Compensation is the biggest pro. Also, unlike other hire to fire companies (most tech companies at this point in 2024), you at least have a chance to prove yourself and are given a couple months to onboard. There are worse tech companies out there such as Amazon and Intuit, but Meta’s culture is still quite terrible. They try and justify the long hours and stress with how much you can make - Meta still pays more than any other major tech company, even in 2024, which is definitely a pro, but the culture is cutthroat and you can’t trust anyone. It would probably be easier to work two remote jobs at “less prestigious” tech or tech adjacent companies to make the same amount at Meta with more stability, better WLB, and less drama.
Pretty much the same as what one would experience at most tech companies in 2024. But some aspects are better or worse than others. Long hours. WLB is highly team dependent. Apparently Meta used to be a lot better in this regard, but now not so much. It is intense, but if you have startup experience, it is at least less intense than that. And again, it is more fair than a place like Amazon. Office politics are a thing at all tech companies, but a little more extreme at Meta. Blame and shame culture is big. People are snakes and are prepared to throw even the newest and most vulnerable employees under the bus to save their own skins. This makes things quite unfair, but as long as you’re proactive and document everything thoroughly, you’re at least given a chance to refute these attacks. A lot of gossip and backstabbing. This is separate from and still related to PSC culture, which everyone complains about. Management is terrible overall. Sometimes there is micromanagement. One of the few companies where it’s possible you’ll have a manager younger than you, even if you’re only 27-31ish. Often ICs seem to be held accountable for things that are way beyond their day-to-day scope - basically things that are ultimately the fault of leadership and management. Management frequently tries to pin things on their employees. Your manager is often trying to screw you, and if they can’t find a way, they are often trying to invent things you did wrong. This isn’t a dealbreaker because as long as you’re doing your job, it is easy to refute, but it creates a ton of work because you have to be extremely well-organized and have documented every interaction with your manager colleagues. I recommend studying employment law / consulting with an employment lawyer early on in your tenure at Meta, so you know what to look for. Because it is a massive tech company, you are there to please your manager and make them look good, so you need to do pretty much whatever they say. there’s a lot of internal conflict because it’s very authoritarian, also fairly draconian, and it’s bottoms up at the same time, every man for themselves. Do everything your manager says and it is somehow still all up to you as an individual employee to make the company successful. To top it all off, your colleagues suck too. People brag about work that YOU did as being THEIR work that THEY did if it is successful. If a project involving multiple people is so much as an hour late, then YOU are blamed, even if you had nothing to do with the lateness. The lateness itself isn’t really the problem because guess what? It’s not anything is broken. Except for when things do break and the whole app crashes for a day because everyone is forced to focus on office politics instead of their actual work. it’s not really about the value you create, so much as it is the PERCEIVED value you create and whether or not your manager likes you. Ergo, a lot of bootlicking charlatans make it to the top.
In bay area, manager position. 11 yoe. Facebook: 570K annual +100k signon soon to IPO company: 710k + 50 signon Both areas are interesting and fun.
How much did engineers who joined fb in 2008 get as grants? What would their present value be? Similarly for those who joined in 2012 at the bottom?
Things are pretty messy in the economy and about to get even more ugly. I don’t think financials are looking great for the company. Wait for an earnings shock for all ads related companies. Snap, Goog, FB … all going to fall. For FB employees who are in denial - did you see the drop coming from 3...Read more
Got verbal offer confirmation for E4 (down leveled from E5) Facebook London as Backend SWE. I am holding another offer from well-renowned mid sized profitable Indian startup planning to go IPO in US stock market very soon. Due to my current personal life requirements, I would prefer decent work li...Read more
Which companies among Ramp, Vanta, Brex, Retool and Meta would you suggest for a new grad who is looking for fast career growth, learning and maximizing TC (in the long-term)? Just for clarification, factors that don't matter to me at the moment: - wlb - prestige/ brand value Currently, only have ...Read more
Meta offer: android ic4 160k base 330k stock 10% bonus 65k signing Tc: $323.5k year 0 Current role: senior backend @ fast growing fintech 138k base 20% bonus Stock that could be worth 150-250k+ But i am probably close to a promotion to next ic level in the next 6 months Ipo probably in 18 months...Read more
IPO was in 2012 at $38. Seems very likely it would touch or drop below that. The question is when? Bonus question: comment where will the drop stop? TC 350k and dropping
(Posting on behalf of my friend for career advice) Yoe 3 years as a data scientist in a very small startup and took up a ton of SE work at that time. Trained LC and got the following offers in Canada: 1. In a pre-IPO as a ML engineer: 160k base + 100k RSU 2. In Amazon as a SDE I: 145k base + 65...Read more
Backend eng L5 (senior) working at meta, TC is 280k (190k base + 70k annual stock value + ~20k bonus). TC is far below what I want it to be. My WLB is great though and the job doesn’t take too much effort. I started looking for other jobs in hopes of making 40-50% more in exchange for working a litt...Read more
What would be best for me long term? I'm going to go to a new company soon. My choices are pre ipo companies, like Uber, lyft, airbnb, ect. Or to be l3 at Google or Facebook. 1.5 yoe, TC 140k Edit: I'm also unhappy where I am. I'm not sure if it's a "grass is greener" scenario, but I feel like I ...Read more
L4 SWE with 4yoe working on search front end. Looking to move in 6 months or so to FB E5 or similar level at other companies. What have folks done in the past to facilitate this kind of move? Which companies? How did you prep? TC 350
Currently deciding between two new grad data scientist offers: one is an internship conversion offer from FB, and the other is from a startup that appears very likely to IPO within the next 1-2.5 years. Any advice on where to begin a data science career (FAANG vs. startup), compensation factors asid...Read more
What do they do when you have a competing offer where the salary is 120k higher than salary+bonus band?
Currently at a late stage Series I company that is about to go public in the next 2 years. This is my first tech job and I've been working as an SWE(Mobile) there for a year. Over the next year, our company is growing by 50%, and as time goes on my manager has told me that I'll likely be fast tracke...Read more
TC = Total Compensation RSU = Restricted Stock Units RTO = Return To Office IPO = Initial Public Offering PTO = Paid Time Off LC = Leetcode WFH = Work From Home PIP= Performance improvement plan YOE=Years of experience You can add yours and it’s meaning PS: This is a meta post to help people ne...Read more
15 years ago, everyone wanted to join Google and Facebook as they were the next cool thing. However, FAANG companies have hired everyone and their mom over the past decade that it's not considered "wow" or anything to work there anymore. Where did the smartest/most ambitious people you know go? Sti...Read more
AI - Artificial Intelligence AMZN - Amazon AWS - Amazon Web Services BI - Business Intelligence BIE - BI Engineer BS - Bachelor of Science or bullshit DE - Data Engineer DS - Data Scientist EE - Electrical Engineering or Enterprise Engineering EM - Engineering Manager FANG - Facebook, Amazon, Netfli...Read more