Team search - Part 2 ——— (текст на русском выше) Hi! Continuat | Front-End Engineer Blog

Team search - Part 2
———
(текст на русском выше)
Hi! Continuation of my career thoughts

I started looking for a team, I had to drop the US team option because of visa problems I was describing here, so I decided to become a Brit first

I initiated the search process two weeks before the hiring freeze, so I was very fortunate to some extent. In addition, I decided to check out UK Market and interview a bit on the side (more on that later, though). I contacted a few managers, but one day, IC(7?) (senior staff eng, most likely) contacted me and offered me the position, which wasn't on the internal portal yet. I knew this engineer because I used to bootcamp in his previous team and had read his book long ago, but I decided to join another team then. The world is so tiny.

We chatted about the project, and surprisingly I liked it immediately. There was quite an enormous and, most importantly, complex scope of work, although the stack is not the most pleasant one but after working in FAANG and using Hack and VSCode, you get used to the smell shit (c) (sorry for foul language). Intellij, I miss you. But, for me, the product part and the perceived level of the challenge were important and got my attention.

It just so happened that the team needed a TL (tech-lead) to take on the meaty part of the project and lead a team of 7 people (4 direct reports, 3 XFN). They were initially looking for IC6 (staff eng) for this scope but couldn't find an engineer, so they decided to try and put IC5 (me) there. I must admit that despite my pretty good technical skills, I have little experience leading teams, this part has always lagged, and I wanted to develop it.

What influenced my decision?

I was given an exciting and challenging 0 -> 1 scope on a priority area for the company, on which the project's success as a whole would depend.

But here are also a few things that got my attention:

1. Opportunity for tech-leading the team.
2. Working directly with IC7 and IC6.
3. Strong people on the team. Quite diverse backgrounds
4. Working in large companies where the levels are hidden, it is always hard to find a "role-model" to look up to. But there are multiple IC6 on this team, I know who they are, and I see how they work.
5. Diversified people. People from all corners of the world. You'll laugh, but I enjoy working on teams like this.

I've also received offers on the side. The strongest one was about a 65% raise to my current compensation. But I decided that the experience I could get from my current project was more valuable. So I joined the WhatsApp org. Unfortunately, I can't say what we do because the product is not yet announced, and everything is under NDA. Perhaps now, I will regularly post updates about the work. I see many interesting challenges in terms of career growth and learning new skills.

Let's see what happens! I'll tell you about the offers in the following posts. Spoiler alert: Google rejected me without an interview. But I think it's because of the global hiring freeze in the industry. A recession is coming

I wonder if there are any staff engs at FAANGs on my channel?

Thanks for reading. I won't wish you sunny weather, because London has been a sweat lodge for the last two days (+44C!) . Instead, I hope you enjoy the second half of summer.

Take care of yourself

#career #personal_notes