The Peterman Pod

Ryan Peterman

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TECHNOLOGY

The Peterman Pod

Transparent conversations without fluff to help you accelerate your software engineering career. Hosted by ex-Staff engineer at Instagram

1 DAY AGO

26 Year Old Meta Staff Eng (IC6) On Promotions, Redefining Expectations, Secret Equity Bonuses

Simon Kindström is a Staff Software Eng (IC6) at Instagram who joined the company as a new grad and got promoted every year. He also achieved the highest ratings ("Redefines Expectations") twice which is almost unheard of. He shared stories about his high performance including what it's like to receive secret equity bonuses. In this episode, we discuss: • His promotions to Staff in 3 years • The story behind his "Redefines Expectations" ratings • What it's like to receive performance-based equity bonuses • His transition to management • Why he switched from management • Advice for his younger self Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (02:34) Staff promotions in 3 years (10:32) “Redefines” expectations ratings (20:01) Redefining expectations without promotion? (29:55) Staff promotion story (41:00) Transitioning to and from management (54:50) Secret equity bonuses (58:14) The best interns (1:07:50) Where most of his growth came from (1:12:04) What keeps him at Meta (1:15:20) Advice to his younger self (1:17:05) Outro Where to find Simon: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonkindstrom/ Where to find Ryan: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

1h 17m
31 MAY

Instagram Principal Engineer (IC8) on Promotions, Breaking Prod, Tech Leading | Jake Bolam

Jake Bolam grew from Staff Eng (IC6) to Principal Eng (IC8) at Instagram. He had some hot takes about diff reviews and risk (he accepts diffs that’ll break prod). He also shared interesting stories about his promotions as well as many tips on how to have IC8 impact with a solid work life balance. We discuss: • Struggling initially at Facebook • His promotions from IC6 -> IC8 • Accepting diffs that break prod • Systems for reasonable work life balance at IC8 • His note taking system in VSCode • Advice for his younger self Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:50) His rough onboarding to Facebook product team (04:32) Switching to Instagram (06:39) What IC7 scope looks like (09:48) Thoughts on management (10:32) Why he always makes time for others (13:31) His IC7 & IC8 stories (20:54) Swapping out infra for 1000s of engs (22:37) Work life balance tips (IC6 -> IC8) (27:26) Diffs reviews & risk (36:07) Being a good tech lead (42:12) Taking notes in VSCode (47:03) Advice for his younger self (49:54) Outro Where to find Jake: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakebolam/• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@theregularbuiltozzy Where to find Ryan: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman To hear more, visit www.developing.dev

50 min
23 MAY

OpenAI & Meta Distinguished Engineer (IC9) On Working With Zuck, Carmack & Career Growth | Philip Su

Philip Su grew to Distinguished Engineer (IC9) at Meta and OpenAI. He has a bunch of interesting stories about working with people like Zuck and John Carmack as well as a ton of advice for software engineers. I was really looking forward to chatting with him and enjoyed this conversation a lot. I hope you find it helpful! In this conversation, we discussed: • What Distinguished Eng (IC9) expectations look like • How he got promoted to IC9 • Working with impressive engineers like John Carmack • What made Zuck and Boz special as coworkers • Learnings from switching between IC and EM 6x • Why he joined OpenAI • Advice for his younger self Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (01:02) Growing to Senior Staff (IC7) at Microsoft (06:38) Management vs IC transitions (17:32) Demotion from IC9 to IC7 at Meta (20:28) IC7, IC8, and IC9 expectations (28:58) IC9 promo story (31:30) Building a strong eng team culture (36:16) Working with Zuck + Meta CTO (38:57) Working with John Carmack and other impressive ICs (41:44) Buying $23000 of coffee in a day (45:35) Why leave Facebook (49:25) Joining OpenAI (55:38) Writing well as a software engineer (1:03:00) Does software eng performance decline as you age? (1:07:00) Building credibility as a young manager (1:10:25) Should you be a generalist or a specialist? (1:12:43) Advice for his younger self Where to find Philip: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suphilip/ • Peak Salvation podcast he referenced: https://peaksalvation.com/ Where to find Ryan: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman To hear more, visit www.developing.dev

1h 21m
2 MAY

Industry Secrets We Wish We Knew Before Graduating | Staff Eng Talk @ UCLA

Ricky (Google Engineering Manager) and I were recently invited to give a talk at UCLA for the UPE/ACM clubs. We wanted to share the industry secrets that college didn’t teach us about the tech industry, career growth, and more. Students were able to submit questions in advance that we prepared slides for. We received a bunch of interesting questions that should be helpful to any college kids looking to get into tech. You can look at the timestamps below to jump to whatever questions you’re most interested in. Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (01:47) Primer on SWE levels (06:12) How to succeed as an intern? (09:13) How did you get promoted quickly? (11:36) How much of success is luck? (13:32) If you had one piece of advice, what would it be? (16:11) What if I’m not a gigachad coder? (19:12) How to handle imposter syndrome? (21:36) How to advocate for yourself? (24:20) Big tech vs startups for new grads? (30:28) How do people measure impact? (32:17) Would an MBA help for eng management? (33:45) How was college recruiting? (36:10) How do you make as much money as possible? (38:00) Parting words (40:10) What are your current goals? (42:02) Thoughts on job hopping? (45:49) What Ricky works on? (46:06) Thoughts on how AI affects engineering? Thank you to Jordan Nguyen (ACM), Ashley Cheng (UPE), and Lune Chan (Videography) for hosting and helping produce this event!! Where to find Ricky: • YouTube: https://youtube.com/@findingricky • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/findingricky Where to find Ryan: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman To hear more, visit www.developing.dev

48 min
14 APR

21x Hackathon Winner Turned College Dropout | Jia Chen Interview

Jia Chen is a 21 year old that won 21x hackathons and co-founded her own startup, all while being a content creator. She’s worked hard to succeed in tech despite attending a non-target school, and has recently dropped out to work on her startup, Sprint.dev. We discuss: • Winning hackathon strategies • How to stand out as a college student • Content creation • Dropping out to build a startup • College reflections and advice Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:55) Getting into hackathons (04:10) Hackathon strategy (15:20) Developing agency & time management (19:27) Standing out at a non-target school (20:19) Is college useful? (24:28) Personal brand (26:25) Dropping out to build a startup (32:32) Advice to younger self Where to find Jia: • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jia.seed/ • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-chen-tech/ • Startup (Sprint.dev): https://www.sprint.dev/ Where to find Ryan: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman To hear more, visit www.developing.dev

34 min
2 MAR

Amazon Principal Engineer On Layoffs, Interviewing & Career Growth | Steve Huynh

Steve Huynh became a software engineer at Amazon with a Liberal Arts degree. He started as a Support Engineer and eventually became a Principal Engineer (top ~1% at Amazon) before starting his own career growth YouTube channel, A Life Engineered. We discuss: • Why most interview prep advice is garbage • Why most people don’t become Principal Engineers • Amazon’s performance-based layoff culture • How to avoid being laid off • Regrets & advice for his younger self Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:37) Transitioning from liberal arts to tech (06:31) Becoming a software development engineer (17:37) Breaking into the tech industry today (22:56) Future of software engineering with AI (26:06) SDE1 → SDE3 promos (33:11) Perf-based Layoffs at Amazon (46:22) His Principal promotion project (59:53) Best parts of Amazon's culture (1:05:22) His best and worst managers among 20+ (1:09:09) Career reflections Where to find Steve: • Newsletter: https://alifeengineered.substack.com/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ALifeEngineered • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/a-life-engineered/ • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alifeengineered/ Where to find Ryan: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman To hear more, visit www.developing.dev

1h 19m
17 JAN

Staff Engineer @ Meta by Age 25 | Evan King

Evan King went from Junior (IC3) to Staff (IC6) at Meta 3 years out of college. After that he quit FAANG to start a few companies that were each acquired. In this conversation we go over his career growth, his transition to startups and what he learned along the way. We discuss: • What got him promoted to Staff in 3 years • What stands out in Meta’s culture • Creating and leading a new team at IC5 • Differences between big tech and startups • Regrets looking back • Advice for his younger self Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (01:28) Getting into programming (09:34) Leetcode (15:45) Picking his first team (22:00) P*nis story (25:13) Mid-level promo (29:03) How to ship code fast (35:28) Senior promo (52:45) Staff promo (1:12:02) Meta impact culture (1:13:16) On being a tech lead (1:16:46) Influence without authority (1:19:29) Management vs Eng (1:26:46) Why leave Meta (1:36:25) Technical learning (big tech vs startups) (1:40:26) When to build a startup (1:44:27) How much he worked (1:49:02) Biggest career regret (1:51:54) Advice for new grads & past self Where to find Evan: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-king-40072280/• His Company: https://www.hellointerview.com/ Where to find Ryan: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman Referenced: • Evan's post on Substack: https://www.developing.dev/p/new-grad-to-staff-at-meta-in-3-years • Ryan’s eng blog for Meta (part of IC6 promo): https://engineering.fb.com/2022/11/04/video-engineering/instagram-video-processing-encoding-reduction/ • Meta’s graph database, Tao: https://engineering.fb.com/2013/06/25/core-infra/tao-the-power-of-the-graph/ To hear more, visit www.developing.dev

1h 57m
27/12/2024

Ex-Meta Staff Eng & YC Startup Cofounder | Rahul Pandey

Rahul Pandey (@rpandey1234) grew to Staff at Meta through a few interesting legs of his career: • Stanford to Startup - He joined a startup that one of his professors was starting right out of college. This startup was acquired within a year by Pinterest. • Junior to Mid-level @ Pinterest - His promotion was rejected twice. He appealed the second rejection and got the promotion. • Senior to Staff @ Meta - He interviewed for Senior at Meta and got a promotion through job hopping. From there, he worked towards his Staff promotion and got it. After getting to Staff at Meta, he started his own YCombinator-funded startup, Taro. In our conversation we cover: • What got him promoted to Staff at Meta • Joining startups and “two-way doors” • How his promotion was rejected twice and he appealed successfully • When job hopping is good and when it is bad • What real networking looks like — Where to find Rahul: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpandey1234/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RahulPandeyrkp • Twitter: https://x.com/rpandey1234 • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rpandey1234/ Where to find Ryan: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: instagram.com/ryanlpeterman In this episode, we cover: 00:00 – Intro 1:12 – Stanford to Startup 12:25 – Jr to Mid-level at Pinterest 30:20 – Senior to Staff at Meta 45:12 – Management (TLM) at Meta 53:40 – Leaving Meta to create a startup 1:05:32 – Career reflections To hear more, visit www.developing.dev

1h 20m
22/11/2024

28 Year Old Staff Engineer @ Google

Ricky (@findingricky) went from Junior (IC3) to Staff (IC6) at Google by 28. He doesn’t consider himself the best engineer, instead crediting his blend of technical and soft skills for his ability to land promotions quickly. In our conversation, we discuss: • Managing your manager • Finding good projects (and rejecting bad ones) • Imposter syndrome • Switching from IC to engineering management • Work-life balance — Where to find Ricky: • Instagram: https://instagram.com/@findingricky • YouTube: https://youtube.com/@findingricky Where to find Ryan: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman • Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://instagram.com/@ryanlpeterman In this episode, we cover: 00:00 – Intro 01:08 – Promotion timeline 02:34 – Junior to Mid-level 04:24 – Finding independence 10:39 – Mid-level to Senior 11:20 – Learning how to say no 17:26 – Senior to Staff 20:18 – Finding next-level work 23:42 – Transitioning to management 33:46 – Reflections To hear more, visit www.developing.dev

42 min
01/11/2024

Staff at Airbnb by Age 26 | Zach Wilson

Zach Wilson is an engineer who grew to Staff (IC6) at Airbnb by age 26. He worked at Meta, Netflix, Airbnb and more recently has started his own company. In our conversation, we discuss: • His promotion from Junior (IC3) to Mid-level (IC4) at Meta • What blocked his promotion to Senior (IC5) at Meta • Job hopping to Senior at Netflix instead • Burning out at Netflix when given Staff scope • Negotiating Staff at Airbnb • Regrets & learnings — Where to find Zach Wilson: • Instagram: https://instagram.com/eczachly/ • X: https://x.com/EcZachly • Threads: https://www.threads.net/@eczachly • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eczachly/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EcZachly_ • Newsletter: https://blog.dataengineer.io/ Where to find Ryan: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman In this episode, we cover: 00:27 Introducing Zach Wilson 03:14 Landing a Job at Facebook 06:33 Choosing the Right Team at Facebook 07:28 IC3 to IC4 at Meta 13:54 Trying for IC5 at Meta 23:49 Getting hired as an IC5 at Netflix 39:49 Negotiating IC6 at Airbnb 52:09 Building internal brand when job hopping 56:55 Reflection & learnings To hear more, visit www.developing.dev

1h 7m

10 Episodes

Transparent conversations without fluff to help you accelerate your software engineering career. Hosted by ex-Staff engineer at Instagram

Creator

Ryan Peterman
Years Active

2024 - 2025
Episodes

10
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Ryan Peterman
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