Sara Kato

Come join us tomorrow in SF to learn more about the latest updates to run AI workloads on Google Cloud!

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Distinguished Engineers (E9) at Meta make $4m/year. That's 16x the Bay Area median ($255k) Let's break it down [output = input x leverage] We all have 24 hours in a day, so there is a cap on [input] But hey, let's say they manage to have 2x-3x more focused time, so their [input] is 2x-3x There is still 5.3x-8x to go And that's [leverage] Here is the [leverage] they have: 1️⃣ Writing Every piece of text they write is clear to everyone, and they write a lot, for a lot of people 2️⃣ They create something from nothing And that something has clear value to the business 3️⃣ They influence other Engineers around them They are often described as having a "Midas Touch" in terms of their ability to uplift and develop other Engineers around them The best indicator is that the Engineers in their teams get promoted faster 4️⃣ They are well known and have an impact beyond Meta, promoting the brand 5️⃣ They have industry-leading experience in some areas There are rumoured to be <50 E9s at Meta

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🆕 New system design interview question breakdown! Design Dropbox or Google Drive. Watch one of our co-founders, Evan, walk step by step through this common question, highlighting exactly what interviewers are looking for from candidates at all levels. https://lnkd.in/g6VmmTwp

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My team at Meta (In-Feed Recommendations) is hiring a number of ML engineers in the US We are building one of the most advanced recommendation engine in the industry to power discovery experiences on Facebook newsfeed with a diverse set of public content (Reels, videos, photos, web links, conversations, etc) available on our platform. You can make a big difference by working on a wide range of projects, including but not limited to user/content interests understanding, next-gen recommendation systems and modeling technologies, new social discovery experiences to help create communities of like-minded people. Check out the following links to learn more: The AI Behind Unconnected Content Recommendations on Facebook and Instagram https://lnkd.in/gZ7XV_am Meta Rethinks the Philosophy of the Facebook Feed https://lnkd.in/ggJzk3g3 If interested, please DM me. ==================== Team / Role Summary We are part of the FB Feed Relevance Org, and our team’s mission is to create joyful discoveries and meaningful connections via personalized recommendations on people’s home feed with deep understanding of their interests. We are responsible for building the E2E recommendation system to power all the interest-based public content discoveries across FB Feed. Why is This Impactful IFR is a central product in Facebook’s long term vision, Discovery Engine. Each day we are sending more than 50B posts to our users. From Mark Zuckerberg's Q2 earnings call: "AI-recommended content from accounts you don't follow is now the fastest growing category of content on Facebook's feed. Since introducing these recommendations, they’ve driven a 7% increase in overall time spent on the platform. This improves the experience because you can now discover things you might not have otherwise followed or come across." Your Role As an ML Engineer, you will help build one of the world’s largest recommendation engine, implement state of the art ML algorithms and modeling techniques, directly influence billions of users’ News Feed Experience. You will also learn how to build an ultra large scale Recommender System from end to end and grow your career as a domain expert, and lead our efforts to build emerging new experiences on the Newsfeed Recommendations platform.

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Want a preview of what I'm going to be talking about in my keynote for RubyConf? You can catch a glimpse of it here!

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How you can make your LLM applications better!

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In this world of ongoing layoffs, companies going against the grain to build highly customized in-house tech stacks that don't track to the skills and expertise engineers need for their past and future jobs will find themselves becoming a black hole devoid of talent. The ones who are good enough to leave will, and the ones who aren't will feel stuck because their work isn't advancing their skills in a way that adds to their value as an employee.

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While there are certainly individual variations in skill and experience when discussing modern software development the story is much more nuanced than pure individual effort.  * software development is a team sport -- individual performance is heavily impacted by the system in which they are asked to operate in.  * we pair skill and experience to this model of understanding performance by expecting people to be able to influence and adapt in direct proportion to their seniority, aka the more senior you are the more responsible you are for the outcomes of your work, the less senior you are the more your manager and management chain are responsible.  * humans want to succeed, we're social animals who derive purpose from demonstrating skill, and working collectively. All of which is to say there is no way you have over 1000 people underperforming at your company without senior leadership deeply implicated in.  If nearly 10% of your company is failing, versus just having the market move against you, you need to fire the CEO.

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🎉 Exciting News! 🎉 I just launched my Substack and dropped my first post: Product Engineer: Nurturing Success Through Holistic Understanding! 💡 If you love talking about tech, product engineering, and what it takes to build awesome products, you’re in the right place. I’ll be sharing insights, stories, and lessons learned from my journey in engineering and product management. Come join me, and let’s dive into the world of innovation together! 💻✨ Subscribe, share, and let me know what you think—your feedback means the world! #ProductEngineering #Innovation #Substack #TechTalk 👉 Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/ggD_ZWis

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What does it feel like to be an engineering manager at Amazon: Since the RTO announcement it became popular to write shit about Amazon, but it's still one of the best companies around the world. A few weeks ago, Gilad Naor shared with the 'Leading Developers' readers 3 lessons from his time as an engineering manager at Amazon. Here is the first one, read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/dHBxv2Ha 𝟭. 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗺𝘀 My first meeting at Amazon was baffling. I entered a room with about a dozen Software Development Managers (SDMs) and Product Managers (PMs). Everyone sat in silence and looked at their laptops or the printed papers they had before them. It was my second day at Amazon, and I picked up one of the extra sheets and started reading. After those first ten awkward minutes, everyone finished reading and the meeting began. Why do Amazon meetings always start this way? This is a specific example of how Amazon approaches problem-solving. It is the "Good Intentions Don't Matter" approach. In a famous internal video, Jeff Bezos talks about why good intentions are irrelevant. When things don't work, it does not matter what people wanted. All that matters is fixing the problems with mechanisms. For example, many busy managers come to meetings without first reading the prep material. They all intended to read the 6-Pager before the meeting. They just got sidetracked by the latest emergency. Scolding the managers won't solve the problem. A mechanism will. This is why all Amazon meetings start with a study period. The remaining meeting time is then spent on high-quality decision-making. Meta solves the same problem by creating cultural norms. I can't count the number of times that I heard a senior leader cut off the presenter: "Stop, assume that everyone here already read the slides. Let's get to the point." This is a culture-first approach. I have seen this work well in some teams, and not work at all in other teams. At Amazon, the solution is part of the company's "operating system". ------------------------- Anton here - by now everyone is familiar with the 6-pager concept, but that "operating system" thinking can be used almost anywhere. Think about something annoying that your developers do, and how can you solve it. For example, I remember being annoyed that people don’t update the Jira tickets. Finally, after requesting multiple times, now we just take 20 seconds from the standup to update them.

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🎙️ I recently listened to a "fascinating 😉" podcast interview between Ami Vora and Lenny Rachitsky. Here are some key takeaways that stood out to me/I found particularly insightful: Some great metaphors: "dinosaur brain" and "hill climb". • 🧠💡 Executive communication: The "dinosaur brain" metaphor refers to the idea that executives have a limited capacity for processing information. When presenting information to executives, it's important to focus on distilling complex information into concise, actionable recommendations. This allows executives to make informed decisions without being overwhelmed by too much data. • 🏔️💪 Take risks to reach new heights: The "hill climb" metaphor refers to the idea that in order to achieve a global optimum, one must be willing to take risks and make sacrifices. It involves giving up something that is working well in the present in order to pursue a potentially better outcome in the future. It's important to remember what the summit feels like in order to push through the difficult times and keep climbing. • 💼🚀 Execution trumps strategy: Strategy provides direction and goals, but execution is what drives success. Without strong execution, even the best strategies can't succeed. • 🤝📊 "my manager owns context, I own the recommendation", highlights the complementary roles of managers and team members. Managers are responsible for providing context and guidance, while team members are responsible for making recommendations based on that context. This division of responsibilities allows for more effective decision-making and collaboration. • 🔍🤔 Embrace curiosity: When having a disagreement, embrace curiosity, and collaborate to broaden your perspective and information set. While everyone loves being right, delivering the best outcome is what truly matters. YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gUHanrPy #LeadershipInsights #EffectiveCommunication #RiskTaking #CuriosityMindset #PodcastTakeaways

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While the practice of doing crap pull requests and letting your teammates correct you is questionable, and this whole story might be bogus to begin with, it does strike a chord with me. From my experience, the developers who want to spend weeks reading docs and doing tutorials before writing any code, end up not writing much code in the long run. Jump in, break stuff, ask questions! The best devs will have a PR on the 1st day: fixing some crap sample code, tutorial or how-to that no one bothered to update for a while.

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Highly recommended book...

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I’ve been playing around with YC Founder Matching and it seems like everyone and their mother is interested either in 2-sided marketplaces or B2C businesses, even though they’re ostensibly the least profitable and hardest-to-get-off-the-ground business models there are. Why do people do this? You only have to take a glance at enterprise vs individual pricing to want to switch gears.

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Tech careers are weird In 2024, I worked as a Senior SWE at Meta building scalable systems while somehow growing into a tech career content creator with 55,000+ followers and a newsletter read by 15,000+ engineers. The biggest learning? Impact > Effort, always. What actually happened this year: • Built and shipped multiple features at Meta (day job comes first!) • Grew "The Hustling Engineer" newsletter to 15,000+ subscribers • Started creating tech career content on Instagram (@hemant_careerbytes) • Spoke about my journey at public events and podcasts • Turned 30 and realized I still can't center a div 😅 Key career insights I've shared: • Job security is becoming a myth - build your personal brand • Switching jobs every 3-4 years can accelerate growth • Leetcode style interviews aren't going anywhere (unfortunately) • Career growth is non-linear - some years are golden, others just maintenance • Being called a hard worker isn't always a compliment What's next: Starting paid newsletter subscriptions in 2025 (keeping strong free content too). More focus on helping engineers navigate both technical and career growth. And yes, still trying to fix that production bug from January. To everyone building in tech Keep pushing, keep learning, but don't forget to laugh at the process sometimes 😃 The world needs more authentic tech voices sharing both successes and failures. That's how we all grow.

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Today I'm sharing this 🔥 video from our recent Engineering onsite at Demandbase HQ in SF! https://lnkd.in/eFAFR6QG We were so fortunate to host Zhengxuan Wu and Aryaman Arora, two upcoming AI researchers from Stanford University Department of Computer Science. Their approach to fine tuning, called ReFT, targets the representations emitted by neural net layers rather than the weights of the layers themselves. This makes it very flexible when using the same base model for swapping multiple fine tunes. The memory overhead is also very low for their intervention weights. Another highlight is how powerful it can be. One POC they showed forced the LLM to speak in only emojis exhibiting ReFT's power to control output. Control is crucial when, for example, you want to prevent your bot from offering customers unauthorized refunds!! If you're already familiar with LoRA, it should be pretty simple to use with only a few extra hyperparameters -- details in the video. Here's a link to the repo. Give them a star! https://lnkd.in/eJScNbzK Thanks again for letting us host your first external talk Aryaman and Zen. It's very exciting tech!!

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Senior engineers lose money and responsibility at Meta partly because of an unwritten rule. Candidates are expected to not follow their interviewer's instructions to SUCCEED. Yes, you read that right. That blew my mind. There are other common reasons for downleveling as well. Some of these are expected but others are surprising. Kevin Landucci + Kashish Singhal, loved the simple practical takeaway for candidates. And the full episode rocked! Subscribe to ApplyPass to get more tips in your feed 🛎

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