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

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 towards his Staff promotion and got it.After getting to Staff at Meta, he started his own YCombinator-funded startup, Taro. In our conversation we cover:• What got him promoted to Staff at Meta• Joining startups and “two-way doors”• How his promotion was rejected twice and he appealed successfully• When job hopping is good and when it is bad• What real networking looks like—Where to find Rahul:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpandey1234/• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RahulPandeyrkp• Twitter: https://x.com/rpandey1234• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rpandey1234/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: instagram.com/ryanlpeterman In this episode, we cover:00:00 – Intro1:12 – Stanford to Startup12:25 – Jr to Mid-level at Pinterest 30:20 – Senior to Staff at Meta45:12 – Management (TLM) at Meta53:40 – Leaving Meta to create a startup1:05:32 – Career reflections To hear more, visit www.developing.dev