From Corporate Stability to Startup Adventure

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/