Both Meta and Google lacked a formal process for an employee to voluntarily take a lower-level role. The speaker's request was a challenge for recruiters and HR because systems are designed for upward mobility. It required special exceptions and created suspicion, as it's an unconventional career move.
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The speaker suggests Meta's management struggled to onboard him as a senior IC because most senior talent is promoted internally. These internal leaders already possess deep institutional knowledge, creating a blind spot for how to ramp up experienced outsiders who start from zero context.
An IC7 engineer found the senior staff role was mostly meetings and docs. He preferred coding, debugging, and mentoring, which aligned better with an E5/E6 level. He actively requested a demotion to improve his job satisfaction, challenging the conventional "up-or-out" career mentality in tech.
When entering a new region or industry without a network, accepting a role slightly below your experience level is a powerful strategy. It lowers the barrier to entry and allows you to quickly prove value, earn trust, and ultimately get promoted faster than if you had held out for a more senior role from the start.
Tying SDR promotions to time-in-seat fosters stagnation. Instead, create a clear, multi-level roadmap where advancement is based solely on hitting performance thresholds. This model rewards high-achievers, provides constant motivation, and gives reps control over their career trajectory.
High-performing support reps are often moved to other departments like product or engineering because internal career ladders for support are limited. This systematically drains the support org of its most skilled and diligent people, reducing overall quality.
Intentionally accepting a lower level than you qualify for reduces immediate pressure to deliver massive project impact. This creates the space and freedom to explore, learn the systems, and build innovative side projects that establish a strong reputation from the ground up.
Despite being on a clear track to Director, Ilya Grigorik chose a lateral, likely down-leveled move to an IC role. He traded guaranteed career progression for greater control over his time, the freedom to pursue deep technical interests, and the ability to work on problems he was passionate about.
Traditional big tech ladders often promote based on scope and cross-team influence, encouraging politics. A better system focuses on skill gradients like "truth-seeking." It rewards being right about foundational decisions, not just being loud or well-positioned, which fosters a healthier engineering culture.
When returning to Google, the speaker found a peculiar rule: returning at the same senior level (L7) required no interview, but returning at a lower level (L6) might. The logic is that higher-level ICs write less code, so their skills could have atrophied, a counterintuitive hurdle for someone seeking a more hands-on role.
A Meta engineer was denied a promotion despite a "Greatly Exceeds" rating due to a behavioral gap in cross-functional collaboration. This shows that lagging promotions hinge on consistently demonstrating the behaviors of the next level, not just delivering high impact at the current level.
