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!

Hey yeah you are on the right track. There are a lot of factors and it depends a lot on you, what your options are etc... So as you might expect it's a nuanced and multi prong approach 1. Through Formation you'll do a lot of interesting group (3 people) sessions to talk about your experience, background, etc... and help you get the ball rolling with becoming more self aware of what makes you unique. Towards the end you'll do some more intense technical behavioral prep. 2. In the job hunt, it's really case by case and we are driven to help you find a great match as the ultimate goal and do what we need to to have that. So for some people it might be trying to set them up with someone we know who had a similar path to talk to at a company before you interview. Sometimes it takes a little push for options we think would be good but you might not know about. Sometimes it's about how to ask those questions and sometimes it's about how to write emails. 3. Negotiation is a big one that differs based on background. We want to make sure you get compensated fairly to help with some of the systemic inequalities that exist. Some people from a background who haven't had a W2 job really want to accept that Google offer right away on the phone and we help you through this. Great questions!