, see you in 2026𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀:00:00 - Intro00:5
Frontline Manager at Meta to Senior Director at Snapchat in 3 Years (Career Story)
Rong Yan went from a frontline manager at Meta to a Senior Director at Snapchat in 3 years. I interviewed him to ask what led to that rocketship career trajectory in management. We went over how he job hopped into his first Director role and much more.𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/frontline-manager-at-meta-to-senior• YouTube: https://youtu.be/BHlko_Mg-Jk• Apple: https://
Boris Cherny (Creator of Claude Code) On How His Career Grew
Boris Cherny is the Creator of Claude Code but few people know his full career story. I interviewed him about everything he learned growing at Meta and for insights from his time building Claude Code at Anthropic. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/boris-cherny-creator-of-claude-code• YouTube: https://youtu.be/AmdLVWMdjOk• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-pete
Instagram Senior Staff Eng (IC7) On 3 Promos Through Redefining Expectations (Career Story)
Marius Schulz grew to a Senior Staff Engineer (IC7) at Instagram by redefining expectations three times (once for each promotion). We talked through each promotion and how he did it. There were also interesting learnings from when his promotion got blocked once even though he greatly exceeded expectations.𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/instagram-senior-staff-eng-ic7-on• Y
Robinhood SWE Turned $1B+ Founder on Non-Linear Careers, Being Jaded About Promos, Startup Learnings
Jayendra Jog left Robinhood and raised $35m to start his own crypto startup (Sei Labs). Before he left, he got jaded about software engineering career ladders yet was coasting through promotions at Robinhood. I asked him about how he did that along with a bunch of questions about when to leave your job, how to raise money, and what to expect as a founder.𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• Transcript: https://www.dev
CloudKitchens CTO on Intelligence, Regrets, Steve Jobs and Travis Kalanick Stories
Brian Attwell grew to Senior Staff at Uber by age 25. After that he left Uber to join CloudKitchens (Travis Kalanick’s current startup) and quickly became the CTO after his team doubled in size every 6 months. I asked him about how he did it. He also had a bunch of interesting takes about big tech and stories about Travis Kalanick and Steve Jobs. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• Transcript: https://www.developing.
Uber Distinguished Eng On Unfair Promos, Influence, Engineering Regrets (Career Story)
Joakim Recht grew to a Distinguished Engineer at Uber and I asked him what it took to get there. We covered his full career including the project that got him promoted, what makes a great software engineer, and learnings from promo committees.𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/uber-distinguished-eng-on-unfair• YouTube: https://youtu.be/feNh_ubBAMI• Spotify: https://open.spoti
Shopify Distinguished Eng (L10) on Principal+ Engineering, Career Story, Regrets
Ilya Grigorik grew to a Distinguished Engineer (VP-level role) at Shopify and I asked him what it took to get there. We covered his full career including the behind the scenes of his startup getting acquired by Google, his growth to Director at Google, and what it means to operate like a Distinguished engineer.𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/distinguished-engineer-at-shopi
Mozilla Firefox CTO on Browser War Stories and the Path to Distinguished Engineer
Bobby Holley went from an intern to the CTO of Mozilla Firefox. I asked him about everything he learned in that process. We cover his full career including some interesting stories on living through the browser wars and advice on career growth.𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/mozilla-firefox-cto-on-browser-war• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0MX9PyeCzDhdlyRv6slwIX•
Intern to Microsoft Distinguished Engineer in 11 Promotions (Career Story)
David Fowler went from an intern to a Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft. That’s 11 different promotions all at the same company. I asked him about everything he learned by going through that process.𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/intern-to-microsoft-distinguished• YouTube: https://youtu.be/d8tRM8RJ52M• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777
Ex-Stripe CTO on What Grew His Career, Hiring Without Leetcode, Coding as a Leader (Career Story)
David Singleton was the CTO at Stripe for 7 years before he left to start /dev/agents. Prior to Stripe, he grew from a junior engineer to a VP at Google. I recently asked him about everything he knows about career growth and being an excellent engineering leader. We discussed how Stripe hired at scale without Leetcode, why he thinks all engineering leaders should write code, the book that impacted
Behind the Scenes of this Podcast So Far (25,000 Sub Special)
We hit 25,000 subscribers! 🎉🎉🎉Thanks so much to everyone who has supported my work, never thought we'd be here let alone this fastHad 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 podcastFeeling very lucky, thank you all! 🙏Also if you have any feedback for me about the show an
Meta Senior Manager (M2) on Manager Career Growth, PIPs, Amazon vs Meta | Stefan Mai
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 interest
Instagram Staff (IC6) Promo Despite 10 Team Switches in 9 Years (Career Story)
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
Amazon VP On Promotions, Getting Fired Twice, Working With Bezos | Ethan Evans
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 man
Tech Lead for Meta's Most-Used Programming Language (Promotion Story)
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 w
GoogleX Chief Scientist On Imposter Syndrome, Career Growth, Project Taste
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 studentsTimestamps:(00:00) Intro(00:
Meta Senior Staff Eng (IC7) On Zuck Stories, Rapid Career Growth, Code Machine Archetype
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 am
26 Year Old Meta Staff Eng (IC6) On Promotions, Redefining Expectations, Secret Equity Bonuses
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 stor
Instagram Principal Engineer (IC8) on Promotions, Breaking Prod, Tech Leading | Jake Bolam
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
OpenAI & Meta Distinguished Engineer (IC9) On Working With Zuck, Carmack & Career Growth | Philip Su
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) expectation
Industry Secrets We Wish We Knew Before Graduating | Staff Eng Talk @ UCLA
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 lookin
21x Hackathon Winner Turned College Dropout | Jia Chen Interview
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 re
Amazon Principal Engineer On Layoffs, Interviewing & Career Growth | Steve Huynh
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 t
Staff Engineer @ Meta by Age 25 | Evan King
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• D
Ex-Meta Staff Eng & YC Startup Cofounder | Rahul Pandey
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 @ M
28 Year Old Staff Engineer @ Google
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-l
Staff at Airbnb by Age 26 | Zach Wilson
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
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