Uber downlevel
I recently interviewed with Uber in the bay area and should be getting an offer soon. I told the recruiter I wanted to be interviewed for a senior role, having over 8 years of experience. Then the actual interview came around and I didnt pay much attention to the fact that the position I was interviewing for said Backend Engineer (not Senior Backend Engineer). I also only had one system design round in the interview loop. So I can only assume the offer will come in at L4. Is this recoverable? Can I ask them to bring me in for an additional system design round to get leveled at 5a? What are my options here?
How much is not having the title going to hurt you now and in the future?
Enough that I’m willing to walk away from the offer. I cant take a hit like that on my career progression. Lesson learned; don’t trust recruiters and always ask what level I’m interviewing for.
Is it a downgrade in salary or you're concerned about say applying for a lead job in 2 years without senior on your resume? Recruiters do lie but sometimes levels differ by company. I dont work for a FÀANG bit a fairly large company and we frequently struggle with having to turn down people with the title of senior engineer because my our standard they're not senior.
I don't think it will happen. They either will find a fit for your level of skills and experience or tell you to GTFO. Definitely don't take L4 if you are experienced.
Uber is notorious for down leveling
What’s the average yoe of a Senior at Uber?
Prob notorious initially because of perceived prestige. Will remain notorious because the company is hemorrhaging money.
Be honest with the Hiring Manager and Recruiter when the offer comes in. If you make it clear you’re concerned the role itself seems like a step backward (you’re not just after a higher title) and then turn it down politely, their process is to keep you in the pool for multiple roles, whichever fits you best. You’ll likely need to do another set of interviews too. This is what I did and got one level higher about 2 months later.
Good advice. What level are you at now?
Interviewers are asked to consider +-1 level. If you get L4, it means you failed for L5. Just move on
how often does this result in getting up-leveled though? L4 interviews tend to ask less questions that would potentially signal L5 level. Only the bar raiser asked decent questions. And the system design round was trivial. You would have to nail the interview and then some vs an okay interview at the higher level.
It's not as rigid as you describe it
Leveling is determined during the debrief. It’s also not based purely on number of years, but also on interview performance. Also system design isn’t the only interview that determines seniority - coding, behavioral and algo questions all provide signal. If you get L4, you should ask why and why not L5 and you should get feedback. As an HM, I have seen many debriefs where we can’t extend L5 offers to very experienced folks and they don’t take the L4 offer because it just didn’t show up in the interview perf.
Would a top L4 offer ever come close to a L5 offer? Just curious. I still wouldn’t take it. Seniors get all the good projects/ownership/respect from senior leadership, etc. The debriefs at the smaller companies Ive been at usually have some discussion around the likelihood of the candidate actually accepting an offer. Any logical person would be like, there’s no way this candidate would take a L4. But with so many people who want to work at Uber for the perceived prestige, I bet they are pretty used to people downleveling themselves.
Yes, you can recover. Decline the offer. Get a competing offer. Uber will not agree to change without a competing offer or a denial from your end.