Obviously I know one is an IC role and the other is management. Assuming you’re good at and have experience at both why would someone want to go for E6 given M1’s life at Meta is much better than E6 in terms of wlb. The pay is the same I assume. Thoughts?
E6 role is generally safer and more in your control E6 role is more fun (at least for those that prefer tech than people) E6s generally have more influence and respect in the company E6 have much more growth prospect as there is no cap in IC7s (depends solely on you) whereas for M2s you are dependent on having one of the M2s around you leaving the company or getting promoted to open the role. There will also be more politics as many M1s will be trying to get that M2 role
What is the expectation in terms of coding on the job? I was invited for e7 interviews before the layoffs took place but I dropped the ball. Is it safer to join as e6 (provided you clear the interviews of course) than e7? I’ve 25 yoe and at e7 equivalent here. I heard interviews get slightly easier at e7 as they’re more domain focused. I worry about the speed required in the coding interviews. E7 has only 1 round. Got 6 yrs of experience in AI with significant open source contributions made a few yrs ago.
E7 expectations are crazy high. If you are not confident I would come in as IC6 and work your way up (could take multiple years though). I've seen multiple people coming in from outside and struggling and the sad part is there is no demotion. So you either meet our you are out. IC7 expectations are to work at Org level problems (generally spamming across multiple teams or incredibly hard so that no one else can) and deliver transformational level of impact. If you até a TL type you will be responsible for the success of 3 to 5 teams. If you are a codemachine you will need to produce as much impact as 3 or 4 normal IC6s. If you are product hybrid you need to he as good as a very senior PM. As for coding. It is not a strict requirement but they are more and more trying to ensure IC7s do IC work (coding, reviewing diffs, data analysis, writing truly meaningful documents, other ways of ic work). Coding is the easier to provo the value
E6s also have more mobility. They can move to other teams so long as there is an opening. For a manager to move it is hard as the other team needs to be lacking manager which is quite rare
“given M1’s life at Meta is much better than E6 in terms of wlb “ Are you living under a rock to make this statement? Have you heard of perf cycles at Meta? You have 25YoE so we can assume you have been in both roles many times at other companies. Stress level is directly proportional to org politics and number of direct reports, it’s not a walk in the park like others said (meta is a bit wilder). Size able number if ICs at Meta decline when they are asked to step up to be an M1.
If you are actually good I think e6 wlb is actually better than M1. But e6 would be more likely to get a below expectations rating than M1 in my opinion
M1s life is bad
Management has far more existential stress and less ability to “turn off” work. -someone who has been both a senior IC and a manager.
What about Meta specifically?