Ryan Peterman on LinkedIn: FAANG Career Ladder: Mid-level (L4) vs Senior (L5) (2024)

Communicating concisely is a valuable skill.

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The longer I work in software engineering, the more I realize that many of our biggest problems are process and people related.At large companies, it’s easy for this to happen silently if you don’t fight it. Great managers simplify processes and shield their teams from politics so they can focus on the engineering that matters most.

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How can you become a $1,347,882 / year software engineer?Maximize your impact through leverage.There are the three main ways top engineers have leverage:1. They write impactful software no one else can.Software at large companies is already high leverage. A single change can have a ton of impact ($$$) at scale.This impact makes it worth it to pay a lot for their specialized skills.2. They influence large groups of engineers.Imagine a tech lead among tech leads. They might lead the planning, design, and delivery of initiatives that involve 30+ engineers.This influence gives them leverage and amplifies their impact.3. They help engineers move faster at scale.Their work often has compounding effects by making improvements to tooling or underlying infrastructure everyone uses.Imagine making 1000 engineers 3% faster. That "creates" 30 more engineers worth of bandwidth out of thin air.Most engineers will not get to these levels, but there's something we can still learn from them. The best way to have more impact is not to invest more time but to think about how to get more out of it through leverage.

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My org at Meta is growing quickly and we’re looking to hire an engineering manager (M1, E6) to build a new team focused on training scalability. This team will focus on applying known GPU efficiency techniques across all our recommendations models. Some details:• Pay: Competitive for the level• Location: Sunnyvale, CA or Bellevue, WA• Role: Software Engineering Manager• Free breakfast, lunch, and dinner• On-site gym & laundry• Free shuttles to work• $2000/yr wellness benefitReposts appreciated. If you’re interested, you can apply directly here: https://lnkd.in/gyktaiPyCompensation is controlled by a variety of factors, but it’s competitive for the level. Attached is levels.fyi’s numbers for a competitor.

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As a software engineer, what you can figure out matters more than what you know.You don’t need to know everything—just how to find the answers.

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As a software engineer, writing about what you learn is a valuable habit.Sharing things as you learn deepens your understanding and invites useful feedback.Also, writing leaves artifacts behind which increase your visibility. The more people know about your work, the more credibility and recognition you’ll receive.Lastly, it can also attract people which can lead to mentorship and opportunities. My writing at work attracted people that I later collaborated with.Don’t be afraid to put your thoughts out there – You’ll grow much faster if you do.

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Software engineers looking to grow in big tech: What topics are you most interested in learning more about?I want to draft more helpful, original content to help you learn and grow faster.Please comment below if you have any ideas and I'll take a look.

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Great software engineers do much more than just code.They: • Understand the business• Grow others around them• Sell their ideas and influence others• Own the results of their work

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Influence is key to growing to Staff Eng (IC6).Let’s say you have an idea needing ten engineers to work together from several teams. How do you get everyone to band together to solve the problem?One useful trick is "backchannel alignment".This is when you shop your idea around in smaller groups first. You sell your plan, gather feedback, and address it until they are onboard.If you want to learn to start larger initiatives, I wrote about why it's effective and how to do it in my newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gcwqGWpC

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Hard work is a big part of getting promoted, but what’s even more important is finding work that fits the next level’s behaviors.No matter how hard you work, you can’t get promoted unless you work on next-level scope.My first performance review taught me this.I worked a ton of hours yet realized even if I doubled my hours, I wouldn’t have had the same impact as our more senior engineers. The projects I was working on had a ceiling for how beneficial they could be.

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