I interviewed for E5 (SWE) and was told they wanted to extend an offer, but at E4 instead of E5 (the recruiter was pushing hard for E5 but HC bumped me down apparently). Because of the level change, it will officially have to wait until January when there's headcount. I have 6 YOE (non-FAANG), and am married with kids. I am trying to decide what to do, and have a few questions:
1. I value my current 40ish-hour/week schedule and WLB with my family. I've been told I pick up new things quickly and am good to work with. As long as I am proactive and "play the game", is it reasonable to keep roughly the same WLB as I have now? Would that be different as an E5?
2. Is it likely that my offer will be at the high end of the E4 range since I originally interviewed for E5?
3. The recruiter told me that since I was a very strong candidate and just barely got moved down to E4, I would likely be promoted within 1 year, so it wouldn't make much sense to wait a year and re-interview. Is this doable? Obviously the 4-year RSU grant would be higher if I did that, but just thinking career-wise. Bird in the hand vs two in the bush, and all that.
The most important thing to me is not TC, but being able to work on interesting problems and enjoy my day-to-day, while keeping a good WLB. I'm currently working with a lot of legacy code and fighting fires caused by decisions made years ago, in a fairly disorganized smaller company. Facebook seems like it would be a much better technical environment to work in.
The other factor here is that the move will be a large pay cut to base salary from my current situation, even though once RSUs start vesting it'll make up for it by the end of the year. The base alone will still meet my living expenses of course, but I'll have to put off some other expenses we had planned. I want to make sure that taking a (temporary) pay cut for (likely) more stress will be worth it. I also can't guarantee that I'll be able to come back to my current company if FB doesn't work out, and all things considered I am very comfortable here.
TC: 175
YOE: 6
#engineering #swe #facebook #wlb
Want to see the real deal?
More inside scoop? View in App
More inside scoop? View in App
blind
SUPPORT
FOLLOW US
DOWNLOAD THE APP:
FOLLOWING
Industries
Job Groups
- Software Engineering
- Product Management
- Information Technology
- Data Science & Analytics
- Management Consulting
- Hardware Engineering
- Design
- Sales
- Security
- Investment Banking & Sell Side
- Marketing
- Private Equity & Buy Side
- Corporate Finance
- Supply Chain
- Business Development
- Human Resources
- Operations
- Legal
- Admin
- Customer Service
- Communications
Return to Office
Work From Home
COVID-19
Layoffs
Investments & Money
Work Visa
Housing
Referrals
Job Openings
Startups
Office Life
Mental Health
HR Issues
Blockchain & Crypto
Fitness & Nutrition
Travel
Health Care & Insurance
Tax
Hobbies & Entertainment
Working Parents
Food & Dining
IPO
Side Jobs
Show more
SUPPORT
FOLLOW US
DOWNLOAD THE APP:
comments
It really depends on your team, but E5+ should be handling most of the ambiguous workload which means it’s pretty easy to just sit back and code as an E4.
Refreshers are nice. Even if you aren’t promoted, your income will consistently go up around 30K+ per year until the cliff.
In addition, FB Infra is insane. Most annoying problems are solved. Most tedious things are automated. Makes development easy.
Also, don't ever listen to the recruiter's promises. They're bullshit.
Also, I find FB infra quite annoying. Always breaking something or making me get updates. Just want them to leave my stuff alone!
For point#3 No. This is a recruiter technique of lying to most candidates to get them to accept the offer.
No one would care about what a recruiter told you about promotion and it's probably not going to happen in a year
Sorry, don’t have the information to help you but all the best!
My recruiter told me I was down-leveled to E4 due to behavioral. He also indicated that I don’t have project leading experience, which also means I was not in a lead/staff position prior in non-fang companies. That’s the reason for down-leveling. Following. (PS: I know I can follow using bell icon, but wanted to thank the OP for summarizing nicely my situation as well along with in this post)