For folks involved in hiring with Google: realistically, how many YoE a candidate should have in order to be considered for an L5 position? Background about myself - I joined Facebook after college. 3.5 YoE total - 0.5 as a 3, 1.5 as a 4 and 1.5 as a 5. I do have L5 work and my manager gives me a clear path to get 6 soon. I interviewed at Google 2 years ago, when I was L4 at FB and was offered a L3 position. I did pretty well in the interviews i think. Recruiter said G would never offer L4 for someone with 2 years of experience. I’m considering a change, and I know that promotions at FB are much easier than at G, but do I even have a chance if I’m aiming at L5? Or should I wait a year or two? TC: 325k
It would be really hard to get an L5 offer with 3.5 YOE, even if those YOE was at FB. Might just be straight impossible. If leveling/promotions are your goals, probably not wise to move to Google.
You are uplevelled at Facebook. Realistically you would never be that same level anywhere else
Dude. There are ppl at google who got hired as L3 at 30 years old.. and L4 at 45 years old.. and you’re asking to get L5 at 25 years old? Fuck me
Not everyone has to have the same path.
Entitlement
You will need to be E7 at fb to get L5 at G for that low yoe. How fast can you get there?
lol
L5 is around 10yoe for external hires I think. Google seniors are amazing engineers - you might not get that title.
0% chance. They wouldn't consider me for an L5 loop with 6 YoE as an L6 at Amazon; the recruiter went out of his way to tell me this in order to "temper my expectations." I went to FB as an E5 instead...and frankly, I think it's a slight downlevel from Amazon's L6 in terms of scope. This feels more like an SDE2.5 or 2.75 role, and you can bet Google isn't going to see it any differently (but I took this job pretty strictly for the money anyhow).
Do you have a PhD? That would make getting an L5 loop easy. Otherwise wait 1 or 1.5 years more and you should be good to go. Btw, you can reach out to a recruiter right away and ask them if they'll consider you for an L5 loop. You never know
No PhD :(
offered L5 with around 8.5 YoE
For internal hires going to L5 takes at minimum 3.5 years. Promo to L4 in 1-1.5 year straight out of college and then 2 years to L5. But for external hires Google will not even think for L5 with less than 6-7 YOE.
That is a lie. Not possible unless they were external hire and highly underleveled.
You’re doing incredibly well and have a path to E6. What makes you to think about a change?
I’m not loving working at FB. Career and comp wise it’s been good, but not so good for my mental health