I understand that Netflix hires only senior engineers (roughly L5+). Given this, how do engineers experience career growth there? In most other companies, there is a mix of Junior and senior engineers, and the senior engineers get further career growth by leading teams working on a a bunch of year(s) long projects. Given everyone is high level at Netflix and given that it's quite a lean company, how do engineers grow there? Is it mostly technical growth? If so, how does that growth carry over to other tech companies where most senior engineers (6+) are expected to be leading projects rather than being an IC working on their own component without much leadership involved. I understand that there are exceptions, but it's mostly like this. #netflix
But how can I show that I’m Sr without bossing around a bunch of Jr engineers?? An impossible task!
Thanks for the insightful answer.
🍿
Just because you are IC, doesn’t mean you don’t lead projects. True, you don’t have junior engineers to mentor. Also, there’s no expectation that you will get mentored at Netflix (not formally) The flat structure is something that attract many ICs because they don’t need to worry on the ladder to get a raise or promotion. With that said, I think the growth is more related to the impact of your project. Teams aren’t big and most of time you can see teams where each engineer is responsible for a given project, regardless if he/she is the only code contributor or not. When your project has a massive impact inside or outside Netflix, I think that’s when growth comes. And this isn’t only technical. You have to do collaboration with other areas in order to achieve goals
Does Netflix have tech leads or any similar structure to allow ICs to lead other ICs and get rewarded for it? Or are rewards only based on direct impact?
Only direct impact... there’s the concept of IC director but I don’t think there’s a clear on how that is right now. But usually is just: senior engineer -> manager -> Director -> VP there are teams without managers where they report to a director but that’s pretty much it
If you're a title chaser you're probably not going to like Netflix much. Netflix pays top of market for skill sets. If you are frontend focused but expand your skillset, you make more. Your resume will indicate your leadership rather than your title. If you lead projects your resume should indicate that. If you are looking for something new, make sure that your interview rounds are the appropriate level. Career growth and titles have nothing to do with each other.
No one's talking about chasing titles. We are all talking about growing your skillset and calling that as career growth :)
Expectation at Netflix is that you will be paid well and should not complain. Managers dont strive to map your interests with the available work. There is an unsaid hierarchy internally in every team. Unless you work for a couple of years you will never get to work on good stuff. If you join Netflix, you will be treated as junior engineer for a few years. Golden handcuffs I would say.
Thanks! Does being treated as a junior engineer also include being tasked with grunge work? That does happen at most companies but want to just clarify a bit. I'm guessing within a few months, as you ramp up, you'd start to assume ownership of an area.
You start with grunt work. Gradually you move on to feature development after a few months. But if you want to get your hands on core architecture, it takes at least a couple of years. It's hard to move up the food chain. Managers trust old timers. Yes, you will own components but not the key ones.
What team does Brendan Gregg work in? He is usually involved with good systems engineering work.
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