Instagram Staff (IC6) Promo Despite 10 Team Switches in 9 Years (Career Story)

Sash Zats grew to be a Staff Engineer (IC6) at IG despite switching teams 10 times in 9 years. His career journey was a series of jumps to exciting projects and letting career growth happen as a byproduct. I interviewed him to show you how team switches can play out.

We discussed:
• How 10 team switches in 9 years affected his career
• The story behind the Instagram blockchain initiative
• His 2 diff in 6 month performance review
• What working on Instagram Threads was like pre-launch
• The value of prototyping

Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(00:49) First team: iOS on Newsfeed Delight
(05:30) What makes a good designer partner?
(08:30) Joining a hardware team
(12:08) 2 diffs in 6 months
(15:03) Joining the Instagram blockchain team
(21:37) Joining Instagram Threads pre-launch
(28:53) Working with an exceptional engineer (Peter)
(33:02) Working on AI prototyping teams
(37:15) Reflecting on team switching’s impact on career growth
(44:35) Why leave Meta
(46:15) Advice for younger self
(47:53) Outro

Where to find Sash:
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sashzats
• X/Twitter: x.com/zats

Where to find Ryan:
• Newsletter: developing.dev
• X/Twitter: x.com/ryanlpeterman
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman
• Threads: threads.com/@ryanlpeterman
• Instagram: instagram.com/ryanlpeterman