A Glossary of Terms used with the Community on Blind

A Glossary for Blind

If you’re new to the community on Blind, we are glad that you had a chance to signup and meet other professionals at your company, in your field, and in your industry. The team knows firsthand how daunting a new community can be, especially when there isms and phrases you might not be familiar with. That’s why we put together this helpful list of abbreviations and terms that are commonly used as people talk to each other. 

AI: Artificial intelligence

AMA: Ask Me Anything – one of the event types Blind hosts where we invite specialists and industry leaders to answer questions the community has during a specific date and time. 

AWS: Amazon Web Services – a subsidiary of Amazon that offers cloud services

AMZN: Amazon 

Comp: Compensation

Dev: Development or Developer

DevOps: Development and operations. A software development process that focuses on development and operations teams understanding each other and collaborating together. DevOps teams aim for shorter development cycles, more frequent releases, and more reliable products.

Eng: Engineering

FAANG: An acronym for the five best performing tech stocks in the market (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Alphabet’s Google). Originally FANG.

FANG: An acronym for the four best performing tech stocks in the market as of 2017 (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Alphabet’s Google)

Facebook MPK: Facebook Menlo Park, the main campus for the company.

FB: Facebook

FTE: Full-Time Employee

G: Google

Google TVC: Temporary, vendor, or contractor employee at Google

Google FTE: Full-time employee at Google

H-1B/H1B: A non-immigrant visa that allows foreigners in specialty occupations to temporarily work at U.S. companies. Very popular among tech companies as this work authorization allows duel intent, meaning beneficiaries can apply for permanent residency/a green card.

H4 EAD/H-4 EAD: this is the work authorization visa for spouses and/or unmarried children of H1B holders. 

IPO: Initial public offering – The first time that the stock of a private company is offered to the public. An IPO is underwritten by one or more investment banks who assist with listing the shares on the stock exchange. IPOs are often issued by smaller or younger companies seeking capital but they can also be done by large privately-owned companies looking to become publicly traded.

ISO: Incentive stock option – A type of employee stock option that comes with a U.S. tax benefit. The options are taxed at a capital gains rate instead of the ordinary income tax rate.

LeetCode: An online platform that helps people level up their coding skills and prepare for technical interviews

MS: Microsoft

MSFT: Microsoft

MCIO: Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure and Operations

ML Engineer: Machine Learning Engineer

NDA: Non-disclosure agreement

OCI: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

OP: Original Poster – how the community refers to the user who originates/starts a post on Blind.

Oracle BMC: Oracle Bare Metal Cloud

PD: Product Designer

PIP: Performance Improvement Plan. A plan of action to give underperforming employees the opportunity to succeed while still holding them accountable for past performance.

PM: Product Manager

PMM: Product Marketing Manager

PMTS: Principal Member of Technical Staff

RFE: Request for Evidence – An inquiry issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to petitioners for green cards, citizenship, and visa applications. An RFE is made when an application is lacking required documentation or when additional evidence is needed to determine an applicant’s eligibility for the benefit sought.

RSU: Restricted stock units – Stocks that are issued to an employee through a vesting plan and distribution schedule after achieving required performance benchmarks or upon remaining with the employer for a determined length of time. RSUs have no tangible value until vesting is complete.

SDE: Software Development Engineer

SDET: Software Development Engineer in Test

SETI: Software Engineer, Tools, and Infrastructure

SIP: Shelter In Place

SRE: Site Reliability Engineer

SW: Software

SWE: Software Engineer

TC: Total Compensation – a way for community members to reference their salary plus all other parts of the compensation such as equity. This includes base salary, bonuses, stocks, benefits, and perks.

TPM: Technical Program Manager

WFH: Work from home

WLB: Work-life balance

YOE: Years of Experience – how the community summarizes how long they’ve been in the workforce, especially when speaking about compensation/job offers.