Meta Hiring Lead On Behind The Scenes of Senior+ Eng Hiring

Austen McDonald is a former hiring committee member at Meta, where he led mobile hiring and conducted hundreds of interviews. In this episode, we talked about what happens behind the scenes in a hiring committee, unethical candidates, and the role referrals play.

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𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:

• YouTube: youtu.be/nOapM8i5jr0
• Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod…
• Transcript: developing.dev/p/meta-hiring-lead-on-behind-th…

𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀:

00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:49 - What goes on in hiring committees
00:09:02 - Unethical candidates
00:12:50 - How leveling is determined
00:23:12 - Can you negotiate level mid-process
00:32:30 - How non-tech leads can signal scope
00:39:11 - Referrals and bias
00:45:28 - What the rubric looks like
00:50:00 - OpenAI and Anthropic specific discussion
00:52:22 - Most common mistakes senior candidates make
01:02:31 - How to prep depending on your level
01:08:34 - Subjectivity and bias
01:21:02 - The questions you ask at the end matter
01:23:59 - Storytelling tips
01:30:31 - How he got promoted to Senior Manager (M2) at Meta
01:33:32 - His biggest career regret
01:38:13 - The best advice he ever received
01:39:54 - Advice for younger self
01:41:46 - Outro

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻:

• LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/austenmc
• His book - thebehavioral.tech

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
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