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How to succeed at Meta

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Re: How to succeed at Meta

#31

Post by 121789 »

this would work for like 3 months. the real advice is more nuanced and probably not Meta-specific

1. aggressively fend off low impact commitments or projects (there are always a million ideas and requests for help floating around)

2. make sure you have a good relationship with your manager, your team, and other teams that you need to work closely with

3. work in an area that either clearly makes the company money, or is critical to the business in some other way

4. make sure your work is publicly shared, but you don't have to go overboard. if your team does something valuable or interesting, write about it

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#32

Post by me_again »

smrtinsert wrote: post #18
me_again wrote: post #15

Ah, the unassailable confidence required to work in one lower-level position at a company for 5 months and believe you know "How To Succeed" there.

Ops post is a sarcastic take not a true guide (at least to my read)

That seems possible, but satirically posting self-aggrandizing BS on Blind is like satirically posting Pepe memes on 4Chan.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#33

Post by Traubenfuchs »

mooreds wrote: post #2

Sounds pretty dystopian to me.

There are ALWAYS either hidden or visible metrics and as soon as you figure them out, you can game them. Sometimes the metric is "how much does my manager like me", other times its stack-ranking and other times again its "business value that was assigned to stories you finished".

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#35

Post by GCA10 »

y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #29

This person is getting a lot of snarky responses, but all of this is relatively true at Amazon also and it was true when I was at Intel 10 years ago. This is how large companies operate once they surpass the innovation phase, so it should be no surprise to anyone that's actually worked in a FAANG and doesn't pound down the kool-aid. Interesting how there's comments on this person being concerned solely with "TC" as i…

"This is how large companies operate once they surpass the innovation phase"

So true. Family members have seen it in pharma. It's endemic in retail banking. Large parts of media/entertainment have gone this way, too. The core ideas of being your own PR department -- and hopping from one short-horizon metric to another are just how these places hand out recognition, promotions, etc. At the better ones, innovative work will be tolerated, too. But the easiest path is pretty much what OP describes.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#36

Post by mataug »

davewritescode wrote: post #25
aantix wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're working for someone else's dream, what else is there? "TC" gives me and my family options to do other big things in the world. Yes, I want to take two big family vacations a year, live in a great neighborhood/ school district, and give my kids extra opportunities. Optimizing for "TC" makes sense.

This is nihilistic and short sighted way to see the world. Being highly visible inside and outside my company has opened up more opportunity long term in terms of being offered consulting roles and opportunities in early stage startups then being a worker bee at Amazon for 2 years until you burnout. I know many people who have taken that route and it's one of many paths. If you're a good engineer and can sell your wo…

If optimizing for TC is a nihilistic way to see the world, your take is naïve.

The reality is that even if someone is a good engineer, they may not always have the right opportunities, they may struggle to sell their work, or they may have other challenges that we cannot foresee.

With such unpredictability in mind, all advice here on HN is anecdotal, and everyone has to optimize for their specific situation. Optimizing for TC isn't necessarily bad, it may be the only option at a better life for some people.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#37

Post by lovich »

me_again wrote: post #32
smrtinsert wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ops post is a sarcastic take not a true guide (at least to my read)

That seems possible, but satirically posting self-aggrandizing BS on Blind is like satirically posting Pepe memes on 4Chan.

I haven’t used blind but that sounds contextually appropriate for 4chan

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#38

Post by yodsanklai »

ohgodplsno wrote: post #10
davewritescode wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blind self selects for people who want to brag about how much they're paid and people who think they're underpaid who want to validate those assumptions. It leads to a toxic community. There's so much more to work than compensation and this post proves it. Being on a good team is 100x more important than what you're paid. Good teams elevate engineers and give you a better career path in your future. I make SL level c…

For many devs, especially non SV people (or even non US people), a TC of 250k+ is more than life changing. It's "I never could have ever gotten this, and not only is my life set, the people around me are too". Needless to say, if I was offered these compensations (or higher), I'll gladly take even 10 years of incompetence around me to then be able to do fuck all for the rest of my life (or, well, things I actually en…

> a TC of 250k+ is more than life changing.

It doesn't get you that far.

Consider tax and cost of life in NYC/SF/London where you won't be able to buy a house anyway, and you're left with 50k to save a year. In other places, you're less likely to get such a TC.

Sure, it's a lot of money, but not enough to change your social status. It adds up if you manage to stay long enough there, but considering ageism and burning out, you're not in the same leagues as let say doctors, or people who inherited 1 million after selling their parents house.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#39

Post by uoaei »

davewritescode wrote: post #25
aantix wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're working for someone else's dream, what else is there? "TC" gives me and my family options to do other big things in the world. Yes, I want to take two big family vacations a year, live in a great neighborhood/ school district, and give my kids extra opportunities. Optimizing for "TC" makes sense.

This is nihilistic and short sighted way to see the world. Being highly visible inside and outside my company has opened up more opportunity long term in terms of being offered consulting roles and opportunities in early stage startups then being a worker bee at Amazon for 2 years until you burnout. I know many people who have taken that route and it's one of many paths. If you're a good engineer and can sell your wo…

My concern is also the social dynamics that "TC or bust" people engender around them. There is an obvious mentality that goes along with that approach, and more often than not this turns what should be a collective, holistic approach to social well-being into a quasi-zero-sum game where everyone is just trying to extract value from everyone else.

It is deleterious to community per se. Islands of nuclear families does not a community make.

It's true there are people who straddle both worlds -- those who use TC to improve and embolden their community. But I would bet a lot of money that it's mostly people who spend frivolously and selfishly so that their kids go to good schools and have good opportunities, but that others' kids don't get access to the same kinds of on-ramps to success.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#40

Post by uoaei »

jlarocco wrote: post #21

Hate to burst the ego bubble, but hitting metrics is what you were hired to do.

Put differently: if you were hired for a certain job, and your personal convictions don't align with that job such that you don't identify as someone who wants to "hit those metrics", find another job.
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