Dwayne Reeves is a Senior Staff Engineer (IC7) at Meta who is the Tech Lead of the most used programming language (Hack) at the company. He started at the company as a new grad from MIT and shared the story of how his career grew. We discussed:
• His promotions to Senior (IC5), Staff (IC6), and Senior Staff (IC7)
• The value of type systems
• Transitioning to a TLM and why he switched back
• Working with brilliant engineers and overcoming imposter syndrome
• Advice for his younger self
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(00:39) Joining Facebook
(04:52) Did MIT help with career?
(07:13) His first team
(10:37) Why static typing is superior
(13:17) The uncanny valley of type systems
(16:11) Senior Eng (IC5) promotion story
(19:24) Staff Eng (IC6) promotion story
(23:38) Manager transition story
(28:57) Managing ICs vs EMs
(32:54) Senior staff Eng (IC7) promotion story
(35:42) Impressive ICs
(40:33) Why stay at Meta
(44:28) Advice for younger self
(45:46) Outro
Where to find Dwayne:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwaynereeves/
Where to find Ryan:
• 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
• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/
