Navigating Promotions and Leadership in Tech

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 bonuses

• His transition to management

• Why he switched from management

• Advice for his younger self

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:34) Staff promotions in 3 years

(10:32) “Redefines” expectations ratings

(20:01) Redefining expectations without promotion?

(29:55) Staff promotion story

(41:00) Transitioning to and from management

(54:50) Secret equity bonuses

(58:14) The best interns

(1:07:50) Where most of his growth came from

(1:12:04) What keeps him at Meta

(1:15:20) Advice to his younger self

(1:17:05) Outro

Where to find Simon:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonkindstrom/

Where to find Ryan:

• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/• 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