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PODCAST

The Peterman Pod

Sharing the transparent career stories of technical people. Hosted by an ex-Staff engineer at Instagram

technology

All Episodes

01:17:28

26 Year Old Meta Staff Eng (IC6) On Promotions,...

The Peterman Pod ·

2025/07/04

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

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50:26

Instagram Principal Engineer (IC8) on Promotions,...

The Peterman Pod ·

2025/05/31

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

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80:40

OpenAI & Meta Distinguished Engineer (IC9) On Working...

The Peterman Pod ·

2025/05/23

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

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47:58

Industry Secrets We Wish We Knew Before Graduating |...

The Peterman Pod ·

2025/05/02

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

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34:28

21x Hackathon Winner Turned College Dropout | Jia...

The Peterman Pod ·

2025/04/13

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 adviceTimestamps:(00:00) Intro(00:55) Getting into hackathons(04:10) Hackathon

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78:48

Amazon Principal Engineer On Layoffs, Interviewing &...

The Peterman Pod ·

2025/03/02

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 selfTimestamps:(00:00) Intro(00:37)

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117:15

Staff Engineer @ Meta by Age 25 | Evan King

The Peterman Pod ·

2025/01/17

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

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80:36

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

The Peterman Pod ·

2024/12/27

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

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42:00

28 Year Old Staff Engineer @ Google

The Peterman Pod ·

2024/11/22

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:

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66:41

Staff at Airbnb by Age 26 | Zach Wilson

The Peterman Pod ·

2024/11/01

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:

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70 results

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