I’m Michael. I was a principal engineer at Facebook from 2009 to 2017, where I was the top code contributor of all time and also conducted hundreds of interviews. I recently co-founded Formation.dev, an engineering fellowship that trains and refers engineers directly into big tech. Ask me Anything!

r/IAmA

u/manicmillions wrote (the comment Michael replied to):

Why are engineers expected to go through grueling multi stage interviews, show "passion" with out of work projects etc. Do managers create gantt charts for fun in their free time? Why can't it just be a job, why is saying you forget about tech when you log off actually offensive

u/michaelnovati replied · May 4, 2022 ★ FEATURED

Hi! I think there's a lot to unpack so the direction I'll go in is about company fit. There's a right company for everyone (often many right companies) and finding that fit makes you 1. happier. 2. perform better. 3. not even think about work life balance - even if you have great work life balance. I personally love trying to find that fit with people. A lot of people come to us wanting to work only at FAANG or specific even smaller number of companies. And for some people that's the right fit, and for others it isn't. I love trying to help people find that fit.