Staff Engineer @ Meta by Age 25 | Evan King

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 selfTimestamps:(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 selfWhere 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/ryanlpetermanReferenced:• 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/ To hear more, visit www.developing.dev