E4 to E5
How hard is it to move to the next level? May is about to end, should I ask my manager about my promotion chances or is it too soon. I have received very positive feedback throughout this half. By the way this is my first review. So, realistically I am expecting that if I start this half, I might get promoted in H2 or H1 2019.
Damn how'd you get to e6? What stack / projects did you work on?
I worked on Messenger for 2 years then on Platform for 2 years. I don’t really think the tech stack matters but I did mostly www. The key is to figure out how to influence the direction of the team / org. At FB it is easy to get stuck in a rut where you are just following, trying to find easy wins to get you EE in the next cycle. I made the biggest gains when I found shit that everyone knew was a problem but no one wanted tackle it because it wasn’t already one of our goals. So my PSCs changed from like “I moved metric X by 20%” to “I identified problem Y and convinced John to work on it with me and we bumped it by 20%”.
I also realize this is way easier said than done and big bets involve big risk. So my other bit of advice is be patient and realize the growth takes some time. This is particularly pertinent to new grads who are usually super smart and extremely motivated and haven’t had to struggle with much before they joined FB. Your career is a marathon, make sure you don’t burn out early.
@Satya, How long it took you to move from E4 to E6? I joined as E4 almost year back and moved to E5 in my first half. Now targeting for E6. I am not sure this cycle is right time as I promoted in last cycle only. May be the next one. As for as from work and performance perspective, I am doing the same thing you did :). I identified problems, made them as projects and convinced people to work on them and even convinced my manager to hire people for that work as we didn’t have enough resources. I am leading the effort in executing them.
5 to 6 was definitely the slowest promo for me. I think I was a 5 for 2 years. I also felt the trailing promo policy the most at this point. I got two GEs at 5 before my promo and my manager was discussing my goals and expectations as though I was already a 6 well before I was officially promoted. If you are getting good reviews, don’t rush it too much because you can make more money as a 5 with GEs than as a 6 with MA plus there is a bit more margin for error.
He UI on this app is terrible. ^ this was supposed to be a reply to @gamer1
IMO there is also an easy path to E6 which is just start talking about how you want to be an eng manager. FB does not do cross track promos (E5 to M1) and they generally avoid making people M0 because it is a shit role. But they are desperate for good eng managers, so if it aligns with your goals and interests this can be a good way to advance your career. You can also switch back to being an IC after doing the manager thing for a bit. People that do this are often wildly successful because they have good people skills and tons of connections to take on broad scope projects.
Yes, ask your manager. E4 is not a terminal level at FB so you literally need to get to E5. If you aren’t talking about your plan to get there with your manager you are wasting your time in 1 on 1s. There is no advantage to being reserved or polite about this. Put yourself out there, tell people what you want, ask for hard feedback and reflect on it, get out of your comfort zone. Sauce: used to work at FB and got promoted from E3 to E6 while I was there
Yes, this is something which I know I should do but doesn't come naturally to me. I will definitely bring this up in my next 1 on 1.
Pushing yourself to do that will be the first step to E5. Here is some advice from a FB VP: https://medium.com/@mrabkin/the-art-of-the-awkward-1-1-f4e1dcbd1c5c?source=linkShare-96cdf40ce35b-1526854355