How does the responsibility and day to day differ between L5 and L6 engineer at Square? I got an offer for L6 and am worried that it would be a lot of managerial type work and not as much pure coding. Is that the case? Do L6 engineers primarily write code, or do more like "tech lead" type stuff? The offer TC is also not super high - 260, but it is for a 100% remote position. #square
Depends on the team but it’s expected to be more leading, helping with design, mentorship, etc at 6. Check out the level rubric online - it covers it.
I'm an L4 (hopefully L5 shortly) engineer myself, but my impression is that L6 ICs do a decent amount of tech lead stuff like meetings about projects, but it's typically on a technical or strategic level. They may also spend a decent amount of time delegating and helping less senior engineers do parts of the work, but they don't have formal people-lead responsibilities generally. They also do a good bit of actual coding themselves and oftentimes take on the more challenging or time-constrained work.
Congrats on the offer! You can find the L6 IC expectations in this spreadsheet from our blog: https://bit.ly/2Coujxk
I’m an L5, up for L6 either now or start of next year. Like mentioned here, it depends on the team and the person. I spend a lot of time reviewing designs, reviewing code, being involved in design and architecture decisions on my team, helping out other eng on the team. To be effective as an L6 I’ve also had to up spending my time talking to other teams about where my team can help or get involved, ingesting external information to translate it for opportunities for our team, keeping a general know-how about changes that affect us, doing timeline and project management to some degree and unblocking junior eng on my team, making recommendations to my EM about project risk, potential directions and estimates etc. i also do a bunch of pure coding, and at least for my current projects, am expected to do most of it and deliver. Juggling some of this has been a bit difficult but not all of the things go on at the same time
Do you work longer hours to get all this done?
EM here speaking. I'd say typical L6 ICs write a good amount of code. But a good part of your success lies with your impact as a leader -- leading projects to successful launches, including tech design and negotiating with other teams' senior engineers; and providing mentorship to others on your team.
The requirements for my current level also say that interacting with other teams is part of it. Does this come about pretty organically? As in - a project clearly involves other teams and you are the leason. Or is it more like you are expected to create opportunities that involve other teams. I am just not sure I am that proactive that I can easily find another team to work with.
What’s the lowest level you can be an EM at square?
Location? What org are you joining?
L6 at sq is like a strong L5 at Google and fb. So a variety of responsibilities (to choose from).
What location are you working out of (for reference)?
Atlanta (but remote)
Thanks for your replies everyone. One more question - what are the chances of getting PIPed in your first year? I feel like my engineering skills are very solid, but I would def need to grow into this leadership stuff.
That’s not how we do things here. Just make sure to give your best, be open to receive feedback, and you are going to be alright! :-)
Not a lot of managerial work no. But you’ll be expected to unblock yourself and work with folks outside your team etc. Various types of L6 engineers exist. Each team can have their own version of what they expect from an L6 engineer. Don’t worry too much about the managerial type work. Delegate that to your engineering manager. Also curious which city you were hired in?
So far my experience has been little to no managerial work as an IC @ L6, as mentioned above. I kind of expect at some point that will eventually change. OP, I will also ask... which city? I’m in the same boat as a remote person, but come in lower than your offer @ 215.
ATL. Offer not written yet (just verbal), so numbers not exact. Which office are you in?